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Date Published: 03/07/2024

RECOVERED: 700 priceless ancient fossils stolen from Murcia archaeological sites

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The recovered pieces have been delivered to the archaeological museum of the town of Mula

Police in Murcia have managed to recover about 700 “archaeological and paleontological pieces” that have been located in a property of Mula and which have now been delivered by the Colonel Chief of the local Guardia Civil, Francisco Pulido, to the museum of the city of Mula.

Under the auspices of Operation Zehir, the Guardia Civil’s specialist ROCA unit, which deals with thefts in rural areas, in collaboration with the Local Police of Mula, arrested two experienced criminals as the alleged perpetrators of seven crimes of burglary – mainly of batteries and farming tools.

But when they searched the properties, officers were stunned to find a box full of fossils coming from archaeological sites located in Murcia towns as diverse as Lorca, Totana, Pliego, Mula and Librilla.

The fossils cover a range of historical and pre-historical eras, from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic, passing through the rest of the cultures that settled in the Murcian territory.

From that moment on, the investigators, having confirmed the incredible value of these pieces, investigated online platforms used for the sale of second-hand objects, which allowed them to find that the thieves had been trying to sell them online at a very low price which did not take into account their high historical and cultural value.

The palaeontological pieces include specimens of sea urchins, bivalves, large pectinids and ammonites, as well as limestone blocks with fossil corals, most of them in an excellent state of preservation despite their apparent age. They may have been part of outcrops located in the towns of Moratalla, Jumilla, Mula, Archena and Sangonera-Murcia.

Most of the fossils are labelled with taxonomic descriptions and their provenance, with some of them standing out for their uniqueness, making them a great addition to the museum collections of Mula.

“Fossil collections play an extremely relevant role in 21st-century museums,” said a Guardia Civil press release, “as they favour the dissemination of scientific knowledge about the history of life and the social integration of palaeontological heritage as a cultural asset.”

Images: Guardia Civil

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