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Calls have been made to halt unsupervised excavations near the Northern English villa of Marske-by-the-Sea after remains of a potential Roman settlement have been discovered in the area. A significant Roman community in the area could add to the understanding of the Roman presence in Northern England. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-67935267 The location of the Northern English villa of Marske-by-the-Sea

A lead sling bullet has been discovered. It is thought to bear Julius Caesar’s name “CAES” along with “IPSCA,” a nearby town that supported Caesar and supplied him with both weapons and men during Caesar’s Civil War against the Optimates (49-45 BCE). The bullet was found near modern day Montilla in Andalusia, Spain. This finding supports the belief that the climactic Battle of Munda (17 March 45 BCE) was fought nearby. At the battle Caesar decisively defeated a larger force led by former Caesar general and ally Titus Labienus and Gnaeus Pompeius (eldest son of Pompey). Location of Montilla, possibly the site of the Battle of Munda, where the bullet was discovered. https://youtu.be/_Z2cJlbkDmE?si=jwTuzSiDD2UisWyG https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69175 https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/01/julius-caesar-inscribed-sling-bullet-found-in-montilla/150138 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Munda

Before people learned to extract iron from ore during the Iron Age, meteorites were the only source of the metal. This iron Bronze-age arrowhead found in Mörigen, Switzerland was not surprisingly crafted from a meteorite. It dates to 900-800 BCE. After closer analysis, however, the meteorite iron source was determined to be most likely from a meteorite that fell in distant Estonia. This distance of 1600 km (almost 1000 miles) from the Baltic area may reflect the extensive trade in Bronze Age Europe. In 2021, a team of scientists from the institution began studying the relic using noninvasive methods—including electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, and gamma spectrometry—to prevent any damage. While the researchers initially suspected the material to have come from the Twannberg meteorite, which hit a barley field in [nearby] Twann about 170,000 years ago, the arrowhead’s metal content led them instead to the Kaalijarv meteorite. The Kaalijarv meteorite, also known as Kaali, landed in the region of Estonia during the Nordic Bronze Age (c. 1700–500 B.C.E.). https://news.artnet.com/art-world/bronze-age-arrowhead-made-from-meteorite-2345756/amp-page https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440323001073?via%3Dihub#sec4

Interesting question. The sources vary. By some, Helena is thought to have been a Christian at birth (AD 246/248); by others, only after Constantine become emperor (AD 306). According to church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (d. AD 339), Helena’s conversion followed Constantine becoming emperor. If that were true, Helena would have been approaching 60 at the time. I would need to do more research on that question.

A Roman temple dedicated to the Imperial Cult dating from the Christian 4th century AD has been discovered in Spello, Italy. Professor Bonin had directed underground imaging that suggested the structure existed underneath a parking lot. This temple reflects the persistence of pagan traditions along with the arrival of Christianity. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-cult-mentality-professor-monumental-discovery.amp

The short video above is a really simple description of how the ancient Greek Eratosthenes from Cyrene calculated the circumference of the planet Earth around 240 BCE. (This clip is taken from a longer segment below.) interesting to note that Eratosthenes was from Cyrene, noted for its cultivation of the near-mythical plant Silphium (a frequent topic in the past found in the post below). https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200606/history.cfm

Professor Roberto Trizio explores the sanctioned coexistence of the Imperial Cult and Christianity that is exemplified by this discovery. (This video is in Italian so most of us will need to enable the YouTube autotranslate function.)

Naxian sphinxes depict a winged lion with a female face. One example from the third century AD was uncovered in the Roman provincial town of Potaissa in ancient Dacia, located in present-day Romania. The bronze sphinx was stolen in the nineteenth century and never has been recovered. Based on a surviving drawing, however, the sphinx inscription has finally been translated. Note that the poem needs to be read right to left. A "dactyl" in poetry is a poetic foot (rhythmic unit) consisting of a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, but in this inscription which is read right to left, the patten is the opposite. https://arkeonews.net/mysterious-inscription-on-ancient-dacia-sphinx-is-deciphered/ https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/01/inscription-on-naxian-style-sphinx-deciphered/150132 Inscription on a Naxian-Style Sphinx Statue From Potaissa Deciphered as a Poem in Dactylic Meter | Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry (maajournal.com)

This the latest improved version of this video view of Ancient Rome. This version has more colorized buildings:

About 2000 municipal seals to have been found in Southern Turkey. These stamped clay pieces were used to secure and verify documents. Many of well-preserved seal images were of Jupiter Dolichenus, an important mystery cult popular in the Roman military in the second and third century AD. Below are a few threads on Jupiter Dolichenus: https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/11/archaeologists-uncover-over-2000-seal-impressions-in-ancient-doliche/149262 In the mystery cult, Jupiter Dolichenus was recognized as a god of the heavens as well as determining military success and safety. Jupiter Dolichenus was usually represented standing on a bull and carrying his double ax and thunderbolt. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_Dolichenus#:~:text=Jupiter Dolichenus was a Roman,to mid-3rd centuries AD.

A small hoard or cache of ten coins dating from the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constans II (AD 641-668) have been discovered in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis in the modern day Karabük’s Eskipazar district in Turkey. https://www.dailysabah.com/turkiye/1400-year-old-coins-found-in-piggy-bank-in-turkiyes-karabuk/news/amp http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69169 https://arkeonews.net/1400-year-old-coins-found-in-a-piggy-bank-in-ancient-city-of-hadrianopolis/#

What a wonderful trip planned. Despite traveling to Italy a few times to visit relatives, I’ve never been to Venice. Looking at the map, the two places are very close, but are distinct sites. Looking at web sites, only the North Arsenal is regularly open. The Southern Arsenal is open only during the biannual art festival. From the picture, one can see the Arsenal and the maritime museum (Museo Storico Navale) are extremely close. Sounds fun. Post pictures. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_Storico_Navale https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venetian_Arsenal

Thank you for reading my post. You made some interesting and very credible points. I would say, however, that the above description of the cause of the ring width is possibly a little too simplistic. I like the multifactorial explanation below better. It seems to me that ring width is a useful tool to assess not only precipitation, but it is also useful to analyze a large array of local climate conditions. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780123869135000132

Egypt was once the Roman Empire’s source of wheat. Disruption of this source of food had major impacts on the stability of the Empire. Rebellions, barbarian invasions, epidemics, and droughts played a role in this instability. Researchers are now investigating the impact of climate change on the wheat supply by examining wood samples from mummies buried during the Roman era: Mummy labels of different quality from the BNU collection in Strasbourg were used to acquire dendrochronological measurements. Top left: Growth rings on mummy label HO87 cannot be measured easily due to tool marks and surface coating. Top right: Mummy label HO66 has a clean surface and perfectly readable rings. Bottom left: growth rings on label HO59 are only partly visible as a result of the cutting method applied and tool marks, the central part is illegible. Bottom right: Growth rings on the transverse plane of mummy label HO43 as seen on a X-ray tomography image with perfectly legible rings https://www.archaeology.org/news https://www.snf.ch/en/XlYUJjBFhCvE38RC/news/mummies-provide-the-key-to-reconstruct-the-climate-of-the-ancient-mediterranean The scholarly article: https://brill.com/view/journals/ijwc/aop/article-10.1163-27723194-bja10017/article-10.1163-27723194-bja10017.xml Distribution of the 599 labels for which the location of finds is known, as well as the distribution by label type: Type I, Stela shape rectangular; Type II, Stela shape trapezoidal; Type III, Stela shape close to square; Type IV, Stela shape with handle; Type V, Tabula Ansata

In this short video, Max Miller actually cooks with his garum concoction:

There have been many previous posts on Garum (see below), the famous fermented fish sauce of the ancient world. Max Miller has attempted to recreate (again) this unusual dish:

A head of Bacchus that dates to the Ancient Greek era has been discovered in the water near the Ancient Greek city of Cyrene in modern day Libya. The artifact may have been uncovered as a result of a storm in September. The city of Cyrene was well know for its export of the coveted medicinal plant silphium (see post below): https://arkeonews.net/researcher-found-the-head-of-the-statue-of-bacchus-inside-a-water-channel-near-the-ancient-city-of-cyrene-in-libya/

There have been previous posts about the Carnyx, the frightening Celtic instrument (see below). Here’s an excellent review of the Carnyx and its role in Celtic history.

Today (late December), the morning sky outside my window is either an auspicious or an ominous sign of what the new year (2024) will bring. Let’s hope the new year will bring all good health and fortune. I wonder what our local augur would say.

Here's a new thread to share the view outside your window. Growing up just outside the industrial northeastern city of Pittsburgh, I quickly became fascinated with the natural beauty of the American Southwest (and its spectacular sunrises) since my first visit in the early 80s. I am still in awe of the exotic beauty of the simple palm tree.

Here is an interesting article by the classical historian Charles Freeman reviewing the contributions of the Greeks to Roman society. Although a nice summary, I might have a few (mostly) minor quibbles with the article. In his section about Galen, for example, he writes, “His distasteful party piece was severing the squealing nerves of a pig and the restoring them in front of a public audience.” If by “severing the nerves” Freeman meant ligating (tying off) the nerve to temporarily paralyzing it, I would agree. Usually sever means to cut, however. I doubt Galen could cut a nerve and then perform microsurgery to repair the nerve to a functional state. Then, Freeman describes the events of Hypatia’s death in very simplistic terms: “Hypatia’s death is often seen as marking the end of a pagan learning that welcomed students of whatever beliefs.” I’m not sure of the meaning of “whatever beliefs,” but it wasn’t a tolerant and accepting view, for sure. His final statement is absolutely ridiculous: “These free-traveling Greek intellectuals were replaced by monks whose world was inevitably narrower.” I would remind Mr. Freeman that these same monks he disparages also preserved much of classical thinking after the fall of the Roman Empire. Alan Cameron in his book “The Last Pagans of Rome” wrote: “[T]he main focus of much modern scholarship has been on [the last Pagans'] supposedly stubborn resistance to Christianity. Rather surprisingly, they have been transformed from the arrogant, philistine land-grabbers most of them were into fearless champions of senatorial privilege, literature lovers, and aficionados of classical (especially Greek) culture as well as the traditional cults. The dismantling of this romantic myth is one of the main goals of this book." Overall, this is a good article and his book looks interesting. Some of his historical examples are either wrong or distorted, however. https://antigonejournal.com/2023/11/greek-intellectuals-roman-empire/

Despite Rome’s cultural dominance in the Danube, very few individuals of Italian descent actually lived there. Researchers have analyzed the ancient DNA from 136 Roman era individuals from the Balkan Peninsula (present day Serbia and Croatia). They showed little contribution from the Italian peninsula. Rather than wide scale migration from the Italian peninsula, the DNA studies show that half of the Roman inhabitants were of Balkan Iron Age ancestry, as well as a third were from Western Anatolia. Several individuals from this period have North or Eastern African ancestry. One individual of East African ancestry was buried with an oil lamp depicting Jupiter-related Eagle iconography. Isotopic analysis of his teeth suggest dietary habits from a distant region. https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/civilisations/surprise-discovery-about-roman-empire-found-in-ancient-dna/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/12/231207161343.htm

A Roman-era man in Cambridgeshire has been shown by DNA analysis to have been born outside the Roman Empire and he is of Sarmatian descent, living around modern-day southern Russia and Ukraine. The Sarmatians were a nomadic horse-riding peoples originating in the Eurasian Steppe. By analyzing his teeth, researches also learned about his diet. https://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/23997908.a14-cambridgeshire-mans-remains-offers-insight-romans/

Before the fatal volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, a devastating earthquake (of 5-6 magnitude) hit Pompeii in AD 62. A stolen marble relief depicting this earlier event has been found in a wall of a Belgium home. https://arkeonews.net/2000-year-old-genuine-pompeii-marble-relief-installed-in-a-wall-lining-the-staircase-leading-down-to-the-basement-in-a-belgium-home/ An alter at the House of Lucius Caecilius lucundus at Pompeii depicts this earlier earthquake of AD 62. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AD_62_Pompeii_earthquake

Here’s a good video on the find: