Farmer digs up ancient sanctuary in Italy

Associated Press ^ | Dec. 17, 2008 | Ariel David

[decimon]

Riccardo De Luca / AP Ancient vases and cups recovered by Italian authorities are shown on Wednesday.

ROME - A farmer working his land south of Rome dug up hundreds of artifacts from a 2,600-year-old sanctuary, but ran afoul of police when he tried to sell the ancient hoard, officials said Wednesday.

[decimon]

Pottery ping.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[Libertina]

A farmer working his land

but ran afoul of police when he tried to sell the ancient hoard

Yes, I know it is nice for posterity and all, but WHOSE land is it? Apparently NOT his...

[decimon]

A farmer working his land

Just the topsoil, I guess.

[JoeProBono]

Some of that stuff's hard to fence

[NYer]

Yes, I know it is nice for posterity and all, but WHOSE land is it? Apparently NOT his...

Italy, like many countries with an ancient culture, is filled with treasure troves of buried artifacts. A good friend of mine encountered a similar situation 40 years ago when he stumbled upon an Etruscan burial vault. One of his friends tried to sell the items but was caught. Italian law mandates that any ancient artefacts be reported to the Belle Arte. The big problem occurs when the artefacts are found inside one's home ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NYer. There would be much more Etruscan stuff in museums today, but the [characterization deleted] who had the concession (I think he was French) found so much nice pottery and whatnot that he worried that he wouldn't make any money (drug on the market), so he ordered a lot of it smashed to bits. That's the kind of thing that really chaps my ass.

That said, I'm not a big fan of Italian litigation in other areas -- IMHO, plaintiff governments need to show proof of provenance (that is, no more of this, "we believe this was dug up not long ago, even though we have no eyewitnesses or anything else") to file a claim under the various agreements, treaties, and statutes.

[NYer]

Here is another photo of the artifacts.

An Italian police officer stands by ancient artifacts recovered by authorities in separate operations Wednesday in Rome. In the foreground is a mosaic from a Roman catacomb, which was seized from a suspect's home.

I recall another incident my friend related. He and some friends found an open window in the 500+ y/o town Church and snuck inside late at night. They groped their way downstairs to what was apparently a burial vault. Turning on their flashlights, they were surprised to see corpses, fully vested and seated in chairs. Naturally they boasted of the discovery to friends which infuriated the priest. He feared the Belle Arte would come and take hold of the Church. Here's a picture of the Church.

CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA DELLE ROSE