Roman villa discovered in western Austria

Digital Journal ^ | October 25, 2007 | dpa im ds

[SunkenCiv]

The archaeologists from Innsbruck University stumbled upon references to the 1,800-year-old, long since forgotten building situated near the town Lienz in a manuscript penned in Latin, dating back to the mid-18th century. Tyrolean proto-archeologist Anton Roschmann wrote that he found Roman remains in 1746, but his findings were lost, the Austrian Press Agency reported. During a dig in October the remains of five rooms of a building dating back to Roman times wear unearthed on a 300-square-metre plot. The remains of the walls show colourful wall paintings, the archaeologists said, but the most astounding find were large-scale floor mosaics in three of the rooms. The mosaics were unique in the region regarding their dimensions and state of preservation, the archaeologists said. Furthermore, the villa had been partly equipped with wall and floor heatings. The heating vaults under the floors remained partly intact. The fact that they had not collapsed as usual added to the good condition of the mosaics. In the 18th century, the low-ceilinged vaults were believed to be the home of dwarfs, leading to the creation of local legends about a "dwarf city" in the region.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	The "Stone Age Sex" topic came from one of the occasional sources (Texas A&M), and this story comes from the Archaeology mag news page. Tons more on both. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[RDTF]

cool

[TruthConquers]

“... leading to the creation of local legends about a “dwarf city” in the region.”

Gimli, is that you?

[SunkenCiv]

:')

[TruthConquers]

LOL!!!

[rahbert]

Did they find any skis? bindings? fondue pots?

[colorado tanker]

The alpine region that today represents the Austrian province Tyrol was conquered by Rome in 15 B.C. While it profited from Roman trade, the region was never particularly attractive for Roman settlers.

I guess they didn't ski.

[SunkenCiv]

Yodel might be right about that.