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Centuries of Italian History Are Unearthed in a Quest to Fix a Toilet
- yuchi 12y agoThis is way more common that you could think. In Rome, for example, road works are normally delayed an awful lot for this.
- gws 12y agoYes, that's why Rome does not have a proper subway system. Could you imagine London or Paris without a proper subway? That's Rome.
- idiocratic 12y agoRome is much smaller than the cities you mentioned.
- riffraff 12y agothe conurbation is smaller, the city of rome itself is in fact larger than paris and london, I believe.
- delecti 12y agoConversely, both Rome itself and its urban area have far fewer people than either Paris or London, which combined with the larger area, makes the density even less of a problem.
- nights192 12y agoI don't know, man- Rome proper's population is larger than Paris', with approximately 2.9 million residents. London, however, is indeed much larger.
- toyg 12y agoHopefully he's not just selling artifacts on the black market, which is the most common outcome for private findings. But yeah, southern Italy is all like that. Loads of houses in major cities like Naples or Rome will have a hatch in the basement, leading to what are basically unprotected archeological sites. Local authorities often have to turn the other way, because the cost of properly handling all this stuff would be prohibitive. These are living and bustling cities, you can't just turn them into museums.
- PhantomGremlin 12y agoHopefully he's not just selling artifacts on the black market I understand your point, but why not? Isn't the British Museum basically loot from all over the world? Wikipedia claims it has "8 million works". So maybe less than 1% is on display? And Britain isn't about to give any of that stuff back. So when an empire steals it's OK, but when "the little people" try to make a few bucks to cover costs, that's bad? Anyway, I'm just saying that it might be "better" in some sense to allow these artifacts out to collectors than to have them stored away in boxes in the locked storage areas of a museum.
- adrianhon 12y agoI think the British Museum's response would be that their objects are on display for the world for free, rather than hidden away in a private collection; and that researchers can also get free access to the works not on display. They'd also say that they are better placed to conserve their collection over the next few centuries than other collectors.
- thaumasiotes 12y agoHow many significant figures do you need before the proportion of the world population that has seen any object in the British Museum rises above zero?
- adrianhon 12y ago
- Terr_ 12y ago> City officials, sensing a major find, brought in an archaeologist, even as the Faggianos were left to do the excavation work and bear the costs. Whelp, I think I found yer problem right here...
- awjr 12y agoWelcome to Europe. Dig up a car park, find a king ;)
- arethuza 12y agoOr go to a beautiful wee island and find 48 Scottish, 8 Norwegian and 4 Irish kings... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona
- lsaferite 12y agoOr an unexploded bomb. :(
- vidarh 12y agoIf anyone is wondering, that's a reference to the finding of the skeleton of king Richard III of England under a car park in Leicester: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21063882 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-21063882
- kagamine 12y ago> So Mr. Faggiano enlisted his two older sons How did he manage that? Surely it was his two eldest sons and do I get a job at the NYT now please?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- kagamine 12y agoThe author correctly uses eldest and youngest later in the article. To use 'older' in the example there would have to be a comparison, older than... Yes, English is my first language and the example I quoted is a mangled form of it. For a broadsheet newspaper writer it is poor style at the very least. But, as this is HN, you'll of course tell me WHY I am wrong, not just make snide remarks. I look forward to being corrected. :)
- nothrabannosir 12y agoPlaying devil's advocate: what about "the older lady from across the street"?
- lsaferite 12y agoI'm assuming you are trying to confuse older in the context of the father, saying the sons are older than the father? Wouldn't the 'older' be limited in context to his group of sons?
- NKCSS 12y agoBest headline of today :)
- zachrose 12y agoAnother day of software development
- joeminichino 12y agoBeing Italian and accustomed to such stories (and very much an ancient and medieval history enthusiast, so not dismissing the importance of this discovery) my curiosity goes to the hypothetical menu of Trattoria Faggiano.