But stories of Dacia's gold lived on, inspiring generations of peasants who lived nearby to dig in the steep valleys. Sarmizegetusa was leveled and forgotten for centuries. In that same complex, the Roman Senate erected a column dedicated to Trajan and illustrating the story of the wars. The victory, Roman chroniclers boasted, yielded one of the largest treasures the ancient world had ever known: half a million pounds of gold and a million pounds of silver.Īfter his victory, Trajan took the spoils to Rome, where they paid for his famous forum. Sarmizegetusa, high in the central mountains, was once the capital and sacred center of the Dacians, a civilization crushed by the Roman Emperor Trajan in two bloody wars more than 1,900 years ago. To him, Lot 26 called to mind rumors that the site had yielded rich returns for looters. Now head of the National History Museum of Romania, he had been tracking rumors of treasure hunting in and around an ancient city called Sarmizegetusa for nearly a decade. Half a world away, reports of the auction-and a photo of the bracelet in the glossy auction catalog-caught the attention of Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu. Their discovery has led to new insights into Dacian society and religion.
The Treasure HuntĪfter nearly a decade of sleuthing by everyone from FBI agents to Interpol investigators and Romanian prosecutors, more than a dozen similar bracelets have been found, along with hundreds of gold and silver coins. Though it has never been recovered, Lot 26 set off an international search to recover the lost heirlooms of Dacia, an empire that was once a mighty rival to ancient Rome.
It took years for archaeologists and law enforcement officials in Romania to connect the armband to reports of looting in the country's central mountains.
0 kommentar(er)
