Wednesday, July 27, 2011

3,000 Roman 3rd Century coins found in Montgomery field

More than 3,000 Roman coins have been discovered in a field, it has emerged.

The hoard of copper alloy coins, dating from the 3rd Century, was unearthed in Montgomery, Powys, several weeks ago.

About 900 were found by a member of a Welshpool metal detecting club, with the rest of the discovery made with help from archaeologists.

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Streetmuseum : The only way is Londinium

Following on from the success of award-winning phone-app Streetmuseum, the Museum of London has joined forces with the HISTORY Channel to develop a new app which gives users the opportunity to see Roman London as it was 2,000 years ago.
Immersive experiences of Roman London

Streetmuseum Londinium directs users to locations across London where they can immerse themselves in the sights, sounds and remains of Roman life in AD 120.

Users can digitally excavate Roman artefacts, including leather bikini briefs and an ancient manicure set, each item telling the story of life in Roman London. Using amazing technology, the user can reveal the objects on the very spot where they were first found in the capital.

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Should Pompeii have a theme park?

Should archaeologists reconstruct ruins as they decline or should they preserve them as best they can until there is nothing left?

Caroline Lawrence, archaeologist turned children's author, and Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, director of the Herculaneum Conservation project and master of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, debate the future of Pompeii.

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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Northampton archaeologists find man who could be 1,600-years-old

ARCHAEOLOGISTS from Northampton have discovered human remains which could be more than 1,600 years old.

The team from Northamptonshire Archaeology discovered the remains of a man while they were carrying out investigations on a building site.

A small piece of pottery found alongside the crouched skeleton was used to date the burial to somewhere between the years 43 and 410 – suggesting the body is Roman.

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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Award winning treasure found in Wing was used by Roman criminals

AN AMATEUR archaeologist from Aylesbury has been given a national award after uncovering a coin press which may have been used to make counterfeit currency in Roman times.

Tom Clarke, who has been metal detecting for more than 40 years, found a number of blank bronze coins and a small anvil in a farmer’s field in Wing.

The unmarked discs are the halfway stage of someone making their own coins and have been dated to around 300AD.

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Roman skeleton unearthed on Watton building site

The remains of a male believed to date back to the Roman occupation of Britain have been discovered in Watton, west Norfolk.

The bones were unearthed during work to turn a former RAF base into housing and are thought to have been buried around AD43 to 410.

BBC Radio Norfolk's Elizabeth Dawson spoke to site developer Edward Parker and lead archaeologist Mark Holmes to find out more about the discovery.

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The Only Way is Londinium, Roman London is Revealed with Augmented Reality in New App

Following on from the success of award-winning app Streetmuseum™, the Museum of London has joined forces with AETN UK ’s flagship channel HISTORY™ to develop a new app which gives users the opportunity to see Roman London as it was 2,000 years ago.

Streetmuseum Londinium will direct users to locations across London where they can immerse themselves in the sights, sounds and remains of Roman life. At the city’s peak in AD 120 approximately 25,000 Romans lived in London , leaving much behind to explore today.

Users can digitally excavate Roman artefacts, including leather bikini briefs and an ancient manicure set, which tell the stories of life in Londinium. Using their finger to dig and by blowing on their iPhone, users will gradually reveal the objects where they were first found in the capital.

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Monday, July 18, 2011

'Fantastic results' at Roman dig in Maryport

The excavation of a Roman site at Maryport, in Cumbria, has produced "fascinating results", experts say.

The project at the remains of a Roman fort at Camp Farm, which started last year, is due to be completed on 22 July.

The team said it had found many features not recorded by a previous excavation in 1870.

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Archaeologists discover a hoard of silver Roman denarii coins at Vindolanda

A hoard of twenty one silver denarii has been recovered during the recent excavation of the foundations of a clay floor in a centurion’s apartment of the late Antonine period (cAD180-200) at Vindolanda, northeast England.

The hoard had been buried, possibly in a purse or some similar organic package which had long since rotted away, in a shallow pit within the foundation material of the floor of the structure in the middle of the room.

Dr Andrew Birley – director of excavations at the site explains, “The coins were tightly packed together and several had corroded onto one another, held together as a group by the foundation clay of the building on the surrounding packaging that had rotted away. The surface area covered by the coins was no greater than 10cms, suggesting that there had been little movement by post depositional processes. The archaeological context suggests that the hoard may well have been deliberately buried, rather than lost, and was probably the savings of an individual who was unable to recover his money.”

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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Neue Multimedia-Führung im LVR-RömerMuseum

Auf virtuelle Streifzüge durch die Antike können sich die Besucher des LVR-RömerMuseums im Archäologischen Park Xanten begeben.

Ab sofort erwecken kurze Filmsequenzen und Animationen auf handlichen Multimedia-Geräten die Exponate aus der römischen Zeit an insgesamt 40 Stationen zum Leben: Auf Knopfdruck erwächst ein ganzer Tempel aus dem Bruchstück einer Säule, steuert ein voll beladener Lastkahn in den römischen Hafen oder beginnt ein Vogelflug über den Dächern der römischen Stadt. In vier Sprachen gibt es neben den Informationen für Erwachsene auch spezielle Filme für Kinder. Für Menschen mit eingeschränktem Hörvermögen werden alle Filme zusätzlich mit Gebärdensprachendolmetscher angeboten.

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Monday, July 11, 2011

Italy: Nero's Golden House to remain closed to visitors

Roman Emperor Nero's first century Domus Aurea villa will be closed to visitors for at least another three years as complicated repairs to the sprawling complex cause its scheduled 2011 reopening to be delayed, said the Italian culture minister's director general for archeology Luigi Malnati.

"You first and foremost have to avoid further collapses and save it," he said in an interview with Il Messaggero newspaper published on Friday.

Some historians say Nero started the great fire that charred much of Rome in 64 AD to make room for his 300 acre Domus Aurea, or Golden House that was adorned by gold leaf and dazzling frescos.

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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets

A first-aid kit found on a 2,000-year-old shipwreck has provided a remarkable insight into the medicines concocted by ancient physicians to cure sailors of dysentery and other ailments.

A wooden chest discovered on board the vessel contained pills made of ground-up vegetables, herbs and plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts – all ingredients referred to in classical medical texts.

The tablets, which were so well sealed that they miraculously survived being under water for more than two millennia, also contain extracts of parsley, nasturtium, radish, yarrow and hibiscus.

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Archaeologists Explore the Secrets of Bulgarian Pompei

Bulgarian-British expedition resumed the excavations in the ancient city of Nikopolis-ad-Istrum near Veliko Tarnovo. This is the best preserved archaeological site in Bulgaria and a specialized Italian publication called it Bulgarian Pompei for its importance.

This summer archaeologists will be exploring a building dating back to the ruling of Roman emperor Septimus Severus. According to experts, the building was used as temple by the worshippers of goddess Cybele.

So far the archaeologists have found fragments of wall paneling, details of door cases, windows and niches.

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Friday, July 8, 2011

Roman Frontier Gallery tells tales from Cumbria's origins at Tullie House Museum

The pavements outside Tullie House’s beautiful old building, in Castle Street, once played host to Roman posties.

Just 20 years after the marauding channel-hoppers had arrived in Carlisle, in around AD 72, letters were being peacefully shuttled between correspondents in the Cumbria settlement.

The tablets they were written on serve as handy evidence of the earliest examples of handwriting, forming part of a gripping new gallery in a cavern beneath the doors they were delivered to almost 2,000 years ago.

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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Roman silver coins go on display in Warwick

A hoard of Roman silver coins which pre-date the birth of Christ are going on show at the Warwickshire Museum.

A Roman pot containing 1,146 silver denarii coins was found by a man using a metal detector in a field on Edge Hill in the county.

The hoard, which dates back to 190 BC, will be on display from Saturday as the museum in Market Square, Warwick, marks its 60th birthday this month.

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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Important Roman altar stone unearthed at Cumbrian dig

A historically important Roman altar stone has been discovered by archeologists digging in Maryport.

The excavation at Camp Farm is being led by Professor Ian Haynes, of Newcastle University with leading field archaeologist Tony Wilmott.

The site is internationally famous as the place where 17 altar stones found in 1870 - they are now on display in the museum at the town’s Senhouse Roman Museum.

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