Category: bija-knowles - Part 6

Petrified Footprints Suggest Romans Used Children to Make the Lod Mosaic

Footprints left by the artists and workers who made the largest and most beautiful Roman-era mosaic in Israel 1,700 years ago have been discovered in the plaster underneath the mosaic. Archaeologists were in the process of conserving the famous Lod Mosaic when they found the imprints of bare feet and sandals shown clearly in the plaster bed onto which the mosaic was later laid.

The conservation experts from the Israel Antiquities Authority were detaching each piece of the 180 square-metre mosaic before taking it to conservation laboratories in Jerusalem.

Jacques Neguer, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s conservation branch, said: The excitement here was great. It is fascinating to discover a 1,700 year old personal mark of people who are actually like us, who worked right here on the same mosaic. We feel the continuity of generations here.

The footprints would have been made as the artisans prepared the plaster base for the mosaic pieces. Even the shoe sizes are known they range from size 34 to 44. With Israeli shoe sizes being the same as the European system, this would translate into UK sizes from around a 3 to a 9.5 (US around 4 to 10.5). This could suggest that some of the people working on the mosaic were children. According to Neguer, at least one of the prints is very similar to that of a modern sandal. His team has concluded that it is likely that the team of builders would have flattened the mortar down with their bare (or sandalled) feet.

Neguer explained: When removing a section of mosaic it is customary to clean its bedding, and that way study the material from which it is made and the construction stages. We look for drawings and sketches that the artists made in the plaster and marked where each of the tesserae will be placed. This is also what happened with the Lod mosaic: beneath a piece on which vine leaves are depicted, we discovered that the mosaics builders incised lines that indicate where the tesserae should be set, and afterwards, while cleaning the layer, we found the imprints of feet and sandals.

Neguer also pointed out that the mosaic was made in three parts, probably in different periods, and almost certainly by different artists. There are different kinds of art here, and we can see that the hand that affixed the tesserae is different: a trained eye recognizes that the preparation which was done prior to the work is different. Besides the necessary professionalism, exposing the footprints is also the result of a lot of luck. It is not always possible to cut the layers of the mosaic precisely so that we discover such a clear picture of the plaster with the incising on it.

Conservation work on the mosaic began earlier this year as reported in this earlier blogpost even though the mosaic was first discovered in 1996. It took 13 years for funds to be raised to finance the conservation process. The site is in the city of Lod, near to Ben Gurion airport, east of Tel-Aviv, which was last week placed on the World Monument Fund’s 2010 Monument Watch List. The mosaic is thought to have been part of the villa of a wealthy Roman in around the third or fourth century AD. It shows an immense amount of detail, depicting mammals, fish, birds and ships in use at that time.

Photos by Nike Davidov, the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Roman Shipwreck off Coast of Cyprus was Carrying French Wine

A second century AD Roman shipwreck with a cargo of 130 amphorae containing wine and possibly also olive oil has been the subject of an underwater archaeological survey off the eastern coast of Cyprus. The survey, the first detailed non-invasive archaeological survey conducted at the site since the ship was found in 2007, was completed at the end of August.

It found that the amphorae, which are now scattered on the seabed, came from south-eastern Asia Minor as well as the north-east Mediterranean region. Some of the jars contained wine from the south coast of France. Other items provide clues about maritime life in Roman times such as storage and cooking items used in the ship’s galley. This survey follows several other underwater archaeological projects, including the discovery of a ‘graveyard’ of Roman ships wrecked near the Italian island of Ventotene in July this year, an underwater project to save remains in the Solent Strait in the UK, as well as exploration of an underwater cave in the Dominican Republic.

The ship was found in shallow waters off the eastern coast of Cyprus at Cape Greco and may have been about to call at the Roman port of Lefkolla on Cyprus although it’s also possible it was trading in shallow water or moving products over a short distance along the coast. Archaeologists are unsure about where the ship was travelling to.

The ship is thought to have sunk during the first two decades of the second century AD. This was a time when Trajan was emperor (98-117 AD) he enlarged Rome’s maritime port, Portus, suggesting that this was an important time for cargo ships transporting goods around the Mediterranean to the large cities of the Roman empire.

Cyprus had been part of the Roman empire since 58 BC and was largely peaceful. However, during 115-117 AD

(around the time that archaeologists believe this ship would have gone down) there was an insurrection of the Jewish community led by Artemion. The Romans under Trajan were able to suppress the uprising only after heavy casualties – 240,000 people are reported to have been massacred by the Jews. The Jewish communities in Cyrene and Egypt also took part in the uprising known as the Kitos Wars.

Future work at the site will involve a full shallow-water survey near Cape Greco with a remote sensing search for other sites that may contain better-conserved objects protected by the sandy seabed further out to sea. The area off Cape Greco is rich in maritime history. It is near to the site where the Macedonian Demetrios Poliorketes defeated Ptolemy of Egypt in a large sea battle in 306 BC. Although almost 100 ships were reported sunk, Ptolemy eventually returned and was successful in taking control of the island. There are many other reports of shipwrecks along this area of the coast.

The underwater archaeological project is sponsored by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, with financial support from the University of Pennsylvania and RPM Nautical Foundation, as well as additional logistical support from the Thetis Foundation.

Photos by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities.

Could Fishbourne Villa Statue Actually Be Emperor Nero?

Experts think that the head of a marble statue depicting a young boy, found at Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex 45 years ago, might actually be the emperor Nero. This theory has yet to be proven and a 3D laser scan of the marble head on 15 October may provide further evidence.

The curator of archaeology at Fishbourne Roman Palace, Dr Rob Symmons, and archaeology experts from Bournemouth University, Dr Miles Russell and Harry Manley are working on this project. They noticed during the past year that there are several factors that suggest the marble portrait could be Nero. The marble head is ‘extremely well made’ in a rare and expensive marble indicating that it was made of or for someone very important.

Portrait of an Emperor

Dr Russell told me earlier today that the statue was found in the rubble of a Roman palace at Fishbourne during an excavation in 1964, but is likely to be associated with a previous Neronian-era palace.

Several things are already known about the statue: it is an import from Italy; although only the right-hand side of the face remains, it shows a very realistic and life-like portrait. The remaining part matches up with two other known portraits of nero as a young boy – held in the Musee du Louvre and in Museo Nazionale d’Antichita in Parma. There is also a small remaining fragment of a laurel wreath at the back of the head. Just two leaves are visible – but this too suggests that the statue has an imperial connection, according to Russell.

The statue was found in the foundations of a Roman palace being excavated by Sir Barry Cunliffe at Fishbourne – the fragment had been used as part of the rubble. It is a very high-quality statue, finely crafted of expensive Italian marble. The fact that it has been destroyed and thrown into the foundations of a Roman palace is also in keeping with the ‘damnatio memoriae’ – the condemnation of Nero by the senate following his death. During this period images and monuments to Nero were destroyed – including many marble portraits, and much of his Domus Aurea.

According to Dr Russell, he and his colleagues will be taking the fragment out of its case on 15 October for a laser scan. Because first century AD imperial portraits were so realistic, the team hopes to be able to establish a facial likeness to other known statues of Nero from that period. As part of the project a bronze portrait of Claudius from the British Museum will also be scanned. The team thinks this statue also bears more resemblance to Nero than to his uncle.

Nero committed suicide in 68 AD and was deeply unpopular in Rome. After 14 years of tyrannical reign, he was ousted by Galba, who had the support of the Pretorian Guard.

We have always assumed he was related to the Royal family who lived here but it may be that it is even more special and is a rare depiction of Nero

The statue head at Fishbourne was until recently thought to have represented King Cogidubnus or one of his relatives. Cogidubnus was a first century AD king in Roman Britain, believed to have lived in Fishbourne Villa.

Dr Symmons is quoted in the Telegraph as saying: “This is very exciting as the scan will allow us to see for the first time what the boy really looked like and may also reveal his identity. We have always assumed he was related to the Royal family who lived here but it may be that it is even more special and is a rare depiction of Nero.”

Photos by Dr Miles Russell, Senior Lecturer in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology at Bournemouth University.

Interview: Simon Keay Explains why Portus is as Important as Stonehenge

The discovery of a unique amphitheatre and other structures at Rome’s ancient maritime port is putting the archaeological site of Portus on the map. For decades it’s been a much over-looked site next to Fiumicino’s international runway and scholarly attention has focused on neighbouring Ostia Antica, but experts now believe it is a unique site that should rank alongside monuments such as Stonehenge or Angkor Wat. I spoke to Professor Simon Keay, director of the Portus Project and leading expert in Roman archaeology at the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome about the findings of the excavation, and why he describes the amphitheatre of Portus as “a very enigmatic structure… almost like a new architectural type”.

HK: You’ve just announced these discoveries but over what period of time did they come to light?

SK: We’ve been working on the site for three years now and we first discovered some of the concentric walls that belong to the amphitheatre during the first two years of the project. But it’s a big building and before we could be certain it was an amphitheatre we needed to excavate another part of the site to complete the plan. We’ve now done that and we can confirm that it is an amphitheatre in shape. We’ve got a good fix on its chronology and we’re getting some important clues as to how it might have been used. So it’s been quite a slow process and as with all research it takes a bit of time to be sure about one’s findings.

HK: What do you know so far about the use of the amphitheatre?

SK: I’ll give you a bit of background first because that’s really relevant. The amphitheatre is located adjacent to a very important building known as the ‘palazzo imperiale’ or ‘imperial palace’. This building was built by the emperor Trajan as part of his enlargement of the port of imperial Rome, Portus, he also added a new hexagonal basin, some 32 hectares in size, to the suite of basins that comprised the port. The palazzo imperiale lies between the two big basins of the port. It was a very well-appointed building and probably the head quarters of a major official who managed many of the activities in the port for much of the second century. The palace was probably finished in around 116-117 AD. For about a hundred years it was the centre of life in the port and then about 100 years after its construction, in the early third century, there was a major reform of the palace and the palace structure and we see this very large amphitheatre being built on the eastern side of the palace complex. It’s 42m by 38m, so it’s not massive and the other thing about it is that, unlike many other amphitheatres, it’s not built to be seen from a distance. It’s actually quite a discrete building and nestles between the imperial palace and two other buildings that flank the palace close to the harbour’s edge (one warehouse-type building and a cistern block). The amphitheatre is at the heart of this palace complex and was probably associated with a public official who took over at the palace in the early third century a man known as the ‘procurator of both basins’ (procurator Portus Utriusque).

It’s almost like a new architectural type: an amphitheatre, in a harbour context, adjacent to a palace complex, in this situation, is really quite new.

The structure as we have it consists on the side closest to the palace of a semicircular wall, which would have supported a massive colonnade, part of the palace wall. Part of the amphitheatre fitted neatly into that wall and the rest of it extended out away from the palace.

Most of what survives from the amphitheatre consists of concrete foundations sunk into the sand at a depth of about 2m, and there’s very little of it actually above ground, which means it’s quite difficult for us to calculate the number of seats it would have held and the number of people that would have used it. Nevertheless, I think in terms of hundreds of people using it. And probably in terms of what actually went on there, we think that probably this was a place where the procurator, the public official of the third century, would have addressed the people who worked in the palace or people who worked in the port as a whole or a place for them to communicate verbally, which was very important.

Another possibility is that this was a place where there were gladiatorial combats of some kind or wild beast baiting. Yet another possibility given that there are fresh water cisterns nearby, is that mock sea battles with small boats (naumachia) would have been held here. We don’t have any real evidence for any of these yet, but we’re certainly convinced by looking very closely at what we’ve found and by creating 3D computer reconstructions (more detailed than the ones we’ve done so far), that we will eventually crack the interpretation and understand what the amphitheatre was used for.

BK: Since the amphitheatre was within the ‘imperial palace’ complex, was its use private or public?

SK:It’s a difficult question. It’s clearly a public building by definition an amphitheatre is a place where people come together to observe spectacles. But it’s not an amphitheatre that would have served the general public of Portus, Ostia and the surrounding countryside in the way that the amphitheatres in Rome itself or El Djem in Africa would have done. So I think in a sense it was a semi-public building, part of a major palace complex, which would have drawn some people from the port. The point about it is that it was not not very visible. It’s actually a very enigmatic structure, which is so much more exciting it’s almost like a new architectural type: an amphitheatre, in a harbour context, adjacent to a palace complex, in this situation, is really quite new. I think it has a lot to teach us about the cultural aspirations of officials in the second and third centuries AD in the Roman empire.

BK: How closely associated would the imperial palace and the amphitheatre have been with any of the Roman emperors such as Trajan or Hadrian?

SK: The palace itself was primarily an administrative building, built initially by Trajan. However, Portus was the principal maritime port of Rome and was the main point of contact between Rome and the Mediterranean. We know that emperors such as Hadrian travelled around the empire a lot, so it’s very possible that they would have passed through Portus to get on a ship and travel. If they did that, then it’s possible that our imperial palace could have served temporarily as an imperial residence. That’s not impossible but its primary purpose was administrative.

BK: Why do you think the site of Portus hasn’t been fully excavated until now?

SK: A lot of scholarly attention has always been captured by Ostia, the river-port of Rome, which is a very short distance from here. Ostia, in many ways, tells us so much in terms of the port of Rome, the officials that congregated there, the families that lived there, houses, places where merchants struck up contracts and that in a sense has often been enough to answer many scholarly questions. But it seems to me that Portus offers more it’s the place where the big cargo ships came in, where imports were stored, before they were transported to Rome. It just hadn’t been much in vogue, but I think our work, along with that of our Italian colleagues at other parts of Portus, shows that, when we look at Portus together with Ostia, we finally start to get an idea of the scale and complexity of Rome’s trade with the Mediterranean.

BK: Are more discoveries at the site likely?

SK: We’ve been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a three-year period. Our phase of work at this stage is finished, but we very much hope that our Italian colleagues like our work and that we’ll be able to come back and continue it at a subsequent date, hopefully not too far in the distant future, provided we can win more funds.

BK: You mentioned in a press release that this site is as important as Stonehenge or Angkor Wat why is that?

SK: There was only one imperial Rome and imperial Rome only had one maritime port. Also because Portus can tell us so much about the development of Rome as an imperial capital, in terms of its decoration, its population, the food that was consumed, the architecture and so on. So much of that can be explained by the existence of Portus, so clearly, understanding more about it means we can understand Rome better. Therefore it must be important – it must rank highly because it’s unique. There’s nowhere else like Stonehenge. There’s nowhere else like Angkor Wat. There’s nowhere else like Portus!

The Portus Project was carried out by the University of Southampton, the British School at Rome, Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Ostia, and Cambridge University.

Professor Simon Keay will present a lecture The Re-Discovery of the Imperial Palace at Portus, the port of Ancient Rome at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton at 6pm, 21 October 2009.

Authentic Roman Restoration Begins on Chester’s City Walls

The Roman walls of Chester are being restored by a team of the city’s archaeologists. A section up to 30m long collapsed in April 2008 and has been closed to visitors ever since. According to Cheshire West and Chester Council, piecing the wall together could take up to one year, but in the meanwhile visitors can watch the archaeologists at work from a temporary walkway.

The rebuilding of the wall should be quite ‘authentic’ the project team, including specialists from English Heritage as well as other specialists, has researched Roman wall-building techniques and hope to reconstruct something faithful to the original.

Not only will this work reinstate the full circuit of the walls, but it provides us with an opportunity to understand how the walls were built in the first place

A council spokesman told the BBC: “Chester is world-famous for its city walls and the council has a responsibility to maintain this important heritage asset both for residents and visitors. Not only will this work reinstate the full circuit of the walls, but it provides us with an opportunity to understand how the walls were built in the first place.”

The Roman, Saxon and medieval walls in Chester are the most complete set of city walls in Britain. A military presence in Chester was mostly to have first been established in 47-48 AD during the campaign of Publius Ostorius Scapula against the tribes in north-east Wales. By 79 AD a bigger military camp was set up at Chester by the Legio II Adiutrix Pia Fidelis and the town was named Dewa or Deva. Around this time the fort was constructed although the walls were reinforced in the late third and early fourth centuries.

Photo by lreed7649.

Digital Reconstruction of Roman Amphitheatre Discovered at Portus

I blogged earlier about the discovery of major Roman structures at Rome’s principal maritime port from the middle of the first century onwards. As part of the Portus Project, a team of archaeologal experts worked together with the Archaeological Computing Research Group at Southampton University to create digital images to aid excavators at the site. These two images show what the amphitheatre and the entrance to the port would have looked like 1,800 years ago.

The Amphitheatre

The amphitheatre has emerged at a location that excavators say is inside an ‘imperial’ palace complex – whose main function was port-related administration.

Portus Project director and leading expert in Roman archaeology at the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome, Professor Simon Keay, says that this amphitheatre covered an area similar to that of the Pantheon in Rome.However, its use remains unclear at the moment: Gladiatorial combat may have taken place there wild beast baiting, the staging of mock sea battles, or it may have been a form of Roman folly, shaped like an amphitheatre, but used as a monumental garden. It is unusual to find this type of building so close to a harbour. Read my interview with Simon Keay here.

The Entrance to Portus’s Harbour

The building of the maritime harbour at Portus began in 42 AD under the emperor Claudius. The harbour about two kilometres north of Ostia had to be artificially dug out (a huge enterprise, even with large amounts of slave power).

The purpose of this colossal construction project was to provide a deep-sea harbour for big ships to dock and unload safely. While Ostia had already been long-established in 42 AD as Rome’s main harbour, the shallow shoreline meant that very big ships still had to anchor and unload out at sea a dangerous and risky business for them.

The man-made harbour solved this problem and was protected by two curved sea walls (like arms) and a lighthouse, or ‘lanterna’ the entrance is shown in this computer-generated image. This artificial harbour was connected to the Tiber by canals and became the main point of import for goods from the western Mediterranean. A hexagonal harbour behind Claudius’s harbour was subsequently built by Trajan between 106-113 AD (this can still be seen on maps today right next to the motorway to Fiumicino airport).

Gladiatorial combat may have taken place there wild beast baiting, the staging of mock sea battles, or it may have been a form of Roman folly

Work at the archaeological site next to Fiumicino airport has been going on for three years and the team of archaeological experts from Southampton and Cambridge Universities, as well as the British School at Rome and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Ostia (the state heritage body for Ostia Antica), have been working alongside the University of Southamptons archaeological computing research group.

As in all disciplines, computers are an increasingly important tool in the field of archaeology (many archaeological news stories now involve computer-generated images, laser or MRI scans, or other uses of cutting-edge technology). The team of computer researchers from Southampton University created these two images as an aid to archaeologists excavating the site. The University of Southampton and the British School at Rome are also using radar and other techniques to locate and map buildings and structures underground.

The Portus Project has also made a geophysical survey of the Isola Sacra (actually a pretty busy traffic island today) traces of Rome’s marble yards were found there, as well as evidence of a major Roman canal.

Photos by Southampton University Archaeological Computing Research Group.

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Emperor’s Private Amphitheatre Discovered in Major Find at Portus, Rome’s ‘Other’ Harbour Town

Several major archaeological discoveries have been made at the site of one of Rome‘s ancient harbours. An oval amphitheatre, a 90m canal as well as many smaller objects (including marble statues) have emerged during excavations of Portus, the cargo port of ancient Rome, about two miles north of its better-known counterpart, Ostia Antica.

The team of archaeologists working at the site is led by the University of Southampton, who are working with Cambridge University, the Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Ostia and the British School at Rome.

Amphitheatre Fit For an Emperor

The amphitheatre, which could have seated many hundreds of spectators, was found inside a big imperial palace complex. The site of Portus lies next to Fiumicino runway Rome’s international airport and is 20 miles outside Rome’s city centre. As with its famous neighbour Ostia, Portus is now an inland site, since the coastline has moved further out due to silt from the Tiber.

The site was also excavated in the 1860s by Rodolfo Lanciani, who uncovered half of the amphitheatre and mistook it for a theatre. The other half has come to light during the excavation by the Portus Project team.

‘Grossly Under Studied’

Professor Simon Keay, an expert in Roman archaeology at Southampton University and the British School at Rome and director of the Portus Project, told the BBC that the oval-shaped amphitheatre is similar in size to the pantheon and is at the eastern end of the imperial palace. He emphasised that it is very unusual to find a building of this architectural quality near to a harbour: “Its design, using luxurious materials and substantial colonnades, suggests it was used by a high status official, possibly even the emperor himself, and the activities that took place there were strictly private. He also believes that it may have been used for private performances inside the palace.

Professor Keay added: “The site has been known about since the 16th century but it has never been given the importance it deserves. It has been grossly under studied.”

Although Ostia is what we now think of as the ancient port of Rome in fact during much of the imperial period Portus was the principal harbour. Building work began on the hexagonal harbour of Portus during the first century AD during the reign of Claudius it was completed by Nero, and then enlarged by Trajan. It received most of the capital’s food supplies as well as imported materials such as marble and glass from Rome’s provinces. The ceramic containers found during excavations of the site provide evidence of the variety of trade that was done at Portus. It is ironic then that the smaller port of Ostia is far better known today.

Photos by the University of Southampton.

Interdisciplinary Project Takes a Look at Via Tiburtina Through the Ages

An architect and a classical archaeologist have come together to give a new perspective on one of Rome’s ancient roads, via Tiburtina. The result is a book just published, Via Tiburtina – Space, Movement and Artefacts in the Urban Landscape, which examines the constantly changing urban space of the road. The project involved six years of studying almost every inch of the ancient road and takes an interdisciplinary look at the road through the ages and from various angles, including its history during antiquity, the Renaissance and up to its continued use today.

The origins of via Tiburtina date back 3,000 years (although the Roman foundations of the road were laid in 286 BC). The modern incarnation of the road starts in the centre of Rome, just east of Rome’s Termini station, although archaeologists believe it would have extended as far as the Tiber during Roman times. It leads eastwards to Tivoli, home and court to Hadrian during the latter years of his reign. It would have been the emperor‘s (and his messengers’) main route to Rome. The road carries on beyond Tivoli, and during Roman times it went all the way to Pescara on the Adriatic coast. Today it might be known to motorists as State Road 5, but many stretches of the modern road also still bear its original name.

Hans Bjur, professor in Urban Transformations at the Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg and professor Barbro Santillo Frizell, director of the Swedish Institute in Rome, are the leaders of this unique research project that considers the Roman and pre-Roman history of the road, as well as its modern use as a busy traffic artery into the city’s chaotic capital. It also examines the the relationship between the road and the city’s development. The book claims to launch a new approach to modern city development, calling it urban landscape archaeology.

The book is divided into 13 illustrated chapters written by experts from various disciplines, including archaeology, cultural heritage, ancient history, architecture, art and building conservation.

The leaders of this collaborative project hope to have laid the foundations for further interdisciplinary research of this type but they also aim to provide analysis and processes that can be of practical use in the the planning of modern towns.

The book is published by the Swedish Institute in Rome with the support of the Swedish Research Council, and is being distributed by eddy.se. The book was launched on the Swedish market at the Gteborg Book Fair, 24-27 September, and will be launched internationally in Rome on 11-12 December.

Photos by Jonathan Westin and Ake E:son Lindman.

Refurb for Turin’s Museo Egizio: New Features to Include ‘Journey up the Nile’

The Museo delle Antichit Egizie (Museo Egizio) in Turin is currently undergoing a makeover that is set to change the layout and design of the venue that is home to the biggest collection of Egyptian artefacts outside Egypt. In an interview yesterday, Alain Elkann, president of the Fondazione Museo delle Antichit Egizie, gave Quotidiano Arte a idea of what we can expect to see at the new-look museum.

A Trip up the Nile

One of the innovations is that visitors can expect to be taken through a reconstruction of a Nile environment by an escalator linking the four floors of the museum. An escalator will take visitors from the basement ‘hypogeum’ hall to the top floor, and a surrounding installation (details yet to be confirmed) will create a ‘Nile effect’. Elkann said that this will represent the ‘metaphoric’ and ‘extraordinary’ journey up the Nile.

The museum will finally display the extraordinary collection in Turin, which will no longer be a mystery locked away from the public eye, but will be a reality open to everyone.

Other features of the refurbishment include more exhibition space, with simple, well-lit protection that will emphasise the museum’s famous artworks (such as the Sphinx from Karnak and the sculpture of Tutankhamun and Amun), rather than their surroundings. It is hoped that the museum’s space will be doubled when work is completed. The basement will serve as a multi-functional meeting area, while the top floor will house storage space for many objects previously not on display. Elkann said the museum will finally display the extraordinary collection in Turin, which will no longer be a mystery locked away from the public eye, but will be a reality open to everyone.

The museum’s management governed by the foundation, whose shareholders include some bank organisations as well as regional and local authorities was considered unique in Italy at the time it was instigated in 2004. Elkann considers the ‘experiment’ to have been a success. One of the strongest indicators of this success is the visitor numbers which have more than doubled in that time from 250,000 to 600,000 a year. This is no mean feat during a period of general economic downturn, which has seen visitor numbers for many of Turin’s other museums decreasing.

Complete by 2013

The plans for restructuring and expanding the space at the Museo Egizio were approved earlier this month by the museum’s Foundation body. The group Isolarchitetti will be designing and managing the project. The building work will be done in two phases the first to be completed in 2011 and the second in 2013. Initial work at the museum’s courtyard began in July and throughout the restructuring project the museum will be fully open and accessible to the public, as building work is done room by room.

Images by: the archive of Museo Egizio and Studio Isolarchitetti.

Evidence of Roman Salt Industry Discovered in Thames Estuary

The mouth of the river Thames has been the site of several Roman and Iron Age discoveries in recent weeks bringing to light evidence of early industrial activity in Britain. The structures include a fourth century Roman kiln used for processing salt water as part of the Roman salt-producing industry, as well as a Roman-era salt-house, boathouse and roundhouse.

These structures were uncovered during a series of excavations near Mucking Creek and Coryton in Essex, which are taking place before the area is prepared for the new London Gateway port Britain’s first deep-sea container port and logistics centre.

Salt would have been a very important commodity for people living in this boom location. The dig has provided a number of important finds that reveal the rich history of the area.

The mud flats at the mouth of the Thames were the heart of the Roman salt industry in Britain. This peaked in the first and second centuries AD, according to Katrina Anker from Oxford Archaeology, the organisation leading the dig. She told Culture24 that at that time, London would still have been in its very early stages of development: Salt would have been a very important commodity for people living in this boom location. The dig has provided a number of important finds that reveal the rich history of the area.

Salt of the Earth

Salt was essential to the Roman economy and society it was used for preserving meat and fish, for tanning and also in the omnipresent spicy fish sauce (garum). It is thought that salaries were sometimes paid, at least partially, in salt or salt tokens and the Romans built roads and ports specifically to ensure the provision and transportation of salt. The settlement of Ostia (before it became Rome’s major port) was built near salt flats, while the via Salaria the salt road stretching from Rome to the Adriatic coast of Italy was also named after the commodity transported along it.

However, rises in the level of the Mediterranean caused huge problems for the Roman salt supply because many of the salt flats were put out of action including those at Ostia. This is when salt production in Britain became more important.

Cheshire, with its brine springs, was an important salt-producing area for the Romans as it still is today for the British salt industry.

From around 80 AD, the Fenland area of Britain, including the Essex coast and the Thames estuary, became an important source of salt for the Romans, who built roads, towns and ports there. The archaeological discoveries have thrown up new evidence of this industry, which would have provided salt for use in the tanneries supplying leather goods to the Roman army in Britain.

Photo by tallpomlin.