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# A Pristine Mosaic Floor From a Roman Villa Is Uncovered in Italy
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-pristine-mosaic-floor-from-a-roman-villa-is-uncovered-in-italy/
- Published: 2020-06-04T15:00:10.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:22:32.000Z
- Description: In Negrar, archaeologists found evidence of an ancient Roman villa just meters under the earth’s surface.
- Author: Sarah Rose Sharp
- Tags: News, Archaeology, Italy, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/photo-2020-05-24-22-28-02.jpg)

As the saying goes, still waters run deep, but a recent [discovery made in Negrar](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-roman-mosaics-discovered-beneath-italian-vineyard-180974986/?ref=hyperallergic.com), a [small township in northern Italy](https://www.facebook.com/ComunediNegrar/?%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARAZJcbm5UC4xisbRWhS1CcBFSp1OsEAuoUne7ndr2dMQh8crP%5F-ea5-ezQszhyC6ZRVt99Bl3kRe1gl), proved that tiles run still deeper. After decades of thwarted attempts, archaeologists successfully uncovered a beautifully tiled mosaic floor, pristine evidence of an ancient Roman villa that was discovered by scholars more than a century ago.

Images of the site are uncanny, with a deep, narrow trench exposing the ancient flooring under at least waist-high soil, adjacent to a vineyard on the outskirts of Negrar, which is north of Verona. According to [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/style/amp/negrar-mosaic-floor-italy-discovery-scli-intl/index.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), the town will now work to restore the site and make the ancient ruin — thought to date to the third century A.D., according to the [*Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/ancient-roman-mosaic-floor-discovered-verona-italy?ref=hyperallergic.com) *—* viewable to the public, but the excavation is sure to be a lengthy and costly process.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/verona-mosaic-1460.jpg)

“We believe a cultural site of this value deserves attention and should be enhanced,” Negrar di Valpolicella Mayor Roberto Grison told *L’Arena*, as translated by the *Guardian*. “For this reason, together with the superintendent and those in charge of agricultural funds, we will find a way to make this treasure enjoyable.”

All involved parties must be experiencing understandable pride in managing to uncover a connection to history that was hiding so far beneath the surface.