Thought y'all would find this interesting...
-K!
Cool! Thanks for sharing 
Xavi
This was an interesting news ... but not for the italian TV (or the italian TV web sites). 
In Italy (and i though in many ather country of Europe) after the fall of Rome, many roman building were spoiled from their marble, columns and any other useful material, for building churches (the Coliseum is an example of this practice). So its very common finding a roman column top or other roman work of art in churches or other old religious buildings, everywhere in Italy.
In other cases an entire roman building was converted into a church (like the Pantheon in Rome) or, like the news reported, a church was build directly on it, because that roman building was completely forgotten.
Recycling of the materials and artwork is common. After all, marble columns were expensive to get from other sources. The Mosque of Cordoba, one of the most impressive buildings of Arabic architecture in Spain is built using this recycling technique.
I bring it up for a couple reasons.
- Us folks in USA and Canada don't have the same perspective on hidden ruins and ancient practices. As Ugluk points out, these sorts of finds (perhaps on a smaller scale) are not uncommon in Italy or anywhere, really, along the coast of the Med. For us, we have no cities that have been occupied and continuously modified for more than 350 years and most less than 200. True, there were indiginous (sp?) populations and some ancient cities (particularly along the Mississippi and parts of the American Southwest) but nothing like Rome or Jerusalem or Istanbul or Cairo. Given that history, it doesn't naturally occur to a lot of us to consider city sagas -- why would we sign up for a Divine aura when there is nothing, really, to keep us there?
Reading this I was reminded that there is plenty of justification for finding abandoned/buried and cryptic symbols and the occasional "hidden/undiscovered symbols in the architecture" adventure without getting too much into high fantasy. It isn't just possible, it is likely.
- The undiscovered pagan tradition. The authors point out that it was not clear what tradition this was. This adds to the flavor in that a saga set on the Italian peninsula might reasonably discover a lost tradition and still be otherwise "historical." True, it isn't going to be as well developed as, say, the Roman pantheon, but there is plenty of opportunity to creat an saga revolving around the discovery of a Fae court that was brutally beaten back by the old Romans and may have a serious grudge against the Cult of Mercury and its decendents.
Good luck with this!
Verticus points out a true fact pertaining to North American cities. Nothing in Chicago is more than 200 years old.
However, you do find some examples of recycling in cenetral and south America. Mainly in Mexico. Natives tore down pagan temples and sun pyramids and used the bricks to build churches. You can still see these constructions today in and around Mexico City. Mexico City was the former Aztec capital, the name of the city, that state and the nation that contains it, comes from the Aztec name for the local lake.
Except for the Native American sites it was built on.
But the point is well taken - the American sensibility for and internalization of "ancient history" is booklearned - many Europeans take it for granted, having played on millenia-old ruins as children.
True, but they didn't build anything here. Nothing enduring. That is why I pointed to the Aztecs, who did indeed build quite a bit.