Ancient Rome

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This Pompeii Home Stands Out From the Rest

House of the Vettii fully reopens to public after 20 years of restoration work

(Newser) - Two men freed from enslavement came to live a life of luxury in ancient Pompeii. Now their ornate home, dubbed "Pompeii's Sistine Chapel," has fully opened to the public for the first time in 20 years. The House of the Vettii—built in the second century BC,...

She Had a Hunch on Her $34.99 Goodwill Find. She Was Right
She Had a Hunch
on Her $34.99
Goodwill Find.
She Was Right
in case you missed it
May 8, 2022 4:00 PM CDT

She Had a Hunch on Her $34.99 Goodwill Find. She Was Right

Art collector confirms she bought a stone bust straight out of ancient Rome

(Newser) - Four years ago, an art collector picked up an old stone bust at a Texas thrift shop for less than $40. It was money well spent: The sculpture has been confirmed to be an artifact straight out of ancient Rome. KHOU reports that Laura Young stumbled upon the bust, nestled...

Badger Unearths Stash of Ancient Roman Coins

Archaeologists in Spain are grateful

(Newser) - Archaeologists in northern Spain have discovered the largest stash of ancient Roman coins ever found in the region. And they're giving all the credit to a hungry badger, reports the Guardian . Researchers found more than 200 coins, dating back to between the third and fifth century AD, in the...

Ancient Roman Boundary Marker Found at Dig

This pomerial stone marked the city limits and dates from 49 AD

(Newser) - Archaeologists have discovered a rare stone delineating the city limits of ancient Rome that dates from the age of Emperor Claudius in 49 A.D. and was found during excavations for a new sewage system. Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi was on hand for the unveiling Friday of the pomerial stone,...

Tourists Can Visit Gladiators' Underground Chambers

The amphitheater's 'backstage' is restored and open

(Newser) - You can get backstage passes to the Colosseum in Rome, now. The giant landmark, also known as the Flavian Amphitheater, has been undergoing renovations for years now with the help of an Italian fashion brand, and the latest project has been to make the hypogeum more accessible to the public....

Jawbone Found in Roman Catacombs Came From Beyond Empire

Person was born in what is now Sudan

(Newser) - It's not clear whether a jawbone found in a Roman catacomb belonged to a free man or slave, but testing has revealed that the individual traveled a very long way. Scientists say tests on bone, teeth, and DNA show the jawbone from the mass grave in catacombs of Saints...

Pompeii Gives Up a 'Sorcerer's Treasure Trove'

So much for good-luck charms

(Newser) - There was perhaps no better place for good-luck charms than Pompeii circa AD79. Too bad they didn't quite work. Archaeologists combing the ancient Roman city discovered dozens of charms within a "sorcerer's treasure trove," encased in hardened volcanic material from Mount Vesuvius' eruption that year, per...

Ancient Rome's Concrete Had Super Ingredient: Seawater

Seawalls are actually stronger today than when they were built

(Newser) - What's so special about ancient Rome's concrete? Well, it just might be "the most durable building material in human history," as one engineer puts it, per the Washington Post . A new study in American Mineralogist sheds further light onto why: Romans mixed a specific volcanic ash...

This Stone May Be Key to Mysterious Yet Influential Ancient Culture

Little survives of the Etruscans, who helped shape ancient Rome and Greece

(Newser) - The Etruscans, a massively influential culture admired by both ancient Greeks and Romans, are largely a mystery to us today because much of their writing has perished, Ars Technica reports. That may change with a 500-pound slab of sandstone containing 70 letters and punctuation marks from the Etruscan language discovered...

Surprise Find: Pompeii Residents Had 'Perfect Teeth'

Also, study suggests many died from head injuries, not suffocation

(Newser) - High-tech scans of Pompeii residents killed in the long-ago eruption of Mount Vesuvius have provided two revelations: They had amazing teeth, and many were killed by falling masonry and other objects—as opposed to the widely held theory that they were suffocated by ash. As for the first: Thank a...

'Exceptional' Find May Change How We Think About Ancient Rome

6th-century BC home may prove city was bigger than thought: archaeologists

(Newser) - Archaeologists have discovered a sixth-century BC residence under a palazzo in central Rome, saying that it proves the ancient city was much bigger than previously thought. Officials said yesterday that the area on the Quirinal Hill had long been thought to have only been used as a necropolis, with ancient...

'Killing Machine' Rebuilt After 1.5K Years

Ancient elevator raised animals into the Colosseum

(Newser) - Imagine seeing wild animals roar onto the field of your favorite stadium to maul prisoners or battle gladiators. Well, that was considered entertainment in ancient Rome—and now experts have reconstructed a wooden machine like ones that once raised leopards, bears, lions, and elephants into Rome's Colosseum, the Telegraph...

King Herod's Hallway Linked to 'Horrible' Gangrene

Reviled ancient ruler was too sick to use palace, experts say

(Newser) - Archaeologists have uncovered a corridor into Herod the Great's ancient palace but say the infamous king never really put the hallway to use, NBC News reports. In fact he turned Herodium, roughly 7 miles south of Jerusalem, into a burial monument when he fell horribly ill. "Surprisingly, during...

5 Ancient Skeletons Found in Shackles

Child's remains among those discovered at Roman site

(Newser) - Investigating an ancient Roman burial site in southwest France, researchers came upon a creepy find: Five skeletons—one of them a child's—were stuck in shackles, the Independent reports. Iron chains were locked around the ankles of three of the skeletons, while another had shackles on its neck. The...

Ancient Shipwreck Dates to Time When Rome Still Ruled

Divers spend hours descending 400-plus feet in search of artifacts

(Newser) - Scientists in Italy are teaming up with highly skilled divers from Florida to carefully sift through an ancient shipwreck dating back thousands of years—to the second Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage from 218BC to 201BC. It could be one of the oldest shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, and is...

Man Slept in Car for Days to Guard Discovered Treasure

UK man with metal detector found 22K Roman coins

(Newser) - Laurence Egerton's metal-detecting excursions often resulted in such "treasures" as old shotgun cartridges and other "rubbish," he says. But last November, the UK builder found something much better—22,000 fourth-century Roman coins, the biggest such cache ever found in Britain. The coins, which date from...

Female Skeleton Casts Light on Ancient Earthquake

Archaeologists say temblor flattened Hippos in 363AD

(Newser) - Archaeologists investigating the remains of an ancient city overlooking the Sea of Galilee say they've found the best evidence yet of a devastating earthquake—one of two that leveled the Greco-Roman municipality, the Jerusalem Post reports. The University of Haifa researchers, who have been excavating Hippos for 15 years,...

Mysterious Coin Stash Unearthed— After 2K Years
 Mysterious Coin Stash 
 Unearthed—After 2K Years 
in case you missed it
Jul 12, 2014 11:14 AM CDT

Mysterious Coin Stash Unearthed—After 2K Years

26 Roman and Late Iron Age coins found in Derbyshire

(Newser) - A cave in Britain may have been the perfect hiding place for a stash of coins … because 2,000 years passed before anyone found them. A climber sheltering from the rain happened upon four coins in Dovedale, Derbyshire, reports the Ashbourne News Telegraph , which led to a National Trust...

Inside the Tough Life of an Ancient Roman Gladiator

Researchers map out Roman 'prison'

(Newser) - After discovering a well-preserved ludus gladiatorius (read: gladiator school) near Vienna in 2011, researchers mapped it out using radar and overhead surveys, the BBC reports. Now, they're revealing details of the terrible life of an ancient Roman gladiator—enslaved as part of what was a "big business,"...

Ancient Obelisk's True Purpose Revealed

We've had 'Altar of Peace' wrong for decades, according to 3D modeling

(Newser) - Researchers using 3D modeling and data from NASA think they've discovered the true purpose of the Obelisk of Montecitorio—upending a theory that has stood for decades. The 71-foot-tall ancient Egyptian obelisk was brought to Rome by Emperor Augustus, and would have stood across a plaza from the Ara...

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