Roman Archeology News

Caesar Slept Here
It’s a sunny morning, perfect for a leisurely stroll. The date: A.D. 400. You walk up the steps of the Temple of Vesta, where inside, six virgins tend an eternal flame (and risk being buried alive if they, well, you know).
mar03w1

Luxor's military dimension
The area east of Luxor temple is being released from urban encroachment and, a Roman military encampment is being revealed.
mar03w1

The day the sky fell in
A metallic asteroid may have coincided with the fall of Rome, says Duncan Steel.
mar03w1

Roman wall builds heritage claim
A Roman frontier which is Scotland's answer to Hadrian's Wall could be awarded World Heritage site status.
mar03w1

Lost glories of Pompeii revealed for the first time
Many of Pompeii's greatest archaeological finds are to be put on public display for the first time.
mar03w1

Scottish forts were the first frontier of Roman empire
Scotland has the earliest frontier in the Roman empire, according to new evidence that shows they colonised Perthshire 15-20 years before previously thought.
mar03w1

archaeologyfieldwork.com
Who wants to volonteer?
feb03w4

Would you like mice with that?
Laserpithium must have been delicious, but you were born 2,000 years too late to taste it. In Around the Roman Table, culinary historian Patrick Faas tells us that this North African herb was once so abundant that it was the chief export of what is now Libya.
feb03w4

World / Pollution lays siege to Italy's treasures
The 16th-century Fountain of Moses, a testament to the power of Pope Sixtus V, sparkled after a restoration was finished in 1988. But now the likeness of the biblical hero that adorns the fountain is turning black, the victim of a constant barrage of traffic exhaust and other pollutants.
feb03w4

Roman Del Boy made a mint
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a Roman Del Boy who made a nice little earner selling bogus coins to foreign invaders.
feb03w4

History Lessons ‘Should Begin Before the Romans’
School history lessons should look back at Britain before the Romans invaded and ruined a 10,000-year-old culture rich in art and industry, a leading archaeologist said today.
feb03w4

Antonine Wall to be World Heritage Site?
The Antonine Wall has been nominated to become a World Heritage Site as part of an initiative involving three other European countries.
feb03w4

Excavations in Dion reveal Roman building covering 500 square metres
Ongoing archaeological excavations in Dion, in the northern prefecture of Pieria, have located an impressive Roman building covering an area of over 500 square metres which was probably used as a wrestling ring.
feb03w4

Dating Ancient Mortar
Although radiocarbon dating is usually applied to organic remains, recent work shows that it can also reveal the age of some inorganic building materials.
feb03w4

Crowe got it wrong: gladiators were the film stars of Rome
Analysis of bones found at Ephesus reveals that the fighters were rich, pampered professionals with groupies in tow.
feb03w4

Roman and native interactions in Scotland
The Roman Gask Project has published its annual report on its work in Perthshire during 2002 and the excavation report of work at East Coldoch. Both reports are available at http://www.morgue.demon.co.uk/Pages/Gask.
feb03w4

Ancient Britons were coining it
Would you Adam and Eve it - ancient Northumberland had its own Del Boy Trotter, according to archaeologists.
feb03w4

Portus Cosanus
In the first half of the third century B.C., the Roman Republic was expanding. The conquest of the Etruscans, to the north, and of the Greeks, to the south, would give them control of the entire Italian peninsula. To solidify their control, the Romans established colonies along the Tyrrhenian coast of their new territories.
feb03w4

Book warns time running out for Pompeii
More than 2 million people visit the ruins of Pompeii every year, wearing down its already fragile stones and threatening murals and other archaeological treasures still being uncovered at one of Italy's most popular tourist sites.
feb03w4

Chariots of fire
Archaeologists in north-eastern Greece have discovered a remarkable Roman burial site with well-preserved remains of chariots and horses which were most probably used to take the dead to be cremated.
feb03w3

Roman coin hoard points to early recycling
A hoard of Roman coins discovered by metal-detecting enthusiasts on a farm near Longhorsley, Northumberland, UK, could be evidence that entrepreneurial native Northumbrian settlers were recycling old bronze coins and making trinkets to sell back to soldiers in the Roman army, according to experts. (needs free registration)
feb03w3

Roman and native interactions in Scotland.
The Roman Gask project has always emphasised the importance of understanding the native population as well as Roman activity. (needs free registration)
feb03w3

Garbage dump proves just how big Jerusalem was
At the end of the Second Temple period, in the first century BCE, Jerusalem was one of the largest, most advanced cities in the world.
feb03w3

Roman chariot burial site found
Archeologists in north-eastern Greece had discovered a Roman burial site with well-preserved remains of chariots and horses, experts have said.
feb03w3

Archaeological Discovery in Bulgaria Clue to Ancient Mystery
Bulgarian archaeologists discovered an oval ritual hall fitting the description that ancient historians gave to the Dionysus Temple in the Rhodope range famous for its splendor and mysteriousness in antique times and for the many failed attempts to determine its exact location in modernity.
feb03w3

More Roman carts in Thrace
At least three Roman wooden carts, and not just one, as initially believed, have been located in a 2,000-year-old Thracian grave on Greece’s northeastern borders, an archaeologist said yesterday.
feb03w3

Roman Forum Virtually Recreated in California
Students and researchers can stroll through the Roman Forum for the first time in 1,500 years, thanks to computer technology.
feb03w2

Exploding the Boudica myth
Boadicea, the flame-haired Warrior Queen who drove the Romans from Britain. Well, almost.
feb03w2

Italy rules out selling art treasures
Could Italy put the Colosseum, once the site of bloody battles between gladiators and wild beasts, up for auction? Could Michelangelo's David come under the hammer?
feb03w2

Wooden cart in Roman grave
Archaeologists in Thrace have discovered a 2,000-year-old wooden cart in an excellent state of preservation in the tomb of a local Roman grandee.
feb03w2