AN ANCIENT ITALIAN CITY DISCOVERED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14006, 10 March 1920, Page 6

AN ANCIENT ITALIAN CITY DISCOVERED.

Rich archaeological "finds"; are reported from. Piauella di. Jesi,.'"in -the neighborhood' of Ancona. While rootins' an old vineyard belonging to the. Villa Salvati, the ■ peasantry unearthed several exquisitely painted vases, which date from the Golden Age of Grecian art. . Hoping for similar luck, other landowners in the district started excavating on a large scale, witii the result that'"a vast ancient cemetery has been discovered, besides the remains of dwellings which formed part of the pre-Helleriic city of Plemnia. Another important "Necropolis is thereby added to the list of those already traced and explored in Central Italy and along the Adriatic seaboard. Specialists opine that some of its tombs go back to the fifth century before the Christian era, and that a section, at least, of the burial-ground was reserved for the use of wealthy foreign' colonists. Beneath a' magnificent mausoleum discovered on Marquis Zucconi's estate two remarkably Shaped skulls, apparently of a man arid his wife, were, found lying side by side in a , go(<u state of- preservation, at a dopt'u of ].") feet Inside the flint-lined grave, nieasurii.g l'J feet by Id feet, lay a perfect bronze crucible, with a girl's head of ira'--y haii engraven on the. handle. Alriii'-f. all the pieces of a big-sized cylix, or vase resembling a champagne cup,- have been collected for mending. Only a few like examples are known to exist, in" rite Greek pottery collections r iv.swved in the national museums at !Nsplf~.. Rome and Florence. Particularly interesting are the rernnont: of a lady's perfume or toilet, box, with trinkets, "buckles, clasps, and hair, fasteners. But what is most prized is a graceful and unique bronze hydria,: or water jar, of lonic origin, dug up' at .another spot on the saute estate;. Hundreds of ceramic bowls a,nd goblets, finely ornamented archaic vases of a Phoenician mould, and varied bronze' objects in domestic use have now been gatheifd from under the ruined houses 01 th'i--- once .opulent town.; ' .