Viggen

Every American schoolchild knows the story of the Pilgrims’ settlement of Plymouth. But even the most exacting US historian cannot say for sure precisely where that settlement stood. Now, a team of archeologists is digging through the sand at the bottom of Burial Hill in Plymouth center, their hopes set on unlocking a mystery that has intrigued researchers for generations: the location of the early 17th-century palisades that would define the original borders of the town that calls itself America’s Hometown... ...more at the Boston Globe

...Maty reviewed a book which fits very nicely with this topic (Murder Was Not a Crime: Homicide and Power in the Roman Republic). intersting titbit from the review; . did you guys know that there is no word for muder in Latin? (from the review) The nearest we get as a noun is 'homicidum', which just means 'killing a man', whether lawfully or unlawfully, deliberately or accidentally. As a verb 'necare' means to kill in a perfidious manner – however Latin has nothing as explicit as 'murder' as a word for premeditated unlawful killing in any form of grammar.

Ancient skulls recovered from a deep cave in northern Spain are the oldest known remains to show clear signs of Neanderthal facial features, researchers claim. Scientists reconstructed 17 skulls from pieces of bone found in the mud at Sima de los Huesos, or the ‘Pit of Bones’, in the Atapuerca mountains. The skulls had some Neanderthal-like features, but their appearance was otherwise far more primitive. Juan Luis Arsuaga, professor of palaeontology at the Complutense University of Madrid, said the remains belonged to a “missing link” population that fell somewhere between the Neanderthals and a more archaic group of human forerunners... ...full story at the Hindu Times

£25 million appeal to save Emperor Nero's lavish palace, which sits on a hill opposite the Colosseum, from collapse. On Wednesday archaeologists from the cultural heritage ministry announced a bold plan to strip away the existing park, cutting down trees and removing hundreds of tonnes of soil, in order to replace it with a landscaped garden designed to protect the palace below from further damage. The new garden would be planted on a much thinner stratum of soil, meaning that it would exert far less weight on the palace and less water would percolate into the building... ...more at the Telegraph

...to whoever signs up, It wold be nice to get some feedback how it was...

...as you said, much would depend on circumstance and time period, but in general i am pretty sure that roman society didnt loose a sweat when a "patrician" strangled a slave...

A French dig volunteer at Vindolanda has unearthed a gold coin, the first ever in more than 40 years of archaeology at the fort. After more than 40 years of digging, the first gold coin has been unearthed at Vindolanda. The coin equates to more than half a year’s wages for a Roman soldier, which would have meant despair for whoever lost it. The coin was found in the late 4th Century level at Vindolanda but bears the image of the Emperor Nero which dates it to AD 64-65. It had been in circulation for more than 300 years before being lost on this most northern outpost of the Roman Empire.... more at The Journal

Archaeologists have discovered one of the earliest Roman military camps in the Carnuntum on the Danube near Vienna. The discovery of the extensive military camp, that is believed to be the size of six football pitches, was done using a high tech radar machine that can detect objects deep into the ground. ...via Vienna Times (more indepth article about it in German)

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an epidemic in Egypt so terrible that one ancient writer believed the world was coming to an end. Pottery remains found in the kilns allowed researchers to date the grisly operation to the third century A.D., a time when a series of epidemics now dubbed the "Plague of Cyprian" ravaged the Roman Empire, which included Egypt... ...full article at Livescience

Thesis submitted to the Tenneesee State University for the Degree of Masters of Arts by Victor Clark ...thanks to Victor Clark, i can publish here his (especially for numismatists) interesting work, it starts of with the Introduction, over the course of the next couple of weeks, i will add all pages of his work. Feel free to discuss... In Italy during the fourteenth century some men began to study ancient Roman coins. This should not be a surprise though, as it was the Renaissance, and there was a great interest in the classical past. The humanist Petrarch was the most famous of these early numismatists. Petrarch said in a letter that often people would approach him with a request to identify a newly discovered ancient coin. “Often there came to me in Rome a vinedigger, holding in his hands an ancient jewel or a golden Latin coin, sometimes scratched by the hard edge of a hoe, urging me either to buy it or to identify the heroic faces inscribed on them... ...continue to Constantine the Great: The Coins Speak

..hehhe, explains it pretty good

Interesting bit from Johns Hopkins about the absence of roman children at etruscan cemetaries... When Marie Nicole Coscolluela ’13 first heard that very young children were absent from Etruscan cemeteries, she was mystified. What does that tell us about how Etruscans viewed infants and young children? Did they consider them less human than adults? If so, what was it like to be a child ca. 10th–3rd centuries B.C.? ...more at Johns Hopkins

...wouldnt that be a cool sport to watch?

Dozens of cremation graves dating to around 400 AD; the start of the Great Migration period, are being studied at Łężany, northeastern Poland, by a team from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. “A large number of graves with their unique contents shed a new light on the cultural image of the region during the Roman and Migration period” - explained Agnieszka Jaremek of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw... ...more at Past Horizons

Drilling crews are eager to plunge their equipment into the ground. Road builders are ready to start highway projects, and construction workers need to dig. But across the hyperactive oil fields of North Dakota, these and other groups have to wait for another team of specialists known for slow, meticulous study: archaeologists. They are the experts who must survey the land before a single spade of dirt can be turned, a requirement that has produced a rare jobs bonanza in a field that forces many highly educated professionals to hop from project to project around the world and still struggle to make a living... ...more at Chron

..relevant to this discussion; One evening at a palace dinner party, in about 40AD, a couple of nervous aristocrats asked the emperor Caligula why he was laughing so heartily. “Just at the thought that I’d only have to click my fingers and I could have both your heads off!” It was, actually, a favourite gag of the emperor (he had been known to come out with it when fondling the lovely white neck of his mistress). Mary Beard: humour in ancient Rome was a matter of life and death

Many people may feel that they have spent a great deal of time on the A1 road, which connects London and Edinburgh. But the route has been in use for a staggering 10,000 years, according to newly-discovered archaeological evidence. A Mesolithic settlement, which has been compared to a modern-day service station, has been unearthed by researchers alongside the A1 near Catterick in North Yorkshire... ...more at the Daily Mail

A circular building, which could be a second temple, is the focus of the fourth University of Newcastle dig at Maryport's Roman fort. The excavations have been commissioned by the Senhouse Museum Trust after archaeologists last year confirmed the remains of a rectangular building on the site was almost definitely a classic-type temple. It was, therefore, the most north westerly temple known in the Roman Empire... ...more at News & Star

Prof Nicholas Purcell delivers his lecture "The Roman Empire's New Place in the World" as part of the Alumni day http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/roman-empires-new-place-world-classics-alumni-day-15th-march-2014

Empires of Faith by Peter Sarris Book Review by Ian Hughes Over recent decades there has been an explosion of publications about the last days of the Western Empire and the rise of the "barbarian" kingdoms: a new generation with an interest in Late Antiquity is making itself heard. One of the main players in this phenomenon is Peter Sarris. In Empires of Faith - The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam, c.500-700 (Oxford, 2011 -Volume 1 in the Oxford History of Medieval Europe) Sarris has written an overview of the period encompassing the Fall of the West to the Rise of Islam in the East and its conquest of much of the old "Roman" world... continue to the review of Empires of Faith: The Fall of Rome to the Rise of Islam by Peter Sarris

...so any more research done on this? What could it be used for? http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/roman_dodecahedra.html

The mausoleum of 'Romulus' on Rome's ancient Appian Way reopened to visitors Monday after 20 years. The restored tomb stands within a grand sporting arena known as the Circus of Maxentius, itself part of a broader imperial complex built by the emperor Maxentius in the early fourth century AD. It is thought to have been the burial place of Maxentius' son Valerio Romulus, who died prematurely in 309... ...more at NNA

@Onasander, i havent deleted any posts...