A Roman villa with intricate mosaics has been unearthed on the outskirts of the Italian capital, in a remarkable discovery that emerged after police were alerted to a clandestine dig on government land.The property is located in what is now the village of Castel di Guido, about 12 miles from Rome. In Imperial times — 27 BC to the fifth century AD — it was a hamlet of residential palaces known as Lorium.The villa is still being excavated and studied, but archaeologists have so far uncovered a grand entrance hall with an atrium and sunken basin, known as an impluvium, surrounded by a mosaic floor with black and white botanical and geometric designs.Elaborate mosaics are among the items uncovered at the site. – Ministero della CulturaIn its Imperial heyday, Lorium was frequented by emperors including Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, Italy’s Ministry of Culture said in a press release earlier this week.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe discovery was revealed when concerned neighbors contacted authorities in February to report illicit activity at the site.When the Carabinieri military police attended, they recognized the telltale signs of the work of tomb raiders who loot archaeological sites in search of treasures — a practice that has led to the illicit sale of thousands of stolen artifacts, according to the culture ministry.Small piles of dirt, work going on at night and no permission signs for authorized excavations tipped off officials, according to a spokesperson for the Carabinieri Art Police, a specialized unit dedicated to stopping the theft of Italy’s vast historical treasures.Authorities discovered that a small group of people used a backhoe to break ground into a vast cavern below, in a hidden part of the pr …
