Home Away From Rome

Excavations of villas where Roman emperors escaped the office are giving archaeologists new insights into the imperial way of life

In A.D. 143 or 144, when he was in his early 20s, the future Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius set out for the country estate of his adoptive father, Emperor Antoninus Pius. The property, Villa Magna (Great Estate), boasted hundreds of acres of wheat, grapes and other crops, a grand mansion, baths and temples, as well as rooms for the emperor and his entourage to retreat from the world or curl up with a good book.

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2,000-Year-Old Shipwreck Creates Deep Sea Mystery

Although the 2,000-year-old shipwreck under the Gran Sasso mountain in central Italy may be a godsend for nuclear physicists, the “Ship of the Thousand Ingots” has been one big mystery for archaeologists.

Was the ship, which carried the largest lead shipment ever found, deliberately sunk on the orders of the captain? Was the vessel knocked over by a wave?

In this audio slide show, Donatella Salvi, director of the National Archaeological Museum in Cagliari, tells Discovery News what her team found when they recovered the ship's cargo.

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Groundbreaking Roman Search: 24 to 28 May

A major investigation into Roman remains uncovered in the aftermath of Cockermouth's devastating floods is set to get underway this month.

Volunteers are needed for groundbreaking work on what is believed to be a settlement near the Papcastle Roman fort, surveyed by Channel 4's Time Team a decade ago but still not thoroughly excavated.

Forthcoming geophysical searches for buildings, roads and signs of occupation follow significant recent finds of possible foundations and a lot of pottery, unearthed by receding flood waters.

Organised by Bassenthwaite Reflections' Unlocking Hidden Heritage project, volunteers will be helping to piece together fascinating pieces of history in the first area study of its kind.

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West Cumbria floods uncover Roman finds prompting major probe

Roman finds uncovered by the floods of last November have excited archaeologists – and are set for a major investigation.
Roman finds photo

The remains of a Roman fort at Papcastle have been open for several years, but nobody has ever known the shape of local roads, the size of the civilian settlement attached to it, where the river Derwent ran and where it was crossed, or where the site’s cemetery was located.

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Slabs of plaster fall from ceiling of Colosseum

Slabs of ancient plaster have fallen from the ceiling of the Colosseum, leading experts to call for a £20 million restoration of Italy's most famous Roman monument.

The three chunks of mortar plummeted to the ground around dawn on Sunday, a few hours before thousands of tourists tramped through the gladiatorial arena.

They crashed through a wire protection net which was supposed to have prevented such accidents, but which is more than 30 years old.

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Chunks of mortar fall off Rome's Colosseum

Rome archaeology officials say three chunks of mortar have fallen off from the Colosseum but that no one was hurt and tourist visits will go on as normal.

The pieces, covering a total of about a square meter (about 10 square feet), occurred about 6 a.m. Sunday, hours before the ancient arena opens to the public.

Archaeology official Roberto Cecchi said the area involved was already scheduled for maintenance and will be further inspected on Monday.

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Rare Roman box revealed at Maryport

A rare Roman seal box was just one of the treasures revealed at a Portable Antiquities event at the Senhouse Roman Museum in Maryport on Saturday.

Dot Boughton, a finds liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities scheme, visited the museum and said there were some interesting items brought in.

She said: “I have taken several items away to be photographed and catalogued. They will be returned to their owners but we will hold details of them on our database.”

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Dig for archaeological victory at new road site

KENT NEWS: Britain’s largest archaeological dig is now under way in Thanet and will last until work begins on a new road in June.

The big dig has already unearthed a multitude of artefacts and is expected to reveal even more secrets about Kent’s past.

And to ensure every step is covered, it is being captured on film for a BBC Two documentary.

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Mary Beard: A classicist in a class of her own

The delightful don, whose lively blog is read by thousands, is to host a TV series about Pompeii. And it's likely to inspire a new generation of Latin lovers

In all the noise following "Bigot-gate", there was one small corner of the blogosphere that could be trusted to offer the prime minister a unique sense of perspective. Mary Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge, and author of "A Don's Life", the web's most erudite gossip forum, was quickly online to suggest that Brown was not the first politician to be toasted.

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Switch off TV and discover Carlisle's ancient soap opera

Tim Padley, keeper of archaeology at Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum enjoys talking about The Romans.

The Romans were like a soap opera, only a bit larger,” he says. So large, in fact, they’ve outgrown their current Tullie House home and there are now plans for a new Roman gallery to open at the museum next year which will showcase the immense Roman empire, its reaches and relevance to life today.

The gallery is, in part, inspired by the Millennium dig which began in 1999 in the grounds of Carlisle Castle, lasted three years, and uncovered a staggering 80,000 artefacts which were this week detailed in a 936-page report.

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Rude Roman pots halt city revamp

WORK on the £11.6 million revamp of Canterbury's prestigious Beaney Institute has ground to a halt – because of Roman pornography.

Archaeologists are racing against time to recover lost evidence beneath the city's streets before the builders return.

Among the artefacts already uncovered are saucy carvings of couples having sex.

A spokesman confirmed: "We have found many personal effects and high-class pottery – known as samianware – depicting hunting and erotic scenes."

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Roman finds of ‘international importance’ from Carlisle dig

A 936-page report into the Millennium dig in the grounds of Carlisle castle in 1999 has now been published, detailing the 80,000 artefacts discovered and what they reveal about Roman life in the city.

Archaeologists dug five trenches on the Castle Green and Eastern Way and, over the following three years, unearthed a huge quantity of pottery, armour, weapons, and, unusually, wooden remains. They normally rot away but, because of the waterlogged soil, 2,000 large pieces of timber were discovered.

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HARLOW: Workers unearth Roman finds at Prentice Place playground

The tiles, pieces of pottery and bricks which were discovered on the Potter Street site have been investigated by a team from Wessex Archaeology. The team has found the materials to be that of a Roman tile kiln.

The re-used construction of the small building's walls using tegula and brick which are typical of a kiln structure, alongside analysis of the material spread comprising dark carbon rich soils containing some Roman second and third century pottery.

After discussion with English Heritage and Essex County Council's historic buildings advisor, the remains will be retained for posterity and protected in situ with a carefully laid series of aggregates. Once covered, work will then recommence on the playground.

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Satellite photography helps uncover lost city of Altinum

The lagoon city of Altinum was one of the richest in the Roman Empire – a staging post for traders from across the ancient world. Around the middle of the 5th century, however, its residents fled for fear of marauding barbarians, leaving a ghost town of crumbling villas and basilicas. After much of the masonry was used to build a new settlement nearby – known as Venice – the city was buried in fertile floodplains. Historians knew it existed, but it was hidden from view.

Now, more than 1500 years on, Altinum has risen again. Using sophisticated aerial photography, a crack team of earth scientists and archaeologists at the University of Padua have created a picture of how Altinum looked when it was abandoned – a unique time capsule of a city in the final years of the Roman Empire. By revealing the moisture content of the plants growing there today, which varies according to the presence of man-made structures beneath the topsoil, near infrared photographs provide a relief map of a once great city.

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U.S. military community volunteers help uncover Roman history

WIESBADEN, Germany -- They came, they dug, and they sifted through thousands of years of European history.

With construction crews chomping at the bit to lay the foundations for a new $133 million U.S. Army housing area just outside Wiesbaden Army Airfield, time is running short for German archaeologists seeking to uncover remnants of past settlements.

After having spent several months in the fall and spring sifting through soil which revealed several Roman wells, the foundations of a villa rustica (Roman farm complex) and various artifacts, members of the Hessen archaeology team put out a call for volunteers in the U.S. community to join in the documentary project.

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Roman sculptures withdrawn from auction amid fears they are stolen

Bonhams auction house acts after claims that second century AD artefacts were taken during illegal excavations

Four Roman sculptures are to be withdrawn from auction tomorrow amid claims that they were stolen from archaeological sites overseas.

Photographs seized by police suggested that the sculptures – funerary busts and a marble statue of a youth from the second century AD – were illicitly excavated, archaeologists told the Guardian.

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Excavations near Reading show evidence of Boudicca

Evidence found at the Roman site of Silchester could mean it was the site of one of Boudicca's battles.

Professor Michael Fulford said that 13 years of excavations at Calleva had revealed evidence of the first gridded Iron Age town in Britain.

The site also bears the scars of possible early Roman military occupation, and evidence of later, widespread burning and destruction.

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Expeditions take you back in time

STEP through a window to the past on an Earthwatch expedition.

Volunteers are needed to help international environmental charity Earthwatch to unearth the past on two archaeological expeditions to the north of England and Tuscany.

Earthwatch teams have been mapping an extraordinary excavation site for more than a decade in South Shields. As a volunteer on the Earthwatch expedition Ancient Britain: Romans on the Tyne, you will help archaeologists to excavate the Roman fort of Arbeia and its surroundings, to better understand how ancient Romans and Europeans came into contact with each other. The South Shields Roman Fort is the site of a Roman military and civilian settlement and lies within the Unesco Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site.

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Priceless Roman sculpture excavated in Stobi

A well-preserved, priceless marble head of Octavius Augustus - part of a sculpture from the early Roman period - and a small torso were excavated Friday at Stobi archaeological site, which was visited by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski together with Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska and the director of the Department for Cultural Heritage Protection, Pasko Kuzman.

According to its features, the sculpture was intended to immortalize emperors and notable citizens from the first and second century A.D. It was housed in a temple, which was robbed soon after it was demolished in the classical era.

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Remains in Southwell 'could be Roman temple'

Remains unearthed in Nottinghamshire could be an unknown Roman temple, archaeologists have claimed.

Excavations on the Minster C of E School site in Southwell between September 2008 and May 2009 revealed walls, ditches and ornate stones.

The team analysing the finds said the shape and quality of the remains suggest it could have been an important place of worship.

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