Posted on 01/03/2022 6:47:13 AM PST by Twotone
On his father’s farm in Rutland, Jim Irving and his family were out walking when he spotted a few bits of ancient pottery scattered on the ground. Little did he know that further investigation into this would lead to the discovery of an extraordinary 1,700-year-old Roman mosaic, depicting Achilles and the Trojan War from The Iliad, and the remains of an ancient villa.
Upon finding these traces during lockdown in 2020, Irving accessed satellite imagery and discovered a cropmark, and after a preliminary search he contacted the Historic Environment team at Leicestershire County Council, who in turn reached out to the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) to excavate the area.
“It was like literally within a couple of weeks before we had people on site to start working this properly,” Irving told the University of Leicestershire. He, too, was able to work along archeologists in the field.
Given the nature of this exceptional find, Historic England secured funding for urgent archeological excavation, which began with a careful clean of the exposed Roman mosaic. “It was a spine-tingling experience as the first figures were revealed, and we quite literally came face to face with the past,” said John Thomas, deputy director of ULAS, in a statement.
The researchers soon uncovered a remarkable Roman mosaic, dating back from the third to fourth century, the first of its kind in the UK, which depicts scenes from the end of the Trojan War as told in Homer’s classic, with several frames illustrating a story sequence, almost like a comic book.
The first of which features the Greek warrior demigod Achilles facing Hector of Troy on the battlefield, both riding chariots led by horses of different colors.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
“Parts of Hadrian’s Wall still stand.”
Tell me about it. I was scoping out a trip there before Fauchi shut down the world.
I've been there, and I wasn't all that impressed. I was traveling by car from southeast England to Scotland and just stopped at the point where the highway intersected the wall. There might be better stretches of the remaining wall though.
But it’s the thought that counts!
Ruins might get maintained better if they didn’t put them in farmers’ fields.
Hadrian can have a wall. China can have a wall. The US can’t have a wall.
Send in the Time Team and Sir Tony.
Ping
True dat.
Thanks Red Badger.
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