Archaeologists' findings may prove Rome a century older than thought

Guardian (UK) ^ | Sunday, April 13, 2014 | John Hooper

[SunkenCiv]

Next week, the city will celebrate its official, 2,767th birthday. According to a tradition going back to classic times, the brothers Romulus and Remus founded the city on 21 April in the year 753BC.

But on Sunday it was reported that evidence of infrastructure building had been found, dating from more than 100 years earlier. The daily Il Messagero quoted Patrizia Fortini, the archaeologist responsible for the Forum, as saying that a wall constructed well before the city's traditional founding date had been unearthed.

The wall, made from blocks of volcanic tuff, appeared to have been built to channel water from an aquifer under the Capitoline hill that flows into the river Spino, a tributary of the Tiber. Around the wall, archaeologists found pieces of ceramic pottery and remains of food.

"The examination of the ceramic material was crucial, allowing us today to fix the wall chronologically between the 9th century and the beginning of the 8th century," said Fortini.

It was already known that the settlement of Rome was a gradual process and that the traditional date for its foundation was invented by a later writer. There is evidence of people arriving on the Palatine hill as early as the 10th century BC.

The find would appear to show that construction in stone began earlier than previously established. The discovery was made close to the Lapis Niger ('Black Stone' in Latin): a shrine that later Romans associated with their city's earliest days. The site includes a stone block that carries the earliest inscription found in Rome. Written in the 5th century BC, its meaning is not fully clear, but it is thought to place a curse on anyone who violates the site.

[SunkenCiv]

Subtitle: As Italian capital approaches 2,767th birthday, excavation reveals wall built long before official founding year of 753BC. [The standirst on this article was amended on 13 April to reflect the correct date of Rome's founding]

Rome may be older than its official birthday of 21 April 753BC when founded by Romulus and Remus. Photograph: WestEnd61/Rex

[SunkenCiv]

I wonder if this foundation date is just a vanity -- there have been two calender reforms (plus slight adjustments over the past century or so) since the city's foundation.

[knarf]

It's a failed slump test ... took 'em a hunnert years to figger it out ..... tha's all

And they STILL kept the unions .... sheesh !

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[Tainan]

The deeper they dig...the older it gets. There is a lot of really old stuff in the ground.

Rome is old.

[glock rocks]

Archaeologists' findings may prove Rome a century older than thought

... and thought is pretty old!

[Verginius Rufus]

21 April 753 B.C. is also the date when Romulus supposedly killed his brother Remus. Rome was named for a fratricide and Romulus was later regarded as a god, Quirinus. Fitting start for a bloodthirsty nation that never seemed to get tired of killing people. Caesar's conquest of Gaul may have cost 1 million lives--of Gauls.

As an enemy of Rome says in Tacitus' Agricola, "They create a desert and call it peace."

That people were living on the site of Rome doesn't mean that they were Romans--the name may have been bestowed on the site later.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

All great people are nasty exclusive conquerors.

[wildbill]

File under “Angels Dancing on the Head of a Pin” section of GGG.

[SunkenCiv]

No doubt, and this find is framed a little too dramatically for my taste -- what is a race of some sort to channel water, no idea how large it is, but could be a mill. Also, there's no reason to suspect that the origin stories of Rome are even as accurate as, say, what passes for our own news media. :')

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[SunkenCiv]

Imagine, Romulus having to explain to his kids that he’d killed their uncle Remus, and having them accuse him of racism.

[knarf]

Completely missed that one ... GOOD catch

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

You realize the city could have been named REME.

http://awesomebmovies.com/2011/04/duel-of-the-titans-1961/

[SunkenCiv]

So close, so, so close. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

There may still be traces of habitation on the site of Rome (which is a pretty big site) going back into the Neolithic at least, be surprising if it didn’t. There’s a section of Rome which has huts, purportedly of the original inhabitants. Naturally I can’t find the freakin’ image in a search right now, just some other stuff from Iron Age Palatine Hill.

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve got some of the episodes of “You Bet Your Life” around here (somewhere) and remember Gordon Scott from one of those.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8aI33TR43Y

[null and void]

As an enemy of Rome says in Tacitus' Agricola, "They create a desert and call it peace."

Rome hasn't been at war with Carthage lately, have they???

[Free Vulcan]

A century here, a century there, pretty soon you are talking about real time.

[SunkenCiv]

Ain’t it funny how the centuries slip away?

[Free Vulcan]

I know. Seems like yesterday Romulus and Remus were tight, had pool parties and karoke every Friday nite with the kids running around playing. Where the hell did the time go?