The “stylish” lives of the affluent have been unearthed at one of the “best preserved” Roman towns in Britain by a TV archaeology team.
A bath house, villa and artefacts including a penknife were found at Caerwent, Monmouthshire by Channel 4’s Time Team.
What are believed to be shop buildings on a Roman high street were also found during the dig by a team of 50.
Presented by Tony Robinson, the episode will be broadcast early next year.
WORK will start next week to unearth the secrets of one of Europe’s most important prehistoric sites.
The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney, the third-largest stone circle in the British Isles and thought to date back to 3000-2000BC, is regarded by archaeologists as an outstanding example of Neolithic settlement and has become a popular tourist attraction in the islands.
Last summer two Galway archaeologists proposed a theory which made worldwide headlines. They suggested that one of the most common archaeological monuments in the Irish landscape may have been used for brewing a Bronze Age Beer. They will demonstrate and discuss their experiments and research (and distribute tasters of the brew) into the enigmatic site that is the fulacht fiadh at the World Archaeological Congress ‘Fringe’ at UCD on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th July.
RARE artefacts dating to the time of the Vikings have been put on permanent display in a Swedish museum after being excavated by a team led by the University of Chester’s Dr Howard Williams.
Working in partnership with archaeologist, Dr Martin Rundkvist, Dr Williams and the dig team excavated a boat-grave dating back to the 9th century AD at Skamby in Ostergotland, in South Sweden.
The excavation uncovered 23 very rare amber gaming pieces, which illustrates the lifestyle of the family buried there, as well as their pagan beliefs in relation to the afterlife. The only other dig to have uncovered such gaming pieces took place more than a century ago outside the Viking town of Birka.
In the epic “Odyssey,” one of the cornerstones of Western literature, the legendary Greek hero Odysseus returns to his queen Penelope after enduring 10 years of sailing the wine dark sea.
Now scientists have pinned down his return to April 16, 1178 B.C., close to noon local time, according to astronomical references in the epic poem that seem to pinpoint the total eclipse of the sun on the day that Odysseus supposedly returned on.
The “Odyssey” is a millennia-old epic said to be composed by the blind poet Homer. In modern times, the “Odyssey” is typically seen as fiction. Still, Homer’s earlier epic, the “Iliad,” was centered on the war against Troy, and scientists first uncovered physical evidence of Troy in the 19th century. This has long raised questions as to what other historical facts the epics might refer to.
Julius Caesar landed an invasion fleet on the shores of Britain in 55 B.C., expanding the boundaries of the so-called “Known World” and inadvertently sparking a dispute between historians and scientists for centuries to come.
Now, astronomers from Texas State University have applied their unique brand of forensic astronomy to the enduring controversy surrounding the precise location of Caesar’s landfall, concluding that the historically accepted date for the event–Aug. 26-27, 55 B.C. – is incorrect.
The Texas State team’s proposed new date of Aug. 22-23, 55 B.C. reconciles all the conflicting evidence and offers both sides of the debate some measure of vindication in the process.
A replica Viking vessel plying the North Sea this month is part of an effort to learn more about what the Norsemen were really up to.
From his bench toward the stern of the Sea Stallion From Glendalough, Erik Nielsen could see his crewmates’ stricken faces peeping out of bright-red survival suits. A few feet behind him, the leather straps holding the ship’s rudder to its side had snapped. The 98-foot vessel, a nearly $2.5 million replica of a thousand-year-old Viking ship, was rolling helplessly atop waves 15 feet high.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS have begun excavating a quarry near Wrexham after evidence of a Neolithic settlement was uncovered.
The exciting discovery was made at Tarmac’s Borras Quarry, off Holt Road, near Wrexham and archaeologists have begun to uncover the remains of the settlement, believed to be about 4,000 years old.
The archaeologists noticed dark areas resembling cooking pits appearing as topsoil and subsoil was being removed in preparation for sand and gravel extraction.
The archaeologist team of Bulgaria’s Georgi Kitov has unearthed precious jewels dating back to the second or third century A.D. in the Drumeva Mound near the city of Sliven.
The news was announced by Kitov himself on Thursday.
The scientists found golden earrings, silver bracelets and three bronze rings in a brick tomb of a Roman woman buried in the mound.
Goettingen, Germany - An autopsy on the body of an ancient Scythian cavalier found in the Altai Mountains shows he had a degenerative bone disease for several years before he died, German scientists said Friday. The 2006 find of the preserved body and the man’s rich possessions on the Mongolian side of the mountains was a scientific sensation. The Scythians were a nation of horsemen in central Asia. The man, who died about 2,300 years ago at the age of 50 or 60, would have been incapable of any demanding physical work for several years before his death, Michael Schultz, a palaeopathologist or scientist who studies diseases in ancient remains. Schultz said the cause of the “bone-decaying process” was unclear and an explanation would not be suggested until the end of this year.