Archaeologists Find Tomb Under Roman Forum

AP ^ | Jan 20th, 2006 | AP

[The_Republican]

ROME - Archaeologists digging beneath the Roman Forum have discovered a 3,000-year-old tomb that pre-dates the birth of ancient Rome by several hundred years.

State TV Thursday night showed an excavation team removing vases from the tomb, which resembled a deep well.

Archaeologists were excavating under the level of the ancient forum, a popular tourist site, when they dug up the tomb, which they suspect is part of an entire necropolis, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

"I am convinced that the excavations will bring more tombs to light," ANSA quoted Rome's archaeology commissioner, Eugenio La Rocca, as saying.

Also found inside the tomb was a funerary urn, ANSA said.

State TV quoted experts as saying the tomb appeared to date to about 1,000 B.C., meaning the people who constructed the necropolis pre-dated the ancient Romans by hundreds of years.

Legend has it that Rome was founded in 753 B.C. by Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war, Mars.

Last year, archaeologists who have been digging for some two decades in the forum said they believed they found evidence of a royal palace roughly dating to the period of the legendary founding.

[Publius]

Read Livy on the subject. There were many tribes including the Etruscans and the Voii.

[mikrofon]

So a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum...

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Etruscans would be my bet. Not that it has a thing to do with this find but in the early 80's I attended a make up Rotary meeting in Volterra, Italy. The restaurant was built into a 2,500 year old Etruscan wall.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Fiddlstix. I would ping it, but I'm about to do the digest.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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[SunkenCiv]

Probably Etruscans, but we'll have to wait and see.

[SunkenCiv]

[LexBaird]

She's not getting anywhere near my artifact!

S'okay, she isn't after fossils. ;^)

[DoughtyOne]

Relic maybe. Fossil, not yet.

[don-o]

Link don't work.

Is there more information on who is doing this excavation?

[ubermensch88]

Sitting here in Ohio at 10 til Midnight reading H.G. Wells book 1 of the Outline of History...I read ‘ 753 is the date given for the founding of Rome, but there are Etruscan tombs beneath the Roman Forum of a much earlier date than that, and the so called tomb of Romulus bears an indecipherable Etruscan inscription.’ ....... this book was written in 1920 ....and we are just now hearing about this ...Not to mention Etruscan text is not indecipherable.