A new ten-foot section of Hadrian’s Wall has been discovered in Newcastle, northeastern England. The section was found during routing water main replacement works under West Road, just outside Newcastle’s city center.

What is now Newcastle was founded as a Roman fort and small associated settlement on the north bank of the River Tyne in the 2nd century A.D. It was to be the eastern terminus of Hadrian’s defensive wall and the fort was built to defend the important bridge crossing the River Tyne. The bridge was dubbed the Pons Aelius (Aelian Bridge) after the family name of the emperor who had visited the area in 122 A.D. and conceived of a continuous wall crossing the breadth of northern England.

Construction of the wall began at the Pons Aelius and moved westward. It had reached the fort at what is now Chesters 30 miles west when the decision was made to build an eastward extension to Wallsend, three miles away. Newcastle was no longer the easternmost point of the wall, but it does boast the oldest remaining wall sections from the first phase of its construction.

The newly-discovered section is from the earliest phases of construction, as attested by its large blocks of stone. Smaller stones were used in later construction and repairs.

Philippa Hunter from Archaeological Research Services Ltd said: “Despite the route of Hadrian’s Wall being fairly well documented in this area of the city, it is always exciting when we encounter the wall’s remains and have the opportunity to learn more about this internationally significant site.

“This is particularly true in this instance where we believe that we uncovered part of the wall’s earliest phase.

The wall will remain in situ and Northumbrian Water will work around it. The water main route will be redesigned and angled so that it avoids the wall entirely and leaves a cushion of space around the excavation trench.

The elaborately frescoed thermopolium discovered in Pompeii’s Regio V excavation in 2019 opens to the public for the first time on Thursday. The Regio V thermopolium was one of more than 80 small eateries in Pompeii which served beverages and hot food, albeit one with particularly rich decorations and the only one to be fully excavated by archaeologists.

The snack bars were mostly used by poorer residents of ancient Pompeii who rarely had a kitchen in their homes. Typical menus included coarse bread with salty fish, baked cheese, lentils and spicy wine.

Customers ordered prepared foods at an L-shaped counter painted with brightly colored frescoes of a nereid riding a sea horse, a food counter with amphorae leaning against it and pots on top of it (thermopolium inception), two ducks hanging upside down, a rooster and a snarling black dog on a leash. The vessels embedded in the countertop contained the remains of some of the dishes on offer at the shop, including duck and a paella-like combination of proteins (pork, goat, bird, fish and snail). Remains of wine and fava beans were found in one of the large storage amphorae.

After the initial investigation in 2019, archaeologists returned in 2020 to complete the excavation with the aim of restoring the room and decorative elements and protecting the frescoes from the elements by building a new wooden roof over the counter.

Visitors will be allowed access to the restaurant every day between noon and 7PM. Advance booking is not required to visit the thermopolium, but it is required for visits to its neighbors: the active archaeological excavations taking place at the House of Orion and the House with the Garden.

A bronze key handle has been discovered to be a rare depiction of execution by lion, the only one of its kind in Roman Britain. The handle was unearthed in 2016 under the floor of a late Roman home in Leicester. It was heavily encrusted with soil, so its complex decoration wasn’t recognized until the handle was cleaned.

The object features a central “barbarian” figure with the characteristic wild hair, thick beard and outfit (trousers worn under a bare chest). A lion is wrapped around his body and bites his head. Beneath them are four nude youths, the older two protectively embracing the younger. It dates to the 2nd century, and is the most detailed representation of damnatio ad bestias, criminals condemned to be mauled to death by wild animals in the arena, ever discovered in Roman Britain.

Many Roman towns in Britain possessed either an amphitheatre or a theatre, where such spectacles could have been witnessed by large crowds. The town house where the key handle was found stands next door to the newly-discovered Roman theatre in Leicester, and it is tempting to think that life did indeed imitate art and that the holders of the key had witnessed such scenes at close quarters.

Lions are portrayed on other key handles from Roman Britain and probably symbolised security and the protection of the household. This sense of security extended beyond the life of the key as a functional object, as the detached handle clearly continued to be valued. It was placed upright in the makeup of a new floor laid long after the heyday of the opulent house it had once secured, in the hope that it would still offer protection.

[University of Leicester Archaeological Services] post-excavation manager and co-author, Nick Cooper, added that the key handle was one of the most significant finds from Roman Leicester and would be displayed to the public at Jewry Wall Museum in Leicester, following completion of major refurbishment work expected to be completed by 2023.

Excavations this summer in San Casciano dei Bagni, a picturesque Tuscan hilltop town 40 miles southeast of Siena  renowned for its hot springs, have discovered archaeological treasure including hundreds of gold, silver, orichalcus and bronze coins, a bronze putto, a marble relief of a head of a bull, five bronze votive figurines, miniature lamps, a bronze foil belt and other religious offerings that mark the baths as a uniquely rich religious sanctuary beyond its importance as a thermal resort.

The perpetually 42°C (107.6°F) hot springs at San Casciano dei Bagni have been in continuous use since the Etruscans occupied the area. The thermal pools are used as an open-air bath adjacent to the ruins of the Roman spa built there under Augustus, but centuries of water and hot mud have taken their toll on the archaeological remains and complicate management of the ancient material as well as the modern spa facilities.

Last year’s excavations, carried out between July and October under COVID health protocols, explored an abandoned wilderness a 20 meters south of the pools. They unearthed a section of a multi-layer Roman sanctuary built in the Augustan era that contained three altars dedicated to Apollo, Isis and Fortuna Primigenia respectively, and a marble statue of Hygieia. Inscriptions invoke Apollo in his role as god of healing. A wall of large, well-cut blocks underneath the Augustan-era sanctuary suggests it was built over an even more ancient sacred place dating at least as far back as the Hellenistic era, and possibly of even earlier Etruscan origin.

The sanctuary was heavily damaged in a fire in the 1st century and was rebuilt and expanded. The altars were deposited on the edge of the large bath around the end of the 2nd century. The sanctuary was restored again in the early 4th century and a few small annexes added, but by the end of the century the ancient sanctuary was destroyed. Columns and altars were laid horizontally over votive offerings, including the statuette of Hygieia. This was likely related to the Christianization of the area.

The finds made this year were deposits left by worshippers at the site. Archaeologists believe the quality and quantity of offerings point to the sanctuary having been of great regional importance, a Romanized expression of a far more ancient rite of veneration of the hot spring where the faithful could have direct experience of the deity by bathing.

The coins were minted in the reigns of Augustus, the Flavian emperors, Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. The bull was carved into one of the blocks of the pool. Created by a master craftsman, the putto wears the sacred bulla around his neck and has an ancient inscription carved on his right thigh dedicating the offering.

Perhaps the most unexpected surprise of the dig season was found on the surface of the sacred basin. It is covered in “footprints” carved into the travertine. Traces of lead and silver were found inside of them, so when they were new, they would have shimmered silver-white in the water. The footprints are of varied sizes — adults, youths, children — and were carved as if they’d been left by sandaled feet. There are also bull hooves and ears with the human tootsies. This unusual devotional iconography may be linked to Isis and Serapis. It’s also possible the faithful “walked in the footsteps” of the gods in the bath basin as a means to secure their good health.

The excavations of the last four years are part of San Casciano dei Bagni’s Roman Baths Project which aims to create an open-air, accessible archaeological park with on-site laboratory space at the ancient bath site. The first priority is repairing the outflow of the thermal waters both to preserve the archaeological remains and, ideally, to restore the thermal function of the original Roman elements. There’s a lot of mud (and whatever has been trapped in it for thousands of years) to get through before that can happen.