In 2006, the Carabinieri, Italyβs national military police, raised the alarm about illegal digging in a forest of oaks and chestnuts near Vetralla, in the province of Viterbo, north of Rome. The Soprintendenza, the state body in charge of archaeology in the region, sent a team to the site for an emergency excavation in May [β¦]
On a patch of bare rock in western Malta, roughly 80 by 100 metres (260 by 330 feet), dozens of parallel grooves cross, overlap and merge into one another. The spot, MisraΔ§ GΔ§ar il-Kbir, is popularly known as Clapham Junction, after the busy railway junction in London. It is far from the only place like [β¦]
Anyone who wants to build a house on the waterfront at Meria, at the northern tip of Corsica, has to let archaeologists look underneath first. The rule comes from the islandβs regional archaeology service (the DRAC of Corsica). It has just paid off. Working on the plot, a team from Inrap, Franceβs national institute for [β¦]
Ancient geographers listed many cities called Arsinoe, from Cyprus to Cilicia (in what is now southern Turkey), from Ephesus to the Gulf of Suez. Most of them were linked to the Ptolemies, the dynasty that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. One, however, lies far from the Nile. It stood in the [β¦]
Tucked among the Greek temples that made Agrigento famous, on the south coast of Sicily, there is a narrow valley of orange and olive trees. An international team has been digging there for three years. The third season in the Kolymbethra valley and on the Case Montana plateau ends on October 24. According to the [β¦]
Anyone planning to build in Pontecagnano Faiano, near Salerno, has learned to expect a tomb underneath. That happened again this year, and this time the find was unusual enough that archaeologists had only seen its like twice before in more than sixty years of excavation. Preventive digging ahead of a private housing development uncovered a [β¦]
In a quiet corner of Hadrianβs Villa, wedged between the so-called Amphitheater and a low bench of volcanic tufa rock, sits a marble slab measuring roughly 40 by 35 centimeters (about 16 by 14 inches). It has not moved in some 1,900 years. Two lines of carved capital letters explain why archaeologists are excited: FVLGVR [β¦]
On the Turkish coast of the Black Sea, there is a Roman city called Pompeiopolis. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the Pompeii buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD. This one takes its name from Pompey the Great, the Roman general who founded it in 64 or 63 BC as one of [β¦]
When we think about Roman society, the image that usually comes to mind is that of a world dominated by men: senators, magistrates, generals, and emperors. According to the traditional narrative, women occupied a secondary place, confined to the domestic sphere and excluded from public life. However, a recent study based on the analysis of [β¦]
The waters surrounding Elba Island have once again yielded evidence of its millennia-old past. A dolium from the Roman era and a presumed shipwreck, still under study, have been located on the seabed of the Tuscan Archipelago during the underwater heritage monitoring operations that the ABAP Soprintendenza for the provinces of Pisa and Livorno has [β¦]
The archaeological research in the ancient sanctuary of Apollo in Gortyna, the famed Cretan city whose epigraphic legislation marked a milestone in the history of Greek law, has concluded its summer season with a series of findings that consolidate the importance of the site as a first-class religious center during the formation of the polis. [β¦]
The 2016 discovery of a large mass grave in the ancient cemetery of Phaleron, on the coast of Athens, shocked the archaeological community and the general public. There lay the remains of 79 adult men, many still with metal shackles, arranged in three parallel rows. Since then, researchers have debated who these individuals were: pirates, [β¦]
Researchers from the University of Catania, in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Catania and the Valley of the Aci, have located beneath the stage of the Teatro Antico a network of underground channels that in Roman times was used to intercept and evacuate groundwater toward the sea. The discovery, the result of a geoarchaeological [β¦]
A ritual well with unique characteristics has emerged in the archaeological area of the ancient Etruscan city of Kainua, near Marzabotto, in a discovery that the scientific community is already describing as extraordinary. Located within the sacred precinct dedicated to the deity Uni, the well has brought to light a collection of exceptionally crafted objects [β¦]
The history of the Roman Empire is often told through the exploits of emperors and generals, but the mechanisms of daily administration and, especially, the relationships between central power and the provinces, constitute an equally revealing field of study to understand the dynamics of that civilization. In this context, the discovery and subsequent analysis of [β¦]
What lies beneath one of the most important fortified settlements of Hellenistic Calabria? A study combining archaeology and geophysics has begun to answer this question. Thanks to the application of sophisticated subsurface exploration techniques, an interdisciplinary team from the University of Catania has succeeded in identifying anomalies compatible with buried structures at the Castiglione di [β¦]
Excavations carried out as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) have brought to light an architectural complex of incalculable value in the heart of Villa Celimontana. Under the supervision of the Special Superintendency of Rome of the Ministry of Culture, the work has uncovered eight rooms belonging to an Imperial-era building whose [β¦]
The Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, has announced the completion of the excavation and restoration works of an ancient pool located in the frigidarium of the monumental complex known as the Hamam Gymnasium, within the ancient city of Tralleis, in the province of AydΔ±n. The newly restored structure has remarkable dimensions: [β¦]
The Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, has announced the discovery in the ancient city of Sardis, in the province of Manisa, of a male marble sculpture approximately 2,500 years old, a piece that, due to its monumental dimensions and unusual state of preservation, stands out as an exceptional find for [β¦]
In the summer of 15 BC, Emperor Augustusβ two stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus, brought the Central Alps and the Swiss Plateau under Roman control. That campaign concluded decades of efforts to link the Gallic provinces with Illyricum and secure the routes between northern Italy and the Danube. However, while the western and eastern routes of [β¦]
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