A gilded bronze lion head found off Italy's southern Calabrian coast in August 2012 dates to Roman times, archaeologists said Tuesday.
However, not much else could be said about the find. "This artefact is a unique specimen in typological terms and today we still have considerable difficulty in interpreting where it comes from," said Simonetta Bonomi, superintendent for archaeological and cultural heritage of Calabria.
"Our only historical reference are the tiles featuring lion heads found in one of the ships in Lake Nemi in Lazio," she added. Measuring about 50 centimetres in height and weighing 15 kilograms, the gilded bronze was found by a diver off the stretch of coast between Africo and Bianco in the province of Reggio Calabria.
Research has shown that it lay underwater at a depth of over 40 metres for some time.
The next step is to discover where it was made but for this researchers say they will "need more time".
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