Category: Archaeology

Recent Finds in Jerusalem

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From the Jerusalem Post:

A unique Aramaic inscription on a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during the first century has been uncovered in a dig on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, an archeologist said Wednesday.

The six-week excavation is being carried out within the Gan Sobev Homot Yerushalayim national park, close to the Zion Gate of the Old City.

The 10-line Aramaic script, which is clear but cryptic, is being deciphered by a team of epigraphic experts in an effort to determine the meaning of the text, said Prof. Shimon Gibson, of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who is co-directing the excavation.

“This is a difficult script, not one that is worn or graded, which demands research,” Gibson said.

He estimated that it would take a couple of months to determine what the inscription says.

“It is like digging out grandparents’ hand-written letters,” he quipped.

Gibson said the find uncovered two weeks ago was rare because few inscriptions from the Second Temple Period had been discovered in Jerusalem.

The dig also uncovered a sequence of building dating from the First and Second Temple periods through to the Byzantine and Early Islamic eras.

The additional finds include a house complex with a mikve ritual bath featuring a remarkably well preserved vaulted ceiling.

Three bread ovens – dated to 70 CE, when Titus and the Roman army stormed the city – were also found in the house.

Archeologists believe that this area of Jerusalem’s Upper City was the priestly quarter during Second Temple times.

A large arched building with a mosaic floor from the Byzantine period preserved to a height of 3 meters was also uncovered. It may be part of a building complex or street associated with the nearby Church of St. Mary.

Remains of the Mauseoleum?

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

The Times of Malta had this a little while ago:

The murky water in Dock No.1 in Cospicua has witnessed much history over the years. Nobody ever imagined, however, that lying underneath could be the remains of an ancient Turkish wonder – the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.

No one, that is, but oncologist Stephen Brincat, who came across this precious piece of information while reading an article about the excavations of the site by the British in the 19th century in the Turkish magazine Cornucopia.

“There was one sentence which said that the wall of the mausoleum was dismantled to build a dock in Malta,” Dr Brincat said.

Blocks of marble that made up a wall of the mausoleum, built more than 300 years BC, are believed to be submerged in the dock, which is expected to be soon embellished in a €10 to €12 million project.

Armed with this piece of information, Dr Brincat, a history lover, started studying local archives to find out more. He struck gold when he found that what is today known as Dock No. 1 was built at the time when British archaeologist Charles Newton excavated the site in Bodrum, Turkey, and shipped crates of sculptures and other antiquities to London’s British Museum, which had commissioned the excavations.

According to Dr Brincat’s research, the Royal Navy ship HMS Supply, laden with crates of antique treasures, entered Grand Harbour in 1858, a year after the foundation stone of the dock was laid.

Mr Newton had justified the dismantling of the mausoleum wall by saying that it would have been broken up and used by natives of Bodrum anyway. He therefore removed it to be used in a “public object”, which Dr Brincat traced as being the Cospicua dock that had taken some six years to build.

When contacted, Prof. Anthony Bonanno, the head of University’s Department of Classics and Archaeology, was unaware of Dr Brincat’s lead but said he was “not terribly surprised”.

Prof. Bonanno said Malta had been used in the past for the loading and unloading of antiquities. In fact, the Elgin Marbles, a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures found at the British Museum, had passed through Malta, lying in the docks for several years on the way from Greece to England.

Emmanuel Magro Conti, senior curator at Heritage Malta’s Maritime and Military Collections, was also unaware of the use of the antique blocks in the building of the Cospicua dock.

“The plans of the dock show building blocks, but do not mention details of what materials were used or from where the blocks originated,” he said.

The mystery remains hidden under water which is so murky that it is impossible to see the bottom.

Dr Brincat had to paddle in a canoe to get to the area and admits that there is probably little to see.

After all, they are nothing more than blocks of stone. The only difference is that centuries ago, they were part of one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.

Interesting suggestion, but I’m not sure why Newton would bother to ship antiquities that far, just to dump them in the water. The ‘public object’ intended surely wasn’t in Malta …

Cleopatra Tomb Update

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 2 Comments

There’s a lengthy Global Arab Network (and other sites) story kicking around about the dig at Tabusiris Magna … nothing really new other than we get the name of the site director: Dr Said Altalhawy. Perhaps more importantly, we also get (in the concluding paragraph) this:

The site is now closed for the summer, and the team will have to wait until at least January before they can continue the search for the resting place of Alexandria’s most venerated daughter.

… hmmm … that seems inordinately long, no?

Ulus Theatre to be Restored

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From Balkan Travellers:

The remains of an ancient Roman theatre, which are partly buried underneath a building, will be unearthed in Turkey’s capital to become a spot for cultural events.

As a result of the initiative of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a building constructed 15 years ago atop the remains of the Roman theatre will be torn down, the television channel CNN Türk reported today.

The ancient remains were discovered in 1982 in the Ulus quarter of the capital, which used to be the heart of old Ankara.

Half of the theatre’s remains were unearthed during archaeological excavations, while the other half remained underneath the building, the media reported. With the ministry’s decision, the modern building will be torn down and the ancient site will be restored.

After restoration, the theatre will serve a similar purpose to the one it had in Antiquity – it will house cultural festivals and events.

Roman Hospital from South Moravia?

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 2 Comments

The incipit of an item from Ceske Noviny:

Czech archaeologists are excavating the foundations of an ancient Roman lazaretto (hospital) in Pasohlavky, which is the largest facility of its kind from this period preserved north of the Danube River, archaeologist Balazs Komoroczy told CTK today.

The hospital was part of an extensive fortified complex that the 10th Roman legion built on Hradisko hill at the Amber Road in the 2nd century AD, under the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Hradisko was the northernmost outpost of the Roman Empire in Central Europe under Marcus Aurelius. The 10th legion was stationed there to take Germanic tribes in control.

Only foundation remains are preserved from the original hospital today because of the construction works 30 years ago when the huge Nove Mlyny dam was built at the site.

The 60-metre-long and 45-metre-wide hospital served for the treatment and relaxation of hundreds of Romans.

Archaeologists have known about its existence for years. However, they started excavating it only recently in connection with the planned construction of a thermal spa in Pasohlavky near Brno.

Not sure lazaretto is the right word — that usually refers to a quarantine station, no? Whatever the case, how does one identify an ancient building attached to a fort as a medical facility? As to the other finds in the area, this is all I could find: A Roman Camp in Musov (you’ll have to scroll down a bit)