Spanish Police Find Hundreds Of Archaeological Artefacts At Two Homes – Two men are under investigation after hundreds of archaeological artefacts and bone fragments thought to be up to 5,000 years old were discovered in two residential properties in the province of Alicante by Spanish police. The investigation was initiated in November when police received a tip that a property in the small community of Gata de Gorgos had ancient bone remains. The tip was validated by a raid that uncovered bone fragments that a local archaeologist estimated to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old.
In the absence of any documentation to justify the collection, local authorities believed it to be illegal. The suspect began cooperating with police by directing them to another residence in the adjacent city of Dénia. Inside, police discovered 350 archaeological artefacts, including bronze age mills, Roman loom parts, and Phoenician amphorae, as well as 200 bone fragments. The find was “one of the largest illegal private collections in the province of Alicante,” police said on Friday.
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Pictures taken during the raid depicted tables covered in bone fragments, a skull sitting on a row of notebooks, and a terrace floor covered in intricately painted artefacts. The inhabitant of the residence informed officers he acquired the items after a relative passed away. However, he did not have any type of documentation to justify the possession of the pieces nor had he done anything to regularise them,” police noted.
More than 1,000 small tiles believed to be from ancient Roman mosaics, many Roman ointments, an 18th-century iron grenade, and cannonballs were among the objects seized. Several notebooks with handwritten notes, thought to have been written by the deceased relative, detailing the exact place where the things had been discovered were also discovered by the police.
Police remarked that the information could aid professionals in dating and valuing artefacts and throw light on newly unknown archaeological locations. The two men connected to the collections are under investigation and could face charges stemming from the misappropriation of goods of artistic, historical, cultural or scientific value, according to police. As their investigation gets under way, the objects are being stored at the Archaeological Museum of Dénia.
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