Category: Archaeology

Roman Handprint from Teesdale

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 1 Comment

From the Teesdale Mercury … pity no photos:

A major archaeological discovery was made in Teesdale after men working on a £1million spa found the remains of a Roman building – along with coins, pottery, glass and a roof tile with a Roman handprint on it.
The discovery was made by a construction team digging up land at The Morritt at Greta Bridge to install a green waste system for the hotel’s new development.
Work had to be temporarily halted while experts were called in to investigate the buried remains.
Barbara Johnson, the owner of the hotel, said: “One side of me is really excited because I’m absolutely fascinated with what we’re finding here but on the other hand I find it totally frustrating that these Romans are halting our progress.”
Since Roman times, the road to Scotland has crossed the River Greta before climbing the Stainmore Pass to Carlisle and this is not the first significant historical find made at Greta Bridge.
The Morritt is built on a Roman settlement and 15 years ago, when Barbara and her husband Peter were building a cottage on the site, it had to be placed on a “floating foundation” so it did not disturb the fort beneath it.
Following the latest discovery last week, archaeologists have been working to reveal the structure of a Roman wall and retrieve artefacts including coins, pottery, glass, structural nails and roof tiles.
Cath Ross, a Northern Archaeological Association project officer working on behalf of Teesdale-based Archaeo-Environment, said the find was rare.
She said: “We think the building we’ve found is possibly from the 2nd Century AD. It’s very interesting but possibly unsurprising. But it gives us a rare opportunity to excavate something of this quality. To find a Roman building is very rare.”
One of the roof tiles found in the dig has a Roman handprint on it – which experts believe could be the trademark of the builder who laid it.
Ms Ross also believes the building may have had underfloor heating because of the discolouration of the bricks and a gap left between the top layer of slabs and those underneath.
As well as discovering the wall, which is mainly intact, a further dig has also revealed a 200-year-old turnpike road, where tolls would have been collected. It was found under just 40 centimetres of Tarmac. Mrs Johnson said that while the finds were exciting, they have caused a headache because the opening of the £1million Garage Spa is so near.
Costs involved in the excavation of the Roman wall will have to be paid by the Johnsons and the job could set them back up to £40,000.
She said: “I understand what they have to do but I can’t not open. I’ve got people booked in, I’ve got the press coming and a VIP night planned. I’ve also got new staff sorted.”
A green waste bio unit will now be installed on another part of the Morritt’s grounds and the new spa’s opening will go ahead as planned at the end of the month.
The turnpike road and Roman remains are being documented and photographed before being covered up again.
Mrs Johnson plans to display the artefacts in the hotel, along with other treasures found 15 years ago.

I think this is the first ‘handprint’ we’ve mentioned in these pages … we did do a thing on footprints a while back (Footprints in the … Well, Lots of Stuff … some of the photos have ‘expired’ alas) and a bit later we read of one from Caerleon (For the Footprint Fans). Would have been nice to have a photo of this one …

Mithraeum Reopening to the Public

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 2 Comments

From the Art Newspaper:

Few people have ever visited the long network of underground tunnels under the public baths of Caracalla, which date back to the third century AD and are considered by many archaeologists to be the grandest public baths in Rome. This underground network, which is due to be reopened in December, is also home to a separate structure, the largest Mithraeum in the Roman Empire, according to its director Marina Piranomonte. The Mithraeum has just reopened after a year of restoration work which cost the city’s archaeological authorities around €360,000.

To celebrate the reopening, Michelangelo Pistoletto has installed his conceptual work Il Terzo Paradiso (the third heaven), which he first presented at the 2005 Venice Biennale, in the gardens surrounding the public baths. The work, made of ancient stone fragments and pieces of columns arranged in a triple loop, represents the harmonious union of the natural and technological worlds, according to the artist. It will be on view until 6 January 2013.

Mithraeums were places of worship for initiates of the religious cult of Mithraism, which was centred around the Persian god Mithra and practiced throughout the Roman empire from around the first to the fourth centuries AD. A Mithraeum would usually exist underground, either in a cavern or beneath existing buildings, and was traditionally dark and windowless.

The conservation problems began when skylights were installed. The presence of sunlight coupled with the circulation of air altered the underground microclimate and caused algae to grow on the walls as well as water gathering in the 25 metre-long central hall. During the works the skylights were sealed shut, a collapsed vault was restored and the walls and flooring were cleaned. A lighting system was also been installed to compensate for the closure of the skylights.

The Mithraeum was discovered a century ago and was almost entirely devoid of decoration. Only a small and poorly conserved fresco of Mithra remained, although the site had other significant features including the fossa sanguinis, a two-and-a half-metres-deep square pit in which new initiates would be lowered to receive the blood of a specially sacrificed bull.

The Mithraeum is due to be connected with the other branches of the underground network to form a single visitors route, although two further adjacent spaces have still to be restored before this can happen. Restoration work is expected to take around two more years.

One thing I’ve been meaning to look into is to try to get a handle on how many “Mithraeums” there were in Rome … just a stone’s throw away from this one (I think) is one near the Circus Maximus.

Another Necropolis in Bulgaria

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The finds are from various periods, but it sounds like this find might lead to more within our purview. From Novinite:

A necropolis with over 100 burials has been unearthed during archaeological excavations near the village of Marten in northern Bulgaria.

The discovery was made by the archaeologist from the Archaeology Museum in the Danube city of Ruse, Deyan Dragoev.

The necropolis is on the path of the future gas connection between Bulgaria and Romania.

The site includes tombs from the Thracian times to the times of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. The oldest ones date from the 5th – 4th centuries B.C. Some reveal very interesting rites such as the tomb of a decapitated soldier, whose head was laid on his lap, while others have been buried with gold and silver jewelry or with their dogs.

Some skeletons have deformed skulls, which have been typical for the First Bulgarian Kingdom as a sign of high position in society and of nobility. Noble children then had their heads tightened with headbands in order to change the form of the skull, experts say.

Remnants include wooden coffins, and ceramics and glass from Roman times.

The two Thracian tombs, according to archaeologists, show that a Thracian settlement, unknown until now, has been located nearby.

On Wednesday, the Ruse archaeologists sent bone material for analysis at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Severan Era Coin Hoard from Plovdiv

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From the Sofia Globe:

Archaeologists working at the Odeon site in Bulgaria’s second city of Plovdiv have found 40 silver coins said to date from the third century CE when the city was under Roman rule.

The coins were said by archaeologists to have been minted during the Severan dynasty, while ruled from 193 to 235 CE and variously feature images of four different emperors.

The Odeon site, dating from the second to fifth centuries, is the location of a Roman-era theatre, and is smaller in scale than Plovdiv’s well-known ancient theatre in the city’s Old Town.

The coins were found near the complex of administrative buildings at the northern end of the forum complex.

This archaeological season, more than 600 coins have been excavated at Plovdiv’s Odeon site. From the Hellenic era, there have been many finds of pottery.

At the Odeon site, a marble eagle was found earlier in 2012, and is estimated to date from the second to third century. Maya Martinova, head of the dig at the site, said that the eagle was of a type from the interiors of public buildings, and along with finds of marble columns and other items, was proof of the luxurious interiors of buildings in Phillipopolis, a prosperous city at the time.

The Odeon site has also seen finds of tiles depicting theatrical masks and Roman pottery. The coins include some with the images, respectively, of the emperors Geta and Caracalla, minted in ancient Sofia and in ancient Plovdiv at the end of the second and beginning of the third centuries. […]

Some previous coverage of this dig:

Latest from Paphos

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From the Cyprus Mail:

FRAGMENTS of marble sculptures from a monument consecrated to the nymphs of ancient Greek and Roman mythology have been uncovered during on-going excavations at Paphos’ ancient theatre, the archaeological team in charge of the dig have announced.

The 15th season of excavations into one of Cyprus’ largest ancient theatres unearthed a number of significant finds, including fragments of carved marble adornments from the stage and from a monument to the nymphs or nymphaeum.

Paphos was the capital of Cyprus in Greek and Roman times and its ancient archaeological remains are on the World Heritage List.

Of particular interest to the archaeological team, led by Dr Craig Barker and Dr Smadar Gabrielli of the University of Sydney, is that the Paphos theatre is the only ancient theatre of Cyprus not to have undergone modern restoration. As such it is a unique structure because it is the sole remaining theatre containing visible traces of its architectural development.

Investigations have revealed that the theatre underwent five phases of renovations between 300 BC and the 4th century AD, each phase representing the evolution of ancient performance and theatre architecture. Many of the architectural features were robbed in later antiquity, and the area of the site was built over in the Middle Ages.

Five trenches were opened by the team in 2012 in various locations around the theatre and the nearby Roman nymphaeum.

Trench 12A was on the eastern side of the stage building, and located the bedrock foundations of the eastern end of the Roman stage. A new entrance way leading from the south into the eastern section of the theatre was located at a lower level than a Roman period one which may provide a rare indication of the architectural layout of the earlier phases of the theatre building.

Trench 12B continued work in the area of the Roman road to the south of the theatre that began in 2010, clearing more of the road pavements and more of a medieval building above it.

Trench 12C was on the upper levels of the cavea, the underground cells where wild animals were confined before entering combat on stage, and indicates that there were significant buildings constructed on the top of Fabrika hill after the theatre was no longer in use for performance.

All areas provided new architectural information about the layout of the theatre and surrounding building, and all areas will be explored further in the future.

In parallel with the excavation, the team’s specialists continued the archaeological interpretation of the architecture for a final academic publication in the near future.

The Australian archaeological excavations in Paphos are supported by the Nicholson Museum and by the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens.

… we last heard from this dig a month or so ago: Digging Paphos’ Agora