Antique ancient altar with surrounding ruins

The fields around Rome were littered with fragments of ancient ruins, and it was not uncommon for farmers to break through the roof of a buried tomb when ploughing their fields. At the time, collectors queued up to purchase the items removed after such a find, carrying off bronze and earthenware, as well as architectural fragments, before all that remained was destroyed by renewed cultivation. Rather than mere curiosity, Piranesi had a genuine antiquarian desire to record some of the main tombs before they vanished forever.

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