Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

Roman Bath Discovered in Swiss Spa Town

Roman Bath Discovered in Swiss Spa Town

In the Swiss city of Baden, a Roman bath part of an ancient spa has been uncovered. It was dismantled at the new pipeline in Baden’s Kurplatz city center and in extremely good condition, completed with finely designed entry steps.

The Roman bath as uncovered at the building site in Baden

It dates back to the second half of the 1st or early 2nd century, according to archeologists. It was connected to a much later concrete conduit that piped the water from the thermal springs to the reservoir.

After finding a hot spring on the left bank of the Limmat river a few kilometers far off from the legionary settlement of the Vindonissa (modern day Windisch), Baden was founded by Romans as Aquae Helveticae about 20 A.D.

A civilian settlement grew around the mineral baths. It was burned by the legions during the upheavals of the Year of the Four Emperors (69 A.D.) but was quickly rebuilt in stone this time. The basin dates to the time of that reconstruction.

The highly mineralized waters always at a comfortable 47° C (117° F) combined with its riverbank location and a short distance from Zurich (less than 15 miles) made Aquae Helveticae a popular and easily accessible destination throughout the Roman period and beyond.

Even during times of decline, like when the troops left Vindonissa in the early 2nd century, the Roman baths were in continuous operation. In the 4th century, a defensive wall was built to protect the baths after the onslaught of Germanic incursions in the mid-3rd century.

While there is no surviving documentation of the use of the thermal baths after the collapse of the empire, but archaeological evidence does suggest at least some of the Roman facilities remained in operation through the 9th century.

By the 13th century, Aquae Helveticae had been rebuilt with new bathing facilities and a new name: Baden, the Middle German word for baths.

Most of the ancient Roman city and bath facilities lie under the modern spa town.

The remains of three bathing basins and few structures confirm that the medieval thermal baths and the modern ones were built over the Roman site and within its perimeters.

With so little material to go by, the question of whether the Roman bathing infrastructure was in continuous use after the Fall is still an open one.

The newly-discovered basin is a key clue, especially with the conduit pointing to it having been used after the late medieval reconstruction of Baden.

The basin is thought to be part of Baden’s legendary open-air St Verena Baths that were used from the Middle Ages well into the 19th century. But the find was probably only used early on, and at some point during its history, the St Verena Baths were made smaller and the Roman bath was forgotten, archaeologists believe.

But it remains important for the town’s spa history because it may provide a clue to whether there was continuous use of the baths between Roman and Medieval times, which has not yet been proven.

“We are very happy that we have further evidence of a 2,000-year-old bathing history [in Baden],” added [Andrea] Schaer, who is leading the archaeological project.

Also found was the structure that captured the spring water, which was built in the Middle Ages, but directly on the original Roman structure.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Newly discovered mass graves could be filled with an ancient greek Tyrants followers

Newly discovered mass graves could be filled with an ancient greek Tyrants followers

A former Greek athlete named Cylon tried to overthrow the government thousands of years ago. It didn’t finish right.

Two mass graves near the Greek capital, including 80 skeletons of the men who may have been followers of ancient would-be tyrant Cylon of Athens discovered by the Archaeologists.

The bones – which had teeth intact – were found in two graves between 675 and 650 B.C., Agence France-Presse reported. They rest in an ancient cemetery where the National Library of Greece and the National Opera are being constructed.

The remains of men buried in a mass grave found in an area of the Falirikon Delta in South Athens

Regional archaeological services director Stella Chryssoulaki laid out the theory as she unveiled the findings at the Central Archaeological Council, the custodians of Greece’s ancient heritage.

Given “the high importance of these discoveries”, the council is launching further investigations, the culture ministry said in a statement.

Two small vases discovered amongst the skeletons have allowed archaeologists to date the graves from between 675 and 650 BC, “a period of great political turmoil in the region”, the ministry said.

The skeletons were found lined up, some on their backs and others on their stomachs. A total of 36 had their hands bound with iron.

They were discovered during excavations at an ancient cemetery on Athens’ seaside outskirts, on the construction site of the new National Library of Greece and National Opera.

Archaeologists found the teeth of the men to be in good condition, indicating they were young and healthy.

This boosts the theory that they could have been followers of Cylon, a nobleman whose failed coup in the 7th century BC is detailed in the accounts of ancient historians Herodotus and Thucydides.

Cylon, a former Olympic champion, sought to rule Athens as a tyrant. But Athenians opposed the coup attempt and he and his supporters were forced to seek refuge in the Acropolis, the citadel that is today the Greek capital’s biggest tourist attraction.

The conspirators eventually surrendered after winning guarantees that their lives would be spared.

But Megacles, of the powerful Alcmaeonid clan, had the men massacred—an act condemned as sacrilegious by the city authorities.

Historians say this dramatic chapter in the story of ancient Athens showed the aristocracy’s resistance to the political transformation that would eventually herald in 2,500 years of Athenian democracy.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Very strange Gallo roman horse and human burials at  Evreux (Eure) France. 

Very strange Gallo roman horse and human burials at  Evreux (Eure) France. 

A team from the Institut National d’archéologie preventive (Inrap) has discovered a mortuary practice hitherto unknown in Roman Gaul.

The archaeologists are working in an area of 200m2 intended for the construction of a private house at Evreux (Eure).

The earliest traces of human occupation of the town of Evreux seem to date from the third quarter of the 1st century BC. Its Roman name was Mediolanum Aulercorum, and it was the main town of the Aulerci Eburovices.

It became important during the Augustan period and in the 1st century of our era, it was equipped with a theatre, baths, and villas with painted walls, etc.

The antique cemetery is on a hill-side, outside the town, thus respecting the Law of the Twelve Tables then in force, along the road linking Evreux and Chartres.

Already known during the 19th century because of some accidental discoveries, the site seems to have been used from the 1st–4th century AD. Evaluations and excavations carried out from 2002 onwards have clarified the typo-chronological evolution of the necropolis.

During the 1st century, secondary cremation graves were predominant, even though some perinatal and adult inhumations have been found. From the second century AD onwards burial became the exclusive funerary practice. 

Such Unusual Burials

Up to now, about forty inhumation graves have been excavated. Two of them can be dated from the 3rd century by association with a ceramic vase characteristic of this period.

Other subjects have been radiocarbon dated (14 C). This part of the cemetery contains mainly adults, new-born babies and a few children under 10 years of age.

The graves are very concentrated, and for the most part, are grouped together without any spatial organisation. The deceased were buried with their heads towards the North, the South, the East or the West. 

Many adults were buried in an unusual position: several of them face downwards, one of them with an upper member twisted (right elbow placed behind the left shoulder), another buried with his lower members very bent, etc. 

Men & Horses

The second exceptional element is the fact that large pieces of horses were placed in most of the graves. Most of the time they were skulls or parts of vertebrae.

However, one grave contained three horses, almost complete, buried simultaneously, one above the other. The most unusual deposit is that of an adult whose head is clasped by two horse skulls.

Skull of an adult surrounded by two horse skulls placed head to tail (probably 3rd century AD).

The horse bones were placed in direct contact with the deceased, or in the pit fills. 

Was it the result of war, of an epidemic, or were they food offerings? These three hypotheses should be discarded: there is no trace of violence on the bones, they were not multiple graves linked with a catastrophe, and lastly, horsemeat wasn’t eaten in Roman times. 

This deliberate act – the placing of sections of horses in Gallo-Roman graves – seems to be unique in France.

Should one envisage the presence of a distinct people, through its origin, its religion, or its craft? Was it a survival of the worship of the Gallic goddess Epona?

The continuation of the excavation and subsequent research may provide some answers. 

A high density of mutually overlapping burials (probably 3rd century AD). We can see on the left three horses deposited simultaneously.
The high density of mutually overlapping burials (probably 3rd century AD). We can see on the left three horses deposited simultaneously.
ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Medieval Sugarcane crusher Found in Northern India

Medieval Sugarcane crusher Found in Northern India

The archaeology department of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has excavated a “stone sugarcane crusher” of the late medieval period.

AGRA, INDIA—The Times of India reports that a stone sugar mill has been unearthed on farmland in northern India.

AGRA: The archaeology section of Aligarh Muslim University AMU) has excavated a “stone sugarcane crusher or mill” belongs to Medieval period

Manvendra Kumar Pundhir of Aligarh Muslim University said medieval sugar mills were comprised of a mortar and pestle to crush sugarcane and extract sugarcane juice.

The recovered piece of this mill measures about 12 feet long and about eight and one-half feet in diameter. Geared sugar rolling mills came into use in the seventeenth century.

According to Prof Manvendra Kumar Pundhir of AMU’s history department, the huge stone object was unearthed during the excavation of agricultural land in Dhanipur village in the district.

“The stone object appeared to be a stone sugar mill or a sugarcane crusher. The length of the discovered object is approx. 3.75 meters and its diameter is 2.6 meters.

During the medieval period, sugarcane crushers were made of two parts – mortar and pestle.  Indians knew the art of extracting sugarcane juice to make jaggery and sugar since ancient times,” he explained.

He said that the sugar industry progressed greatly in medieval India.

Irfan Habib, professor emeritus, AMU, has written in his Economic History of Medieval India (1200 A.D.-1500 A.D.),  that “Sugar mills appeared in India shortly before the Mughal era.

Evidence for the use of a drawbar for sugar-milling appears at Delhi in 1540, but may also date back earlier, and was mainly used in the northern Indian sub-continent.

Geared sugar rolling mills first appeared in Mughal India, using the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing, by the 17th century.”

Abul Fazl in his Ain-e-Akbari describes various techniques used in Mughal-era karkhanas (workshops).

One of them was the gear mechanism, which enabled the conversion of circular motion in vertical and was used in water-lifting devices, the sugarcane industry, and the oil pressing industry. IANS

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Second Viking Ship Burial Detected on Norway’s Edoya Island

Second Viking Ship Burial Detected on Norway’s Edoya Island

The georadar study completed on Edoya Island off the coast of Western Norway revelated a second burial of the Viking ship, according to Archaeology Org. Oslo, Norway.

The overgrown boat tomb appeared in the georadar scans just to the right of the old church.

On the tiny island, the ship burial was discovered known as the Edoya ship. Manuel Gabler of the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) said the data indicates an object about 24 feet long and three feet wide had been placed inside a circular structure thought to be a round stone cairn. 

Introducing Edøya

Never heard of Edøya? That’s not a big surprise, for the island is just 7.5km2 (2.9 square miles) in size. Yet this tiny island in Møre og Romsdal county was an important centre of power in the Viking Age.

Along with its larger island neighbours Smøla, Ertvågsøya and Tustna, Edøya is now sure to come under the spotlight like never before.

A second Viking boat grave

The georadar data clearly shows a second boat burial. Manuel Gabler from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) explains:

The georadar data from Edøy island that clearly shows a Viking boat grave.

“In the process of interpreting the data, we discovered a clear circular and reflective structure. In the middle of that structure, we see a 7.3 metre long and approximately 1-meter wide anomaly. “We interpret it as a boat tomb under a round stone cairn.”

Although the grave is considerably smaller than the first find, it can’t be described as small. NIKU’s Knut Paasche, who was a guest on the Life in Norway Show recently, explains:

“If a 7.3-metre long anomaly represents the bottom of a boat and the upper board aisles have rotted away, the original boat will have been a few metres longer. It’s likely to have needed four pairs of oars.”

Burial mounds and remains of houses

In the report, archaeologists revealed more of Edøya’s secrets. North of the boat grave, another round anomaly appears albeit without a boat structure. The team believes this fragmented anomaly is where a burial mound has been ploughed over.

Around 50 metres further north, the georadar data revealed traces of two more graves, measuring 11 and 19 metres in diameter. Two more anomalies to the north-west of the boat grave appear to be remains of houses.

The NIKU georadar system outside the old Edøy church.

“We see a curved, rectangular structure of approximately 12 by 5.9 metres. In the central part of the house is a large reflective anomaly, which may be the remains of a floor or hearth,” said Gabler. There are other round anomalies nearby that together form a rectangular structure.

County conservator Bjørn Ringstad believes the houses and boat graves could well come from different time periods: “The houses that have been traced may well be from the older Iron Age, circa 300-600 AD. The tombs may be from the younger Iron Age, circa 600-900 AD. The findings nevertheless show that there was a close connection between the residences and the burial ground at Edøy.”

Similar to a previous find in Møre og Romsdal

According to the experts, the boat is likely more than 1,000 years old. “This is probably a somewhat similar boat tomb from the Viking Age, from the 900s to the one found in Surnadal in 1994,” said Ringstad.

The grave was excavated the following year by archaeologists from NTNU in Trondheim and Møre og Romsdal county. Within the boat’s imprint, the team found fine weaponry including swords, spears, and arrows. The new find at Edøya is about the same size.

Edøya: A Viking Age powerhouse?

The discoveries strengthen the belief that Edøya was a centre of power during the Viking Age.

“Ship burial finds still belong to the rarities of Norwegian archaeology. In general, ship burials are reserved for the top layer in society, so the ship grave at Edøy is a clear proof of a local power elite,” added Paasche. He believes the house remains are not large enough to have been part of the chieftain’s seat, but could still represent parts of a larger farm structure.

The full report (only available in Norwegian) is available for download from NIKU here. Based on the results of the project, further archaeological investigations in and around the region are likely.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Bronze Age logboat remains found at Faversham boatyard

Bronze Age logboat remains found at Faversham boatyard

In a Cambridgeshire quarry in the suburbs of Peterborough, a group of eight ancient vessels, including a float about nine meters long. The boats, all purposely sunk more than 3,000 years ago, are the largest group of vessels in the Bronze Age in the same UK, most of whom are remarkably well preserved.

The boats, which were deliberately sunk into the long-dried-up creek, have been well preserved and still show carvings

One is covered inside and out with decorative carving described by conservator Ian Panter as looking “as if they’d been playing noughts and crosses all over it”.

Another has handles carved from the oak tree trunk for lifting it out of the water. One still floated after 3,000 years and one has traces of fires lit on the wide flat deck on which the catch was evidently cooked.

Many had ancient repairs, including clay patches and an additional section shaped and pinned in where a branch was cut away. They were preserved by the waterlogged silt in the bed of a long-dried-up creek, a tributary of the River Nene, which buried them deep below the ground.

“There was huge excitement over the first boat, and then they were phoning the office saying they’d found another, and another, and another, until finally, we were thinking, ‘Come on now, you’re just being greedy,'” Panter said.

The boats were deliberately sunk into the creek, as several still had slots for transoms – boards closing the stern of the boat – which had been removed.

Archaeologists are struggling to understand the significance of the find. Whatever the custom meant to the bronze age fishermen and hunters who lived in the nearby settlement, it continued for centuries. The team from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit is still waiting for the results of carbon 14 dating tests but believes the oldest boats date from around 1,600 BC and the most recent 600 years later.

They already knew the creek had great significance – probably as a rich source of fish and eels – as in previous seasons at the Much Farm site they had found ritual deposits of metalwork, including spears.

The boats themselves may have been ritual offerings or may have been sunk for more pragmatic reasons, to keep the timber waterlogged and prevent it from drying out and splitting when not in use – but in that case it seems strange that such precious objects were never retrieved.

Some of the boats were made from huge timbers, including one from an oak which must have had a meter-thick trunk and stood up to 20 meters tall. This would have been a rare specimen as sea levels rose and the terrain became more waterlogged, creating the Fenland landscape of marshes, creeks, and islands of gravel.

“Either this was the Bermuda Triangle for bronze age boats, or there is something going on here that we don’t yet understand,” Panter said.

Kerry Murrell, the site director, said: “Some show signs of long use and repair – but others are in such good condition they look as if you could just drop the transom board back in and paddle away.”

The boats were all nicknamed by the team, including Debbie – made of lime wood, and therefore deemed a blonde – and French Albert the Fifth Musketeer, the fifth boat found. Murrell’s favourite is Vivienne, a superb piece of craftsmanship where the solid oak was planed down with bronze tools to the thickness of a finger, still so light and buoyant that when their trench filled with rainwater, they floated it into its cradle for lifting and transportation.

Because the boats were in such striking condition, they have been lifted intact and transported two miles, in cradles of scaffolding poles and planks, for conservation work at the Flag Fen archaeology site – where a famous timber causeway contemporary with the boats was built up over centuries until it stretched for almost a mile across the fens.

“My first thought was to deal with them in the usual way, by chopping them into more manageably sized chunks, but when I actually saw them they just looked so nice, I thought we had to find another way,” Panter, an expert on waterlogged timber from York Archaeological Trust, said. “I think if I’d arrived on the site with a chainsaw, the team would have strung me up.”

Must Farm, now a quarry owned by Hanson UK, which has funded the excavation, has already yielded a wealth of evidence of prehistoric life, including a settlement built on a platform partly supported by stilts in the water, where artifacts including fabrics woven from wool, flax, and nettles were found. Instead of living as dry-land hunters and farmers, the people had become experts at fishing: one eel trap found near the boats is identical to those still used by Peter Carter, the last traditional eel fisherman in the region.

The boats will be on display at Flag Fen, viewed through windows in a container chilled to below 5c – funded with a £100,000 grant from English Heritage which regards their discovery as of outstanding importance – built within a barn at the site. At the moment conservation technician Emma Turvey, dressed in layers of winter clothes, is spending up to eight hours a day spraying the timbers to keep them waterlogged and remove any potentially decaying impurities. They will then be impregnated with a synthetic wax, polyethylene glycol, before being gradually dried out over the next two years for permanent display.

Murrell is convinced there is more to be found down in the silt.

“The creek continued outside the boundaries of the quarry, so it’s off our site – but the next person who gets a chance to investigate will find more boats, I can almost guarantee it.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

A 1,800-year-old Roman signet ring engraved with the goddess of Victory Found in a field in Somerset

A 1,800-year-old Roman signet ring engraved with the goddess of Victory Found in a field in Somerset.

An amateur treasure hunter has made a ‘stunning’ find from the Roman era in the south-west of England.  With the help of a metal detector, the man discovered a golden ring at a site being investigated by local archaeologists.

The Ancient Roman gold ring discovered in Somerset County, England, features an image of victory goddess Victoria

The find is being hailed as very important and one of the most significant finds from the Roman-era in the area in recent years. This discovery has kindled a new excitement regarding the importance of the location where it was discovered and illustrates once again the significant role amateur archaeologists play in unearthing the past.

The Roman gold signet ring with an engraving of ancient victory goddess Victoria / Nike has been found by Jason Massey in a field near Crewkerne, BBC News reports.

The ring was found by an amateur metal detectorist, Jason Massey.

Massey, who is part of the Detecting for Veterans group, found the Roman gold ring last Sunday after he unearthed some 60 Roman coins.

At first, he thought he had found his first gold coin but the find turned out to be a gold ring weighing 48 grams (1.7 oz).

The Roman ring is described as one of the most substantial archaeological finds in the recent history of England’s Somerset County and is thought to date back to the period between 200 and 300 AD.

The 3rd century AD Ancient Roman gold ring has been discovered in the same spot. Massey and other amateur detectorists stumbled upon a large number of coins and a Roman grave containing coffin lined with lead.

According to Massey, the site in question near Crewkerne, Somerset County, may have once housed a “very high-status Roman villa”.

“There’s a load of figures floating about [for the value of the ring] but we’re interested in the villa, who’s lived there and where they’ve come from and who the person was that wore this ring,” he says.

“There are a couple of gold rings of that sort of date from Somerset but they’re not common. Gold is… an indication that the owner is fairly wealthy,” comments Ciorstaidh Hayward-Trevarthen, finds liaison officer for South West Heritage Trust.

The 3rd century AD Roman gold ring from Somerset weighs 47 grams. Photos: TV grabs from the BBC

The Ancient Roman grave containing a lead coffin and over 250 coins that Massey and other amateur detectorists found in last year that was dated to ca. 400 AD

A total of six out of some 200 similar Roman lead coffins found in all of the UK have been discovered in the southwestern Somerset County.

In 2016, there were a total of 37 reported cases of treasure found in Somerset in 2016, the largest for five years.

Somerset County is in England’s top 10 local authority areas for treasure, according to official figures from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Norfolk County topped the list with 130 discoveries in 2016.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Pompeii of the North: London’s most important excavation ever unearths a Roman treasure

Pompeii of the North: London’s most important excavation ever unearths a Roman treasure

Just yards from the River Thames – in what is now the capital’s financial district – archaeologists have found coins, pottery, shoes, lucky charms, and an amber Gladiator amulet which date back almost 2,000 years.

Situated on the largest swathe of the lost Walbrook River still remaining in the City, the wet conditions have created perfect conditions for the survival of archaeological material, giving an extraordinary glimpse into life in bustling Roman Londinium. Even objects and structures made of wood and leather – which normally rarely stand the test of time – have been discovered, leading archaeologists to dub the site “the Pompeii of the north.”

Experts excavating the site, which lies alongside a huge building project for new offices on Queen Victoria Street, have uncovered wooden structures from the 40s AD around 40ft (12 meters) beneath the ground.

The Bloomberg Place construction site in the City financial district of London where archaeologists have discovered thousands of Roman artefacts
A fragment of an ceramic beaker, dating from around the 1st century AD, among thousands of Roman artefacts unearthed

The discoveries have been so well preserved in the muddy waters of the lost Walbrook River that archaeologists have nicknamed the site ‘the Pompeii of the North’.

Sadie Watson, the site director  from the Museum of London Archaeology, said: ‘Certainly the archaeology on this project so far is probably the most important excavation ever held within London, certainly within Roman London

‘The depth, the preservation, the extent of the archaeology – the entire Roman period is represented by fantastic buildings as well as artifacts.’

The three-acre site, which was once on the banks of the River Walbrook, is also home to the Temple of Mithras, discovered in the 1950s.

Fascinating finds: Other items unearthed include this complete ceramic beaker with applied ‘ring and dot’ decoration (left) and an amber amulet in the shape of a gladiator’s helmet (right)
Uncovered: A ceramic oil lamp depicting a stag (left) and a selection of Roman pins (right)

Artifact: A lead or tin plaque depicting a bull, which could be a representation of the zodiac symbol Taurus

It has offered experts an unprecedented glimpse into life in the bustling center of Roman Londinium. Archaeologists from the museum were able to excavate the area when work to build the vast Bloomberg Place development began.

Since then around 10,000 accessioned finds have been discovered by 60 archaeologists – the largest haul of small finds to have ever been recovered on a single excavation in the capital.

Approximately 3,500 tonnes of soil have been excavated by hand, which is around 21,000 barrows full.

This site has provided the largest quantity of Roman leather to have ever been unearthed in the capital, including hundreds of shoes

More than 100 fragments of Roman writing tablets have been unearthed, while 700 boxes of pottery fragments will be analyzed by specialists.

This site has provided the largest quantity of Roman leather to have ever been unearthed in the capital, including hundreds of shoes.

Sophie Jackson, from the museum, said: ‘The site is a wonderful slice through the first four centuries of London’s existence.

‘The waterlogged conditions left by the Walbrook stream have given us layer upon layer of Roman timber buildings, fences, and yards, all beautifully preserved and containing amazing personal items, clothes, and even documents – all of which will transform our understanding of the people of Roman London.’