Nothing found in vandalised ancient river repository (9)
I believe the answer is:
container
'repository' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'nothing found in vandalised ancient river' is the wordplay.
'nothing' becomes 'o' (O resembles 0).
'found in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'vandalised' indicates anagramming the letters.
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation for river).
'ancient'+'r'='ancientr'
'ancientr' anagrammed gives 'cntainer'.
'o' going within 'cntainer' is 'CONTAINER'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for container that I've seen before include "Object to hold things" , "Metal shipping box" , "Something to hold" , "Chest perhaps" , "tin can, say?" .)