THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCOVERY CONTEXT  

The significance of cultural heritage is surely in the relationship between artifacts and their context of origin, it is intimately enclosed in the indispensable relationship that links each artefact with its own environment of discovery.  

But what is meant by discovery context?  

Stratigraphic excavation is the main method of archaeological research. It is so called because the archaeologist digs the ground following, in a very precise order, the layers of earth that have been formed during the millennia and locates the traces left by the ancient inhabitants to reconstruct the history of a certain site. Each layer is given and,  therefore, placed in time based on the artifacts it contains.  

It is evident, therefore, that it is possible to recompose the pieces of the mosaic of history only by studying the archaeological find together with its context of discovery.  

Decontextualizing the find means depriving it of its value as a historical testimony and erasing forever all information about everyday life, society, economy, etc. that has been preserved in itself for millennia.  

Unfortunately, clandestine excavations, that is, illegal interventions not carried out by a specialized archaeologist, and thefts of cultural goods are sadly common in our country.  

The artifacts torn from their context of origin become, inevitably, “mute objects, notes torn from a score whose melody is irretrievably lost,” to quote Tsao Cevoli.  

The theft of archaeological property is therefore a criminal act committed primarily against a territory, a local community and its identity which loses through these operations the awareness of its own historical and cultural experience.