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Fortea Morgana :) PeteByrdie certificated Princess
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That picture is giving me the grues from a persistent internal instruction to just trowel that back...
Roman Archaeology (Miscellaneous)
- Thread starter ramonmercado
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That picture is giving me the grues from a persistent internal instruction to just trowel that back...
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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Learning to deal with elephants, a difficult tusk.
Imagine, for a moment, you are a Roman soldier at war. In the midst of battle, you are confronted with an enormous and loudly trumpeting creature you've never seen before.
It appears to have sharp spears protruding from either side of its mouth and a bizarre, powerful limb extending from its face. Armed men ride atop this towering beast, which, running toward you at speed, is crushing your comrades underfoot.
Roman soldiers were reportedly terrified the first time they faced war elephants on the battlefield. It's hard not to feel bad for the elephants too, as using animals this way in war is undoubtedly cruel.
But Rome's enemies, particularly various Hellenistic kingdoms and the Carthaginians, did indeed use war elephants. So, how did they acquire and deploy them in battle—and how did the Romans respond?
Alexander the Great brought elephants back to the Mediterranean world after campaigning in northern India, where elephants had been used for centuries in warfare—and would be used for centuries to come.
Alexander had fought against an elephant-equipped army at the Battle of the Hydaspes (in modern-day Pakistan) in 326 BCE and had obviously been impressed by the animals. So began the ancient Mediterranean world's (rather misguided) fascination with war elephants.
Many of the so-called Successor kingdoms that arose in the Hellenistic world in the wake of Alexander's death in 323 BCE—such as the Seleucids of Syria, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Antigonids of Macedonia—enthusiastically incorporated the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) into their ranks. So equipped, they often went to war with each other.
Most of these elephants had to be imported from friendly Indian kingdoms, although the Ptolemies of Egypt eventually secured African elephants from beyond the southern borders of their kingdom after their rivals, the Seleucids, cut them off from Asian supplies.
One Greek leader who equipped his army with war elephants was King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who eventually went to war with the then-emerging power of Rome—and reportedly introduced them to war elephants. ...
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-romans-war-elephants-eventually-defeat.html
Imagine, for a moment, you are a Roman soldier at war. In the midst of battle, you are confronted with an enormous and loudly trumpeting creature you've never seen before.
It appears to have sharp spears protruding from either side of its mouth and a bizarre, powerful limb extending from its face. Armed men ride atop this towering beast, which, running toward you at speed, is crushing your comrades underfoot.
Roman soldiers were reportedly terrified the first time they faced war elephants on the battlefield. It's hard not to feel bad for the elephants too, as using animals this way in war is undoubtedly cruel.
But Rome's enemies, particularly various Hellenistic kingdoms and the Carthaginians, did indeed use war elephants. So, how did they acquire and deploy them in battle—and how did the Romans respond?
Alexander the Great brought elephants back to the Mediterranean world after campaigning in northern India, where elephants had been used for centuries in warfare—and would be used for centuries to come.
Alexander had fought against an elephant-equipped army at the Battle of the Hydaspes (in modern-day Pakistan) in 326 BCE and had obviously been impressed by the animals. So began the ancient Mediterranean world's (rather misguided) fascination with war elephants.
Many of the so-called Successor kingdoms that arose in the Hellenistic world in the wake of Alexander's death in 323 BCE—such as the Seleucids of Syria, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Antigonids of Macedonia—enthusiastically incorporated the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) into their ranks. So equipped, they often went to war with each other.
Most of these elephants had to be imported from friendly Indian kingdoms, although the Ptolemies of Egypt eventually secured African elephants from beyond the southern borders of their kingdom after their rivals, the Seleucids, cut them off from Asian supplies.
One Greek leader who equipped his army with war elephants was King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who eventually went to war with the then-emerging power of Rome—and reportedly introduced them to war elephants. ...
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-romans-war-elephants-eventually-defeat.html
Floyd
Beloved of Ra
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- Apr 2, 2019
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It's always kept me going anyway;
Imagining Roman Britain conjures up images of emperors, gladiators, posh villas - and the army that held the empire together.
But a much more varied story is emerging, thanks to evidence uncovered by excavations in recent years.
Beer brewing was just one of the industries that grew rapidly to supply the military, and small towns and cities like Camulodunum (Colchester) and Verulamium (St Albans) in the three-and-a-half centuries of Roman rule.
So, what have these digs revealed about daily life in Roman Britain?
The need to supply the army was a "key driver" of the growth of industries across Roman Britain
It took the Romans about 45 years to take over most of England and Wales after they invaded in AD 43, arriving in a disunited land
dominated by tribal leaders.
The need to supply their army was the "key driver", according to archaeologist Edward Biddulph, as well the urban centres they created. This led to the rapid industrial development.
The Oxford Archaeology senior project manager said pottery, building materials, metalwork and glass were all being produced across the country, but from the 3rd and 4th Centuries "we start to see mega industries".
"We know industrial activity was undertaken at a very large scale at a number of sites in Roman Britain and we have some very large sites that are helping us to really fill in the gaps in our knowledge, the missing pieces that we've long been struggling with," he said.
"One of the classic areas is malting and brewing, if you look at Roman Britain you see next to nothing about this, yet people must have been drinking beer."
Large beer beakers like this one were discovered at Berryfields, alongside stone-line wells, timber-lined tanks, tile-lined drains, a malting oven and enormous quantities of germinated grain
Evidence of brewing on an industrial level was discovered at a Roman villa at North Fleet in Kent, and using the features found there - such as malting ovens and lined tanks for steeping the grain - archaeologists knew what to look for at smaller sites.
One of those was Berryfields, a development near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, excavated between 2007 and 2016.
"Oven-like structures" often found at Roman settlements had previously been believed to be used for drying corn.
Industrial-levels of beer brewing were uncovered by archaeologists in Kent, including a malting tank (above), which helps them recognise similar but smaller brewing features at other sites
Mr Biddulph said now they are "recognised as malting ovens, used to heat partially germinated grain to produce malt".
"At Berryfields, we found evidence of malting and brewing and the tanks used to steep the grain before processing," he said.
"We tend to think of the Roman world as being very much a wine-loving place.
"But actually a lot of the population in Roman Britain were drinking beer and we see that in the pottery they were using, large beakers in the same sort of sizes as modern pint glasses."
Essex is famous for its Maldon Sea Salt company, but the Romans first extracted the condiment on industrial levels in the county
Another industry that began producing on an industrial scale was discovered at Stanford Wharf Nature Reserve, near Thurrock in Essex, in 2009.
The excavation revealed salt had been extracted there from the Iron Age, but that really ramped up in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Mr Biddulph said: "Salt was one of the most important commodities in the Roman world, not only used for flavour and to preserve food but in religious activity and for cleansing.
"In fact the Roman author Pliny the Elder said 'Civilised life can't proceed without salt'."
Image
They used tile-hearths to evaporate the salt as the industry ramped up from the late 3rd Century onwards, used for flavour, preservation and in religious rituals
With its location on the Thames estuary, the salt was probably exported to London, but also across the rest of the country and abroad. The county still hosts the industry, as the home of Maldon Sea Salt.
"And actually, more excitingly there was evidence that they made a fermented fish sauce, and fish sauce was like the Roman tomato sauce, that they used on absolutely everything," Mr Biddulph said.
For centuries, the sauce had been imported from Spain, but after that industry collapsed it looks like the Essex manufacturer stepped into the gap.
Archaeologists already knew two Roman villas had been discovered at this site near Corby, but in 2020 they unearthed evidence of late 3rd to early 4th Century industry
The 3rd Century onwards saw the establishment of large "villa estates", said Mr Biddulph.
The driver for that seems to have been the need to feed the Roman army, especially the soldiers stationed along the River Rhine in present-day Germany.
These estates also had their industrial areas, as an excavation near Corby, Northamptonshire, revealed in 2020.
An aerial shot of the kiln, set within a Roman mausoleum, reveals how much of the structures had survived the centuries
Evidence of pottery, ceramic building material such as roof tiles and bricks and lime, were unearthed but "a tile kiln was an exceptional discovery".
He said: "One of the features was a nice, really well-made engineered army-built road.
"There was no Roman fort there, but it just shows how connected these villa owners were to the elite and having their own army-built road really shows this.
And in a glimpse of its long-dead inhabitants, the imprint of a woman's sandal and animal footprints were found on some of the tile rejects, while another tile had a finger-made inscription.
Very large jars were being produced at a pottery at Horningsea
Goods like olive oil and wine were imported to Britain using large ceramic jars known as amphora, but Romano-Britons "produced their own big jars which could rival this pottery", said Mr Biddulph.
A 2021 excavation at Horningsea, next to the River Cam in Cambridgeshire, revealed it was a major pottery production area.
Mr Biddulph said: "Its most distinctive aspect was the production of very large jars.
"These may have been a specialist line, but it is unclear whether they were associated with a specific commodity, as transport containers, perhaps for flour, or whether they were simply a particularly successful form of all-purpose storage jar."
What he does believe is the pottery was producing the jars were most likely to have been used in the vicinity, unlike the imported amphora.
And what about the people who toiled in these industries?
"It's a tricky question because we don't have the evidence, but it was probably not just the enslaved, but a range of people," said Mr Biddulph.
"And it was a pretty tough life, not particularly pleasant, where ever you were on the social scale."
While the 3rd to 4th Centuries were the golden age of the Roman villa in Britain, they were typically at the heart of busy industrial sites
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9zz5pje04o
Beer and salt among Roman 'mega-industries'
Imagining Roman Britain conjures up images of emperors, gladiators, posh villas - and the army that held the empire together.
But a much more varied story is emerging, thanks to evidence uncovered by excavations in recent years.
Beer brewing was just one of the industries that grew rapidly to supply the military, and small towns and cities like Camulodunum (Colchester) and Verulamium (St Albans) in the three-and-a-half centuries of Roman rule.
So, what have these digs revealed about daily life in Roman Britain?
From invasion to industrialisation
The need to supply the army was a "key driver" of the growth of industries across Roman Britain
It took the Romans about 45 years to take over most of England and Wales after they invaded in AD 43, arriving in a disunited land
dominated by tribal leaders.
The need to supply their army was the "key driver", according to archaeologist Edward Biddulph, as well the urban centres they created. This led to the rapid industrial development.
The Oxford Archaeology senior project manager said pottery, building materials, metalwork and glass were all being produced across the country, but from the 3rd and 4th Centuries "we start to see mega industries".
"We know industrial activity was undertaken at a very large scale at a number of sites in Roman Britain and we have some very large sites that are helping us to really fill in the gaps in our knowledge, the missing pieces that we've long been struggling with," he said.
"One of the classic areas is malting and brewing, if you look at Roman Britain you see next to nothing about this, yet people must have been drinking beer."
Romano-Britons made a lot of beer
Large beer beakers like this one were discovered at Berryfields, alongside stone-line wells, timber-lined tanks, tile-lined drains, a malting oven and enormous quantities of germinated grain
Evidence of brewing on an industrial level was discovered at a Roman villa at North Fleet in Kent, and using the features found there - such as malting ovens and lined tanks for steeping the grain - archaeologists knew what to look for at smaller sites.
One of those was Berryfields, a development near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, excavated between 2007 and 2016.
"Oven-like structures" often found at Roman settlements had previously been believed to be used for drying corn.
Industrial-levels of beer brewing were uncovered by archaeologists in Kent, including a malting tank (above), which helps them recognise similar but smaller brewing features at other sites
Mr Biddulph said now they are "recognised as malting ovens, used to heat partially germinated grain to produce malt".
"At Berryfields, we found evidence of malting and brewing and the tanks used to steep the grain before processing," he said.
"We tend to think of the Roman world as being very much a wine-loving place.
"But actually a lot of the population in Roman Britain were drinking beer and we see that in the pottery they were using, large beakers in the same sort of sizes as modern pint glasses."
Sea salt and fish sauce
Essex is famous for its Maldon Sea Salt company, but the Romans first extracted the condiment on industrial levels in the county
Another industry that began producing on an industrial scale was discovered at Stanford Wharf Nature Reserve, near Thurrock in Essex, in 2009.
The excavation revealed salt had been extracted there from the Iron Age, but that really ramped up in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Mr Biddulph said: "Salt was one of the most important commodities in the Roman world, not only used for flavour and to preserve food but in religious activity and for cleansing.
"In fact the Roman author Pliny the Elder said 'Civilised life can't proceed without salt'."
They used tile-hearths to evaporate the salt as the industry ramped up from the late 3rd Century onwards, used for flavour, preservation and in religious rituals
With its location on the Thames estuary, the salt was probably exported to London, but also across the rest of the country and abroad. The county still hosts the industry, as the home of Maldon Sea Salt.
"And actually, more excitingly there was evidence that they made a fermented fish sauce, and fish sauce was like the Roman tomato sauce, that they used on absolutely everything," Mr Biddulph said.
For centuries, the sauce had been imported from Spain, but after that industry collapsed it looks like the Essex manufacturer stepped into the gap.
Villa estates as industrial hubs
Archaeologists already knew two Roman villas had been discovered at this site near Corby, but in 2020 they unearthed evidence of late 3rd to early 4th Century industry
The 3rd Century onwards saw the establishment of large "villa estates", said Mr Biddulph.
The driver for that seems to have been the need to feed the Roman army, especially the soldiers stationed along the River Rhine in present-day Germany.
These estates also had their industrial areas, as an excavation near Corby, Northamptonshire, revealed in 2020.
An aerial shot of the kiln, set within a Roman mausoleum, reveals how much of the structures had survived the centuries
Evidence of pottery, ceramic building material such as roof tiles and bricks and lime, were unearthed but "a tile kiln was an exceptional discovery".
He said: "One of the features was a nice, really well-made engineered army-built road.
"There was no Roman fort there, but it just shows how connected these villa owners were to the elite and having their own army-built road really shows this.
And in a glimpse of its long-dead inhabitants, the imprint of a woman's sandal and animal footprints were found on some of the tile rejects, while another tile had a finger-made inscription.
Major pottery production centre
Very large jars were being produced at a pottery at Horningsea
Goods like olive oil and wine were imported to Britain using large ceramic jars known as amphora, but Romano-Britons "produced their own big jars which could rival this pottery", said Mr Biddulph.
A 2021 excavation at Horningsea, next to the River Cam in Cambridgeshire, revealed it was a major pottery production area.
Mr Biddulph said: "Its most distinctive aspect was the production of very large jars.
"These may have been a specialist line, but it is unclear whether they were associated with a specific commodity, as transport containers, perhaps for flour, or whether they were simply a particularly successful form of all-purpose storage jar."
What he does believe is the pottery was producing the jars were most likely to have been used in the vicinity, unlike the imported amphora.
And what about the people who toiled in these industries?
"It's a tricky question because we don't have the evidence, but it was probably not just the enslaved, but a range of people," said Mr Biddulph.
"And it was a pretty tough life, not particularly pleasant, where ever you were on the social scale."
While the 3rd to 4th Centuries were the golden age of the Roman villa in Britain, they were typically at the heart of busy industrial sites
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9zz5pje04o
Floyd
Beloved of Ra
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- Apr 2, 2019
- Messages
- 11,134
Roman shrine found by hillfort archaeologists
Dr Paul Reilly said a circle of worn stone indicated some sort of shrine
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe was a Roman shrine in the remains of an Iron Age hillfort.
They have been excavating a site near Nesscliffe in Shropshire and found a circle of worn stone surrounded by post holes.
Dr Paul Reilly, from the University of Southampton, said it suggested people had been regularly walking around something.
He said information boards would be put up to explain their finds and Historic England had called their discovery "spectacular".
A team of amateur and professional archaeologists carried out five examinations of the hillfort site which is believed to have been created about 500 BC.
The latest visit will be their last and Dr Reilly, a research fellow at the university, said they would spend another week completing their searches.
That will include a search for more post holes.
They believed the shrine was created during the Roman occupation of Britain, between the first and fourth centuries, based on pottery fragments found nearby.
Post holes of various sizes appeared to have been cut into the bed-rock
The archaeologists are coming to the end of a series of digs at the site
Dr Reilly said he hoped to see artists' drawings of the site as it once was on information boards around the site.
He also said 3D reconstructions could be created and any objects found would be returned to the county and given to the Shrewsbury Museum in a couple of years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7lm61dy43o
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
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- Aug 19, 2003
- Messages
- 60,949
- Location
- Eblana
Ancient prison graffiti.
An archaeologist in Corinth, Greece, has identified the remains of a Roman prison — one of the few prisons identified from the Roman world.
Historical records indicate that "prisons must have existed in almost every Roman town, at least those that had a forum," Matthew Larsen, an archaeologist and associate professor of New Testament at the University of Copenhagen, wrote in the journal Hesperia. "Yet the archaeological remains of prisons have proven exceedingly hard to identify. There is scant evidence of what a Roman prison would have looked like, or where it would have been located."
The prison dates back around 1,600 years, to when the Roman Empire controlled the area and many people there had converted to Christianity. Larsen identified the prison by examining the site, its graffiti and records from an excavation back in 1901.
An important part of identifying the prison was the graffiti on the site's floor. It contains pleas, written in Greek, such as "may the fortune of those who suffer in this lawless place prevail. Lord, do not show mercy on the one who threw us in here." The flooring contains cracks, and it was unclear whether the prison was once at another location and the flooring from it had been reused at this site.
Larsen found that all of the graffiti was written within the boundaries of the cracks. This suggests that when the flooring was placed, there were already cracks there and that the prisoners wrote the pleas within the cracks, thus supporting the idea that this site was a prison.
Additionally, Larsen noted what appear to be the remains of "olpai" (jugs) and lamps on the east aisle of the prison. These would have provided prisoners with water and a bit of light. There was also evidence for a small latrine in one of the prison's chambers, and it may have been used by the prisoners or guards, Larsen said. ...
https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...dark-pleas-found-etched-into-roman-era-prison
An archaeologist in Corinth, Greece, has identified the remains of a Roman prison — one of the few prisons identified from the Roman world.
Historical records indicate that "prisons must have existed in almost every Roman town, at least those that had a forum," Matthew Larsen, an archaeologist and associate professor of New Testament at the University of Copenhagen, wrote in the journal Hesperia. "Yet the archaeological remains of prisons have proven exceedingly hard to identify. There is scant evidence of what a Roman prison would have looked like, or where it would have been located."
The prison dates back around 1,600 years, to when the Roman Empire controlled the area and many people there had converted to Christianity. Larsen identified the prison by examining the site, its graffiti and records from an excavation back in 1901.
An important part of identifying the prison was the graffiti on the site's floor. It contains pleas, written in Greek, such as "may the fortune of those who suffer in this lawless place prevail. Lord, do not show mercy on the one who threw us in here." The flooring contains cracks, and it was unclear whether the prison was once at another location and the flooring from it had been reused at this site.
Larsen found that all of the graffiti was written within the boundaries of the cracks. This suggests that when the flooring was placed, there were already cracks there and that the prisoners wrote the pleas within the cracks, thus supporting the idea that this site was a prison.
Additionally, Larsen noted what appear to be the remains of "olpai" (jugs) and lamps on the east aisle of the prison. These would have provided prisoners with water and a bit of light. There was also evidence for a small latrine in one of the prison's chambers, and it may have been used by the prisoners or guards, Larsen said. ...
https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...dark-pleas-found-etched-into-roman-era-prison
JamesWhitehead
Piffle Prospector
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- Aug 2, 2001
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- 14,561
"Biggus Dickus mecum - exi me hinc" 
Steven
Something about catseye
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- Nov 5, 2023
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- UK
Well that's not a very Christian sentiment.
maximus otter
Recovering policeman
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- Aug 9, 2001
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- 15,761
2,200-year old battering ram from epic battle between Rome and Carthage found in Mediterranean
A Roman battering ram found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea was used during an epic battle that unfolded more than 2,200 years ago.
Researchers used a deepwater submarine to recover the large bronze piece at a depth of 260 feet (80 meters) off the coast of Sicily's Aegadian Islands.
The ram was once attached to an ancient warship, according to the Sicily Superintendence of the Sea, part of the region's Department of Cultural Heritage, which announced the find.The ram would have been used during the Battle of the Aegates, an "important historical event" fought in 241 B.C. between Rome and Carthage, an ancient city in what is now Tunisia. Rams were a way for captains to crash into — and ultimately sink — enemy vessels.
The skirmish was the final battle of the First Punic War between the two superpowers, which lasted for 23 years and ultimately led to Carthage surrendering to Rome.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...kQ?cvid=71a8c0ceddce4c87dd2b8a8f0b450b0d&ei=7
maximus otter
A Roman battering ram found at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea was used during an epic battle that unfolded more than 2,200 years ago.
Researchers used a deepwater submarine to recover the large bronze piece at a depth of 260 feet (80 meters) off the coast of Sicily's Aegadian Islands.
The ram was once attached to an ancient warship, according to the Sicily Superintendence of the Sea, part of the region's Department of Cultural Heritage, which announced the find.The ram would have been used during the Battle of the Aegates, an "important historical event" fought in 241 B.C. between Rome and Carthage, an ancient city in what is now Tunisia. Rams were a way for captains to crash into — and ultimately sink — enemy vessels.
The skirmish was the final battle of the First Punic War between the two superpowers, which lasted for 23 years and ultimately led to Carthage surrendering to Rome.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...kQ?cvid=71a8c0ceddce4c87dd2b8a8f0b450b0d&ei=7
maximus otter
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2003
- Messages
- 60,949
- Location
- Eblana
Fregellae fragmented in feud,
A city razed by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago after its people rebelled was destroyed so badly that it "remained uninhabited for over 170 years," until it was repurposed into an ancient landfill, according to archaeologists who excavated the ancient site in Italy.
The ruins at Fregellae, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of Rome, date from the siege and destruction of the city by Roman armies in 125 B.C.
The reason for the rebellion isn't known, but archaeologists think it was because the people of Fregellae had demanded full Roman citizenship, instead of the "second-rate" citizenship — with fewer legal rights, especially regarding the ownership of public lands — that they had been granted by the Roman Republic. This long-running dispute culminated in the Social War roughly a generation later, from 91 to 87 B.C., when many of Rome’s allies in Italy demanded — and received — full Roman citizenship.
But there are few surviving historical records from the time of the Fregellae revolt, so archaeological studies are the best bet for determining what happened there, said Dominik Maschek, a professor of Roman archaeology at the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology and Trier University, both in Germany.
"It is only mentioned in two or three sources," Maschek told Live Science. "We hear about the siege, they tell us these people rebelled against the Romans, but we don't know why." ...
https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...habited-for-over-170-years-excavations-reveal
A city razed by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago after its people rebelled was destroyed so badly that it "remained uninhabited for over 170 years," until it was repurposed into an ancient landfill, according to archaeologists who excavated the ancient site in Italy.
The ruins at Fregellae, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of Rome, date from the siege and destruction of the city by Roman armies in 125 B.C.
The reason for the rebellion isn't known, but archaeologists think it was because the people of Fregellae had demanded full Roman citizenship, instead of the "second-rate" citizenship — with fewer legal rights, especially regarding the ownership of public lands — that they had been granted by the Roman Republic. This long-running dispute culminated in the Social War roughly a generation later, from 91 to 87 B.C., when many of Rome’s allies in Italy demanded — and received — full Roman citizenship.
But there are few surviving historical records from the time of the Fregellae revolt, so archaeological studies are the best bet for determining what happened there, said Dominik Maschek, a professor of Roman archaeology at the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology and Trier University, both in Germany.
"It is only mentioned in two or three sources," Maschek told Live Science. "We hear about the siege, they tell us these people rebelled against the Romans, but we don't know why." ...
https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...habited-for-over-170-years-excavations-reveal
SimonBurchell
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2001
- Messages
- 4,054
- Location
- Somewhere in the labyrinth
Huh. You beseige a city, raze it to the ground and leave no records... there's only one explanation... they were worshipping Cthulhu.
maximus otter
Recovering policeman
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2001
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- 15,761
Archaeologists Bewildered by Skeleton Made From the Bones of at Least Eight People Who Died Thousands of Years Apart
Back in the 1970s, when archaeologists excavated a skeleton from an ancient graveyard in Belgium, they thought they had found a typical Roman burial. But during a recent reexamination of the bones, researchers noticed peculiarities. For instance, the skeleton’s spine appeared to be made of both adolescent and adult vertebrae.
Veselka’s team used radiocarbon dating to analyze the individual bones; they also sequenced ancient DNA found in them. They found that the skeleton is made of bones from at least eight unrelated men and women, according to a recent study published in the journal Antiquity.
:focal(792x543:793x544)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/a4/26/a426c7fb-e4cc-499d-81a3-de0eb2923e37/urn_cambridgeorg_id_binary-alt_20241019094932-63883-optimisedimage-png-s0003598x24001583_fig2.jpeg)
Researchers performed DNA testing on the bones highlighted in this image. Paumen, Wargnies and Demory / Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles / Veselka et al.
The skeleton was found in the town of Pommerœul, near Belgium’s border with France. Placed in the fetal position, it was the only intact body in a graveyard containing 76 cremation burials. Because of a bone pin found near the head, researchers initially concluded the burial was Roman, dating to the second or third century AD.
The skeleton’s bones are actually much older, with the earliest “contributor” dying nearly 4,445 years ago.
According to genetic analysis, its skull belongs to a Roman woman of the third or fourth century AD, whose DNA matches similarly-aged Roman remains in a nearby cemetery—probably siblings.
How did this composite Neolithic skeleton end up with a Roman skull more than 2,000 years later? As the researchers write, Gallo-Roman groups may have disturbed the old burial while interring their own dead. If it was headless, the Romans might have “completed” it by adding a skull of their own. If not, maybe they replaced the skull. Or maybe they created the entire amalgamated skeleton themselves.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...-who-died-thousands-of-years-apart-180985419/
maximus otter
Tanglebones
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2003
- Messages
- 2,500
Just chuck the head in there...she'll never know.
ramonmercado
CyberPunk
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2003
- Messages
- 60,949
- Location
- Eblana
Ancient drug spoons.
Tiny spoon-shaped implements carried by Roman era Germanic warriors may be evidence they used stimulants on the field of war.
According to a new analysis of the mysterious artifacts and their context, archaeologists and biologists believe that the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when they faced their opponents thousands of years ago.
What those drugs actually were is unknown; we'd have to find some evidence of them, such as residues, and that can be challenging after thousands of years have elapsed. But the concept isn't without precedent; and, if it can be validated, the team's hypothesis could reveal evidence of drug use among cultures outside of the Roman Empire.
This would be a big deal: although the use of drugs like opium is well documented in Greece and Rome, the use of narcotics and stimulants in ancient times outside of this region remains a mystery. Historians have previously assumed that the only drug that really saw use by the barbarians was alcohol, at least until much later in history.
Biologists Anna Jarosz-Wilkołazka and Anna Rysiak, and archaeologist Andrzej Jan Kokowski of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland, thought mysterious spoon-like implements might have been evidence to the contrary.
Illustrations of some of the spoons. (Jarosz-Wilkołazka et al., Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2024)
These strange objects keep turning up in the Roman-era burial sites in what are now Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland. Their handles measure 4 to 7 centimeters (1.6 to 2.8 inches) in length, with a bowl or flat disk on one end measuring 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter. They were often attached to the belts of men, but played no role in how the belt functioned.
https://www.sciencealert.com/roman-era-barbarians-carried-tiny-spoons-that-may-have-helped-in-battle
Tiny spoon-shaped implements carried by Roman era Germanic warriors may be evidence they used stimulants on the field of war.
According to a new analysis of the mysterious artifacts and their context, archaeologists and biologists believe that the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when they faced their opponents thousands of years ago.
What those drugs actually were is unknown; we'd have to find some evidence of them, such as residues, and that can be challenging after thousands of years have elapsed. But the concept isn't without precedent; and, if it can be validated, the team's hypothesis could reveal evidence of drug use among cultures outside of the Roman Empire.
This would be a big deal: although the use of drugs like opium is well documented in Greece and Rome, the use of narcotics and stimulants in ancient times outside of this region remains a mystery. Historians have previously assumed that the only drug that really saw use by the barbarians was alcohol, at least until much later in history.
Biologists Anna Jarosz-Wilkołazka and Anna Rysiak, and archaeologist Andrzej Jan Kokowski of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland, thought mysterious spoon-like implements might have been evidence to the contrary.
These strange objects keep turning up in the Roman-era burial sites in what are now Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland. Their handles measure 4 to 7 centimeters (1.6 to 2.8 inches) in length, with a bowl or flat disk on one end measuring 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter. They were often attached to the belts of men, but played no role in how the belt functioned.
https://www.sciencealert.com/roman-era-barbarians-carried-tiny-spoons-that-may-have-helped-in-battle
Floyd
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I don't get this.......Ancient drug spoons.
Tiny spoon-shaped implements carried by Roman era Germanic warriors may be evidence they used stimulants on the field of war.
According to a new analysis of the mysterious artifacts and their context, archaeologists and biologists believe that the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when they faced their opponents thousands of years ago.
What those drugs actually were is unknown; we'd have to find some evidence of them, such as residues, and that can be challenging after thousands of years have elapsed. But the concept isn't without precedent; and, if it can be validated, the team's hypothesis could reveal evidence of drug use among cultures outside of the Roman Empire.
This would be a big deal: although the use of drugs like opium is well documented in Greece and Rome, the use of narcotics and stimulants in ancient times outside of this region remains a mystery. Historians have previously assumed that the only drug that really saw use by the barbarians was alcohol, at least until much later in history.
Biologists Anna Jarosz-Wilkołazka and Anna Rysiak, and archaeologist Andrzej Jan Kokowski of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland, thought mysterious spoon-like implements might have been evidence to the contrary.
Illustrations of some of the spoons. (Jarosz-Wilkołazka et al., Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2024)
These strange objects keep turning up in the Roman-era burial sites in what are now Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland. Their handles measure 4 to 7 centimeters (1.6 to 2.8 inches) in length, with a bowl or flat disk on one end measuring 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter. They were often attached to the belts of men, but played no role in how the belt functioned.
https://www.sciencealert.com/roman-era-barbarians-carried-tiny-spoons-that-may-have-helped-in-battle
What those drugs actually were is unknown; we'd have to find some evidence of them, such as residues, and that can be challenging after thousands of years have elapsed. But the concept isn't without precedent; and, if it can be validated, the team's hypothesis could reveal evidence of drug use among cultures outside of the Roman Empire.
This would be a big deal: although the use of drugs like opium is well documented in Greece and Rome, the use of narcotics and stimulants in ancient times outside of this region remains a mystery. Historians have previously assumed that the only drug that really saw use by the barbarians was alcohol, at least until much later in history.
........when we have this;
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/prehistoric-ancient-drug-usage-drug-trade.4779/
Steven
Something about catseye
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There's an article in the Guardian about how, according to research, widespread use of lead in the Roman Empire era lowered IQs by several points. Apparently, the Romans were aware of how dangerous lead was but still used it for preserving and sweetening wine and much more. Some researchers even speculate that the lead/lowered-IQ duo massively contributed to the end of the Empire; I have a problem with this conclusion, despite being an unqualified twit:
1) It's been a trend since the Seventies, for historians at least, to declare that, say, the French Revolution occurred because of poor diet amongst the population; this 'lead' theory smacks of the same trend (in seeking a new and merely provocative 'angle').
2) Also, my reading of ancient Roman history implies that the very thing that made the Empire 'great' was actually the massively competitive, societal and peer-pressure-driven element of personal ambition. And it was this that, inevitably led to the breakdown of the Republic and the Empire - in a political sense - simply because terribly ambitious individuals like Sulla, Marius, Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, Augustus etc etc disregarded all rules, customs and precedents in their lust for personal power or glory. I find it very hard to blame all that on lead and its effect.
1) It's been a trend since the Seventies, for historians at least, to declare that, say, the French Revolution occurred because of poor diet amongst the population; this 'lead' theory smacks of the same trend (in seeking a new and merely provocative 'angle').
2) Also, my reading of ancient Roman history implies that the very thing that made the Empire 'great' was actually the massively competitive, societal and peer-pressure-driven element of personal ambition. And it was this that, inevitably led to the breakdown of the Republic and the Empire - in a political sense - simply because terribly ambitious individuals like Sulla, Marius, Pompey, Crassus, Caesar, Augustus etc etc disregarded all rules, customs and precedents in their lust for personal power or glory. I find it very hard to blame all that on lead and its effect.
SimonBurchell
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It's not a new theory. The suggestion that most of the emperors were absolutely barking mad because they used lead utensils has been around for a long time. This, rather than a person being given ultimate power and told they were essentially a god and could do what they liked without repercussions. I think the general history of despotism demonstrates that this does not go well, even when you aren't using lead utensils.
Floyd
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Is lead that dangerous in its solid form though anyway?
Smelting/melting it, maybe- like other things we burn- tobacco for eg.
Floyd
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It's often the case that the peasants' diet was far more healthy than that of the upper classes.
SimonBurchell
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I think it probably is - if you are eating off a lead plate with lead knife and fork, for every meal. That probably wasn't the case for most people.
Frideswide
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Lead pipes for water distribution to individual buildings. Made of plumbum in Latin - which is where our plumber comes from.
Does lead dissolve when under running water?
Does lead dissolve when under running water?
SimonBurchell
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It does indeed.
Floyd
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They always used to say to run the tap for a while first thing- which is what I still do now even though we aren't on lead.
I'm not sure if it helped at all regarding lead pipes though.
eziofan
Ephemeral Spectre
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And plumb line....
maximus otter
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Mass grave of over 120 Roman soldiers found under soccer field
Soccer field renovations near Vienna, Austria recently revealed a significant—if grim—archeological find: a mass grave dating back to the first century AD and Roman empire. The gravesite contained the skeletons of potentially over 150 soldiers.
2,000 years ago, Rome’s forces stretched into present-day Austria and established multiple military outposts across the region. One of the largest garrisons constructed was a settlement known as Vindobona on the Danube River, and it eventually grew to include 16,000 to 20,000 residents. Rome ultimately left Vindobona to the Huns in 433 AD, and the outpost was subsequently abandoned for centuries.
In October 2024, a construction team came across a sea of skeletal remains while working on renovations to a soccer field in Vienna’s neighboring town of Simmerling. Archeologists from the Vienna Museum soon visited the site and confirmed the extraordinary: a mass grave of at least 129 individuals, but likely many more. Further analysis confirmed that the bodies belonged almost exclusively to 20 to 30 year old Roman legionnaires, all of whom appear to display evidence of fatal battle injuries from spears, swords, daggers, and bolts.
But as surprising as this discovery is from an everyday perspective, it also proved hard for archeologists to believe. As history shows, Rome wasn’t known for its lack of military campaigns. But until the fourth century AD, Romans didn’t even bury bodies.Instead, they cremated them.
“Within the context of Roman acts of war, there are no comparable finds of fighters,” dig leader Michaela Binder [said.]
https://www.popsci.com/science/roman-soldier-mass-grave/
maximus otter
Soccer field renovations near Vienna, Austria recently revealed a significant—if grim—archeological find: a mass grave dating back to the first century AD and Roman empire. The gravesite contained the skeletons of potentially over 150 soldiers.
2,000 years ago, Rome’s forces stretched into present-day Austria and established multiple military outposts across the region. One of the largest garrisons constructed was a settlement known as Vindobona on the Danube River, and it eventually grew to include 16,000 to 20,000 residents. Rome ultimately left Vindobona to the Huns in 433 AD, and the outpost was subsequently abandoned for centuries.
In October 2024, a construction team came across a sea of skeletal remains while working on renovations to a soccer field in Vienna’s neighboring town of Simmerling. Archeologists from the Vienna Museum soon visited the site and confirmed the extraordinary: a mass grave of at least 129 individuals, but likely many more. Further analysis confirmed that the bodies belonged almost exclusively to 20 to 30 year old Roman legionnaires, all of whom appear to display evidence of fatal battle injuries from spears, swords, daggers, and bolts.
But as surprising as this discovery is from an everyday perspective, it also proved hard for archeologists to believe. As history shows, Rome wasn’t known for its lack of military campaigns. But until the fourth century AD, Romans didn’t even bury bodies.Instead, they cremated them.
“Within the context of Roman acts of war, there are no comparable finds of fighters,” dig leader Michaela Binder [said.]
https://www.popsci.com/science/roman-soldier-mass-grave/
maximus otter
Steven
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Bite marks on York skeleton reveal first evidence of ‘gladiators’ fighting lions
'Bite marks from a lion on a man’s skeleton, excavated from a 1,800-year-old cemetery on the outskirts of York, provide the first physical evidence of human-animal combat in the Roman empire, new research claims.
While clashes between combatants, big cats and bears are described and depicted in ancient texts and mosaics, there had previously been no convincing proof from human remains to confirm that these skirmishes formed part of Roman entertainment.
Prof Tim Thompson, an anthropologist and first author on the study at Maynooth University in Ireland, said: “This is the first time we have physical evidence for gladiators fighting, or being involved in a spectacle, with big cats like lions in the Roman empire.”
Excavations at the Driffield Terrace burial site, near York city centre, began more than 20 years ago and uncovered about 80 decapitated skeletons. Most belonged to well-built young men and bore signs of brutal violence, leading experts to suspect they had uncovered a gladiator graveyard.'
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...l-first-evidence-of-gladiators-fighting-lions
'Bite marks from a lion on a man’s skeleton, excavated from a 1,800-year-old cemetery on the outskirts of York, provide the first physical evidence of human-animal combat in the Roman empire, new research claims.
While clashes between combatants, big cats and bears are described and depicted in ancient texts and mosaics, there had previously been no convincing proof from human remains to confirm that these skirmishes formed part of Roman entertainment.
Prof Tim Thompson, an anthropologist and first author on the study at Maynooth University in Ireland, said: “This is the first time we have physical evidence for gladiators fighting, or being involved in a spectacle, with big cats like lions in the Roman empire.”
Excavations at the Driffield Terrace burial site, near York city centre, began more than 20 years ago and uncovered about 80 decapitated skeletons. Most belonged to well-built young men and bore signs of brutal violence, leading experts to suspect they had uncovered a gladiator graveyard.'
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...l-first-evidence-of-gladiators-fighting-lions
Steven
Something about catseye
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Amateur archaeologists unearth winged goddess at Hadrian’s Wall
'A striking Roman depiction of the winged goddess of victory has been discovered near Hadrian’s Wall by volunteers helping archaeologists on an official excavation. The stone relief was found by a Merseyside couple at Vindolanda, the site of the important Roman fort near Hexham, Northumberland.
Rob Collins, a professor of Frontier Archaeology at Newcastle University, has identified the figure as Victory, the personification of victory in Roman religion and mythology, revered during times of war and often credited for battlefield success. The barracks at Vindolanda were built at the end of a tumultuous time for the Romans in Britain, in about AD213, just after the Severan wars.'
https://www.theguardian.com/science...nged-goddess-hadrians-wall-vindolanda-victory
'A striking Roman depiction of the winged goddess of victory has been discovered near Hadrian’s Wall by volunteers helping archaeologists on an official excavation. The stone relief was found by a Merseyside couple at Vindolanda, the site of the important Roman fort near Hexham, Northumberland.
Rob Collins, a professor of Frontier Archaeology at Newcastle University, has identified the figure as Victory, the personification of victory in Roman religion and mythology, revered during times of war and often credited for battlefield success. The barracks at Vindolanda were built at the end of a tumultuous time for the Romans in Britain, in about AD213, just after the Severan wars.'
https://www.theguardian.com/science...nged-goddess-hadrians-wall-vindolanda-victory
ramonmercado
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From Jason Colavito's eNewsletter • Vol. 26 • Issue 24 • June 8, 2025 •
This is a bit of a specialist topic to be sure, but I put together a page on the fragments of Bruttius *(or Bouttios), a fourth-century writer who wrote an apparently influential volume on the bad behavior of pagan kings that does not survive. Although he has only three surviving fragments, thousands of pages have been written about Bruttius, and no two scholars seem to agree on who he was, what he wrote, or why he wrote it. Many of the relevant texts are not readily available online so now you, too, can experience the weirdness that is the very strange writing of Bruttius and his oddball ideas about ancient myths and legends. And if you like Bruttius, you’ll love the largely ignored but even more bizarre stories of Pesudo-Diocles, a ninth-century writer pretending to be a third-century BCE scholar relating the true history of the founding of Rome. I found a rare translation of this unusual Syriac text.
* https://www.jasoncolavito.com/fragments-of-bruttius.html
This is a bit of a specialist topic to be sure, but I put together a page on the fragments of Bruttius *(or Bouttios), a fourth-century writer who wrote an apparently influential volume on the bad behavior of pagan kings that does not survive. Although he has only three surviving fragments, thousands of pages have been written about Bruttius, and no two scholars seem to agree on who he was, what he wrote, or why he wrote it. Many of the relevant texts are not readily available online so now you, too, can experience the weirdness that is the very strange writing of Bruttius and his oddball ideas about ancient myths and legends. And if you like Bruttius, you’ll love the largely ignored but even more bizarre stories of Pesudo-Diocles, a ninth-century writer pretending to be a third-century BCE scholar relating the true history of the founding of Rome. I found a rare translation of this unusual Syriac text.
* https://www.jasoncolavito.com/fragments-of-bruttius.html
Steven
Something about catseye
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This is rather poignant and touching, I think:
'Roman marble grave stele, from 2nd C AD found in Dorylaeum (near Eskişehir). "People, who could not afford to have a real tomb chamber would suffice with only the depiction of a door symbolizing a tomb chamber." Istanbul Archaeology Museums in Istanbul, Turkey.'
(Picture: small version of a photograph from Decimus Claudius's excellent page)
https://x.com/decimusclaudius
'Roman marble grave stele, from 2nd C AD found in Dorylaeum (near Eskişehir). "People, who could not afford to have a real tomb chamber would suffice with only the depiction of a door symbolizing a tomb chamber." Istanbul Archaeology Museums in Istanbul, Turkey.'
(Picture: small version of a photograph from Decimus Claudius's excellent page)
https://x.com/decimusclaudius