Featured My latest finds

The European antiques market only became accessible to me a few years ago, and I’m still amazed at what you can find there. But every time, the same thought crosses my mind: if the market is so vast today, just imagine what you could have found there 50–70 years ago, before the days of Google and image searches

 

It's at the same time fascinating and sad story but I think, your lucky day will come because it's already there in the ground, you just haven't found it yet

 

I can tell you that even the territory of my homeland (Moldova) was occupied by the Romans at one point. Moldovans like to say that they are the closest descendants of the ancient Romans (which I’m not entirely sure about, although Romanian is the language closest to original Latin). But yes, I remember reading an article about how a British farmer discovered an ancient Roman mosaic in his fields, buried under just 40–50 cm of soil. That is certainly astonishing

 

It was probably the pet of the people who lived here before us, who loved it enough to bury it close to them, because it was right against the wall of the house. We buried it somewhere else, with a flower added to the grave as a sign of respect.

I probably have to dig a lot deeper.

 

Moldova? I have a friend who lives there about half of the year now. It was year-round until the Invasion. He's American and does NGO work, or did until he officially retired.

 

He must have liked it there, seeing as he stayed on after retiring

 

He's still doing the work, just living on Social Security etc now.

 

All nice finds!!!
The Roman ring is stunning at most as is AJ for finding its twin. KUDOS!

 

Despite the small size for a modern hand, Zeus/Jupiter may have once been on the hand of a soldier.

An observation I have made when looking at Roman rings is that the cameo or intaglio, no matter which way is up for the figure or scene carved on it, is always set with its long axis parallel to the band, even if, as in this case, it means the figure/scene is sideways to both wearer & viewer. This knowledge does not protect one from conscientious fakes, but can be useful in spotting modern attempts at looking like an antiquity. Of course there are many instances of genuinely old engraved gems being set in modern rings, usually with the long axis of the gem being mounted perpendicular to the band.