An engraved gemstone found at Lio Piccolo, Italy (Courtesy the Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

In the village of Lio Piccolo, Italy, just north of Venice, archaeologists discovered a rare engraved Roman gemstone during an underwater excavation, according to a report by Italy 24 Press News last week.

The cut agate gem is thought to be an uncommon relic, especially in an underwater setting, and is engraved with a mythological figure. The jewelry's quality suggests that affluent Romans may have traveled through the region.

"In a lagoon environment it is a rather rare find, to date we have news of two other precious gems found in Torcello and at Barena del Vigno," according to a release by Carlo Beltrame, who led the excavation with Elisa Costa, from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.

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Lio Piccolo was utilized for fishing by ancient Romans, just like it is today.

11 feet below the surface of the sea is a brick-built building with oak walls that dates to the first and second centuries CE. At first, scientists thought it was used for oyster farming and conservation, but they later discovered that it was really utilized as a holding tank for oysters before being consumed.

"Alongside this system there is a brick paving laid on poles, many fragments of valuable frescoes and some fragments of black and white mosaic which, in the 1980s, prompted the discoverer of this site, the amateur archaeologist Ernesto Canal, to interpret it as a prestigious villa," Beltrame said. "The basin and the floor plans offer a precious marker, because they are well dated, for the study of the variations of the sea and of the local subsidence."

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