Archaeologists digging in a vineyard near Verona, in an area known for Valpolicella wines, have rediscovered stunning Roman mosaics for the second time in a century.
A team of archaeologists, led by Verona's municipal archaeologist, started looking for the mosaics, part of a villa built between 250 and 400 AD, using reports, photos and somewhat inaccurate maps left by the team that first uncovered parts of the treasure in 1922.
The mosaics were lost again when the farmer whose land they were on grew tired of waiting for officials to decide what to do and whether to pay him for his land; after months of waiting, he simply buried them again and planted a vineyard. The present excavation is working in narrow trenches in order to protect the vineyard.
Gianni de Zuccato, the municipal archaeologist, told reporters that the moment when they located the first areas of mosaic was "like entering a time machine. It was an amazing feeling, I confess I could not remain cool. I felt like a child, going back in a time machine, imagining the era, the people who were here, who lived here, in this hidden and preserved villa."
The villa is believed to cover an area of around 300 square meters; the size and the quality of the mosaics indicate the villa was the property of the very rich. de Zuccato believes that when service areas are included, there may be as much as a thousand square meters of buildings and garden.
Local officials will now have to make plans for preservation and perhaps public access to the area, once they have worked out with the landowner how to continue the excavation and possibly acquire the site.
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