Category: Ann - Part 4

Hoard of 10,000 Roman Coins found in Shropshire

A massive haul of more than 10,000 Roman coins crammed inside a buried clay pot has been unearthed by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast – on his first ever treasure hunt, and this only a few days after it was announced the Vale of York Hoard was purchased by the British Museum. The silver and bronze ‘nummi’ coins, dating from between 240 AD and 320 AD, were discovered in a farmer’s field near Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, last month. Experts say the coins have spent an estimated 1,700 years underground. The stunning collection of coins, most of which were found inside the broken brown pot, was uncovered by Nick Davies during a search of land in the Shrewsbury area – just a month after he took up the hobby of metal detecting. This amazing find is one of the largest collections of Roman coins ever discovered in Shropshire, and the biggest collection of Roman coins to be found in Britain this year.

From a brief look at the hoard there seems to be a minimum of 10,000 coins, of which the majority are corroded together in the pot. Nick did not touch the coins from within the pot and this will mean that staff at the British Museum will be able to excavate the coins carefully. This will enable them to know whether the coins were placed in the pot all at the same time, or were added to piecemeal over time. All coins found are bronze (copper alloy), and some of them have been silver washed. They are known as nummi (which just means coin) and were common during the 4th century AD. From the coins which have been provisionally identified they seem to date from the period 320 – 340 AD, late in the reign of Constantine I and the House of Constantine. Amongst the coins are issues celebrating the anniversary of the founding of Rome and Constantinople. In total the coins and the pot weigh in excess of 70 lbs. The pottery vessel is very large and probably used in the domestic part of a farmhouse as a large storage jar. It does not seem to be locally made. It is very fine being extraordinarily thin.

A small excavation was undertaken with the hope of understanding how the coins were placed in the ground. This was a success and it seems most likely that the pot was buried in the ground probably part full and was subsequently topped up before a large stone was placed on top acting as a marker. The top of the pot had been broken in the ground and a large number of the coins spread in the area. All of these were recovered during the excavation with the help of a metal detector. This added at least another 300 coins to the total. We now know that there are no more coins (or another hoard) in the area.

The coins date to the reign of Constantine I when Britain was being used to produce food for the Roman Empire. It is possible these coins were paid to a farmer who buried them and used them as a kind of piggy-bank.

The coins within the hoard represent some of the most commonly found coins from Roman Britain; most metal detectorists will have one or two in their collection. The importance of this find is the sheer number, or material wealth they represent. It is likely that the hoard represents a person or communities wealth, possibly as a payment for a harvest. Why it was not collected by the owner is a mystery – but one that we can share and enjoy 1700 years after the fact.

Peter Reavill, finds liaison officer from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: “The coins date to the reign of Constantine I when Britain was being used to produce food for the Roman Empire. It is possible these coins were paid to a farmer who buried them and used them as a kind of piggy-bank.”

Mr Reavill declined to put a figure on either the value of the coins or the pot until the findings of the inquest are known, but he described the discovery as a ‘large and important’ find and that the exact location of the find could not be revealed for security reasons.

The coins have now been sent to the British Museum for detailed examination, before a report is sent to the coroner. Experts are expected to spend several months cleaning and separating the coins, which have fused together. They will also give them further identification before sending them to the coroner so they can be valued by a Government panel. The haul could then be put on display at Shrewsbury’s new £10million heritage centre.

The Vale of York Hoard – a massive Viking hoard also found by metal detecting hobbyists – will be on display at the Yorkshire Museum in York from September 17 to November 1 before moving to the British Museum.

Woruldhord, a massive Old English and Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard – to be discovered on the web

Submissions from the public have helped Oxford University academics put together a hoard of Anglo-Saxon treasures. Yet, there is no need to get your metal detectors out. The hoard in question is the worlds largest online archive of material concerning the Anglo-Saxons.

The virtual treasure consists of digital objects related to the teaching, study, or research of Old English and the Anglo-Saxon period of history, which will be made available online for free.

Project Woruldhord (Old English for world hoard), which called on the public to submit Anglo-Saxon teaching material after being inspired by the level of interest surrounding the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, has received between three and four thousand objects since opening in July.

The success of Project Woruldhord shows that the level of interest in the discovery of the Staffordshire hoard was not a one-off, said Dr Anna Caughey of the Faculty of English Language and Literature.

We have been amazed by the enthusiasm among the general public for the Anglo-Saxon period people of all ages have gone out and found Anglo-Saxon remnants in their area, recorded and photographed them and submitted them to the archive.

The materials submitted will be made freely available worldwide for educational purposes on the Project Woruldhord website. The Oxford team hopes the Woruldhord will prove to be a valuable teaching resource, allowing teachers and children and the wider public to access videos, recordings and images relating to the Anglo-Saxons and even teach themselves Old English.

Another interesting submission to the archive is Old English in Middle-Earth, which describes the influence of the Anglo-Saxons on Tolkiens characters, stories and language in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Project Woruldhord Archive Highlights

Highlights of the archive include some of the finds from CSI Sittingbourne,previously unreleased pictures and X-rays of artefacts in the Staffordshire hoard and fromSutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon land charters including a forged land document, Oxford University exam papers in Old English from the 19th Century and a 1966 TV film on the Anglo-Saxons, ‘1065 and all that’ -which hasn’t been seen for 44 years.

One contributor even designed, built and played an Anglo-Saxon lute for a video objects like this will be a great resource for teachers to get pupils to engage with this period, which is currently under-represented on schools curriculums, said Caughey.

Another interesting submission – and so far, my favourite -is Old English in Middle-Earth, a study guide to the Anglo-Saxon language which describes the influence of the Anglo-Saxons on Tolkiens characters, stories andspeech in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

If you want to speak like the Anglo-Saxons it will take a much more detailed course than this short introduction to learn all the grammar, but you can learn some sounds and some words and phrases that are of particular interest as you read The Lord of the Rings, reads the guide.

If you want to contribute to the digital hoard, you’ll need to hurry. Although the project won’t go live until later this year, the archive stops taking submissions today. Fittingly, as October 14this the date on which in 1066 the Battle of Hastings signalled the end of the Anglo-Saxon period (if you want to learn more about the shifts caused bythe Norman conquest, the PASEDomesday digital archive might be a good place to start).

My meagre contributions to Project Woruddhord? A picture of the York Helmet’s (beautifully crafted!) crest detail and the suggestion they ask Professor Drout if they can add his ‘Anglo-Saxon Aloud’ readings to the Woruldhord archive.

The Prehistory of Compassion: Neanderthals Cared Too

New research by archaeologists at the University of York suggests that it is beyond reasonable doubt Neanderthals often misrepresented as furry, primitive caveman hobbling about had a deep seated sense of compassion.

Dr Penny Spikins, Andy Needham and Holly Rutherford from the universitys Department of Archaeology examined the archaeological record in search for evidence for compassionate acts in early humans. These illustrate the way emotions began to emerge in our ancestors six million years ago,which developed into the idea of ‘compassion’ we know today.

We have traditionally paid a lot of attention to how early humans thought about each other, but it may well be time to pay rather more attention to whether or not they ‘cared’, said Dr Spikins.

From Hominity to Humanity

Nowadays, ‘compassion’ which literally means ‘to suffer together’ is considered a great virtue by numerous philosophies and all the major religious traditions. But when did start to grow a desire to soother others’ distress? In the study ‘From hominity to humanity: Compassion from the earliest archaic to modern humans’, the researchers took on the unique challenge of charting key stages in the evolutionearly human’s emotional motivation to help others. They proposea four stage model for the development of human compassion:

Compassion is perhaps the most fundamental human emotion. It binds us together and can inspire us but it is also fragile and elusive

Stage 1 – It begins six million years ago when the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees experienced the first awakenings of an empathy for others and motivation to help them, perhaps with a gesture of comfort or moving a branch to allow them to pass.

Stage 2 – The second stage from 1.8 million years ago sees compassion in Homo erectus beginning to be regulated as an emotion integrated with rational thought. Care of sick individuals represented an extensive compassionate investment while the emergence of special treatment of the dead suggested grief at the loss of a loved one and a desire to soothe others feelings.

Stage 3 – In Europe between around 500,000 and 40,000 years ago, early humans such as Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals developed deep-seated commitments to the welfare of others illustrated by a long adolescence and a dependence on hunting together.

There is evidence of the routine care of the injured or infirm over extended periods. These include the remains of a child with a congenital brain abnormality who was not abandoned but lived until five or six years old millennia later, the Spartans would have acted differently. A Neanderthal with a withered arm, deformed feet and blindness in one eye must have been cared for, perhaps for as long as twenty years.

Stage 4 – In modern humans starting 120,000 years ago, compassion was extended to strangers, animals, objects and abstract concepts.

Dr Penny Spikins, lead author of the study, said that new research developments, such as neuro-imaging, have enabled archaeologists to attempt a scientific explanation of what were once intangible feelings of ancient humans and that the research was only the first step in a much needed prehistoric archaeology of compassion.

Compassion is perhaps the most fundamental human emotion. It binds us together and can inspire us but it is also fragile and elusive, said Dr Spikins.

This apparent fragility makes addressing the evidence for the development of compassion in our most ancient ancestors a unique challenge, yet the archaeological record has an important story to tell about the prehistory of compassion.

Dr Spikins will give a free lecture, ‘Neanderthals in love: What can archaeology tell us about the feelings of ancient humans’, about the research at the University of York on Tuesday 19 October.

‘From hominity to humanity: Compassion from the earliest archaic to modern humans’ by Dr Penny Spikins, Andy Needham and Holly Rutherford is published in the journal Time and Mind. The study is also available as a book, ‘The Prehistory of Compassion’, available for purchase online.

Project Troia – Bronze Age Troy Just Keeps on Growing

The Bronze Age remains were found at the lower city, below the remains of Roman and Hellenistic houses. Above left, Dr Ernst Pernicka discusses the excavations with archaeologist Dr Catalin Pavel (in white shirt). - Photo by Gebhard Bieg, courtesy the University of Tubingen German archaeologists have made new discoveries at modern day Hisarlik, northwest Turkey ancient Troy.

The finds further confirm the area occupied duringthe Bronze Age was not limited to the citadel; Troy VI and VIIwere muchlarger than originally thought.

The three year research project at Troy lead by Prof. Ernst Pernicka, from the University of Tubingen‘s Institute of Pre- and Early History sees scholars focus on the analysis and publication of materials found since the university started excavations at the site in 1988.

But to investigate and resolve outstanding issues, Project Troia does undertake some smaller excavations.

These digs, in combination with geophysical surveying and the drilling of test holes, allow the team to narrow down the Bronze Age occupation belowTroy’scitadel more closely.

From the early Bronze Age until the Roman Period, at least nine cities their ruins stacked up to 15 metres high existed at the archaeological site; Troy I to IX.

This year, the team confirmed the layout of a one kilometre long Late Bronze Age defensive system a rock-cut ditch south of the Troy hillfort.

A gate, situated in the southeast area of the trench, is now fully excavated. It is located some 300 metres south of the citadel wall, and dated to about 1300 BC. The passage is about five metres wide, smaller than the ditch’s previously excavated southern gate.

Late Bronze Age layers came to light in the vicinity of the southeastern gate remains of walls, roads, storage pits and even an ancient oven. The finds suggest the area was occupied from about about 1700(TroyVI)to 1100 BC (Troy VII).Soil samples, taken 200 metres east of the citadel, reveal Bronze Age remains as well.

Further east, a second trench was discovered, significantly deeper and wider than the excavated ditch. This structure isn’t dated yet, but will be further examined next season.

Map of the 2010 excavations by the University of Tubingen at Hisarlik, Turkey - ancient Troy.

The archaeological site of Hisarlik was first excavated in the 19th century not without controversy by self-taught archaeologists Heinrich Schliemann.

Rather than being one ancient city, it consists of multiple layers of ruins. From the early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) until the Roman Period(1st century BC), at least nine cities Troy I to IX existed at the archaeological site; there ruins are stacked up to 15 metres high(nicely shown in the timeline on the University of Cincinnati’s website).

Which of these remains if any are those ofthe Homeric city of Troy, is still debated.

Schliemann nominated Troy I or II, but nowadays the Late Hittite Troy VII showing traces of fire and possibly warfare is seen as the most likely source of inspiration for the Trojan myth. Its remains are dated between the 13th and 10th century BC, where as ancient Greek historians place the Trojan War somewhere in the 12th to 14th century BC.

That Troy VI and VIIare far larger than originally thought not a mere hillfort, but strongholds surrounded by a settlement with its own defensive structures makes it more likely Hisarlik isindeed the site of the legendary Troy, or Ilion, the siege of whichwas described by Homer in the Iliad.

Tandem Google Translate Latin Discit

Google Translate Latin to English Translation - Mauris laoreet translates as 'Google Site' - Easter Egg? Google Translate has added Latin to the ever-expanding list of languages the free service offers – in which the old-fashioned ‘Lorum ipsum dolor’ (or lipsum) is upgraded to a more modern ‘Hello World!’

In apost to the official Google blogtitled ‘Veni, Vidi, Verba Verti’ (which the service translates as ‘I came, I saw, I translated the words’), Igeniarius Programmandi Jakob Uszkoreit correctly points out that althoughit isn’t likely to be used to translate emails (with some exceptions,maybe) the new service is an excellent tool for scholars all over the world as many ancient and medieval works on philosophy, religion and science are written in Latin, many of those available in Google Books.

Uszkoreit is convinced the system still in alpha will soon deliver accurate translations, as Latin grammar and vocabulary ceased evolving and Google is using the ‘thousands’ of Latin books already translated to a variety of languages to train the system. As an example he quotes Caesar’s ‘The Gallic Wars’. Yet, when put to the test regarding Caesar’s conquest of Pharnaces, Google Translate gets a bit confused (depending on punctuation):

veni vidi vici tranlates asI saw the street of
EPWohlfart contributed thatveni vidi vici!translates as I came, I saw the time!
veni, vidi, vici translatescorrectlyas I came, I saw, I conquered

To the system’s defence, it does get all the other Latin phrases I’ve mangedto remember from high school (not that many, there’s cave canem, alea jacta est, the first few phrases of the’Pater Noster’ and mens sana in corpore sano) right and… to my utter delight, a text-to-speech system was added as well which pronounces ‘Caesar’ with a ‘k’. Told you so!

Can you find any (highly or midly) entertaining mistakes and/or ‘easter eggs’ in Google’s Latin to English translation service comes up with?

PS. Should there by any mistakes in the title of this blogpost, blame Google Translate. 😉

The Sound of Akkadian – Listen to Ancient Babylonian online

Prompted by the enquiries of curious colleagues and friends, Dr. Martin Worthington, an expert in Babylonian and Assyrian grammar from the University of Cambridge, has begun to record readings of Babylonian poems, myths and other texts in the original tongue. In an effort to present users with a variety of voices, the readings available online for freeat www.speechisfire.com are given by Dr. Worthington’s fellow Assyriologists.

Babylonian is one of two variants (or dialects) of Akkadian, the other being Assyrian. Akkadian became the ‘lingua franca’ of the Near East around, until its usebegan to decline around the 8th century BC. The last Akkadian cuneiform document dates to the 1st century AD.

Dr Worthington’s hope is that having heard the sound of the extinct language the earliest attested Semitic language, some listeners will be sufficiently intrigued to investigate further, and perhaps end up studying the history, language or culture of the period.

“Whenever I tell people what I do, the first question they ask is what did Babylonian sound like, and how do you know?” Dr. Worthington said. “In the end I decided that the best thing to do would be to create a resource where they can listen to it for themselves.”

It’s essentially detective work,” Dr. Worthington said. “We will never know for sure that a Babylonian would have approved of our attempts at pronunciation, but by looking at the original sources closely, we can make a pretty good guess.

“I also wanted to dispel some long-standing myths. Many people think that the further you go back in history, the less you know about it. In fact, we have masses of information about the Babylonians. The site aims to give users a taste of the richness and complexity of Ancient Mesopotamian culture, which is not something you normally learn much about at school.”

The existing collection focuses on poetry in particular. Most of this is known from cuneiform inscriptions found on clay tablets in the area that was once Mesopotamia, and now comprises Iraq, as well as parts of Syria, Turkey and Iran.

“In many cases they are the equivalent of Old English tales like Beowulf,” Dr. Worthington added. “Through them, we meet gods, giants, monsters and all sorts of other weird and wonderful creatures. As stories they are amazing fun.”

Many also bear parallels with Biblical tales. TabletXI of The Epic of Gilgamesh, for example, contains a deluge story; Utanapishtim tells the hero-king Gilgamesh how he was instructed by the gods to prepare a boat ahead of a great flood,andto put on board “the seed of all living creatures”.

Beyond literature and poetry, the site has also contains other important documents from the period. Part of the Codex Hammurabi, for example, the ancient law code from 1790 BC, can be both read and heard – although you are (not yet) treated to all 281 of the laws and parallel punishments Hammurabi had listed.

Working out how Babylonian, or any dead language, sounded relies on a variety of strategies and techniques. In some cases, researchers can use Babylonian and Assyrian words transcribed into alphabets other than cuneiform, but often the sound is forensically deduced through the careful study of letter combinations and spelling patterns, using the original Cuneiform texts.

“It’s essentially detective work,” Dr. Worthington said. “We will never know for sure that a Babylonian would have approved of our attempts at pronunciation, but by looking at the original sources closely, we can make a pretty good guess.”

Thirty recordings have been released so far and more are currently being prepared. While you’re waiting for those to be released orif you’d decide Ancient Babylonian is not your thing, whynot try some Anglo-Saxon aloud?

The Sound of Akkadian – Listen to Ancient Babylonian online

Almost 2,000 years after its last native speakers disappeared, the sound of Ancient Babylonian makes a comeback in an online audio archive. The recordings include excerpts from some of the earliest known works of world literature, dating back to the first years of the second millennium BC. Prompted by the enquiries of curious colleagues and friends, Dr. Martin Worthington, an expert in Babylonian and Assyrian grammar from the University of Cambridge, has begun to record readings of Babylonian poems, myths and other texts in the original tongue. In an effort to present users with a variety of voices, the readings – available online for free at www.speechisfire.com – are given by Dr. Worthington’s fellow Assyriologists.

One Step Closer to Understanding Neanderthal Locomotion

LABO Neanderthal Walk A new research project from the Universit Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) takes us one step further as it comes to understanding Neanderthal locomotion. The Laboratory of Anatomy, Biomechanics and Organogenesis’ (LABO for short) project created a 3D virtual reconstruction of a pair of Neanderthal lower limbs.

The skeleton shows the Neanderthals had the same moves as we do and between 5% and 20% more leverage than us.

Homonids (that includes all forms of the human lineage, be it extinct or living) started bipedal locomotion (moving by means of your two rear limbs or, in our case, legs) some 6 million years ago. When you compare our ‘modern man’ gait to that of our fellow hominids, man takes giant steps. But what about the Neanderthals? To which degree is their locomotion comparable to ours?

In the early twentieth century it was believed that Neanderthals were furry (and dumb) creatures, hobbling about. These ideas persisted until the late ’50s, when a more objective analysis of Neanderthal fossils led to the realisation they weren’t that dissimilar to humans. (Thatearly humans thought it ‘not done’ to have sex with those ‘hairy caveman’ was only revised recently.)

Today, it is assumed that the skeletal morphology of the Neanderthals allowed them to walk the same way we do. However, there is little quantifiable data to substantiate this hypothesis. The Homo neanderthalensis has been extinct for some 20,000 years now (sorry to break the news), making direct observation of their walking capabilities impossible.

Another major problem when trying to trace the Neanderthal’s steps, is the lack of fossil record. To date, no complete Neanderthal skeleton has been found, and scientists don’t even have a sufficient number of bones to reconstruct an entire limb.

Neanderthal joint architecture is mechanically compatible with modern human locomotion.

So LABO’s first objective was to compose a 3D model of Neanderthal lower limbs using fossils found at three different sites the remains used to belong to individuals known as Spy II (discovered in Belgium), Kebara 2 (Israel) and Neanderthal 1 (Germany). To make this ‘virtual assembly’ possible, the researchers had to ‘scale’ the different virtual fragments, taking into account the estimated size of the three Neanderthal individuals.

To determine if the characteristics of the skeleton are consistent with ‘modern locomotion’, the team then merged the 3D reconstruction with movement data obtained from (human) volunteers. The resulting model showed no indication that Neanderthals did not show the same range of motion as humans; Neanderthal joint architecture is mechanically compatible with modern human locomotion.

However, it needs to be noted, walking isn’t just about bones, joints and muscles. Movement is monitored by the brain, and unfortunately data on the Neanderthal brain remains too fragmentary to say whether it was capable of controlling and monitoring of such movements.

Next, information relating to the lower limb muscle was added to the model, as to answer a second question relating to Neanderthal physiology: when compared to our skeletons, how much mechanical advantage did the Neanderthal’s more robust skeleton give to the attached muscles?

The researchers found that at an equal size the reconstructed Neanderthal muscoloskeletal system shows a strength larger than that of modern humans. The Neanderthal’s mechanical advantage is estimated to be 5% to 20% morethan ours. The research (to be published in the journal Palevol under the title Reconstruction virtuelle des membres infrieurs Nandertaliens et estimation des bras de levier des muscle ischio-jambiers) confirms the idea that their big-boned morphology allowed the Neanderthals to be more effective in a hostile environment where increased mobility was likely synonymous with a greater chance of survival.

In cooperation with the Belgian Royal Institute of Natural Science, the LABO is currently working on a more detailed, and complete, virtual model of the Neanderthal skeleton found at Spy. The final model will be used to generate a 3D skeleton (much like was done to Tutankhamen’s mummy?) and a hyper-realistic 3D reconstruction by artists Adrie and Alfons Kennis. Both will be presented at the new ‘Spy Man’ exhibition in the spring of 2011.

Angers’ Mithraeum: Sanctuary dedicated to Persian god Mithras discovered in France

Excavations executed by INRAP have revealed a Roman urban area and Mithraeum at Angers, France - Image Copyright Herv Paitier INRAP Archaeologists excavating a 9,000 square metre area at Angers, in the Loire District, France, have discovered the remains of the first mithraeum a sanctuary dedicated to the Indo-Iranian god Mithras in the west of France.

The cave sanctuary, a rectangular building, is dated to the third century AD.

The Mithraeum

The small, vaulted chapel in which worshippers hosted banquets and sacrifices dedicated to the god, is decorated with a starry sky.

The excavations revealed drums of columns perhaps statue bases, but possibly altars. A sort of vestibule allowed worshippers to don their ceremonial robes before entering the sanctuary.

The Mithraic Mysteries

It is believed the cult of Mithras was first introduced to the Roman Empire by soldiers coming from the East, somewhere at the end of the first century AD. Mithraism, a religion exclusive to men, first became popular with the elite, but quickly spread through all layers of society. Later it became known as a soldier’s cult. Shrines dedicated to Mithras are most often found at the borders of the Roman Empire, where large amounts of troops were stationed.

Reservoir of an anthropomorphic oil lamp, with Nubian head. - Image Copyright Herv Paitier INRAP Mithraism an individual religion, not a state cult, but itdid not conflict with the Imperial Cult (‘worshipthe Emperor’). Only later, when Mithraism became a competitor of early Christianity and despite, or maybe because certain similarities between both cults, the pagan religion was fiercely opposed. In 392 the cult was banned by Emperor Theodosius.

The Tauroctony &Ex Voto Offerings

Mithraism was an initiation cult, its secrets passed through oral tradition. Today, the only written testimonies about the mysterious cult scholars have were written by early Christian authors, who concievedMithras asthe devil’s representation on earth. This limited perception of the historical sources, makes the archaeological record relating to the cult all the more valuable.

At the sanctuary, a typical bas-relief of the god Mithras wearing his Phrygian cap shows him slaughtering a bull the so-called tauroctony. The god’s face was damaged in ancient times, possibly by early Christians trying to suppress the pagan cult.

The excavations further revealed scenes displaying dadophoroi (torch bearers), and miles (spearmen). Marble lion paws, as well as a pieces of a dog statue were unearthed from the cave, but are heavily fragmented. Likely these too were intentionally destroyed. Evidence of a fire was found, but it can not be confirmedif thefire was set on purpose, aimed at destroying the pagan sanctuary.

Among the finds in and aroundtheTemple of Mithrasis a unique zoomorph vase, probably used in purification rituals (see thisINRAP video). Further artefacts discovered at the site includeoil lamps, fragmentsof a lampcontaining Nubian terracotta figures, a bronze 4th century crucifix fibula and about 200 coins.

Detail of the dedication to the god Mithra on a Dechelette 72 vase, manufactured at Lezoux. - Image Copyright Herv Paitier INRAP Large quantities of cockerel bones (a favoured dish at the cultic banquets) were found spread inside and around the ancient temple.

A ceramic beaker offered by a certain Genialis, in the first half of the 3rd century reads:

DEO [INVIC]TO MYTRH[AE]…/…]VS GENIALIS CIVES MA […]VS EXVOTO D[…/…]RIBVS OMNIS LOCO OMNIS (…)

To the unconquered god Mithras, Genialis, citizen of , offers in ex voto (this vase).

A cartouche containing four lines in Greek was found on a piece of carved limestone decorated with palm leaves. It was partially deciphered, and indicates a dedication was made by a man named Theophilos (of Eastern origin) for the benefit of Retituitos (a name of Gallic consonance).

An Antique Quarter

At the ancient settlement the INRAP archaeologists also unearthed the remains of two major urban roads; the cardo (north-south oriented street) and decumanus (east-west oriented) axes. The earliest evidence of occupationfound so far is dated to the beginning of Emperor Augustus‘ reign, around 10 BC.

At the end of the first century, one or two domus (Roman villas), complete with hypocaust (floor heating) were constructed on the site.

Angers in Roman times was a fairly small oppidum, a fortified settlement probably no bigger than 80 hectares at its height with some 3,000 inhabitants. Its name, Juliomagnus, means ‘the market of Julius Caesar’.

The ancient city had its own amphitheatre, accommodating about 6,000 spectators, and Roman baths. In the fifth century AD, Angers became known as ‘civitas Andecavorum’ or ‘Andecavis’, after its Gaul inhabitants.

Mithraic temples are common in the Roman Empire; although very unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain (Londinium and Carrawburgh) and along the Rhine & Danube frontiers; while being much less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.

Isotope analysis: Prehistoric Stonehenge visitors came from the Mediterranean and the Alps

The 'Mediterranean' Boy with the Amber Necklace burial, at Boscombe Down, about 3 kilometres south-east of Stonehenge. - BGSNERC The links between the Stonehenge area and the Mediterranean have been debated for years.

Recent research suggest that some of the people buried in the area duringthe Bronze Age were not local. Rather, they came from both the snow of the Alps and the heat of the Mediterranean to visit Stonehenge.

The analysis of the teeth from two males provides new evidence that one dubbed the Boy with the Amber necklace had come from the Mediterranean area, whilst it confirms the Amesbury Archer had come from the Alps.

The Amesbury Archer was discovered around five kilometres from Stonehenge. His is the richest Copper Age (2450 2300 BC) grave found in Britain and it contained some of Britains earliest gold and copper objects a pair of gold hair clasps and three copper daggers.

The Boy with the Amber necklace, whose grave was found on Boscombe Down, about 3 kilometres south-east of Stonehenge, is from a more recent time the end of the Early Bronze Age. His skeleton has been radiocarbon dated to around 1550 BC. The teenager, aged 14 or 15 years when he died, was buried wearing a necklace of around 90 amber beads.

Amber Beads, found at the 'Boy with the Amber Necklace' burial site at Boscombe. - Image BGS (copyright) NERC “The amber may have been brought to Wessex from the Baltic, perhaps Denmark, as lumps of raw material before being turned into the tiny beads,” writes Wessex Archaeology.

Isotope analysis of tooth enamel from both these people shows that the two individuals provide a contrast in origin, which highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe, said Professor Jane Evans, Head of Archaeological Science at the British Geological Survey (BGS).

Strontium isotopes in teeth provide information on the geological setting of a persons childhood and the oxygen isotopes tell us about the climate in which they were raised (explained in this video of ‘CSIViking Dorset’). The combined techniques provide a tool to compare the information about childhood origin preserved in their teeth, with reference data for the place in which they are found.

A match between the tooth and reference data supports a local origin whereas a mismatch shows their burial area was not the same as their childhood location. The data can then be used to point to likely regions in which they were raised.

The isotope composition of the Amesbury Archers teeth shows that he was raised in a colder climate than that found in Britain.

The combination of his strontium and oxygen isotope composition suggest that the most likely childhood origin for this person was in the Alpine foothills region of Germany.

In contrast, the Boy with the Amber necklace likely spent his childhood in a warm climate typical of Iberia or the Mediterranean.

Such warm oxygen values are theoretically possible in the British Isles but are only found on the extreme west coast of SW England, western Ireland and the Outer Hebrides, said Professor Evans. These areas can be excluded as likely childhood origins of his on the basis of the strontium isotope composition of his teeth.

Other people who had visited Stonehenge from afar include individuals from a collective Bronze Age grave, theBoscombe Bowmen and a man buried beside the Amesbury Archer – called the Archers Companion.