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A bronze coin that was in circulation in the time of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who decreed that the Jews must be annihilated and during whose reign the Maccabean revolt made famous in the Chanukah story took place, has been discovered at the Tower of David archaeological site in Jerusalem. The discovery, made during routine maintenance work, was a surprise to archaeologists working at the Tower of David citadel. The archaeologists believed they had thoroughly excavated the site during the last few decades. Nevertheless, chief conservator Orna Cohen noticed a metal object among the stones of the Hasmonean Wall inside...

An exceptionally rare gold coin emblazoned with the face of the Roman Emperor Nero dating back to around A.D. 60 has been discovered by archaeologists working on excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The coin, which archaeologists say most likely came from a Jewish home, was found in the ruins of wealthy villas from the first century A.D. and according to the archaeologist Shimon Gibson "belonged to the priestly and aristocratic quarter located in the Upper City of Jerusalem". Gibson, who is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and part of the team carrying out...

A foraging badger has uncovered a trove of 209 Roman coins dating as far back as the third century in a Spanish cave, scientists report. Hailed as an 'exceptional find', the coins include some 'from the distant mints' of London, Constantinople and Antioch, an ancient city once located in what is now modern-day Turkey. Researchers think they were hidden in the cave before the arrival of the Suebi, a Germanic people who invaded the Iberian Peninsula in AD 409, known for their infantry and ambush tactics.

Historical artifacts were discovered in eight tombs dating back to the fourth century in present-day northern Turkey, officials announced on Friday.The tombs were uncovered during roadway expansion efforts in the Kurtulus district of Ordu, a province on Turkey's Black Sea coast, with teams from the local museums directorate launching excavations for the artifacts' urgent recovery.Officials added that many human and animal remains, including skeletons, were found in the tombs, along with pieces of jewelry made of gold, sardine stone, silver, glass, and bronze.Pieces of a glass bottle and beads were also found in one of the tombs, they said.The findings...

...the sources of silver used to produce Roman coinage have largely been used up, making it difficult to determine which deposits Roman miners exploited...The Iberian Peninsula, which includes modern Spain and Portugal, is host to world-class silver deposits, especially in the southern region. These deposits contain galena, which is the main ore of lead and an important source of silver. To extract silver, the galena ore is smelted and purified, with refined silver for coin minting able to reach a purity of over 95%.To track the source of Roman silver, the team of researchers analyzed the silver and lead compositions...

Police in Jerusalem seized a hoard of stolen antiquities that date to a 1,900-year-old Jewish rebellion against the Romans. The cache had been dug up by tomb robbers from a tunnel complex.The hoard included hundreds of coins, incense burners and a number of ceramics with decorations on them, including a jug that has a carving of a reclining figure holding a jug of wine. Researchers believe that during the Bar Kokhba revolt (A.D. 132-135), Jewish rebels captured the items from Roman soldiers and stored them in a tunnel complex where modern-day robbers found them, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in...

On his father’s farm in Rutland, Jim Irving and his family were out walking when he spotted a few bits of ancient pottery scattered on the ground. Little did he know that further investigation into this would lead to the discovery of an extraordinary 1,700-year-old Roman mosaic, depicting Achilles and the Trojan War from The Iliad, and the remains of an ancient villa. Upon finding these traces during lockdown in 2020, Irving accessed satellite imagery and discovered a cropmark, and after a preliminary search he contacted the Historic Environment team at Leicestershire County Council, who in turn reached out to...

The Faroe Islands, a North Atlantic archipelago between Norway and Iceland, were settled by Viking explorers in the mid-9th century CE. However, several indirect lines of evidence suggest earlier occupation of the Faroes by people from the British Isles. Here, we present sedimentary ancient DNA and molecular fecal biomarker evidence from a lake sediment core proximal to a prominent archaeological site in the Faroe Islands to establish the earliest date for the arrival of people in the watershed. Our results reveal an increase in fecal biomarker concentrations and the first appearance of sheep DNA at 500 CE (95% confidence interval...

Archaeologists have unearthed a number of rare finds in the Ancient Gerulata area located in Rusovce, one of Bratislava’s boroughs, in the past two years.These include coins, buckles, burners, horse harness, glass, iron objects, and ceramics from the 3rd century, as well as a single-layer comb from the 2nd century, which proves the contact of Gerulata inhabitants with Germanic tribes, the Bratislava City Museum posted on Facebook.A fresh UNESCO site, the Ancient Gerulata museum is a former Roman military camp and settlement, where a two-year-long phase of archaeological research ended several weeks ago.Medieval moatExperts explored a Roman masonry canal during...

There is a statue of a warrior from Brittan’s distant past that sits opposite the United Kingdom’s Parliament. It is in clear view of the politicians who run the UK. They see it each day as they enter their chamber to create new excuses for running away from the Muslim invaders destroying their country. The statue is of Boudica, a courageous female warrior. She dedicated her life to leading a ragtag army of British tribesmen in a doomed revolt against the Romans who invaded her home island almost two thousand years ago. Boudica saw her husband murdered and her daughters...

Boudicca (d. 61 CE) was the Celtic queen of the Iceni tribe of modern-day East Anglia, Britain, who led a revolt against Rome in 60/61 CE. The Iceni king, Prasutagus, an independent ally of Rome, divided his estate between his daughters and the Roman emperor Nero (r. 54-68 CE). When Prasutagus died, however, his lands were taken by Rome and the Iceni lost their status as allies. When his wife, Boudicca, objected to this action she was flogged and her two daughters raped. She mounted a revolt against Rome which left the ancient Roman cities of Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium...

Sometime just over 2,000 years ago, contrary to the song, it was not a silent night. In Bethlehem, a young woman gave birth to a baby in a stable. The story went exactly as one would tell a story if one did not want the story taken seriously. The first witnesses were shepherds, men so unreliable that their testimony was inadmissible in court. Key eyewitnesses were women, also seen as unreliable. The father of the child fell out of the historic record. Eventually, Roman imperial forces would exterminate the baby's entire earthly bloodline. His brothers and sisters and their children,...

Metatron makes a rebuttal video to a [popular?] tiktoker video saying that the Roman Empire didn't exist and is a myth.

A stunning gold-wrapped jar crafted out of rock crystal has finally been uncovered in its entirety, revealing a Latin inscription that might provide new clues about its mysterious origins. Researchers at National Museums Scotland, where the Viking-Age vessel is being conserved, think the receptacle was probably used for religious purposes. And one expert believes it may have been a diplomatic gift from the Roman Empire to an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Britain. The treasure was discovered in southwest Scotland in 2014 and is part of the Galloway Hoard....the jar's inscription states "Bishop Hygauld had me made." .....

A 1,600-year-old flute and bronze ring with a key have been unearthed during excavations in the 3,000-year-old Zerzevan Castle, located in the Çınar district of Diyarbakır and which served as the last garrison of the Roman Empire in the east... The historical castle, which is home to the Mithras Temple, is located on an area of 60,000 square meters. The historical castle has 12-15-meter-high and 1200-meter-long wall ruins, 21-meter-high watchtower and defense tower, church, administration building, residences, grain and weapon warehouses, underground sanctuary, shelters, rock tombs, water channels and 54 water cisterns. Its 1,800-year-old entrance has been unearthed, too... Stating...

Rising as high as 20 feet, ancient stone monoliths in southern Ethiopia are 1,000 years older than scientists previously thought, according to a new study in the Journal of African Archaeology. A Washington State University research team used advanced radiocarbon dating to determine the often phallic-shaped monoliths, or stelae, at the Sakaro Sodo archeological site in Ethiopia’s Gedeo zone were likely created sometime during the first century A.D. The only other attempt to determine the age of the more than 10,000 stele monoliths located at various sites in the Gedeo zone was conducted by French scientists in the 1990s. It...

Skeleton 4926, the crucified man. (Albion Archaeology & Adam Williams) Scientists say a skeleton found with a nail through its foot in England is rare evidence of a Roman crucifixion. The skeleton was included in a recent report in British Archaeology magazine, which details findings from a dig of an ancient Roman settlement found in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, that dates back to the late first or early second century CE. In one of the five cemeteries uncovered, a skeleton – thought to have been of a man around 25-35 years old at the time of his death – had a nail...

This video estimates the amount of gold in the Roman Empire - and the approximate chances of that gold ending up in your smartphone.How much Gold did the Romans have - and where is it now? | December 7, 2022 | toldinstone

It takes at least three grey squirrels to make a basic quarter-pounder

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, - A suspected gas leak in a Stockholm, Sweden, neighborhood turned out to be fermenting herring, fire officials said. Stockholm fire fighter Bjorn Hornsten told national radio station SR that fire trucks and police vehicles were sent to the neighborhood Saturday after someone reported what smelled like gas in a stairwell. Instead of a gas leak, emergency crews found surstromming, fermented herring that is a foul-smelling, traditional Swedish delicacy, and herring fermenting parties are held in the fall, Swedish news agency TT reported. "I guess somebody didn't know what surstromming smells like," police officer Sven-Erik Olsson said.