The Civil Guard has recovered a fragment of a stone carving or ‘disiecta membra’ with Roman reliefwhich a neighbor had in his possession from the Badajoz town of Llerena. According to sources from the command, to locate this decorative element, which depicts a scene from a man pulling a bovidthe collaboration of the General Directorate of Library, Archives and Cultural Heritage of the Board has been “essential”, so that the Seprona Research Team obtained sufficient evidence to be able to determine the existence of this archaeological piece in Llerena.
After finding out the identity of the person who kept it, the agents interviewed him and informed him of the alleged administrative infraction that he could be committing by possessing a archaeological fragment of cultural interest and not having duly reported their finding to Heritage. At that time, he voluntarily handed over the piece, which Seprona later deposited in the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Badajoz.
This intervened decorative fragment had supposedly been discovered by chance when carrying out renovation work on a farm he owned located on the outskirts of the town.
Now the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of the Junta de Extremadura will be in charge of study and analyze the intervened piecewith a specific archaeological methodology that determines its supposed cultural historical value, origin and provenance.
The Civil Guard recalls that the archaeological pieces, as objects that make up the Spanish Historical Heritage, are considered as assets of public domain and cultural interest, property of the Administration. For this reason, any finding or possession must be duly reported to the competent body within 48 hours of its discovery or acquisition.