Skip to main content

Indiana Jones Cat Discovers 2,000-Year-Old Ruins In Rome

It Belongs in a Museum!

Having traveled to Italy this past year, I can attest to seeing quite a few cats laying about on all sorts of ancient items but this one takes the cake. While his owner was attempting to chase him down, a curious kitty discovered a set of ruins untouched for almost 2,000 years. All my cats do is sleep and lick themselves. 

Recommended Videos

The ruins were found by the unnamed feline in a residential near the Roman city of Via di Pietralata. Its owner, Mirko Curti, and a friend were trying to track the cat just outside his apartment at a nearby rock cliff.

“The cat managed to get into a grotto and we followed the sound of its miaowing,” Curti told The Guardian. And what did they find inside (besides the cat)? What appeared to be funeral urn niches carves into the rock and tons of human bones.

“Archaeologists called to the scene said the tomb probably dated from between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD. Given that niches were used to store ashes in urns, the bones had probably tumbled into the tomb from a separate burial space higher up inside the cliff,” writes The Guardian. “Heavy rains at the start of the week had probably caused rocks concealing the entrance to the tomb to crumble, they added.”

While some Romans are irked to find out yet another ancient ruin has been uncovered which they’ll have to then tip-toe around, Curti called the whole thing “the most incredible experience” of his life.

I hope the cat gets special credit on a plaque.

(via Yahoo, image via Mooresville Public Library)

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

Author
Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

Filed Under:

Follow The Mary Sue: