An archaeologist who hid 12,000 pieces of great historical value in his house is arrested in Cáceres

Agents of the National Police have recovered in the province of Cáceres about 12,000 archaeological objects of great historical value and that have a very high scientific interest and great economic value. The operation has resulted in a detainee, an archaeologist and a graduate in Geography and History, who came to “restore” some valuable piece with white putty and glue inappropriately.

The investigation began when the agents learned that a person – who has even participated in some archaeological prospecting – was in possession of a considerable quantity of slates of Visigothic origin with writing, drawing and numerals, all of them from looting and with a large historical value. The peculiarity of these boards is that it was original materials and that they belonged to a time of which few written references are preserved.

After various efforts, the agents managed to identify and locate this person in a town in Cáceres. Likewise, they were able to verify that, in addition to the Visigoth blackboards of which the detainee had even published an article in specialized magazines, this man owned a large number of other archaeological objects, especially coins. With the aim of recovering the slates and the rest of the archaeological pieces from looting, agents specialized in Historical Heritage carried out a search at the address of the investigated. At that time, the person investigated for his alleged involvement in crimes against historical heritage and misappropriation was arrested.

In the search carried out, the agents recovered a large number of archaeological objects, among which were the Visigoth slates as well as fibulae, remains of ceramics, pieces of medical instruments from Roman culture, thousands of coins from different eras and cultures, pieces of stone industry, Roman weapon blades, a historic revolver and Visigoth buckles, among others. In addition to the economic value, among the recovered pieces there are some of very high scientific and historical interest that, however, is diminished by the loss of the archaeological context. The chronological arc in which the intervened objects were created covers more than 100,000 years of History of the Iberian Peninsula.

Among them stands out a Visigoth slate with a reddish tone which, at 20.5 by 9.8 centimeters, is an exceptional document. From the end of the 7th or beginning of the 8th century, the text was rendered in Roman cursive in a late-old Latin riddled with contractions and the errors of its time. Its translation gives an account of the theft of seven goats suffered by a woman named Terentia but, as it is a fragment, there is only evidence of the fact.

A bell-shaped vessel has also been recovered which, dated between the years 2200-1500 BC, is characterized by its flared shape and incised decoration. Coming from looting, the glass has been subjected to an irregular restoration by the detainee through the use of inappropriate materials such as white putty and glue.

Among other items recovered are a small box with seven pieces of surgical instruments from Roman times, or a bifaz -or bifacial lithic piece- which was the most emblematic tool of Prehistory and, due to the fact that it was used in multiple functions, it is colloquially known as the “Swiss Army Knife” of the Acheulean. Also intervened were a Sephardic seal from the 14th century -with text in Hebrew and with the figurative representation of the flanked flanked by two birds-, a historical Lefacheaux-type revolver or a carved bone that could represent a prehistoric assegai, a kind of weapon of Primitive and light antler characteristic of the European Upper Paleolithic.