1,800-year-old Roman statue found in parking lot

Construction workers were building a car park in the UK when they accidentally discovered a Roman statue that was almost 2,000 years old.

Greg Crowley, an excavator operator, was carrying out renovation work on the 16th-century Burghley House country estate in Peterborough, England. At some point, he accidentally discovered the marble head of a Roman woman. Some time later, another bust was found in a nearby place.
After cleaning, studying and reassembling, the fragments were dated to the 1st or 2nd century.

According to experts, an iron pin was added to the statue, with which it could be secured to a bust or pedestal. This type of adaptation was historically made by Italian antiquities dealers in the late 18th century when they sold items to aristocrats traveling through Italy.

“It is believed that during one of the 9th Earl’s two voyages to Italy in the 1760s, when he acquired many antiquities, he brought this sculpture back to Burghley.” the estate said in a statement.

As noted, Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter, inherited the title in 1754, and was an avid traveler and collector of fine art. But how did these works of art end up in the parking lot? Unknown! Perhaps there was a break-in or someone simply threw the statue away.

The excavator driver said it was “It’s an amazing feeling to find something so old and special” naming the statue “my best find”. “I was shocked when an excavator’s bucket turned over what I thought was a large rock and revealed a face. I couldn’t believe it when they told me it was a Roman marble statue.”– said Crowley.

The statue will be displayed along with others collected by the ninth Earl at Burghley House.

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