Category Archives: EUROPE

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

15th-Century Theater Floorboards Uncovered in Norfolk

15th-Century Theater Floorboards Uncovered in Norfolk

A theater in Norfolk believes it has discovered the only surviving stage on which William Shakespeare performed. St George’s Guildhall in King’s Lynn is the oldest working theater in the UK, dating back to 1445.

William Shakespeare acted as well as writing some of the greatest works of English drama

During recent renovations, timber floorboards were found under the existing auditorium, and they have been dated back to the 15th century. The theater claims documents show that Shakespeare acted at the venue in 1592 or 1593.

At the time, acting companies left the capital when theaters in London were closed due to the plague. The Earl of Pembroke’s Men, thought to include Shakespeare, visited King’s Lynn.

“We have the borough account book from 1592–93, which records that the borough paid Shakespeare’s company to come and play in the venue,” explains Tim FitzHigham, the Guildhall’s creative director.

15th-Century Theater Floorboards Uncovered in Norfolk
Dr Jonathan Clark showing Colin Paterson the original floorboards

The floorboards were uncovered last month during a renovation project at the Guildhall. They had been covered up for 75 years after a replacement floor was installed in the theater.

Dr. Jonathan Clark, an expert in historical buildings, was brought on board to research the venue. “We wanted to open up an area just to check, just to see if there was an earlier floor surviving here. And lo and behold, we found this,” he says, pointing through a temporary trapdoor.

A couple of inches below the modern floor are what he believes to be boards trodden by the Bard, each 12 inches (30cm) wide and 6 inches deep.

Dr. Clark used a combination of tree-ring dating and a survey of how the building was assembled (“really unusual as the boards locked together and were then pegged through to some massive bridging beams”) to date the floor to between 1417 and 1430 when the Guildhall was originally built.

“We know that these [floorboards] were definitely here in 1592, and in 1592 we think Shakespeare was performing in King’s Lynn, so this is likely to be the surface that Shakespeare was walking on,” he says.

“It’s this end of the hall where performances took place.”

St George’s Guildhall in King’s Lynn is hosting a discussion about the discovery

Dr. Clark believes this is a hugely important discovery because not only is it the largest 15th-century timber floor in the country, but it would also be the sole surviving example of a stage on which Shakespeare acted.

“It’s the only upper floor, which is in something of its original state, where he could have been walking or performing,” he says.

There has been much academic debate over the years about whether Shakespeare did act in King’s Lynn, but experts say the discovery is significant.

Tiffany Stern, professor of Shakespeare and early modern drama at the University of Birmingham, tells the BBC: “The evidence he was there has to be patched together but is quite strong.”

It was “very likely” that he was a member of the Earl of Pembroke’s Men because they performed his plays Henry VI and Titus Andronicus, and they did visit King’s Lynn in 1593, she says.

Michael Dobson, director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, says: “The uncovering of the actual boards really trodden by Shakespeare’s troupe during their tours of East Anglia should be far more significant to archaeologists of the Elizabethan theatre than is the conjectural replica of the Globe theatre erected near the real, long-demolished Globe’s foundations in central London in the 1990s.”

Upstart crow

Back at the venue, FitzHigham believes a number of theories strengthen the argument that Shakespeare performed there.

Shakespeare’s comedian Robert Armin was born just one street away, he notes, while a Norfolk writer called Robert Greene famously described the Bard as an “upstart crow” in what was essentially a bad review in 1592.

The debate will continue. On Thursday, the discovery will be discussed at a talk at the venue called Revealing the Secrets of the Guildhall. Finally, FitzHigham takes me underneath the stage, making us squeeze between beams and using a torch, to allow a closer look at the huge expanse of medieval floorboards, which he explains is the size of a tennis court.

“600 years old,” he says with a real sense of wonder.

“Not just Shakespeare’s trodden on it, but everyone in between and we’re trying to make that safe and share it with everybody for the next hundreds of years going forward.”

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Paleolithic ‘art sanctuary’ in Spain contains more than 110 prehistoric cave paintings

Paleolithic ‘art sanctuary’ in Spain contains more than 110 prehistoric cave paintings

Archaeologists have discovered more than 110 prehistoric cave paintings and engravings dating to at least 24,000 years ago near Valencia, Spain.

Paleolithic 'art sanctuary' in Spain contains more than 110 prehistoric cave paintings
An archeologist illuminates a part of the cave in Spain that’s rich with artistic motifs.

The Paleolithic, or Stone Age, rock art is “arguably the most important found on the Eastern Iberian Coast in Europe,” the team said in a statement about the finding.

Locals and hikers have long known about Cova Dones (also spelled Cueva Dones), a 1,640-foot-long (500 meters) cave in the municipality of Millares. Although Iron Age finds were known from the cave, the Paleolithic artwork wasn’t documented until researchers discovered it in 2021.

At first, the team found four painted motifs, including the head of an aurochs (Bos primigenius), an extinct cattle species. Additional work in 2023 revealed the site as a “major Palaeolithic art sanctuary,” the researchers wrote in a study published Sept. 8 in the journal Antiquity.

“When we saw the first painted auroch[s], we immediately acknowledged it was important,” Aitor Ruiz-Redondo, a senior lecturer of prehistory at the University of Zaragoza in Spain and a research affiliate at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said in the statement.

Spain has the most Paleolithic cave-art sites in the world, including the up to 36,000-year-old cave art at La Cueva de Altamira, but most are found in the northern part of the country, making the location of the new find unique. “Eastern Iberia is an area where few of these sites have been documented so far,” Ruiz-Redondo said.

An engraved hind (female red deer) etched into the wall of the cave.

The Paleolithic compositions stand out due to the sheer number of motifs and techniques used to make them.

The cave may even exhibit the most Stone Age motifs of any cave in Europe; the last big discovery of this kind was the finding of at least 70 cave paintings from up to 14,500 years ago at Atxurra in Spain’s northern Basque Country, in 2015.

In the new study, the researchers documented at least 19 depictions of animals, including horses, hinds (female red deer), aurochs and a stag.

The other art includes signs like rectangles, isolated lines and “macaroni” shallow-groove lines made by dragging fingers or tools across a soft surface. Many of the motifs were made using red, iron-rich clay — a technique rarely seen in Paleolithic art, the researchers said.

“Animals and signs were depicted simply by dragging the fingers and palms covered with clay on the walls,” Ruiz-Redondo said.

The cave’s humid environment helped the paintings dry slowly, “preventing parts of the clay from falling down rapidly, while other parts were covered by calcite layers, which preserved them until today,” he said.

Some of the engravings were crafted by scraping limestone on the cave’s walls, the team added.

The investigations of the “rich graphic assemblage” are still in the early stages, as there are still more areas of the cave to survey and panels to document, the researchers wrote in the study.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

The Marble Head of Alexander the Great was Unearthed in Turkey

The Marble Head of Alexander the Great was Unearthed in Turkey

The head of a marble statue of Alexander the Great unearthed in Turkey shows the enduring popularity of the ancient ruler hundreds of years after his death, experts say.

The Marble Head of Alexander the Great was Unearthed in Turkey
The head of the marble statue was found last month amid the ruins of a second-century theater at Konuralp, in northwest Turkey near the city of Düzce.

The object was found amid the ruins of the upper levels of a Roman-era theater at Konuralp, north of Düzce and near Turkey’s northwest coast, and is thought to date to the second century. Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C, so the statue may have been made more than 400 years after his death.

The remains of other marble statues, including heads of the Greek god Apollo and the mythical monster Medusa, have also been found in the ruins of the theater, the Düzce Municipality wrote in a statement in Turkish.

Alexander was a popular figure in the ancient world long after his untimely death at age 32 at Babylon beside the Euphrates river, historian Paul Cartledge, a professor at the University of Cambridge and the author of “Alexander the Great: the Hunt for a New Past” (Overlook Press, 2004), told Live Science.

One reason for Alexander’s enduring popularity was that his successors promoted him as an ideal ruler whom they hoped to emulate. “The contenders for his throne, and therefore his empire, used his name and said ‘he was terrific,'” said Cartledge, who wasn’t involved in the new discovery.

It also became common for later rulers to make coins containing Alexander’s image as a way to legitimize their reigns, he said.

Experts say the marble head has many distinctive features from a statue of Alexander the Great, including a hairstyle meant to look like a lion’s mane and upward-looking eyes.

Macedonian king

After analyzing the marble head, historical experts determined it was a portrayal of Alexander, according to the statement.

“[He] is depicted with deep and upward-looking eyes … and a slightly open mouth that barely reveals its teeth,” Düzce Municipality officials said in the statement, which also noted the distinctive hairstyle on the statue.

“The two tufts of hair in the middle of the forehead, which are separated from the back and sides, are like a lion’s mane,” they said in the translated statement. “This depiction is a hairstyle unique to Alexander the Great.”

Alexander was one of the most famous rulers of the ancient world. Born in 356 B.C., he became the king of Macedonia, a territory north of Greece, in 336. His father, Philip II of Macedon, had already succeeded in uniting Greece under his rule.

Although not born in Greece, Alexander was enamored of Greek culture and spread it as he began a campaign of military conquests to the south and east, which culminated in his defeat of the powerful Persian Empire in a series of battles between 334 B.C. and 331 B.C.

Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. but he remained a popular figure for hundreds of years under the Roman Empire, which ruled this region at that time.

Mighty empire

At its height, Alexander’s empire stretched from Greece and Egypt to Bactria, roughly in what’s now Afghanistan, to the Punjab in what’s now Pakistan. But his army refused to go any farther, and Alexander returned to Babylon, where he died a few years later—probably from an illness, but possibly from drinking too much or because he was poisoned, Cartledge said.

When the Romans conquered much of the ancient world—including the kingdom of Bithynia, in the region where the new statue was found—they, too, regarded Alexander the Great as an ideal ruler.

Indeed, Alexander’s habit of shaving his face—as opposed to sporting beards, like most past rulers did—influenced Roman emperors and led Romans to shave, because it was thought to be the correct thing for rulers to do, Cartledge said.

Alexander seemed to have taken up the habit because he wanted to be seen like the Greek god Apollo, who was portrayed without a beard.

For the same reason, many statues of Alexander portrayed his eyes looking upward toward the gods, Cartledge said, and upward-looking eyes are one feature of the statue discovered at Konuralp.

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Dazzling Treasures Unearthed in Bronze Age Grave Possible Belonged to a Queen

Dazzling Treasures Unearthed in Bronze Age Grave Possible Belonged to a Queen

The burial of a woman who lived and died thousands of years ago may change our perceptions of the El Argar, one of Europe’s most sophisticated Bronze Age civilizations.

It’s one of the most lavish burials from the European Bronze Age, and despite the fact that the woman was buried with a man, the majority of the expensive grave goods belonged to her, indicating that she was of much higher social status.

Dazzling Treasures Unearthed in Bronze Age Grave Possible Belonged to a Queen

Researchers led by archaeologist Vicente Lull of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain concluded that women in this culture may have played a more significant political role than previously assumed by comparing her grave to that of other El Argar women.

The grave itself, a large ceramic jar named Grave 38, was discovered in 2014, at the La Almoloya archaeological site on the Iberian Peninsula, Spain.

It was found beneath the floor of what seems to be the governing hall filled with benches in a palace, an interpretation bolstered by the richness of the grave contents.

“The general lack of artifacts on the floor of [the hall] H9, combined with the structural prominence of the benches, indicate that social gatherings of up to 50 individuals could be held in this large room,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

“We can only speculate as to whether such meetings were intended for discussion and participation in shared decision-making or, rather, for the transmission of orders within a hierarchical chain of command.

That the grave offerings of grave 38 far exceed those from any other contemporaneous tomb in La Almoloya, and in many other sites, suggests the second option.”

The jar contained the remains of two individuals – a man, who died between the ages of 35 and 40, and a woman, who died between the ages of 25 and 30.

Genetic analyses confirmed that they were unrelated, but radiocarbon dating shows they died at the same time or very close together, around 1730 BCE. Remains found not far from the grave were related to both – their daughter.

The man’s bones showed signs of wear and tear consistent with long-term physical activity, perhaps horse-riding, and a healed traumatic injury to the front of his head.

The woman’s bones showed signs of congenital abnormalities, including a missing rib, only six cervical vertebrae, and fused sacral vertebrae. Markings on her ribs could have been produced by a lung infection when she died.

Nevertheless, she seemed to have been wealthy. The pair was buried with 29 items, most of which were made of silver, and most of which seemed to belong to the woman – necklaces, bracelets on her arms, an awl with a silver-coated handle, and silver-coated ceramic pots, the latter two of which would have required a great deal of skill in silversmithing.

The man wasn’t without ornaments: his arm was adorned with a copper bracelet; he wore a necklace of seven large, colored beads; a dagger with silver rivets lay alongside him; and two gold ear tunnels were likely his, too.

But it was what the woman wore on her head that really excited the research team: a silver circlet, or diadem, placed with a silver disc that would have extended down to her forehead or the bridge of her nose. It’s similar to four other diadems found in the 19th century in richly appointed women’s graves.

“The singularity of these diadems is extraordinary. They were symbolic objects made for these women, thus transforming them into emblematic subjects of the dominant ruling class,” said archaeologist Cristina Rihuete-Herrada of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.

“Each piece is unique, comparable to funerary objects pertaining to the ruling class of other regions, such as Brittany, Wessex and Unetice, or in the eastern Mediterranean of the 17th century BCE, contemporary to our Grave 38.”

The silver in the grave goods had a combined weight of around 230 grams (8 ounces). This is a staggering amount of wealth to bury: in Babylon at this time, the daily wages for a laborer were around 0.23 to 0.26 grams of silver. These two people were buried with 938 days’ worth of Babylonian wages.

Previous analyses had proposed that the women buried in such rich graves were either sovereigns, or the wives of sovereigns. It’s still impossible to tell, but the research team believes that the evidence points towards the former.

“In the Argaric society, women of the dominant classes were buried with diadems, while the men were buried with a sword and dagger,” they explained.

“The funerary goods buried with these men were of lesser quantity and quality. As swords represent the most effective instrument for reinforcing political decisions, El Argar dominant men might have played an executive role, even though the ideological legitimation as well as, perhaps, the government, had lain in some women’s hands.”

As women have wielded political power often throughout history, would that really be such a surprise? The research has been published in Antiquity.

ESTONIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Archeologists discover human bones and Viking-era settlement in Viru-Nigula

Archeologists discover human bones and Viking-era settlements in Viru-Nigula

During an archeological dig ahead of planned roadworks in Viru-Nigula, Lääne-Viru County, human bones were discovered in the vicinity of the church wall. The archaeological work confirms researchers’ earlier hypothesis that the cemetery and church were built in the medieval period on the site of an earlier settlement.

During the archaeological excavations, a total of 11 human skeletons have been discovered. Four of those found had most likely been buried in a common grave. Preliminary estimates place the burial date of the finds somewhere between the 16th and 18th centuries.

The findings from Viru-Nigula will provide bone researchers with valuable information regarding methods used to treat illnesses and injuries at that time.

“There are a number of interesting pathologies, bone fractures, and injuries that are interesting to observe in my line of work. One [skeleton] has a fracture of the femur, for example. It will be interesting to see how that person deals with it.

Clearly, someone had to care for and treat them. There’s a perception about these types of severe fractures that people at that time didn’t survive them, but in fact, they did manage to cope with them. Of course, they weren’t put in the hospital and fixed up like they are nowadays, but they have healed nicely,” said bioarcheologist and bone specialist Martin Malve.

In addition to the medieval cemetery, the location of a settlement with a history dating back to the Viking Age was also discovered at the site.

“There are a lot of pottery shards and nails, and there are also plenty of animal bones – fish bones, bird bones, for example, so the material is very rich, in addition to the human bones. We can learn what people ate and which utensils they used.

We are also taking soil samples from here, where we are trying to get plant residue, which should provide us with information about their agricultural practices,” Malve said.

Archeologists discover human bones and Viking-era settlements in Viru-Nigula

The finds from different eras will inevitably lead to imaginations running wild, with plenty of speculation about what kinds of events may have taken place in Viru-Nigula at the end of antiquity, 800 years ago, and during the Crusades.

“People’s romanticism has led to suggestions that the village was burnt down, or that the Germans came and destroyed the village. But what actually happened, we don’t know.

Perhaps part of the village was deserted or demolished or a church was built in the center. If you look at the maps of the settlement and the cultural layer of the area, there is evidence that the church and the cemetery were built right in the middle of the village,” Malve said.

The two-week archaeological dig in Viru-Nigula is scheduled to end on Sunday.

CROATIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Ancient Greek helmet found buried next to ‘elite warrior’ who died 2,400 years ago

Ancient Greek helmet found buried next to ‘elite warrior’ who died 2,400 years ago

A very rare bronze Greek-Illyrian war helmet, used in Greece during the time of the Greco-Persian Wars, has just been discovered in a rock-cut tomb in Dalmatia, Croatia.

The form of the iconic open-faced helmet, which archaeologists consider an especially rare find, originated in the Peloponnese during the 8th and 7th centuries BC.

Ancient Greek helmet found buried next to ‘elite warrior’ who died 2,400 years ago
The Greek-Illyrian war helmet was found in southern Dalmatia, Croatia in December of 2020.

The spectacular find was made recently during the exploration of the cave tomb in Zakotarac, located on the Pelješac peninsula, in southern Dalmatia, Croatia. The tomb was for a warrior buried approximately three centuries later, however, in the 4th century BC.

The rare find, accompanied by many other valuable objects from the era, was discovered within a previously-unknown rock-cut tomb along a hillside near Gradina.

This particular style of helmet, which became the iconic head covering of Greek warriors over the centuries, was first used by the ancient Greek Etruscans and Scythians. It later became known as the Illyrian helmet.

An alternate form of this helmet was also developed in Italy, according to archaeologists who gleaned this information from depictions on ivory relief sculptures. However, this style of helmet became obsolete in most areas of Greece in the early 5th century BC and its common use in Illyria ended by the 4th century BC.

Part of the warrior’s skull appears to be visible from the openings of the helmet, although earth has over the millennia made its way into where the rest of his head would be.

Archaeologists working at the grave site in Croatia.

Adding to the importance of the find, archaeologists also discovered a treasure trove of ancient weapons, including spears and knives, in the same Croatian grave.

At least two other people had been buried along with the warrior, including a woman, who was found wearing a bronze bracelet.

According to a report in Archaeology News Network, additional treasures at the gravesite included “fifteen bronze and silver fibulae (clasps), twelve needles, several spiral bronze ornaments and tweezers and several hundred glass paste and amber beads belonging to necklaces.”

The spectacular find was made when archaeologists were working on restoring a damaged burial mound. The rectangular space of the mound measured approximately 3 x 2 meters (9.84 x 6.56 feet).

The body of the warrior had been laid to rest in a west-east direction in the tomb, but unfortunately, his bones were found in a “rather poor condition,” according to the archaeologists.

The site of the 4th-century BC grave site in Croatia. In the distance is a hilltop settlement of Gradina that Archaeologists believe may hold further important discoveries.

The tomb dates back to earlier than the nearby colony on Korčula, which is known to have been founded in the late 4th or early 3rd century BC, according to the project coordinator, Dr. Hrvoje Potrebica, from the Department of Archaeology of Zagreb University.

The discovery was made possible after last year’s visit to western Peljesac by a team from Croatia’s Center for Prehistoric Research. In the process of exploring this area, they were able to identify potential archaeological dig sites at the Illyrian Cave Sanctuary at Nakovana, dating back to the 4th to 1st centuries BC.

Priceless objects to accompany the dead in the afterlife

During this reconnaissance, they found grave goods deposited around a stalagmite. Professor Potrebica holds that the fourth century BC Greek-Illyrian helmet “is exceptionally rare” and is one of  only about forty such helmets that have ever been found in all of Europe.

Another treasure found in the grave were thirty vases of predominantly Greek origin — although the researchers believe that they had been made by both Attic and Italian workshops.

According to the archeologists, these types of vessels were among the most expensive vases made during that period. Along with these rare discoveries, the researchers were able to pinpoint many other previously unknown sites in Nakovana, Professor Potrebica stated.

The researchers additionally were able to examine another group of prehistoric mounds around the Croatian village of Zakotorac. Following a road that is believed to have been trodden in prehistoric times, they came upon yet another site known as “the Vidohovo spring.”

The archaeologists state that they believe this site will yield yet more treasures, possibly including a shrine, with Dr. Potrebica adding that it holds “enormous potential.”

An ancient Greek vase was found at the Croatian burial site.

In 2021, after all the pandemic-related restrictions will be lifted, the archeological team hopes that they will once again be able to return to this site, which will enable them to lace these finds into their proper historical context.

Dr. Potrebica told interviewers that the discovery of the bronze war helmet, along with the other “exceptional finds” on Korcula, are presenting archaeologists with a new understanding of the “importance of the southern Adriatic in the historical dynamics of this part of Europe.”

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Family Looking For Lost Gold Ring Finds Viking Age Artifacts In Their Garden On The Island Of Jomfruland

Family Looking For Lost Gold Ring Finds Viking Age Artifacts In Their Garden On The Island Of Jomfruland

While searching for a missing gold ring with a metal detector, a family in Norway found, to their big surprise, something entirely different in their garden on the island of Jomfruland.

Jan Erik Aasvik has a metal detector he almost never uses, but he thought he would try it to search for his mother’s missing gold ring.

Family Looking For Lost Gold Ring Finds Viking Age Artifacts In Their Garden On The Island Of Jomfruland
The artifacts were found by the Aasvik family. Suit buckles were not uncommon in the Viking Age. They functioned as decoration and helped keep clothes in place, says archaeologist Vibeke Lia.

After finding a couple of different objects, the detector began beeping distinctly louder than on previous finds. Aasvik suspected this was a sign that something bigger was hidden beneath the soil, but what could it be?

“I took the spade and started digging. I think I was probably no further down than about 20-30 centimeters. I didn’t understand what it was, but it looked old.

I am a member of a group of people who use metal detectors, so I posted a picture there. I am a beginner, but in that group, there are many who have more experience than me”, Aasvik told Kragerø Vestmar.

The Aasvik family was as surprised as happy.

The Aasvik family had discovered a bowl-shaped buckle and a round buckle. Both objects have been there since the 8th century and were used together with clothing in the Viking Age.

Archaeologist Vibeke Lia in Vestfold and Telemark County Municipality, who has seen the buckles, says it is an incredible find, and 1,200-year-old artifacts are in good condition.

“As far as I know, it is the first secure find we have from the Viking Age on Jomfruland,” Lia told the NRK Vestfoldogtelemark, adding this is an exciting archaeological find.

The buckle proves people lived on the island of Jomfruland during the Viking Age.

It is possible there may be a Viking Age grave belonging to a woman at the site, the Cultural Heritage Department in Vestfold and Telemark County said in a press statement.

The find is significant to the history of the region. It was previously assumed people lived on the island in Kragerø during the Viking Age, but scientists have been unable to confirm it until now.

Lia believes there may be more objects in the ground at the site but says digging for more is inappropriate.

“If it is a grave, it is protected. We will rather try to find out more in other ways,” she said.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Archaeologists recently unearthed the remains of a Roman cosmetic and jewelry shop in Turkey.

Archaeologists recently unearthed the remains of a Roman cosmetic and jewelry shop in Turkey.

Archaeologists recently unearthed the remains of a Roman cosmetic and jewelry shop in Turkey.
Archaeologists found makeup fragments in brightly-colored hues in the remains of a cosmetics shop in Aizanoi.

Excavations of the ancient city of Aizanoi in modern-day western Turkey have focused on the area near the Temple of Zeus in Anatolia, which was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in 2012, according to the Anadolu Agency.

The team of archaeologists has been focusing on the agora, or marketplace, east of the Temple of Zeus, said excavation head Gokhan Coskun, an archaeologist at Dumlupinar University.

“We determined that the place we completely uncovered was a shop that sold cosmetic products such as perfumes, jewelry, and makeup materials,” Coskun said.

“During the excavation here, we encountered a large number of perfume bottles. In addition to these, there are jewelry items. Among these, there are various beads belonging to products such as hairpins and necklaces used by women.”

Makeup kits found at the site still contained brightly-colored eyeshadow and blush, similar to makeup used today. During the Roman Empire, makeup materials were often placed inside oyster shells.

The makeup found at the Aizanoi agora was mostly in shades of bright pink and red.

“One of the most surprising findings was that we came across were makeup pigments similar to blush and eyeshadow used today,” Coskun said.

“Of course, they are not in a very well-preserved state. Sometimes they are found in 1- or 2-millimeter pieces. We also found well-preserved pieces during the excavation.”

Coskun said they found “a large number” of oyster shells in the shop area. They uncovered makeup in 10 different colors, but the vast majority were in bright hues of red and pink.

The excavations at the Aizanoi marketplace have been yielding stunning results over recent years, with another discovery in 2021 producing a bone workshop with tools and an oil lamp shop with intact lamps.

“Findings from both shops show us that local products were manufactured in Aizanoi,” Coskun said at the time. “It is an important finding for us that important production activities were carried out in Aizanoi during the Roman era.”

Excavations in Aizanoi more broadly have been ongoing since 1926, with excavations of the agora site dating back to 1970, according to Arkeonews.

The city of Aizanoi has been a significant focus of excavation in recent years. Archaeologists have found evidence of several different settlements dating back to 3000 B.C.E., and in 133 B.C.E., it was captured by the Roman Empire.

Archaeologists believe that Aizanoi was an important political and economic center during the Roman Empire. Many remains of ancient buildings and statues have been excavated, including the temple, one of the most well-preserved Zeus temples in the world.

The Temple of Zeus in Aizanoi is one of the most well-preserved Zeus temples in the world.

There was also a combined theater and stadium complex, the only known one of its kind in the ancient world, according to the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Aizanoi was also home to one of the first stock markets in the world.

Aizanoi likely fell into decline around the seventh century C.E. European travelers discovered the remains of the city in 1824.

Excavations between 1970 and 2011 revealed the remains of several other notable buildings and structures, including public baths, a gymnasium, bridges, a necropolis, and a sacred cave believed to be an ancient cultist site.