The History Blog

Archaeologists excavating the site of the former Hyderabad and Meeanee barracks (turn of the century barracks that housed the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment until new quarters were built in 2008, now slated for redevelopment) have uncovered a hoard of 1,247 Roman coins from the 3rd century A.D. The coins were packed in a large pot. Another pot was found alongside of it, but it was empty; most likely the owner had cashed in its contents but kept the empty pot in place in case he needed it for future hoarding.

We can tell from the way the coins are layered — not in date order — that the pot was filled and buried at one time, not by adding coins over time piggy bank style. The coins are still in little stacks, suggesting that the owner counted them and carefully added the piles to the pot.

The coins are of a type known as antoniniani. The hoard is made up of issues of at least nine Roman emperors ranging from Gallus (251-3) to Victorinus (269-271). The latest coins in the hoard point to a date for its deposition in the early part of AD 271.

The antoninianus started life off as a silver coin issued in the early 3rd century but, by the time of the Hyderabad hoard, it had become very debased and ended up as a copper-alloy coin with a very thin silver coating. Severe inflation reduced its monetary value which is why later antoniniani are common finds on archaeological sites of the third quarter of the 3rd century. The Hyderabad hoard belongs to this period.

This was a turbulent time for the Roman Empire known as the Crisis of the Third Century. Twenty-five emperors reigned between 235 and 284, and in 260, under pressure from barbarian invasions, the empire split into three warring sections. The province of Britannia joined Gaul, Hispania and Germania to form the Gallic Empire under the control of the Batavian usurper Postumus. Postumus was himself usurped and was killed by his own troops in 268. The Gallic Empire fell apart and a chain of would-be emperors followed for a few years until the Emperor Aurelian reclaimed the provinces after his victory in the Battle of Châlons in 274.

The unrest would have been keenly felt in Colchester (aka Camulodunum), which was the first Roman city in Britain and was garrisoned with Roman troops since the Legio XX Valeria Victrix set up shop in 43 A.D. Garrison towns stop being protected and start being dangerous when the military is infighting and throwing up usurpers every other month. Postumus’ troops killed him because he wouldn’t let them sack the city of Mainz, after all, so burying pots full of coins in a field was probably a wise strategy not just to avoid thieves prospering under the chaos, but also to avoid the military run amok.

The field in question was part of the system of defensive earthwork walls (known as dykes despite no water being involved). The hoard was buried in the ditch behind the Berechurch Dyke, part of 15 miles of earthwork defenses originally built a hundred years before the Claudian invasion of Britain and reinforced by the Romans.

This isn’t the first hoard of Roman coins found in the Colchester area, and the others have all been from the mid-to-late third century as well. Two hoards were found a hundred years ago, and a huge group of 6,000 antoniniani was discovered in 1983.

The hoard has been reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme as potential treasure. When, as seems inevitable, it is declared treasure, the property owners, developing firm Taylor Wimpey, plan to donate the find to the Colchester Museum as they have done with everything else that has been found on the barracks site thus far.

An 8 aurei gold medallion minted in 308 A.D. during the reign of the Emperor Maxentius sold at auction for $1,407,550 (1.3 million Swiss francs). That’s a new world record public auction price for a Roman gold coin. (We can’t say for sure that it’s the highest price ever paid because of private sales, which of course don’t announce what kind of money changed hands.)

The coin is extremely rare, one of only two known to be in existence, and it’s in extraordinarily great condition. It’s so deeply struck and so pristine it looks like one of those goofy commemoratives they sell on infomercials, only, you know, not goofy. Or commemorative.

That handsome profile with the unbelievably detailed hair on the obverse side of the coin is the Emperor Maxentius. On the reverse is the deified spirit of Roma sitting on a shield and handing Maxentius, who stands before her wearing a toga and holding a scepter, a globe. This medallion would not have been a coin in regular circulation, but rather a special minting of presentation pieces.

The gold medallion offered here is among the largest to survive, weighing eight aurei, and was part of cache no doubt intended for distribution to Maxentius’ military officers. High-profile items like this were a perfect medium for reinforcing his ideals among the men who were in the best position to support or to betray him.

The patriotic reverse represents Maxentius as the one charged by Roma herself to deliver the capital from the degradations threatened by Galerius. The inscription “to Eternal Rome, guardian of our emperor” speaks volumes of how Maxentius presented his case for sustaining the rebellion. On the obverse, Maxentius portrays himself bareheaded at a time when all of his contemporaries are crowned, and on the reverse he wears the robes of a senator. Every aspect of this must have been carefully considered in the hope that the recipient of this medallion would be assured that Maxentius did not rule as a despot, but humbly, and at the behest of Roma herself.

The golden propaganda didn’t work. Maxentius only ruled from 306 to 312 A.D., and since Constantine controlled most of his father’s (the Emperor Constantius) army and the Caesar Severus was firmly ensconced in northern Italy, Maxentius never ruled more than central and southern Italy. In 312 Constantine took that small part forcibly by defeating him in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

This battle has gone down in history because it’s where Constantine first took the field under the banner of Christ, either the Christian symbol of the Chi-Rho (☧) on the Labarum banner, or with crosses inscribed on the soldiers’ shields. As Eusebius tells it, Constantine had a vision of the cross when he looked up at the sun one day. Above the cross was written in Greek, “In this sign, conquer.” The next night Christ came to him in a dream and explained that if he carried a Christian standard, he would defeat his enemies and win the empire.

Archaeologists excavating an area where a bridge is scheduled to be built between modern-day Ostia and Fiumicino, the town just outside Rome where Leonardo da Vinci airport is found, have discovered the remains of an ancient Roman ship. The 11-meter (36-foot) section is from one of the sides of the ship. So far neither the stern, bow nor hull have been recovered, but since we’re talking about ancient wood, the team is working very deliberately to ensure its preservation.

Anna Maria Moretti, archaeological superintendent for Rome and Ostia Antica, said “the find is a novelty because at that depth, about four metres below the topsoil, we have never found a ship, only layers (of buildings) and one single structure”. [...]

She also said there were “remains of ropes and cables” in the ship.

“Restoring the vessel will be an extremely delicate operation,” Moretti went on. “We’re keeping it constantly covered in water so that the wood doesn’t dry out.

“The wreck must be treated with highly sophisticated preservation techniques,” Moretti said.

I hope they have a giant freezer available somewhere, because the polyethylene glycol dousing system that preserved the likes of the Mary Rose and the Vasa is way too expensive with oil prices the way they are.

According to site director Paola Germoni, the discovery of the ship at this location indicates that the ancient coast line was 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) further inland than it is today. Silting gradually filled the port and the mouth of the Tiber shifted, pushing back the shoreline so that the ancient city of Ostia, now called Ostia Antica, is miles away from the modern beach town of Ostia.

You can see how the river and shoreline moved in this post about Portus, the artificial harbour first constructed next to Ostia’s smaller natural harbor by the emperor Claudius.

Roman ships were found before in this same area when the airport was being built. The small fleet and the artifacts found with them are now on display in Fiumicino’s Museum of the Roman Ships.

Police have uncovered a 2nd century Roman mausoleum beneath 60 tons of trash at an illegal toxic waste dump outside of Naples.

The dump is on the grounds of a 17th-century tower in the coastal town of Pozzuoli, just west of Naples, a town which was called Puteoli in Roman times from the Latin word “putere” meaning “to stink.” Back then the name came from its location right in the middle of the Phlegraean Fields, a caldera that includes the dormant Solfatara crater that regularly emits jets of sulphurous fumes, although it applies even more today given the enormous problem of illegal garbage piles plaguing the area.

When police raided the dump, they employed earth-movers to clear and impound the trash. They found an area where parts of the 17th century tower appeared to have been intentionally ruined so the rubble could disguise the trash. After clearing away a large pile of truck tires, they discovered the entrance to the tomb.

When they saw a marble-lined tunnel behind the opening, they realized they had found something ancient and alerted archaeologists excavating a nearby Greek site to the find. Inside the police and archaeologists found a large stuccoed tomb with marble beams in surprisingly good condition despite being filled with trash from the garbage dump, including car batteries.

The tomb had already been raided, possibly even recently by the people running the dump so they could sell whatever contents they found then use the empty mausoleum to stuff more trash into. The looters broke into the side of the tomb creating two exits then covered them with tires.

“Once again we see an illegal and uncivil act of huge proportions from the point of view of the environment and our cultural history,” said Michele Buonomo, president of the Legambiente environmental pressure group. “The operation is testimony to the neglect and abandonment of our patrimony.”

The owner of the property and another person who leased the land have been charged with violating environmental and historical preservation laws. Nobody reported the dump or the presence of hazardous waste, including local officials, so police intend to investigate who intentionally looked the other way in dereliction of their duty.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time this same site has been used as a trash dump. Organized crime figures were charged years ago for illegally dumping trash there, but obviously it didn’t take. Naples is drowning in garbage, and the Camorra, the regional mafia, are behind many of the illegal dumps that have arisen all over an area rich in Greek and Roman heritage.

The Decumanus Maximus, the main street bisecting the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, has been closed to the general public for over 20 years while it received much-needed maintenance. Now Herculaneum’s largest thoroughfare has finally been reopened so visitors can enjoy a stroll down its impressively preserved length.

“Most of Herculaneum as experienced by tourists consists of little narrow streets where people could virtually lean across from balcony to balcony and touch hands,” [archaeologist Andrew] Wallace-Hadrill said. “But the Decumanus Maximus is a big public space. It’s impressive.”

Herculaneum is west of Vesuvius, on the other side of the volcano from its more famous cousin, Pompeii. It was a smaller, wealthier town and it appears that most of its residents were able to evacuate before the pyroclastic surges from the August 24th eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. buried the city in what would eventually cool down into 50 to 60 feet of volcanic tuff rock. The thick coating would seal the town airtight and allow for the incredibly rare survival of organic materials like wood and food.

That massive cap of rock would also make treasure-hunting and destructive early excavation more of a challenge, so even after it was rediscovered by workers digging a well in 1709, most of it remained unexposed to the elements. The part that was excavated, however, was in atrocious condition as recently as 2001. Most of it was closed to tourism due to safety reasons. Much like the problems Pompeii is facing today, Herculaneum was in need of constant restoration and maintenance, much of it not the glamorous kind of work that gets the kind of funding it needs.

In 2001 the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP) stepped up to the plate. Funded by David W. Packard, president of the Packard Humanities Institute, the HCP works with the State Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Naples and Pompeii with help from the British School at Rome to do all the grunt work necessary to keep the ancient site in stable condition.

The project has consolidated the escarpment that towers over the town, stabilised all but a handful of the ancient buildings, repaired most of the existing roofing and reinstated the original Roman drainage system, providing an outlet for water that once accumulated on the site and threatened to destroy it.

The contrast with developments at Pompeii, where part of a 2,000 year-old house fell down last year, could scarcely be starker.

According to project director Wallace-Hadrill, the focus on regular, unglamorous maintenance, cooperation with the state ministry and implementing “low-cost, sustainable, practical solutions” has not only been extremely effective at stabilizing the site, but has also revealed splashy finds like a richly decorated ceiling, all the Roman craftsmanship still intact.

A gold pendant in the shape of a phallus has been declared officially treasure by Norfolk coroner William Armstrong at a treasure trove inquest at Lynn County Court on Monday. It was found by metal detectorist Kevin Hillier on January 30th. He reported the wee gold pen0r as possible treasure to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and now the inquest has confirmed its status. (Any found gold and silver objects over 300 years old must be reported to the authorities under the Treasure Act.)

According to Erica Darch, a Finds Liaison Officer from Norfolk, the pendant is:

“hollow, formed from sheet metal soldered together lengthways, rounded at the terminal with a small aperture left open at either end. A loop formed from triple ribbed sheet is soldered into position at the top, with separately applied solid globular testicles to either side. Separately applied wire with irregular transverse grooves on the underside (perhaps to act as keying for the solder) defines the edge of the foreskin.”

There is no native English tradition of phallus-worship, so this piece most likely belonged to a Roman soldier. Other phallus amulets have been found in areas with a Roman military presence, but most of them are bronze. A gold one is a rare find.

Phallic pendants in ancient Rome were talismans used to ward off the evil eye. The phallic deity was called Fascinus (from “fascinare” meaning “to cast a spell” which is the root of our word “fascinate”) and the charms and amulets shaped like penises and testes were worn to invoke his protection against evil spells. This kind of sorcery was thought to be caused primarily by envy, aka “invidia,” and was targeted against other people’s greatest fruitfulness: the fertility of animal, crop and person. Phallus pendants were thus often given to babies and children to avert curses intended to blight their growth, and a large phallic image was carried to crossroads in the countryside outside of Rome, then through the city proper during the March Liber Pater festival to protect newly-planted crops.

The phallus also had an official role in Roman state religion. The Vestal Virgins tended the fascinus populi Romani, the sacred phallic image that ensured the safety of the city, along with the sacred fire of Vesta. The sacred phallus was the masculine counterpart of the female generative power represented by Vesta’s hearth. The Vestals were also responsible for attaching a phallus to the bottom of a triumphing general’s chariot to ward off any invidiousness directed his way.

I mentioned in passing last fall that the Italian Culture Ministry was soliciting €25 million (about $35 million) from private donors for a much-needed multi-year restoration of the Colosseum. I noted then that I was too distressed at the nightmarish prospect of advertising spooge being slathered all over the original and greatest of all sports arenas to write a full entry about it. There’s some good news on that score now, so it’s time to share.

First a little background. The Colosseum is in horrible condition. It’s blackened by pollution, weakened by millennia of earthquakes and marble thefts, constantly shaken by the subway that runs right next to it. Last May, chunks of ancient plaster fell from the roof of one of the entrances, crashing through the (obviously misnamed) safety netting to the ground. Thankfully it happened at dawn, because if it had been during visiting hours people could have been severely harmed, even killed.

The Culture Ministry announced in July that they would be accepting bids from private sponsors between August 4th and September 15th. Meanwhile, they weren’t saying much about what private funding would mean in terms of advertising and promotional concessions granted to the donors. Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said at the July announcement that the donors would be allowed to “promote their image,” but that any ads would have to be compatible with the decorum of the building.

That wasn’t exactly reassuring, and when by the fall they hadn’t received a single sponsorship offer, I feared the worst. Money talks and the situation was desperate enough that even if the city or state had wanted to keep things circumspect in theory, it seemed likely to me that they would cave like 2000-year-old plaster chunks if the donation hinged on some dystopic hell of Blade Runner-esque billboarding. They had allowed horrendously huge ads to cover the facades of major buildings in Venice, after all, so there was a precedent.

Finally this January shoe mogul Diego Della Valle of Tod’s stepped up (yuk yuk) and offered to fund the $35 million restoration for the honor of the Made in Italy brand. He was hoping to inspire more of his fellow plutocrats to pitch in on this project and others too. At the announcement of the Tod’s funding offer being accepted, Italian Culture Minister Sandro Bondi said there wouldn’t be shoe commercials on the monument itself, but there were no details beyond that.

I don’t know if it was the protests ignited by the crimes against art, history, architecture and beauty in Venice or what, but it seems the Colosseum has dodged the bullet. For now.

In exchange for its sponsorship, Tod’s will be allowed to publicise the restoration nationally and internationally, to use the phrase “Sole sponsor of the conservation of the Colosseum” together with its brand names, and to publish the conservation process on its website. The project involves not only the consolidation of the AD72-80 amphitheatre’s stonework, but new lighting, a security system, and the development of visitor services.

So Tod’s will get to pimp the restoration in its promotional materials, but the Colosseum itself will not be hitting the ho stroll. Now let’s just keep our fingers crossed that the work gets done on time and on budget (yes, I laughed typing that) because the road to hell is paved with cost overruns.

The two Roman altar stones found last year under a cricket pavilion in Musselburgh, Scotland were so brittle that archaeologists were only able to turn them over this month. When they did so, they found that they were dedicated to Mithras, the bull-slaying deity of the eponymous mystery religion, and to Sol, the sun god of the late empire who features prominently in Mithraic iconography. These are the first Mithraic artifacts ever found in Scotland, and the farthest north.

The first stone has side panels depicting a lyre – a stringed musical instrument – and a griffon, a mythical beast which had a lion’s body and an eagle’s head and wings, along with pictures of a jug and bowl, objects which would have been used for pouring offerings on the altar.

The front face bears a carved inscription dedicating the altar to the god Mithras.

The front face of the second stone shows female heads which represent the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter. All are wearing headdresses – spring flowers, summer foliage, autumn grapes and a shawl for winter.

The centre of the stone contains a carving of the face of a god, probably Sol, wearing a solar crown. The eyes, mouth and solar rays are all pierced and the hollowed rear shaft would probably have held a lantern or candle letting the light shine through.

An inscription on a panel beneath the four seasons is currently partially obscured but likely bears the name of the dedicator who is believed to be a Roman centurion, and the god to whom the altar is dedicated. Traces of red and white paint are still visible beneath the inscription panel suggesting that it was originally brightly painted at least in part.

The altars were toppled in antiquity and were thus found face down with several large cracks and breaks in the stone. AOC Archaeology Group, the team contracted to survey the site for archaeological remains before construction, boxed them up to keep them from breaking into pieces and put them in storage. Archaeologists could therefore only examine the back and sides of the altar stones. At that time they mistakenly thought one of them was dedicated to Jupiter. When they finally turned them over, the archaeologists were overjoyed to find the far more rare and archaeologically significant Mithraic iconography.

Mithraism had a large following among the Roman legions between the 1st and 4th centuries AD. Reliefs and grottos dedicated to his worship (Mithraeums) followed the path of the army, from Italy to the Danube to Germany to Palestine to England to North Africa. Five Mithraeums have been found in Britain, three of them along Hadrian’s wall. By the reign of Aurelian (270 – 275 AD), Sol Invictus had become a major figure in the Roman pantheon, and he and Mithras would be theologically merged together, along with the Greek sun god Helios.

These altars date to the late 2nd century, well into the Roman occupation of Scotland which began in 80 AD. Since, as a mystery religion, Mithraism didn’t leave behind piles of scriptures and letters and parables written and shared by its adherents, the bulk of what we know about it comes from carved stone like these altars. This discovery is of major importance, therefore, to our understanding of Roman military culture in Scotland as well as to our understanding of Mithraism as a whole.

Archaeologists excavating an ancient Roman villa have found six statues from the third century A.D. The villa is now the Roman suburb of Anagnina, southeast of the historic center. In antiquity this would have been the countryside, and the villa a bucolic retreat for a wealthy person of some prominence, probably an imperial functionary.

Five of them appear to be busts or portraits of members of the Severan imperial family, including a woman and a child. The sixth is a life-size nude probably of Zeus. Another statue was found from a far earlier period, an archaic Greek herm (a bust carved above a squared pillar of stone), larger than life-sized.

They were discovered in a fountain basin in the atrium of the villa, but they weren’t just tossed in there willy nilly. Between each statue was a piece of tuff, a soft volcanic stone, keeping them from rubbing together. The villa itself appears to have been sacked at some point in its life, stripped of expensive decorative elements like marble floors and columns, so perhaps the homeowner was trying to save his treasures in anticipation of a return that never happened.

The “extraordinary” discovery, one of the biggest and most important in recent memory in the Italian capital, sheds light on housing conditions in the suburbs during the imperial period, the ministry said in a statement.

“It may be that the last owner of the villa was a high-ranking official related to the dynasty” of Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, the statement said.

“The existence of a mausoleum dating back to the late imperial period reinforces such a hypothesis due to the ritual, common in the second and third centuries, of burying the owner next to his house,” it added.

The villa also shows signs of having been built in stages, with the 3rd century construction being the final stage. That ties in with the Severan clothing and hairstyles of the statues to support the preliminary dating.

These discoveries are as invaluable politically as they are archaeologically. With the Italian state pretty much broke and draconian budget cuts hitting the culture ministry, the excavation would never have happened without a 100,000 euro donation from a group of private businessmen who wanted to see a proper archaeological exploration of the area before building a public park on the site.

The Carabinieri art squad recovered 16 paintings stolen over a period of decades in the house of a Roman designer. The designer has been charged with receiving stolen goods. His collection is enormous. Police found 180 paintings from a variety of periods reportedly purchased in markets and fairs over the past 30 years.

Authorities were tipped off to the collection by a would-be buyer. Unlike the accused, this collector, who was hoping to buy a 15th c. painting of the Sienese school, checked with the Carabinieri art squad to ensure the piece was legitimately owned by the seller. The squad looked into the collection and found one piece listed in their stolen art database: Suicide of Cleopatra, a painting by German renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, best known for his woodcuts. The Dürer had been stolen from the Palazzo Piccolomini museum in Pienza, outside of Siena, on May 28, 1972.

That discovery set off an in-depth investigation of the rest of the collection. They found another 15 paintings that had been stolen in 10 thefts from churches, museums, and private homes in Rome and central Italy. The estimated total value of the 16 recovered pieces is approximately €1 million ($1.3 million).

Police discovered the thefts in September but only announced their recovery last Friday. The paintings will be returned to their rightful owners in time for Christmas.