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Less lavish than amphitheaters for the civilian population, the military amphitheaters were used for training and entertainment by the troops.Archaeologists excavating at the base of the Legio VI Ferrata Roman Legion near Megiddo (known as Legio) believe they have found evidence of the first military amphitheater to be identified in the Southern Levant.While remains of over 230 Roman civilian amphitheaters have been found throughout what was the territory of the Roman Empire, fewer military amphitheaters have been excavated, and most of those are in the western regions of the empire...The archaeological project at Legio is conducted under the auspices of...

MORE than 70 Roman skeletons were discovered on the site of a former hotel in York. The grade two listed building, formerly the Newington Hotel in Mount Vale Drive, overlooks Knavesmire and has been stripped back by developers to create seven new family houses. During the renovation of the Georgian building, developers were surprised to find human remains, and the York Archaeological Trust were called in to assist with the recovery. Developer John Reeves said the development had retained most of its original Georgian features, but the scheme had also involved some "interesting" elements. He said: "The refurb has not...

The remains of an imperial Roman legionary camp -- the only one of its kind ever to be excavated in Israel or in the entirety of the Eastern Empire from the second and third centuries CE -- have come to light at a dig near Megiddo, archaeologists said this week. Legio, a Roman site situated next to Tel Megiddo in northern Israel, served as the headquarters of the Sixth Legion Ferrata -- the Ironclad -- in the years following the Jewish Revolt, and would have helped keep order in the Galilee during the Bar Kochba Revolt in 132-135 CE... In...

For the first time, the camp of the Sixth Roman Legion may have been located. Analyzing an enhanced high-resolution satellite photo, archaeologist Yotam Tepper of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with the Jezreel Valley Regional Project, identified what he believes to be the camp’s square-shaped boundary. The team conducted ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic testing and subsequently carried out excavations at the site. They uncovered the base of a battery or wall, a moat surrounding the camp, water pipes, a covered sewage channel, coins, tiles and a shingle decorated with the legion’s symbol. These discoveries seem to support Tepper’s identification...