At the discovery of two 2,000-year-old artefacts
by Manuel Pavanello
Let’s assume that, in Piazza Brescia in Jesolo Lido, there is a room which hosts some finds coming from the Ancient Walls and the surrounding area. Let’s say that these finds can be freely visited during the opening hours. What if they included three finds from Venice in the Roman time, dating back to the 1st century AD?
Surprise: this is not a fantasy. It happens for real in the Tourist Information Office in the Sala Mosaici or Sala Tintoretto. Here a small but significant part of the artefacts found near the Ancient Walls of Jesolo Paese is exhibited which risked being stored in the municipal warehouses closed to the public. In the room, the mosaics are displayed together with some information panels and the reproduction of the decoration texture of the floor mosaics. The collection includes some architectural fragments of the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, which are small and aesthetically negligible but still bear witness of a past civilization. The most extraordinary thing about these artefacts is that they were reused but, despite all the vicissitudes, have come down to us. In fact, in the past stone blocks, including tombstones, were often recycled as pre-cut construction materials when they were no longer useful in their original form and function.
These artefacts are two thousand years old, which means that they are roughly coeval with Jesus Christ. It’s really amazing, isn’t it?
