Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Apollonia in what is today Albania have uncovered the remarkably intact Roman bust of an athlete. Archaeologists also found the decorated foot of a bronze statue, also an important piece but obviously not complete.

“It is an exceptional discovery, the most important in the last 50 years in Albania because the bust is still intact,” French professor Jean-Luc Lamboley, who led the dig at Apollonia with Albanian archaeologists, told AFP.

The quality of carving, especially of the face and curly hair, marks it as Roman. It may have been buried intentionally to keep it safe during periods of upheaval. The bust has been moved temporarily to the archaeological museum in Tirana since the local museum was plundered after the fall of communism in 1990 and is still closed.

Apollonia was founded in the 6th century B.C. by Greek immigrants in an area populated by Illyrian tribes. It became an important city in the ancient world because of its agricultural exports and a large harbour which was reputed to be able to accomodate 100 ships at a time. Strabo mentions it in his Geographia as a well-governed city (it was an oligarchy, with a Greek ruling class and a majority Illyrian serf population) which also has a rock that shoots out fire because rivers of water and asphalt run underneath it.

It was also an early notch in Rome’s bedpost, a loyal territory under Roman Republican control since 229 B.C. Famous for its philosophical school, Apollonia was hosting the future emperor Augustus when he heard the news of Caesar’s assassination in 44 B.C.

The city began to decline in the 3rd century A.D. after an earthquake silted up the famed harbour and turned the town into a malarial swamp. By the 6th century the city was deserted and fell into obscurity until grand tourists rediscovered it in the 18th century. It was never built over and so far only an estimated 10% of the classical site has been excavated, so there are many more treasures to be found.

Franco and Gonzalo Carrazana were digging up their patio to build a two room addition on their house in Tilcara, Argentina, when they found 8 ancient pots buried one next to the other.

“The first piece appeared when we had dug some 40 centimeters (16 inches). Then another pot appeared that was next to a third,” Roberto Carrazana, the brothers’ uncle, told the daily Clarin.

“When we started to dig up the whole space, the fourth pot appeared. And as we went ahead slowly we realized that more began to appear, unbroken. That’s when we got in touch with the archaeologists,” he said.

The pots are 4 1/4 feet tall and were probably used to store food 1300 years ago. That dates makes them older than the Pucará de Tilcara, a pre-Columbian, pre-Incan fortress which is thought to have been built by the Omaguaca tribe in the 12th century. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the only publically accessible archaeological site on the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a 100-mile ravine in north Argentina that has been populated for 10,000 years.

The ceramics are very brittle, so the fact that the posts are still so complete is remarkable. Archaeologists from the Tilcara Interdisciplinary Institute intend to excavate further on the Carrazana property and in the area to see if there are any other such hidden treasures.

As of right now, we don’t know where the pots will end up. The Secretary of Tourism for the province is psyched, needless to say. He mused that some of the pots could remain in the ground where they are to mark the great find, which would give the Carrazanas an open-air museum in their backyard. They’d probably have to forgo building the addition in that case, though. I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Archaeologists excavating a tract of land outside what is now Le Mans, France, but was once Vindunum, Gaul, in preparation for future construction have discovered a large, rich temple complex dating from the 1st to the 3rd century A.D. Most of the stone structure is long gone, doubtless recycled into a couple thousand years worth of local buildings, but what remains indicates a large site which would have been able to accommodate hundreds, if not thousands, of worshipers.

The shape of the buildings were first spotted from aerial views. Archaeologists followed the shapes with some exploratory digs on the ground. Once they realized there weren’t many in the way of walls to harm, they sent in mechanical diggers to peel off the wheat fields from the sanctuary foundations.

At the entrance to the site, there once stood a large E-shaped building, probably for welcoming the pilgrims, selling religious objects and housing the temple guardians. One wide path littered with iron slag (Vindunum was a major metalworking centre), leads a few hundred metres south to the foundations of a circular fanum (temple) about 12 metres in diameter. That round shape was rare in Gallo-Roman times and there are only a few such examples in France.

In fact, three temples were erected successively during the second and third centuries. Possibly they had to be rebuilt because of the instability of the ground. A pergola and a flight of steps would have led to the temple, which had stone walls around seven metres high covered by a tiled roof. Inside, the cella (central room) housed the statue of the god.

Another fanum stood at the west, the oldest in the sanctuary, dating to the first century. It was square, 15 metres wide and apparently in the Celtic temple tradition. This one was originally built in wood and stone added later, together with a cella surrounded by a gallery for circumambulation and a wall separating the sacred space from the profane. Fragments of coloured plaster show that the walls were once panted. The temple was surrounded by octagonal or square-shaped secondary “chapels”.

This Celtic fanum is where archaeologists found the most artifacts. Most likely offerings made to the deities, the finds include Gallic, Celtic and Roman silver coins, broaches, rings, keys, pottery, weapons and heavy work tools like sledgehammers and hammers. Metal workers and soldiers would have had good reason to offer valuable implements of their trade to the gods, given how dangerous their jobs were.

Archaeologists didn’t find any offerings in the circular temple, but they did find something completely unexpected: graves. Romans didn’t bury the dead on temple grounds. They didn’t even bury them inside the city walls. Dead bodies were not considered pure, and temples had to be.

Vindunum was a major Gallo-Roman city in the first few centuries A.D. It had a large bath complex — demolished in the third century and the stone used to build the walls encircling the city — and an amphitheater built about the same time as the walls. (Fun fact: it’s also where Henry II of England was born. The well-preserved medieval old town is known as Cité Plantagenêt.)