A rare Archaic period (800 – 480 B.C.) Greek bronze statuette of a horse and rider is the star of a new exhibition that opened yesterday at the Getty Villa Museum. This is the first time the statuette has been on public view since it was discovered in Albania five years ago. It dates to around 500 B.C. and is unique for the high quality of its craftsmanship, its intact condition and for having a known findspot excavated by archaeologists.

“Although bordering on Greece and sharing the Adriatic coast with Italy, Albania is a country whose ancient heritage is less familiar to American museum audiences,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “Focusing on a single, precious object allows us to offer visitors a glimpse into the close artistic connections within the Mediterranean world, and to highlight the complex process of restoration by the Museum’s antiquities conservators, who carried out the analysis and treatment of this delicate archaeological find in collaboration with colleagues at the Albanian Institute of Archaeology in Tirana.”

The statuette was discovered in 2018 during an excavation of an outpost of the ancient Corinthian colony of Apollonia near the modern-day village of Babunjë, only it wasn’t found in the planned dig. Archaeologists from the international team were watching a local farmer plow his onion field when they spotted something in the churned soil. They stopped the plow, preventing the object from meeting a twisted end, and called in their colleagues to explore its archaeological context.

Even still caked with soil, the exceptional detail of the bronze horseman was evident. It is the only luxury object discovered at this site. Previous finds of ceramics and architectural remains point to a modest settlement founded by Greeks as a defensive outpost of Apollonia. Apollonia was something of an insular society, ruled for hundreds of years by the families that founded it, and the outposts were dependent on the colony’s ties to the Greek mainland for survival.

This suggests that the bronze horseman may also be of Corinthian origin. Corinth was an important center of metalworking in Archaic Greece, and the few horse and rider figures in bronze that are known are believed to have been made in Corinth. The discovery of an exceptional example of a bronze horseman in a remote outpost with almost exclusive links to Corinth supports this hypothesis.

After its discovery, the horseman was kept by the Albanian Institute of Archaeology (AIA) in Tirana for three years. It was still encrusted in soil as it was when it was found. In 2021, the AIA asked the Getty Museum to conserve the object in its state-of-the-art facility. Getty conservators examined the statuette with X-rays and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to learn how it was cast and the metal composition of the bronze. They then focused on removing the dirt, mineral deposits and corrosion materials using miniature scalpels designed as eye surgery tools.

For the most secure possible display, the conservation team created a 3D-printed replica of the statuette to design a bespoke mount that fits the object perfectly. The statuette is now being exhibited on that mount in a case with a dry microclimate to prevent any further corrosion of the metal. The horseman will be at the Getty Villa through January 29th, 2024.

Archaeologists excavating the House of the Amphitheater in Mérida, western Spain, have unearthed a bathing facility that is far larger than the usual baths found in Roman private residences.

Mérida was founded by Augustus in 25 B.C. as Emerita Augusta, a colony for veterans of two of his legions. It was the capital of the Roman province of Lusitania and prospered as the end-point of the Silver Way, the Roman road linking the capital to the gold and silver mines outside Asturica Augusta (modern-day Astorga) 300 miles to the north. There are more preserved monumental Roman public buildings than in any other city in Spain. Built between 15 and 8 B.C., the Roman Theatre of Mérida and the Amphitheater of Mérida formed an entertainment complex offering theatrical performances and gladiatorial combat.

The House of the Amphitheater is a suburban domus built adjacent to the amphitheater outside the original defensive walls of the city. It is structured as a typical Roman urban domus with a central trapezoidal courtyard surrounded by a portico. It is the largest Roman home in Merida, but the recently-unearthed baths are huge in comparison to the house’s size.

Inside the bathing area, [lead archaeologist Ana Maria] Bejarano said her team found “perfectly preserved” individual bathing facilities. The area featured ample wall and floor decorations, including marble plaques, moldings, paintings and various underground structures associated with the baths, all of which were in outstanding condition.

In most instances, a pool will be found adjacent to a Roman bath site. So far, however, none has been found in the House of the Amphitheater (although the archaeologists plan to keep looking). […]

The installment of such an extensive Roman bath facility suggests huge social gatherings may have been hosted by the homeowner, possibly in connection with the gladiatorial games going on close by.

The excavation of the House of the Amphitheater is part of a series of collaborative projects with several research institutions and universities to explore Mérida’s imposing Roman structures, including the theater. The goal of the team working on the domus is to expand the excavated spaces and establish more of the house’s chronology.

A team of French and Italian underwater archaeologists have recovered a selection of glassware and raw glass blocks from a Roman shipwreck between the Italian island of Capraia and the French island of Corsica. It is only the second wreck found with a cargo that is predominantly glass, both worked pieces and the raw blocks in various sizes and colors ready to blow into commercial tableware. There are thousands of glass pieces and tons of raw blocks on the sea floor from this one ship. The contents of the wreck suggest it took to the sea for the last time in the late 1st century or early 2nd century A.D.

The wreck was found 350 meters (1150 feet) deep in 2012. The location was initially deemed to be in French territorial waters, and the underwater archaeology department of France’s Culture Ministry performed some initial surveys of the site in 2013 and 2015. Diplomatic negotiations on where to draw the border flipped the find site into Italian territorial waters in 2016, and the two countries decided to work on a joint study of the wreck. The first campaign of the joint mission took place the first week of this month.

The French Culture Ministry contributed its research vessel, the Alfred Merlin, and its two remote operated vehicles to explore the wreck. One of the ROVs, dubbed Arthur, is a new prototype with more functions than a Swiss Army knife. It can operate at depths of up to 2500 meters, shoot high-definition video, blow and vacuum sediment and grab objects to bring them to the surface with its delicate claw system.

Arthur has recovered an assortment of different glass pieces including bottles, plates, cups, bowls, a small unguentarium (cosmetic vessel) and several raw blocks. In addition to the glassware, two large bronze basins and a few amphorae were brought to the surface.

At the moment the wreck is dated between the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 2nd century AD but an in-depth study of the materials will be able to provide further details on the chronology of the shipwreck and more information on the route traveled by the ship on its last journey. At an initial analysis of the load, given the type of visible amphorae (“carrot” amphorae, oriental amphorae including probable Beirut-type amphorae and some Gauloise 4 amphorae) and the quantity of glass vessels and blocks of raw glass, the archaeologists believe that the ship must have come from a port in the Middle East, perhaps from Lebanon or Syria, and that it was headed for the French Provençal coast.

The amphora shown in the photos is a carrot amphora, named for its distinctive shape. They were produced in Beirut in the late 1st century and first half of the second century A.D. and were used to transport local dates for export to Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Balkans and even further afield to Britain.

The recovered objects will all be transported to the laboratory of the National Superintendence in Taranto where they will be subjected to various scientific analyses and conserved for future display.

This video shows the ROV doing its thing, recording fantastic high-def video of the site, vacuuming sediment and recovering fragile artifacts from the sea floor with its remarkably gentle but effective gripper claws.