Roman “Shrine” in Rutland Nature Reserve

All the coverage I’ve found on this seems to derive from this BBC piece:

Archaeologists have uncovered a Roman shrine at Rutland Water nature reserve.

The team from Northamptonshire Archaeology investigated the site ahead of a 240-acre extension to the reserve by Anglian Water.

They found the remains of an Iron Age farmstead, and a shrine dating from about AD100.

Jo Everitt, Anglian Water’s environment and heritage assessor, said: “Finding Roman shrines is not the norm, so we were delighted.”

Ritual sacrifice

Roman sites had been found in the area at Collyweston Great Woods, 14km (eight miles) to the south-east of Rutland, and another to the north-west of Rutland Water, near Oakham.

However, nothing had previously been discovered near the lagoons along the western edge of the reservoir.

The team discovered a circular stone building, about 10.5m (34ft) wide, with decorated red and white painted walls.

They also found more than 200 Roman coins, pottery jars, part of a small bronze figurine and deposits of animal bone, probably from the ritual sacrifice of lambs and cattle.

A skeleton of a man, aged about 30, was buried in a grave in the centre of the shrine.

The archaeologists believe the shrine fell out of use in AD300.

Ms Everitt added: “We’ve recreated part of the foundation and wall of the shrine from the original stone on an area outside of the lagoons so visitors to Rutland can see what it looked like.”

The findings from the dig are currently being displayed at the Rutland Water visitor centre.

The BBC coverage includes a little slideshow of the “shrine”, the pottery and the burial. Other than the Roman coins, I’m not really sure what makes this Roman or a “shrine”. No enlightenment from the Northamptonshire Archaeology website.

Possible Sunken Ships Near Tieion/Tios

From Hurriyet comes a piece exhibiting their frequent problems with B.C./A.D. and its variations:

Two sunken ships have been seen by fishermen off the ancient city of Tieion in Çaycuma’s Filyos district in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.

With notice that two sunken ships have been seen off the ancient city of Tieion in Çaycuma’s Filyos district in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak, officials have applied to the Culture and Tourism Ministry for diving permission and funding.

The head of the Karabük University Archaeology Department and archaeological excavations, Professor Sümer Atasoy said that they had previously known about the sunken ships in the port of the ancient city but could not have determined their place.

Atasoy said they estimated that the ships had sunk after hitting the rocks, and continued: “We are waiting for permission and funding from the relevant ministry. Two ancient ships are in question. It is told that the ships have pots, columns and stones. We don’t know how deep they are. When we get the fund and permission, divers will dive to take photos and we will have an idea about their location and depth.”

Second AD and 13th BC

Atasoy said after the first examinations, archaeologist divers would continue working, adding, “Underwater archaeology necessitates a different technique. We need to hurry to preserve the sunken ships, which may be from the Roman, Byzantium or Genoese periods between second A.D. and 13th centuries B.C.

We first heard about the plans to dig at Teion back in 2007 (Digging Teion) and the digging seems to have commenced a year later (Digging Teion Redux). More recently, we’ve heard about plans for the theatre they’ve been excavating (Cashing in on Tios’ Theatre?).

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Ancient Rome … Actually, You Probably Did

As I embark on wading through the hundreds of items I have to catch up on, I figured we could all warm up by putting our pedantic hats on and watching this video, which just appeared yesterday:

Generally, it’s not bad, but number 2 and number 3 are rather silly (on Caesarian births (on which see here and here) and on the origins of the word ‘trivia’ (Wikipedia is good on this)) … so I guess 8 out of the 10 are okay (but there are quibbles with some of them as well)