Rare Roman artefacts dug up in Bulgaria by looters and only recently seized by police ended up in Sofia's national museum of history on Friday.
The highlight of the collection, containing some 100 pieces including exquisite examples of Roman sculpture and ceramics, is a marble sarcophagus from the first century AD, richly carved with garlands, floral ornaments, women's faces and figures of death.
"The sarcophagus, with an early Roman inscription, is the most beautiful of its kind found in Bulgaria," archaeologist Elka Penkova said.
Other precious artefacts include an eagle-adorned altar table and the first stone carving to go on display in a Bulgarian museum of Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus, being suckled by a female wolf.
The finds were most probably unearthed by looters in the buried Roman settlement of Ratsiaria, near the village of Archar in northwestern Bulgaria, Penkova said.
They were seized by police from a courtyard in the nearby village of Ruptsi, where a businessman kept them in a makeshift private exhibit.
Looting and smuggling abroad of precious artefacts over the past 20 years have turned the once rich ancient Roman town overlooking the Danube into a lunar landscape.
The destruction of "this town of priceless culture" was "an outrage," Penkova mourned Friday.
"We can only judge about the splendid past of Ratsiaria from items recovered not through archeological excavations but by police operations," the national museum of history said in a statement.
Source: AFP [April 08, 2011]
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| Rare Roman artefacts dug up in Bulgaria by looters and only recently seized by police ended up in Sofia's national museum of history on Friday [Credit: AFP] |
"The sarcophagus, with an early Roman inscription, is the most beautiful of its kind found in Bulgaria," archaeologist Elka Penkova said.
Other precious artefacts include an eagle-adorned altar table and the first stone carving to go on display in a Bulgarian museum of Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus, being suckled by a female wolf.
The finds were most probably unearthed by looters in the buried Roman settlement of Ratsiaria, near the village of Archar in northwestern Bulgaria, Penkova said.
They were seized by police from a courtyard in the nearby village of Ruptsi, where a businessman kept them in a makeshift private exhibit.
Looting and smuggling abroad of precious artefacts over the past 20 years have turned the once rich ancient Roman town overlooking the Danube into a lunar landscape.
The destruction of "this town of priceless culture" was "an outrage," Penkova mourned Friday.
"We can only judge about the splendid past of Ratsiaria from items recovered not through archeological excavations but by police operations," the national museum of history said in a statement.
Source: AFP [April 08, 2011]
