A volunteer digger at the Roman auxiliary fort of Vindolanda in Northumberland unearthed a rare silver phalera with a relief of the head of Medusa earlier this month. It was discovered on the floor of a barracks dating to the Hadrianic period of occupation in the 2nd century B.C. The silver disc has a raised … Read the full post →"Medusa phalera found at Vindolanda"
Archaeologists excavating an ancient Roman battle site in the Oberhalbstein Alps have discovered a Late Bronze Age metal hoard containing more than 80 bronze objects weighing a total of 20 kg (44 lb). Found in a field just south of a prehistoric settlement on a transalpine trade route, the hoard dates to the 12th or … Read the full post →"Bronze Age metal hoard found at Roman battlefield in Swiss Alps"
The excavation of a block of houses in Regio IX of Pompeii has uncovered a wall painting of a still life of food and drink featuring what looks very much like a pizza. It is not a pizza, of course, as tomatoes and mozzarella didn’t even exist in Italy when the fresco was painted 2,000 … Read the full post →"Still life with pizza found at Pompeii"
Spain’s Civil Guard police have recovered 119 looted archaeological artifacts from a storage room in Baena (Córdoba). Objects include an exceptional Roman marble portrait bust, a silver denarius minted by Brutus after the assassination of Caesar of which only a handful of examples are known, and a rare type of Corinthian column capital from the … Read the full post →"119 trafficked archaeological pieces found in Córdoba raid"
A luxurious tapestry version of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper has gone on display at the Reggia di Venaria in Turin as part of an exhibition on how popes used tapestries in rituals and ceremonies. The combination of religious ceremony and tapestry spread from the Vatican to France and from there to the other courts … Read the full post →"Luxurious Last Supper tapestry exhibited in Turin"