Exciting news for fans of HBO’s Rome series: it looks like a film is currently in development, with script writer Bruno Heller penning the project. The film, whose working title is Bona Dea, is due to start filming in Summer 2010 and is scheduled for release in 2011. For those of you who remember Vorenus, played by Kevin McKidd, on his deathbed at the end of the last series, the good news is that the stalwart centurion is already being written into the script for the new film. In an interview given to Associated Press, now on youtube, McKidd explains…
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Somerset is getting ready for a Roman Invasion this saturday, thanks to a free archaeological open day organised by Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society (BACAS). Ceri Lambdin from BACAS told This is Somerset: Its not every day that Roman soldiers appear in Somerset and children and adults will be amazed by the weight of the armour and the amount of kit a soldier had to carry every day. With only the remains of Roman civilisation left in Somerset, we aim to bring to life this exciting period of history and give children and adults an opportunity to experience what life…
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Try if you can to imagine this scenario: you are in the Roman town of Pompeii and the date is mid August, 79 AD. There is one week to go before Vesuvius spews its molten lava everywhere and obliterates the place. Sulphur is in the air and the earth is creaking and trembling. There are no two ways about it: you are facing an environmental disaster and the ‘world’ as you know it is about to end. Well, in the face of such certain doom, what would you do? Run or hide? Remember that the bodies of both those who…
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A new series of excavations is due to begin at the Etruscan necropolis at Tarquinia, 60km north of Rome. The site is home to Etruscan tombs dating from as early as 700 BC many of them painted with lurid frescoes depicting exotic wild animals and scenes of Etruscans dancing, fighting and making love. While the locations of over 150 painted tombs are known (not all open to the public), it is thought that there are more to be discovered. According to reports in the Italian press (such as this one from L’Espresso), the excavations will be coordinated by Anna Maria…
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Fragments of a bronze statue of the Roman emperor Augustus on horseback only the second known equestrian statue of Augustus in existence – have been found in a river near the German town of Giessen, about 40km north of Frankfurt-am-Main. The statue is thought to date back 2,000 years and the discovery has been announced by the science ministry of Hessen state. According to a statement from the science ministry, reported in The Local, this is the most well preserved Roman artefact of quality to be found in Germany to date. The discovery took place on August 12, when a…
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Caistor St Edmund is a sleepy village in the Norfolk countryside with no more than 300 or so villagers. Not the kind of place you expect to find the provincial centre of some of the most aggressive and violent Celts to have fought the Romans in ancient Britain. But archaeologists are convinced that beneath the small village and its surrounding fields, to the south of Norwich, lie the ruins of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum, established in Iceni territory in the aftermath of Boudica‘s famous rebellion against the Roman governor in 60-61 AD. The Roman town was in fact…
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Subsistence Habits of Prehistoric Man A team of archaeologists is hoping to find out how prehistoric man survived in central Italy at the end of the last ice age. The researchers are about to set out on a study tour of 10 different locations throughout Italy where they hope to find clues to the lifestyles and habits of early hunter-gatherer humans between 18,000 BC and around 6,000 BC. Until now their hunting and travelling patterns have been in question with two contradictory theories about how the hunter-gatherers would have got their food in an era of extreme environmental change before…
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A cave containing the bones of hundreds of pygmy hippos has turned a long-held belief about the fate of these miniature creatures on its head. The cave is at the site of Akrotiri-Aetokremnos, on the southern tip of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and archaeologists in the past have generally accepted the idea that the pygmy hippo must have died out before neolithic man first set foot on the island in around 10,000 BC. However, a team of experts who excavated the site has strong evidence to suggest otherwise. They argue that the animal bones are from the same era…
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A team of international archaeologists have begun to investigate the existence of a Roman town partially submerged in a lake 20km outside stanbul. The excavation has started at Lake Kkekmece, a small inlet west of Turkey’s largest city, which is now believed to be the location of the ancient city of Bathonea. Little is known about Bathonea, but the site is thought to have been inhabited by humans for many millennia before it became a Greek settlement, which the Romans then built upon as they expanded their empire eastwards. It is near to the Yarmburgaz cave, which is already known…
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A third-century AD house from the Roman period has been uncovered at excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem. The building covers about 1,000 square metres and has emerged during a dig that is being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Dr Doron Ben-Ami is the excavation director on behalf of the IAA, and he believes that the house was centred on a large open courtyard encircled by columns. He said: Galleries were spread out between the rows of columns and the rooms that flanked the courtyard. The wings of the building rose to a height of…