Posted on 01/30/2012 4:03:09 AM PST by SunkenCiv
A recently discovered mysterious "winged" structure in England, which in the Roman period may have been used as a temple, presents a puzzle for archaeologists, who say the building has no known parallels.
Built around 1,800 years ago, the structure was discovered in Norfolk, in eastern England, just to the south of the ancient town of Venta Icenorum. The structure has two wings radiating out from a rectangular room that in turn leads to a central room.
"Generally speaking, [during] the Roman Empire people built within a fixed repertoire of architectural forms," said William Bowden, a professor at the University of Nottingham, who reported the find in the most recent edition of the Journal of Roman Archaeology. The investigation was carried out in conjunction with the Norfolk Archaeological and Historical Research Group.
The winged shape of the building appears to be unique in the Roman Empire, with no other example known. "It's very unusual to find a building like this where you have no known parallels for it," Bowden told LiveScience. "What they were trying to achieve by using this design is really very difficult to say."
The building appears to have been part of a complex that includes a villa to the north and at least two other structures to the northeast and northwest. An aerial photograph suggests the existence of an oval or polygonal building with an apse located to the east...
Sometime after the demise of this wing-shaped structure, another building, this one decorated, was built over it. Archaeologists found post holes from it with painted wall plaster inside.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
I wonder if there are any traces of other nearby structures? In the 1990s (or thereabouts) a Roman-era British town (or village) the name of which has survived was finally found, a completely abandoned site other than having been farmed for 15 centuries or so since.
Actually you are both kinda right. It obviously is an updated version of the Stargate called the Starshot. The structure originally stood upright and had a large rubber band stretched between the uprights. To use the device, one sat in a leather cup at the center point of the rubber band and... Well, you get the picture.
The system was still in testing when a fatal design flaw was found and the project abandoned.
“...who say the building has no known parallels....”
No wonder I did so poorly in geometry. I would have sworn a bunch of those walls are parallel.
Wine Lover's Guide To Ancient BritainAt one Northamptonshire site, the team documented remains of nearly four miles of bedding trenches that they estimate could have supported some 4,000 vines, the fruits of which would have yielded more than 2,600 gallons of wine a year. According to Meadows and Brown, the grapes were grown in the Mediterranean Roman style, that is between parallel sets of poles, a manner that has been described in detail by classical authors such as Pliny the Elder and Columella. Most of the wines the Romans produced were probably fruity, sweet, and brownish in color. The grapes would have been harvested early, before they were fully ripe, around late September. After pressing, large amounts of honey would have been added to the wine for both sweetness and to raise the alcohol content to ten or 12 percent. The wine would then have been placed in amphoras or barrels to ferment for about six months, ready for enjoyment in late winter or early spring.
by Angela M.H. Schuster
Volume 53 Number 2, March/April 2000
:’) Thanks SV.
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