Swiss grave looting expert wins Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has awarded the Marie Heim-Vögtlin Prize to archaeologist Cristina Murer. She receives the prize for her research on grave looting in late antiquity. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox Murer showed that looting and destruction were an important part of recycling processes in cities, the SNSF announced on Tuesday. During late antiquity, resources had to be conserved. Contrary to previous assumptions, tombs were not destroyed by Christians as part of anti-pagan measures. Through creative reuse, the decoration of the ancient tombs has been preserved over time. + Facing up to Switzerland’s Roman past Murer also attached great importance to evaluating the findings in an interdisciplinary manner and placing them in their historical context. Much of the information on grave robbery in late antiquity was taken from legal texts and literary sources, she explained. This was supplemented by archival work in Italian ...