Archaeologists have discovered a rare 5,000-year-old tomb containing the articulated remains of 14 individuals at a Neolithic site at Holm on the east coast of Mainland, Orkney. It consists of a stone cairn 49 feet in diameter at the end of 23-foot-long stone passage. Six smaller chambers adjoin the central cairn. This is a “Maes Howe-type” passage grave; only 12 others of this type of tomb are known on Orkney. Built with corbelled stone roofs that narrowed as they rose, Maes Howe tombs are considered the pinnacle of Neolithic engineering in northern Britain.

This masterpiece of prehistoric construction was almost destroyed without a trace. It is flat now, the towering height that once would have dominated the landscape lost to stone thieves in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then in 1896, the son of a local farmer dug around the site, uncovering some remains of walls, a macehead and ball and eight skeletons. The finds were reported in a local paper as the ruins of a “chambered cairn,” but it was a passing reference with no specific location information.

Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark, senior curator of Neolithic prehistory at the National Museums Scotland, came across the 1896 report and decided to seek out the tomb. A geophysical survey helped pinpoint the possible location of the tomb. A team of local volunteers and students led by Anderson-Whymark and Prof Vicki Cummings of Cardiff University hit paydirt and excavated the tomb in a targeted three-week dig.

Dr Anderson-Whymark said: […]

“It’s incredible to think this once impressive monument was nearly lost without record, but fortunately just enough stonework has survived for us to be able understand the size, form and construction of this tomb.”

Dr Anderson-Whymark said 5,000 years ago, the tomb would have been a prominent feature on the landscape, and likely to have looked similar to Orkney’s Maeshowe chambered cairn.

He said it was possible further discoveries, including more skeletons, could be made at Holm.

Prof Cummings said: “The preservation of so many human remains in one part of the monument is amazing, especially since the stone has been mostly robbed for building material.

“It is incredibly rare to find these tomb deposits, even in well-preserved chambered tombs and these remains will enable new insights into all aspects of these peoples’ lives.”

The human remains will be DNA-tested to discover if there are familial relationships between the people buried in the tomb. The tomb appears to have been used over a stretch of time, with bodies placed on top of older ones. Radiocarbon dating may answer how long the tomb was in active use.

After a long closure due to COVID and an extensive program of restoration, the Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta, in the southern Italian region of Campania, has reopened to the public.

Conservators from the Central Institute of Restoration of Rome (ICR) and the University of Molise analyzed the frescoed surfaces of the walls and the microclimate within the Mithraeum as well as in rooms adjacent and above the sacred space. They installed a new energy-efficient lighting system which does not alter the temperature and humidity of the rooms or damage the integrity of the pictorial surfaces. There is also a new information system in the antechamber to the main cult room which gives visitors background on the religion, the Mithraeum and on the recent analyses of the frescoes.

The Mithraeum was built in a natural cavern at the end of the 1st century or beginning of the 2nd century A.D. It is the oldest Mithraeum in the West and one of the most important Mithraic sites in the world. The religion originated in Persia and was brought to southern Italy by merchants and traders from the East doing business at the port of Puteoli. Between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Mithraism evolved in the West from its Indo-Persian origins as a solar religion into a mystery cult with adherents throughout the empire, mostly soldiers, slaves and gladiators.

Capua was renowned for its gladiatorial school (its most famous alumnus was none other than Spartacus), and Mithraism took hold very early here. The cavern is located near the city’s great amphitheater that was second in size only to the Colosseum in Rome and was built around the 1st century A.D. Mithras makes an appearance on the amphitheater itself, as a bust carved onto the keystone of an arch in the arcade. The Colosseum numbered its entrances for traffic control; the Campanian Amphitheater identified its entrances by deity. Mithras is ranked with the likes of Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Diana, Apollo, Mercury and Ceres on the amphitheater’s keystones.

The Mithraeum is underground. Visitors descend a flight of stairs into a narrow corridor that leads to a preparation room on the right, and the main cult chamber on the left. The Mithraeum is a rectangular room about 40 feet long and 10 feet wide. The long walls have benches carved out of the stone where the adherents sat. At the end of the room is an altar with a brilliantly colored fresco depicting the tauroctony, the slaying of the bull by Mithras. On the eastern wall is a fresco of the Moon holding the reins of a biga (a two-horse chariot) pulled by one black horse and one white one. The western wall features a bas relief of Cupid and Psyche. The ceiling is painted yellow and is decorated with red and blue glass paste stars. Originally the side walls would have been completely covered in paintings, but today only two torch-bearers and depictions of the stages or ritual purification of a new initiate remain.

The Mithraeum was found during construction in 1922. It was opened to visitors in 1937. Now that it has reopened, the conservation needs of the wall paintings are being prioritized, so only a maximum of 20 visitors a day will be allowed, and only for 20 minutes — 10 minutes in the antechamber where the information panels are, 10 minutes in the worship chamber.

A Roman-era leather sandal with a unique decoration has been discovered in an ancient well at Lugo de Llanera, Asturias, northwestern Spain. The sandal is decorated with circles, ovals and bird-shaped figures. Roman sandals are rare finds in Spain. Only 20 are known, and this is the only one with decoration.

What would become the Roman city of Lucus Asturum was founded as the fortified capital of the Luggones people. It rose to prominence at the time of the Flavian dynasty (69-96 A.D.) as a mansio, an official rest stop on a Roman road administered by the government for the benefit of traveling dignitaries and officials. Lucus Asturum was located at the intersection of the two major Roman roads that transected the Asturias region, so it was a hub of travel, administration and communications between the 1st and 4th century A.D.

It has not been excavated thoroughly, however. The first excavations were commissioned in the 1930s, but none of the material recovered or documentation from those first digs have survived. and there is still debate as to the size and population of the ancient city. There were a few digs after that, but nothing comprehensive until the town council funded a new excavation program led by archaeologist Esperanza Martín in 2018. Martin’s team began excavations at the La Morgal recreational area. They uncovered the first remains of a Roman bath at Lucus. It was in use until the 3rd century A.D.

The next year, the remains of a Roman villa from the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. were discovered near the baths. Martin’s team expanded the work area and continued to explore the villa. In the 2021 excavation, they unearthed the edge of a stone well adjacent to the house. Evidence of repairs carried out during the Roman period was visible on the stone walls of the well, and inside excavators found pieces of terra sigilata from known workshops, amphora fragments and a large number of glass fragments including a full set of dishes with bowls, drinking glasses and bottles.

Excavations resumed this summer with the well as a particular focus. The sandal was discovered in an excellent state of preservation thanks to the anaerobic waterlogged silt at the bottom of the well.

“The remains we found, due to the anoxia generated by the high water table in the area, are in an exceptional state,” says Martín. “The silts have created an anaerobic environment thanks to the plasticity of the clays that compose them, so the organic materials have been perfectly preserved.” At a depth of about three meters, the specialists extracted part of the wooden cover of the well, a tiled floor for the decantation of silts, several jars, seeds, chestnuts, pine nuts, mollusks, the remains of domestic and wild fauna, an acetre, or bronze, cauldron, a small metal ring and the sandal, among other objects. “It is almost complete and retains the cutting notches to hold it in the upper leg area. It is more than likely that it was lost by someone who came in to clean [the well] when it got caught in the silt. It is a unique object as it is decorated.”

The footwear is currently refrigerated to avoid degradation until it can be restored and exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Asturias. The sandal will thus tell visitors the story of how 2,000 years ago, a rather well-dressed individual descended into a well in Lucus Asturum to extract the mud that was spoiling the water supply to his home.

The iron folding chair discovered in August 2022 in the grave of a 6th century woman in Endsee, Bavaria, has been fully excavated a year after it was removed in a soil block. After its discovery, the chair was taken to the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation (BLfD) for excavation, study and conservation in laboratory conditions. An initial CT scan revealed that the folding chair was almost intact and was decorated with brass non-ferrous inlays. Those exceptional details have now been revealed.

The chair was deposited at the feet of an adult woman between 40 and 50 years old at time of death. She was adorned with fine jewelry, including a necklace of glass beads and a chatelaine attached to her belt with two bow brooches. Archaeological evidence suggest that she was not just wealthy, but held political office. The x-shaped folding chair was a symbol of her political position.

The folding chair is a simple design: two frames joined with an axle pin. This design is so ancient it has been found in Egyptian tombs going back 4,000 years, with written references from Mesopotamia going back 500 years before that. (Even then the x-frame chair was associated with rulership.) Two narrow slots on the horizontal struts were used to attach the seat. The seat has decomposed, but mineralized traces found on the chair indicate it was made of animal fur. The brass inlays feature geometric motifs, including herringbones, spirals and diamond shapes.

The level of surviving decoration is unprecedented. Early medieval folding chairs are already extremely rare — 30 of them have been found in Europe, only two of them in Germany — and none of the others have anything like this density of detail.