Aquileia: A Roman terracotta amphora from the 1st century AD, found in the home of a private citizen, has been delivered to the National Archaeological Museum

In Aquileia (UD), the Carabinieri of the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Udine have a Roman terracotta amphora dating back to the 1961st century AD, illegally taken in XNUMX and found in the home of a private citizen resident in Trento, has been delivered to the National Archaeological Museum. The amphora, about 65 cm high and classified as “DRESSEL 25” type, reported in 2023 to the TPC military, was found intact and in excellent condition. The artefact, curiously, It was equipped with an engraved metal plate which attested its provenance and the exact date of its discovery “in Aquileia on 20-11-1961”.

The immediate seizure carried out by the Udine military, motivated by the absence of certification attesting to legitimate possession or other useful indication to explain the reason why the amphora, never reported to the competent authorities, was located more than 250 km away from its place of origin, has allowed the situation to be crystallized and its dispersion or damage to be avoided.

The expertise, drawn up at the time of seizure with the assistance of an official of the Archaeological Heritage Office of the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage of the Autonomous Province of Trento, confirmed the compatibility of that asset with similar archaeological material found in Aquileia, a town in the province of Udine which boasts very ancient origins, for a long time the second city of the Roman Empire in terms of commercial importance and extension and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 to protect the enormous historical and cultural value of its archaeological remains. It should be remembered that already in 1961, the Italian cultural heritage was protected by L.1089/39 (subsequently replaced by Legislative Decree 42/2004, better known as the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape), which is why the ancient amphora could not be owned by a private citizen nor extracted from the subsoil outside of a regular scientific excavation campaign authorised by the Superintendency competent for that territory.

Having shared the news with the Public Prosecutor's Office of Trento, following the investigations the proceedings were recently concluded with the issuing, by the Court of Trento, of a order to confiscate the property and reinstate it in the cultural heritage of the Italian State. In compliance with the principles of valorization and recontextualization of a "cultural asset" (also established by the Italian Constitution), the amphora was formally handed over to the competent National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, recently renovated, reuniting its history with that of the territory from which it comes or, simply, marking his return “home” after more than 63 years.

The recovery and delivery of the amphora, operated by the Carabinieri TPC against the Aquileia Museum, once again testifies to the constant commitment of this specialty of the Carabinieri in the matter of safeguarding archaeological assets, owned by the State and therefore by the community, defending the identity of a territory as a testimony of the past, that same identity which is synonymous with "culture".