Some Recent News and Discoveries
Here are some recent finds while I was away in San Diego:
Archaeology student finds Roman remains in garden
AN ARCHAEOLOGY student struck lucky when he began digging the garden of his new home - and discovered ancient Roman remains.
Chris Bevan had no idea that a historic find was lurking inches beneath his feet when he moved into the house at Holme-on-Spalding Moor.
Now he and his fellow University of York students are using their spare time to carry out a survey of the garden in High Street and a neighbouring field where the ancient pottery was unearthed.
“I bought the house in July and was just doing some gardening when I found a Roman pot and some Medieval green glaze pottery,” says Chris, 24, who is a second year archaeology undergraduate.
Lucky fellow, eh? What are the odds that an archaeological student stumbles upon an archaeological site by chance?
Munich begins work on Egyptology museum
Munich - Work officially began Wednesday on what will one day be one of the world’s great Egyptology museums, with Cairo represented by ambassador Mohamed al-Orabi at the foundation stone laying in Munich. The German city, which is in a permanent race with Berlin to show off the greatest art treasures, is erecting the 88-million-euro (129-million-dollar) building next to the three Pinakothek museums devoted to western art.
To be completed in 2010, the glass and bare-concrete building will gather treasures currently stored at various sites and also contain a film-studies college.
Sealed inside the foundation stone were objects typically placed in ancient Egyptian graves and a film camera made 40 years ago.
“This building gives Munich yet another foothold in the same league as Berlin’s Island of Museums and the other art-treasure precincts of the world,” said the premier of Bavaria, Guenther Beckstein, as snow fell at the ceremony.
Another landmark in the precinct, the Brandhorst Museum devoted to 20th century art, is set to open next year.
Clearing the latest building site was enormously expensive because university buildings contaminated with asbestos and solid concrete Nazi-era bunkers had to be torn down.
This is good news! There are so many artifacts stored in Cairo and other Egyptian warehouses. Kudos to Germany. However, who wants to bet that in 20 years, if Egypt gets its act together, it’ll be asking for much of the stuff back? Hopefully by then we can resolve the antiquities dispute and work together to promote scholarship. We shall see.
And finally: Archaeologists in Rome Unveil Grotto Linked to Mythical Founder Romulus
Archaeologists on Tuesday unveiled an underground grotto believed to have been revered by ancient Romans as the place where a wolf nursed the city’s legendary founder Romulus and his twin brother Remus.
Decorated with seashells and colored marble, the vaulted sanctuary is buried 52 feet inside the Palatine hill, the palatial center of power in imperial Rome, the archaeologists said at a news conference.
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The archaeologists are convinced that they have found the place of worship where Romans believed a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin sons of the god of war Mars who were abandoned in a basket and left adrift on the Tiber.
Ancient texts say the grotto known as the “Lupercale” from “lupa,” Latin for she-wolf was near the palace of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor, who was said to have restored it, and was decorated with a white eagle.
That symbol of the Roman Empire was found atop the sanctuary’s vault, which lies just below the ruins of the palace built by Augustus, said Irene Iacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine and the nearby Roman Forum.
Already on some obscure email list I noticed that one person praised the find as proof that Romulus had founded Rome. Seriously, a spade in one hand and…Livy in the other?
Update: More pictures from the dig here.