On Tuesday this week public offices in Rome shut down as the city celebrated the feast-day of two of its patron saints, Peter and Paul. So it was an appropriate time for Rome’s archaeological superintendency to announce some of the findings of an archaeological investigation at the Mamertine prison, in which Peter and Paul were allegedly imprisoned during the first century AD. The recent excavation established that the Carcer Tullianum was the site of a religious cult from the fifth century BC, according to Dr Patrizia Fortini, an archaeologist from the Superintendency for Archaeological Heritage in Rome, who worked on…
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Roman ship-discovery season is in full flow, with several finds and explorations announced in the past week. Yesterday Ansa ran a story about the discovery of a 25-metre merchant ship from the first century AD with its cargo of 500 amphorae containing fruit and vegetables still on board. The ship is said to be in perfect condition and was found south of Panarea, in the group of Aeolian/Lipari islands north of Sicily. The news agency reported that Italy’s Maritime Superintendency and the Aurora Trust, an American foundation, were responsible for the find. Aurora Trust found five wrecks off the Italian…
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Archaeologists began working on one of Britain’s most mysterious ancient landmarks this Monday, as they aim to unravel its many hidden secrets (UPDATE: Click here to read about some of the finds). And while Marden Henge in Wiltshire may be almost unknown alongside its neighbour at Stonehenge, it is at least ten times bigger, making it one of Britain’s biggest stone circles. Unlike Stonehenge, and nearby Avebury, Marden contains no standing stones. Yet the six-week project by English Heritage, fresh from their visitor centre disappointment, will probe the site for clues as to whether it once did, and what it…
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An ancient town that once may have launched ships to Troy has been discovered in a town in Greece. Archaeologists at the site in Kyparissia, on the western Pelopennese, have unearthed the outlines of buildings and ancient tiling ahead of roadworks, reports Hamara. The discovery will also be a boost for those who have long argued that the picturesque town, once known as Arkadia, supplied ships to Troy in antiquity. Yet the find is shrouded in controversy:some parts of the ancient town are higher than the depths of a neighbouring swimming pool complex – suggesting its owner knew of the…
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Tutankhamun’s penis was swapped because it was too small, according to a media report. New Scientist writer Jo Marchant believes the young pharaoh may have suffered from a rare genetic defect which, among other issues, causes under-developed genitalia. Antley-Bixler syndrome also results in elongated skulls, which could account for stylistic depictions of King Tut’s proposed father Akhenaten(read our recent article on how the boy-king could have died from sickle-cell disease here). Marchant claims the modest penis was most probably broken off “during a particularly brutal autopsy“, yet others say it could easily have been damaged during its early years of…
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After more than 40 years, archaeologists have finally reached the end of the tunnel discovered in the tomb of Seti I. Hopes the tunnel would lead to the pharaoh’s secret burial site have been crushed, after the seemingly unfinished tunnel suddenly stopped after a back-breaking 174m. Pharaoh Seti I’s tomb, which is located in the Valley of the Kings, was first discovered in 1817 by strongman-turned-archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni (watch a video about Britain’s explorers). But clearing of the tunnel, cut into the bedrock near the end of the beautifully decorated tomb, was not started until the 1960s, under the direction…
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The King Arthur we are familiar with is a literary figure, but was he also a historical one? In my book Revealing King Arthur: Swords, Stones and Digging for Camelot, I show how archaeologists over the last 50 years have interpreted the evidence from Dark Age Britain. At first they were happy to link their discoveries to legendary names. Then came a backlash, when Arthurian links were ignored or derided. Now, new discoveries have raised again the possibility of a real King Arthur. The HISTORY channel documentary King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed (video preview) brings together the leading experts to…
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University of Alberta professor of anthropology Sandra Garvie-Lok is on a CSI-style hunt for answers to a 1,500-year-old crime. Her victim: John Doe, an unidentified male with severe cranial trauma, killed at the ancient Greek city of Nemea during the Slavic invasion of Greece in the 6th century AD. The verdict: murder, most likely but how and why? Robbery has already been ruled out the unfortunate soul, whose cadaver was discovered crushed in a small, graffiti-stained tunnel entrance, had cash and other possessions on him. Was he perhaps slain in battle, seeing as he appears to have been an eye-witness…
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Why were 97 new-born babies buried in the grounds of a Roman villa at Hambleden near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, during the third and fourth centuries AD? This is a mystery that has endured for almost a century, since the site was first excavated in 1912 by the naturalist and archaeologist Alfred Cocks. The sheer number of burials led the early 20th century archaeologist to conclude that it was an irregular burial, and that perhaps the babies had been buried there secretly perhaps having been murdered over a period of a century or more towards the end of the Roman occupation…
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A Toronto newspaper is reporting that Chinese President Hu Jintao may kick-off the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, at the Royal Ontario Museum, on June 26. It will be the largest Terracotta Warriors show ever displayed in North America featuring 250 artefacts in total including 16 human terracotta figures. It’s opening day coincides with the start of the G20 summit in Toronto, which the president will be attending. The Toronto Starreports that the president and his wife Liu Yongqing have been formally invited by the museum. Were hoping, but we know there are lots of things on their agenda, exhibit curator Dr.…