Free Republic

The nearly complete skeleton, with severed feet and a pugio on the back, leaves the cause of death and burial a "real mystery." Archaeologists excavating a 4,900-year-old fortress in Almendralejo, southwestern Spain, have uncovered the burial of a man who may have been a Roman soldier. The solitary, shallow grave was discovered near one of the defensive ditches of the ancient fortress and contained the remains of a man between 25 and 35 years old, laid face down with a pugio—a Roman dagger—on his back. The dagger was found completely intact and still in its sheath. It has been dated...

In the 1970s, two Roman inscriptions — dated from 245 to 253 AD — were discovered in Écija (known in ancient Roman times as Astigi), a city in Spain's southern province of Seville. The writings on the tablets suggest that the emperor at the time had exempted the Roman province of Baetica (roughly the equivalent of modern-day Andalusia, a region of southern Spain) from taxes...A gigantic tsunami that began in the Bay of Cadiz crashed into land, causing numerous coastal settlements to be abandoned and engulfing everything its path, including the city of Seville, located 45 miles inland from the...

Researchers from the University of Cádiz in Spain focused on settlements in the areas surrounding Arcos de la Frontera, Bornos, Villamartin and Puerto Serrano which would have all been interconnected by the Guadalete River, leading them to believe that they were part of a hidden empire.The team said they used geo radar - a tool that sends radar pulses underground to detect any hidden objects.They used geo radar technology to locate the wall structures from ancient residences that weren't visible from the surface...The researchers discovered that the villa had walls separating the residential and work areas while they were trying...

The dig is taking place underneath one of the walls of the disused bull ring, a wall which has been reinforced specifically so that the archaeologists could begin their work beneath it, and the opinion of the experts is that these rooms were used to hold gladiators and animals captive before they were released to do battle in the arena itself. Their existence was documented in the 18th century, well before the construction of the bull ring, and the roofs were re-discovered in 1999, but until now no-one was aware of how well they have survived the passing of two...