Farmer Digs Up Ancient Sanctuary In Italy - Carabinieri Investigate - UPDATE

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                                           Farmer digs up ancient sanctuary in Italy







ASSOCIATED PRESS
12/17/2008
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.

After spotting fragments of pottery in soil dug up by the farmer, authorities searched his home last month and seized more than 500 artifacts, including perfume vials, cups and miniature vases used as votive objects.

The art squad of the Carabinieri paramilitary police said the farmer was placed under investigation for allegedly trafficking in antiquities. Ancient artifacts found in Italy are considered state property, and finds must be reported to authorities.

Archaeologists said they will continue to excavate the sanctuary, which dates back to the 7th-6th century B.C. and is located outside the town of Aprilia, near a small lake some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Rome.

The find could expand knowledge about the area's history in pre-Roman times, when it was inhabited by Latin-speaking people under the influence of the Etruscan civilization that dominated central Italy, experts said.

The pottery, some of which was imported from Greece, was offered to a deity probably connected to the lake, said Stefano De Caro, director of archaeology at the Italian Culture Ministry.

"These were poor people, they gave thanks for a good harvest or they prayed that there wouldn't be a drought," De Caro said. "At the time there were no aqueducts, so the lake meant life."

He speculated the treasure of tiny, delicate ceramics could have been worth hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars) on the illegal antiquities market.

At the news conference in Rome, the Carabinieri also presented artifacts recovered in two more operations conducted last month.

During checks on an antiques shop in downtown Rome, officers found two medieval statues that had been stolen in 2007 from a home in the Italian capital, said Gen. Giovanni Nistri, the head of the art squad.

Separately, experts trawling internet sites that sell antiquities came upon a man offering a mosaic from a Roman catacomb for €55,000 ($75,000) and claiming it had been donated to his family by the Vatican.

After verifying the claim was false, the Carabinieri seized the 3rd-4th century A.D. mosaic from the man's home along with a jug, cups and other ancient pottery and placed him under investigation.


- AP

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Comando Carabinieri
Tutela Patrimonio Culturale |
 
Looted Treasure

Italian police have found the long-sought "treasure of Satricum" in a farmer's bookshelf, pictured here. Consisting of more than 500 delicate miniature pots crafted about 2,600 years ago, the "treasure" was discovered during a police investigation in the countryside near the village of Campoverde di Aprilia,
some 25 miles south of Rome.

| Discovery News

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Comando Carabinieri
Tutela Patrimonio Culturale |
 


Looked Suspicious...

When Italian police noticed these mounds, typical of archaeological dig sites, they decided to investigate the farmer who tended the land.

Their payoff?

The discovery of 500 ancient pottery vessels, an invaluable piece of archaeological history.



| Discovery News

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"The lake was basically an open votive deposit. The Latin-speaking people who lived there offered their ceramic artifacts to a deity probably connected to the spring. We believe that a 7th to 6th century B.C. sanctuary can be found at its bottom," Stefano De Caro, director of archaeology at the Italian Culture Ministry, said.

Symbolic of storage and cooking vessels that were used in daily life, the miniature jars may have contained food, liquid offerings and perfumes that were dedicated to the lake deity.

"The Laghetto del Monsignore is a most important open-air sanctuary where the Latin peoples living in the surrounding areas dedicated offerings from the early Iron Age onward. It is of the utmost importance that the looted material be studied by specialists, and it is hoped that a regular excavation will be started to save what is left of this unique find," Peter A.J. Attema, director of the Pontine Region Project and professor in classical and Mediterranean archaeology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, told Discovery News.

Attema and colleagues from the University of Groningen carried out intensive surveys around the lake, but found no trace of the tiny ceramic jars.

"We noticed that the area had already been illegally plundered. I congratulate this prompt action to save the looted material for further study," Attema said.



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