Experts to meet public at Medieval Bishop's Palace in bid to raise £320,000 for Frome Hoard A public appeal to save the largest Roman coin hoard ever

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A public appeal to save the largest Roman coin hoard ever found in Britain will host a major fundraising event at a Medieval palace in Somerset later this month.

The Art Fund needs to raise £320,250 by February 19 to buy the Frome Hoard, a buried pot of more than 52,000 coins found by metal detectorist Dave Crist in April 2010, for the Museum of Somerset in Taunton.

Supporters are being urged to make a minimum donation of £15 to attend an evening dedicated to the hoard at Bishop’s Palace in Wells, where experts from the British Museum will discuss the theories behind the burial in front of examples from the 1,700-year-old find.

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'NEW' ROMAN VILLA AT WROXETER

Thanks to an innovative TV project with Channel 4, a Roman villa urbana - a high status Roman town house - has been erected at Wroxeter in Shropshire, on the site of the fourth largest city in Roman Britain. A six part TV series will start on Thursday 20 January following a team of modern builders as they set about building the town house using traditional Roman methods.

THE ‘VILLA URBANA’ AT WROXETER

The villa will be open to the public from Saturday 19 February, daily from 10am. It will greatly enhance the visitor experience at Wroxeter and will help bring history alive for the many school parties that come to the site each year.

Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage, says: "The series is immensely entertaining and an eye-opener. What a great way to approach history. I urge everyone to come to Wroxeter and see for themselves the remarkable replica they have built and appreciate the energy and ingenuity that defined so much of the Roman era.

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Roman treasure discoverd in field

An amateur sleuth with a metal detector has uncovered the haul of a lifetime in a Cumbrian field.

John Murray, 66, was amazed to find 308 Roman coins, some thought to be nearly 2,000 years old. The hoard was concealed in a smashed pot a few feet below the ground at Beckfoot, near Silloth.

It is the second major Roman find in Cumbria, following the Crosby Garrett helmet which was unearthed by a metal detectorist last May.

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Tourists to Rome hit with new hotel tax

Tourists visiting Rome are being hit with a new hotel tax to help pay for repairs and maintenance to the ancient city.

From Jan 1 all visitors to the Italian capital must pay an extra 2 euros per person per night to stay in hotels rated up to three stars and 3 euros per person per night for four and five star accommodation.

The tax, levied for the first ten nights of a stay in the city, will be collected at the end of a visitors' trip. The money raised will be used by the Roman councils to fund municipal services. Officials hope the tax will bring in more than 80 million (£69m) a year.

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Popular Archaeology Magazine Launched

Popular Archaeology magazine is a 100% online periodical dedicated to participatory, or public, archaeology. Unlike most other major magazines related to archaeology, no paper copies will ever be produced and distributed, so it will always be "green", and it will always be less costly to produce and therefore far less costly to purchase by premium subscribers (although regular subscriptions are always free). Most of our writers and contributors are either professionals or top experts in their fields, or are individuals relating first-hand experiences; however, the magazine is unique among other archaeology-related magazines in that it makes it easy to invite and encourage members of the public (YOU) to submit pertinent articles, blogs, events, directory listings, and classified ads for publication. As a volunteer or student, do you have a fascinating story to tell about an archaeological experience? As a professional archaeologist, scholar, educator, or scientist, do you have a discovery, program or project that you think would be of interest to the world? Do you have an archaeology-related service or item for sale? Would you like to have your archaeology-related blog post featured on the front page? ( Ad and specially featured item prices are lower than what you will find in any other major archaeology magazine). Through Popular Archaeology, you can realize all of these things. Moreover, because the content is produced by a very broad spectrum of contributors, you will see more feature articles than what you would typically find in the major print publications, with the same content quality.

As a community of professionals, writers, students, and volunteers, we invite you to join us as subscribers in this adventure of archaeological discovery. It could open up a whole new world for you.

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Pictures: Ancient Roman Spa City Reburied in Turkey

The second-century Roman ruins at the city of Allianoi once stood tall under the blue Turkish sky, as seen in a file photo. But like the rest of the site's archaeological treasures, these structures are now covered back up with sand.

Discovered in 1998 and only partially excavated, the nearly 2,000-year-old city of Allianoi was home to baths and natural springs favored by the Romans for their health benefits. (See related pictures of King Herod's royal theater box, recently excavated in the West Bank.)

Today, however, the well-preserved ruins lie in the path of a proposed dam that would flood the region to create an artificial reservoir. The Yortanli Dam will provide water for thousands of acres of agricultural land, and farmers living near Turkey's Aegean coast strongly support the project.

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Mosaics found in SE Turkey lead to unearthing of ancient Roman city

The ancient city of Germenicia, which has been underground for 1,500 years, is being unearthed thanks to mosaics found during an illegal excavation in 2007 under a house in Southeast Turkey. Excavations are ongoing in the area, with authorities aiming to completely reveal the mosaics and the city, and then turn the site into an open-air museum

Mosaics found during an illegal excavation in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş have led to the unearthing of an ancient city called Germenicia, which remained underground for 1,500 years. The mosaics, found under a house in the Dulkadiroğulları neighborhood, are expected to shed light on the history of the city.

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Nine investigated over Pompeii collapses

Nine people are under investigation for two collapses in the famous ancient Roman city of Pompeii that shocked the culture world last month, judicial sources said on Thursday.

An ancient training centre for gladiators collapsed into rubble in Pompeii on November 6 and a wall protecting a home known as the House of the Moralist fell down on November 30, causing widespread international outrage.

Among the people under investigation by prosecutors in nearby Torre Annunziata are the former director of the site and the current head of excavations, ANSA news agency reported. The two declined to comment.

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Why Frome is still cashing in on the Romans

Last April, a man who hated history at school unearthed the largest coin hoard ever found in Britain. But why had it been buried in a field in Somerset?

Dave Crisp found treasure on a soggy ridge outside the Somerset town of Frome last April, and helped rewrite history. On a bitter winter afternoon, as he walks the frosty field again, he recalls one of the most heart-stoppingly exciting moments of his life. The 63-year-old ex-army man had discovered a scattering of Roman silver coins in the field. He came back a few days later with his detector, bought secondhand on eBay, to round up any remaining broken pieces. The signals were faint and confusing.

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Turkish officials bury ancient city of Allianoi under sand

The ancient city of Allianoi, near Turkey’s Aegean coast, has been completely covered with sand in preparation for building a dam in the area, despite protests from activists and archaeologists.

Though officials say covering the Roman-era spa settlement with sand is the only way to protect the ruins while they are submerged under the waters of the new dam, experts disagree with that assessment.

“The method is obsolete and it will destroy, rather than protect, the ancient site,” İlker Ertuğrul, a member of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday.

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Canterbury council keeps museums open after re-think

Three visitor attractions in Kent have been saved from closure following a re-think by the city council.

The Roman Museum, Westgate Tower and Herne Bay Museum were among those at risk as Canterbury City Council looked at ways of saving £3m over two years.

The proposals sparked a public campaign to keep them open, with more than 2,000 people signing an online petition.

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Gladiator Stabbed, Tossed as Trash?

The bones of a Roman man, who was stabbed to death and left to rot with the rubbish, have revealed gruesome details of what appears to be a gladiator combat, according to British researchers who have examined the skeletal remains.

Unearthed in January only 12 inches under the grass the Yorkshire Museum’s gardens, in York, England, the bones show that the man, most likely a disgraced gladiator, met a violent and bloody death.

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Crumbling Pompeii sparks outrage

One of Italy’s most important archaeological sites is disintegrating, sparking concern that lack of government attention and money could be letting the country's cultural heritage fall into ruin. Tara Cleary reports.

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Pompeii skeletons reveal secrets of Roman family life

The remains of the Roman town of Pompeii destroyed by a volcanic eruption in AD79 continue to provide intriguing and unexpected insights into Roman life - from diet and health care to the gap between rich and poor.

The basement storeroom under a large agricultural depot in the little suburb of Oplontis was full of pomegranates. To many of the Pompeiians trying to find shelter from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, it must have seemed strong and safe.

About 50 people took cover there. We know they did because archaeologists in the 1980s found their skeletons, well preserved.

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Roman Circus project in Colchester under threat

The people behind the Colchester’s Roman circus are having to work on an alternative plan to be able to move forward with the heritage centre envisioned for the site. The site was part of the British Army’s garrisons, which is based in Colchester.

Colchester Archaeological Trust the driving force behind the project has been seeking investors to help it buy the Sergeants mess which is the main building currently occupying the site. The plan is to convert into a tourist attraction and educational base for visitors to the ancient chariot-racing arena.

The plans for the site have are to create a three-dimensional display in the garden of the Sergeants' Mess using special viewing screens to help recreate what the gates would have looked like.

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Pompeii wall collapse damage inspected by Unesco team

After a series of wall collapses at Italy's ancient city of Pompeii, a team from UN cultural organisation Unesco has arrived to examine the site.

One wall gave way on Tuesday and two more the next day, three weeks after the House of Gladiators crumbled.

Officials blamed Wednesday's wall collapses on heavy rain but Unesco says concerns have been raised about Pompeii's state of preservation.

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More walls collapse at Italy's ancient city of Pompeii

Three walls have collapsed at the tourist spot in a month

Officials have blamed the collapse on heavy rain.

The Italian opposition accuses the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of letting the 2,000-year-old site fall into neglect.

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More walls collapse at Italy's ancient city of Pompeii

Two walls have collapsed in Italy's ancient city of Pompeii, the second such incident this week and the third in a month.

Officials have blamed the collapse on heavy rain.

The Italian opposition accuses the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of letting the 2,000-year-old site fall into neglect.

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Who will pay for Pompeii?

As another disaster strikes the ancient city, Mary Beard argues that such sites are far too costly for any one country to maintain

The latest disaster to hit Pompeii was not a particularly serious one by the standards of that unfortunate city – battered by an earthquake in AD 62, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 and hammered by Allied bombing in 1943 (there were rumours that the enemy was camped out there). Last Saturday, a small building known as the House of the Gladiators on Pompeii’s main street collapsed. One of a series of recent collapses, it was followed by the usual lamentations from the world’s press – Pompeii is falling down thanks to the neglect or corruption of the Italian authorities; the very house where the town’s gladiators once passed their short lives is no more.

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Please don't privatise Pompeii

These Italian ruins should be preserved, but not turned into a theme park

I went to Pompeii last month. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. The scale is staggering: an entire city frozen in time, at that moment in 79AD when Vesuvius called forth apocalypse on its fleeing inhabitants. I spent seven hours there and felt I'd barely scratched the surface.

I literally scratched the surface, too. I was so moved by the visit that I wanted to take a few small pieces of broken Roman wall away with me – this wasn't quite vandalism as they were already on the floor – so I put them in my pocket. Though concern about how I would explain them away at Naples airport meant I didn't in the end remove them from Pompeii. The news over the weekend that a house in the city, the so-called House of the Gladiators, had fallen down made me glad I hadn't.

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