Five arrested in illegal dig

(ANSA) - Crotone, March 25 - Five people were placed under house arrest after police in Calabria said Wednesday they caught a group digging illegal in the archaeological excavations in southern Italy's Capo Colonna park.
    Police say they took the group by surprise as people were excavating using metal detectors, hoes and shovels near the ruins of the ancient Temple of Hera Lacinia.
    The five, ranging in age from 22 to 44, are accused of causing damage to an archaeological heritage site. Crotone, a port city facing towards Greece in the southern Calabria region, is home to the 30,000-square-meter archaeological park on a promontory overlooking the Tarentine Gulf.
    The Capo Colonna park houses several ongoing archeological digs as well as a Doric column that once was part of a temple to the goddess Hera dating back to the 6th century BC.
    The temple was one of the most important religious locations in Magna Graecia, the name given to coastal areas of southern Italy that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers in antiquity.
    The park also has a museum built into the earth to limit its environmental impact.
    Divided into three sections (The Earth, The Sacred, and The Sea), it houses recovered underwater artifacts, votive objects and structural ruins from the temple.