Free Republic

...A century later, the Italian military historian Flavio Russo suggested that the attribution should be settled by scientific investigation. Might an isotopic examination of the teeth reveal where the skull’s owner had spent his childhood? A campaign led by La Stampa eventually raised funds for a study of the relic at the hands of a scientific team fronted by popular historian Andrea Cionci. The results, released in January 2020 at the Museo dell’ Arte Sanitaria, were somewhat ambiguous. Isotopic examination of the lower jaw indicated a childhood consistent with the early life spent by the Elder Pliny in his north...

...bubonic plague may have reached England before its first recorded case in the Mediterranean via a currently unknown route, possibly involving the Baltic and Scandinavia...The Justinianic Plague is the first known outbreak of bubonic plague in west Eurasian history and struck the Mediterranean world at a pivotal moment in its historical development, when the Emperor Justinian was trying to restore Roman imperial power.For decades, historians have argued about the lethality of the disease; its social and economic impact; and the routes by which it spread. In 2019-20, several studies, widely publicised in the media, argued that historians had massively exaggerated...

The first inscription was discovered in 2003 at ancient Hegra in Hedjaz, an oasis city on the Incense Road. Today it is known as Al-Hijr (Mada'in Salih)...Hegra was the major center in the south of the Nabataean kingdom that in the 1st century CE also controlled other oasis towns, such as nearby Taima or Dumatha. The kingdom was one of Rome's client states along its eastern border. When the last Nabataean king died in 106 CE, Trajan had already prepared the orders for imperial troops in neighboring provinces to swiftly move in and occupy his territory before any resistance could...

A 1,500-year-old mosaic depiction of Homer's Iliad which was found by a walker in a farmer's field has been described by experts as the 'most exciting' Roman discovery of its kind in the UK in the last 100 years. The artwork, which is the first known example in the UK, was unearthed on private land in Rutland, East Midlands.... ...The remains of the mosaic, which measures approximately 31 feet by 21 feet, are the first in the UK and one of only a handful in the world to depict the Ancient Greek poet Homer's story about hero Achilles and his...

In 2009 or 2010, three looted sculptures were taken from the ancient city of Palmyra. Several years later, customs officers in Switzerland seized them at a Geneva freeport. At last, they’re heading home to Syria, the Art Newspaper reports. The three sculptures date back to the second and third centuries B.C.E., when Palmyra was still a nexus of trade, possibly during the rule of Queen Zenobia. One of the sculptures is a bust of a priest wearing a ceremonial headpiece. The sculpture was badly damaged by the looters when they removed it from the site, as the head once had...

In the 1980s, the board for a game was found scratched onto the second-century stones of a Jerusalem city square, inspiring speculation as to the nature of the game played on it. Many of the ideas proposed have been brutal, reflecting the fact the players were probably soldiers in the occupying Roman Army. However, a new explanation proposes what we are seeing is actually the ancestor of checkers (draughts). The scratchings are located near Hadrian's Gate, built by the Romans to celebrate their crushing of yet another Jewish bid for freedom. In this context, it's understandable some of those looking...

Archaeologists from the museum Huis van Hilde found evidence of a large Roman army camp in Velsen. Evidence of the Roman army's presence was already found in the 1940s, yet archeologists now discovered that the base was much larger than previously expected.The site is located near the Velsen- and Wijkertunnel. The experts estimated that the Romans built the older camp around 16 to 28 A.D. and the second around 40 to 50 A.D. The second camp was estimated to be around 11 hectares large...The camps were large enough to house thousands of soldiers, showing the strategical importance of the site....

More than 5,500 silver coins buried by a river about 1,800 years ago are now in the hands of archaeologists, following the hoard's discovery in Augsburg, Germany.At the time of the coins' burial, the Roman Empire was in full swing, with its coinage reaching all corners of its territory and beyond.These coins "are denarii, the standard silver denomination during the 1st-early 3rd century [A.D.]," Stefan Krmnicek, a professor of ancient numismatics (the study of coins) at the University of Tübingen in Germany, told Live Science in an email.Archaeologists found the hoard earlier this year in an old riverbed. But though...

Restorers at Calverley Old Hall, a medieval manor in Yorkshire, England, recently turned their attention to a “very undistinguished little bedroom,” reports Mark Brown for the Guardian.Peeling away the room’s 19th-century plaster, they were “gobsmacked” by what they spotted hidden below: Tudor wall paintings, likely dated to the reign of Elizabeth I (1558 to 1603), on a scale rarely found in England today.The find is “the discovery of a lifetime,” Anna Keay, director of the Landmark Trust, which is restoring the building, tells the Guardian.“Never in my own 27 years of working in historic buildings have I ever witnessed a...

Marcus Venerius Secundio died in his 60s decades before Mount Vesuvius’ eruption...As Silvia Lambertucci reports for Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), the skeleton, which still has hair and a partially visible ear, belonged to a man who died in his 60s in the decades leading up to Pompeii’s destruction.Per a statement from the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, experts discovered the remains at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, just east of the ancient city center. An inscription on the man’s tomb identifies him as Marcus Venerius Secundio, a formerly enslaved individual who later became a priest...The skeleton shows signs of partial...

For centuries, concrete was everywhere in Roman Italy: in the awesomely durable breakwaters of artificial harbors, in the soaring vaults of great baths, in the foundations of the Colosseum, and - of course - in the spectacular dome of the Pantheon. But during late antiquity, concrete all but vanished from the Mediterranean world, and would not be used widely again until the twentieth century. This video explains why.Chapters:0:00 Introduction0:39 Understanding Roman concrete1:29 Early experiments2:25 The apogee3:33 Squarespace!4:19 Geographic limits of Roman concrete5:00 The decline of concrete6:28 Final notices7:26 Not forgotten, but goneWhy was Roman Concrete Forgotten during the Middle Ages?...

European federalists seeking to transform the 27-member European Union into a European superstate -- a so-called United States of Europe -- have revived a decades-old proposal to build a European army. The call for a supranational army, part of a push for Europe to achieve "strategic autonomy" from the United States, is being spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, who, as part of his reelection campaign, apparently hopes to replace outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the de facto leader of Europe. Macron claims that Europe needs its own military because, according to him, the United States is no longer...

The little slave room contains three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest.Pompeii archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed the remains of a "slave room" in an exceptionally rare find at a Roman villa destroyed by Mount Vesuvius' eruption nearly 2,000 years ago.The little room with three beds, a ceramic pot and a wooden chest was discovered during a dig at the Villa of Civita Giuliana, a suburban villa just a few hundred metres from the rest of the ancient city.An almost intact ornate Roman chariot was discovered here at the start of this year, and archaeologists said...

Ongoing excavations have revealed a historical latrina – a toilet or an even simpler facility used as a toilet within a sanitation system – at a historical theater in the ancient city of Smyrna, located within the borders of the western city of Izmir. The latrina is thought to have been used by the artists in the theater. The theater and the commode date back to around the second century B.C. and were used until the fifth century A.D., said Akın Ersoy, an archaeologist at Izmir's Katip Çelebi University and head of the excavation team.Touting "unexpected finds" during the excavations,...

An archaeological site in northern Israel is now thought to possibly contain a lost Roman temple. The temple, which was housed within a larger ancient Roman complex, would have been built by King Herod, who presided over the province of Judea for 33 years, between 37 B.C.E. and 4 B.C.E. The structure is located within Omrit, an archeological site that is also home to the remains of other buildings with Roman influences. Though Omrit is not very accessible to the public today due to its remote locale, the site was once highly trafficked by international visitors and researchers throughout the...

A Fifth Century Germanic settlement has been discovered on land set out for regeneration in Kent. A team of 30 archaeologists has been studying debris at the site in Rushenden, on the Isle of Sheppey, to learn how the original settlers lived. The remains of a large boat-shaped hall have been found as well as evidence of boat-building activity. Dr Paul Wilkinson, who heads the dig, said the settlement was one of the most important finds of its kind in Kent. "It's significant because it's a Germanic establishment. The boat shape gives the game away to us," he said. "The...

Boris: “When the Roman Empire fell, it was largely as a result of uncontrolled immigration. The empire could no longer control its borders, people came in…and Europe went into a dark ages that lasted a very long time. The point is that it can happen again” Clip...

Two complete statues of a woman and a man, along with the head of a child, were found at the site of the old St Mary's Norman church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, south east England, while archeologists were excavating a ditch around the foundations of an Anglo-Saxon tower. As experts working on the High Speed 2 (HS2) project dug down, they found the three "stylistically Roman" busts, Two of the busts were made up of a head and torso which had been split apart, which experts say "is not entirely unusual," because statues were commonly vandalized before being torn down....

A river winds its way through Ljubljana and the surrounding villages. A river that hides Slovenia’s most threatened cultural heritage. Now thousand-year-old jewelry, swords, pitchers and boats are being laboriously hauled out of the river mud, restored and exhibited.An earring from the first century, a five-thousand-year-old wheel, a sword from Roman times. For thousands of years, different artifacts have mysteriously ended up in the Ljubljanica River...The green Ljubljanica River is a wonder of the world. But it is an endangered wonder; the riverbank is collapsing and cultural treasures are in danger of disappearing forever...The fragile wooden structure is barely visible...

Just north of the City of David (ancient Jerusalem), archaeologists believe they have found the first of its kind engraving on a precious gem of a biblical plant known to many as the Balm of Gilead. Deep underground in a 2,000-year-old drainage ditch next to Jerusalem’s Western Wall, archaeologists say a rare artifact from Second Temple times was uncovered. “It is a stone seal made of semi-precious amethyst stone with an engraving of a dove and a branch of a tree with fruit on the branch,” said Eli Shukron, former archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority. What was surprising was...