Vita gazette – An approximately 1,800-year-old Roman statue was found in a parking in the United Kingdom.

The statue was discovered during construction work in the car park of the 16th-century Burghley House, located north of the capital, London.

The digger driver Greg Crawley excavated the marble head of a Roman lady at the 16th-century country estate Burghley House in Peterborough, England, last year while he was doing renovation works. A few weeks later, the statue’s body part was found near the same parking lot.

According to the statement shared by Burghley House on March 5, the incident took place in April last year.

Experts who examined the statues stated that they date back to the ancient Roman period, from the 1st to the 2nd centuries.

According to the experts, an iron dowel was added to the statue, allowing it to remain attached to the pedestal or bust—following the pattern adopted by Italian dealers in antiquities during the late 18th century when items were sold to aristocrats travelling in Italy.

According to the estate, the ninth Earl of Exeter, Brownlow Cecil, an avid traveller and fine art collector, received the title in 1754.

“It is believed that he brought the sculpture back to Burghley during one of the ninth Earl’s two tours to Italy in the 1760s when he purchased many antiquities,” said the Burghley House.

The estate, however, is unsure how the head and bust remained buried in the parking lot soil and has described it as a “complete mystery.”

Burghley House emphasised that “explanations rang[e] from a bungled burglary to someone simply discarding the statue and it later being covered by soil.”

The statue will be displayed at Burghley House, and other statues will be collected by the ninth Earl.