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Photo from L’ipogeo della Medusa e la necropoli.

The tools of the tomb-robber’s trade are scattered about this ancient graveyard in the Apulian town of Arpi. Searching for underground tombs, the plunderers plunge long metal rods into the ground. When they hit something, they begin digging, leaving behind the mounds of dirt seen in the distance. Rich in Greek vases, the tombs of Arpi have suffered from clandestine digging ever since archaeologists rediscovered the buried city in 1956.