Sometimes one clue at a crime scene can provide the key to unlocking an entire mystery. Such is the case with a single gold earring found inside a building that burned to the ground about 2,200 years ago in Catalonia, according to a report in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
The fact that the earring was hidden — both in a pot and in a nook inside a wall — suggests that its owners knew Hannibal’s Carthaginian army was heading their way. Because the earring was in one of the several burned buildings, experts think that the army laid waste to the entire village after its inhabitants fled. And since the piece of jewelry was first found in the 21st century suggests that its owner — and perhaps many other original villagers — never returned.
