The site, near Verona in northern Italy, was known to scholars through photographs taken during an earlier archaeological campaign, in 1922. Nearly 100 years after the last excavation, a state-funded effort began last year to try to find the long-lost mosaics. At the time, the vineyard’s owner was free to profit from the mosaics, and he sold them to city officials in Verona. The dig was photographed and documented, but the mosaics were not removed, in part because funding never arrived and in part because the restorer dragged his heels. “The owner of the field grew impatient and decided to rebury the mosaics and farm the land,” de Zuccato said.

Source: bd News24 May 29, 2020 09:45 UTC