Word: comacchio
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Dates: during 1954-1954
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...Italy's marshy delta of the Po stands the small, bedraggled town of Comacchio. Noted chiefly for poverty, tuberculosis, and eels caught in the nearby lagoons, it had a period of illicit prosperity in the 1920s. When the Valle Trebba was drained by a reclamation project, its muddy bottom proved to be an ancient necropolis. Out of 1,250 tombs came bronze vases and candelabra, gold and silver jewelry and a wealth of beautiful pottery. Part of it was of Etruscan manufacture dating as far back as the 5th century B.C. Much of the rest was Greek of various...
Last year there was muted joy in Comacchio and fury among authorized archaeologists; genuine Etruscan antiquities began to appear again on the black market. Stealthy detective work told the authorities where the treasures were coming from. Another lagoon, the Valle Pega, was being drained, and as the waters shallowed, the Comacchiesi stole out at night in their eel boats and probed the mud with steel-tipped poles. When they touched something hard, they dug in the mud and drew out an Attic vase or an Etruscan bronze. The archaeologists called the cops, and the Comacchiesi were routed, but not before...
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