Archaeologists in Reims have unearthed a luxurious Gallo-Roman urban villa from the 2nd century on the main road that crossed the ancient provincial capital of Durocortorum. Large pillars, fragments of painted plaster and three very fine bronze statuettes found in the domus indicate that the wealthy homeowners lavished money on decorations and associated themselves strongly […]
The remains of a shipwreck dating to the 6th or 5th century B.C. in the waters off Santa Maria del Focallo, a beach town on the southern tip of Sicily. An underwater excavation found the wreck at a depth of 20 feet, the wood of the hill buried under sand and rocks. Experts revealed that
A roll of wafter-thin silver foil found in a 3rd century grave in Frankfurt is the earliest archaeological evidence of Christianity north of the Alps. There are references to Christianity in Gaul and Germany in historical sources from the late 2nd century, but evidence of Christians living north of the Alps before this find dated
A joint Spanish and Egyptian archaeological mission excavating the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus near Al-Bahansa, 100 miles south of Cairo, has unearthed 52 Ptolemaic-era mummies, 13 of which had gold tongues still in their mouths, and one of which also had gold fingernails. The gold tongues and nails were meant to enhance their speech and
A rescue archaeology excavation in the town of Endingen in southwest Germany on the border with France has uncovered an early Celtic burial ground that is unique for the region. It is a type of an Iron Age cemetery known as a grave garden, a planned burial site delimited by a perimeter trench 50 by
More than 6,000 scales of armor have been discovered in the tomb Liu He, the Marquis of Haihun, in Nanchang, capital of eastern China’s Jiangxi province. The fish scale armor was made of a lacquered iron, copper and leather. Previous examples of Han Dynasty armor found in tombs were all made from a single material.
An excavation of the ancient Achaean city of Rhypes near Aigio, western Greece, has discovered a heroön (a shrine dedicated to the cult worship of a hero from Greek and Roman mythology) with Pentelic marble lions and tombs containing gold jewelry. The ancient Greek city-state of Rhypes dates back at least to the Archaic Period,
An excavation in Pacé, northwestern France, has uncovered remains from the Late Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, including a Roman road and an exceptional gold intaglio ring lost by a traveler on it. The site was excavated by National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) in advance of development, revealing The ring has an
A 6th century Anglo-Saxon grave near Canterbury in Kent has yielded a spectacular sword in an exceptional state of preservation. It is of such high quality craftsmanship that experts are comparing it to the sword with the gold and garnet hilt discovered in the treasure-laden ship burial discovered at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk in 1939.
Archaeologists have discovered two remarkably well-preserved shrines in an Assyrian temple that was burned in antiquity at the ancient site of Nimrud in northern Iraq. The larger of the shrines contained a stone dais with a cuneiform inscription by King Ashurnasirpal II. The smaller one contained a dais that was severely damaged when the temple
