Three excavations, three discoveries: a week of archaeology in Italy
From Roman amphorae on the Ligurian seabed to a new Etruscan temple in Cerveteri, to the remains of three children in the Temple of Concord in Agrigento: three separate discoveries in the same week.
Off Punta Chiappa, in the municipality of Camogli, the Carabinieri’s diving unit from Genoa identified nine large Roman amphorae at a depth of over 40 metres, within the Portofino Marine Protected Area. These are wine amphorae, which according to reports document ancient wine trade routes in the Mediterranean. The news, reported by Artribune, currently comes from a single source — the Carabinieri diving unit of Genoa — and has not yet received independent confirmation.
In Cerveteri, the ancient Etruscan city of Cisra, a new monumental temple has resurfaced thanks to the work of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at Queen’s University, carried out in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and southern Etruria. In this case too, the news is based on a single source, that of the same collaboration between the Canadian university and the Soprintendenza, with no further independent corroboration at this time.
The third find comes from the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, where a new excavation campaign has begun at the Temple of Concord. The initial work has brought to light the skeletal remains of at least three children, found in a single burial dug into the floor of the temple. The investigation, promoted by the director of the Archaeological Park, Roberto Sciarratta, stems from the need to further investigate findings that emerged during the 2018 and 2019 excavation campaigns. This news, too, comes from a single source, the editorial team that reported the Archaeological Park’s announcement, and remains without independent confirmation.
Three separate discoveries, in three different contexts — a seabed, an Etruscan city, a Greek temple in Sicily — which in the same week provide material for reconstructing commercial, monumental and funerary practices of ancient Italy. All three news items share the same limitation: each comes from a single source, the institutional or university body directly involved in the excavation, and awaits further independent confirmation.
