The excavation of the late Moche (c.600–850 A.D.) archaeological site of Pañamarca in northwestern Peru has uncovered two new murals painted on the adobe brick walls of an ancient architectural complex. They depict two two-faced individuals, one painted on the top, one on the bottom of a single adobe pillar in the hall.

Both two-faced figures are wearing headdresses or crowns and vividly colored clothing with large belts. They hold unusual items in their hands. The top one carries a goblet with four hummingbirds in one hand and feather fan in the other. The bottom man is waving a feather fan (unlike the rigid feathers of his neighbor’s fan, his feathers are captured in motion) and a stick-like object in his other. Damage to the painting makes it difficult to identify what it is.

There is no known precedent for these figures in Moche art. They don’t have features typical of Moche deities — namely zoomorphic elements like fangs, claws, tails or wings. Archaeologists hypothesize that the two two-headed figures may have been an artistic exploration of depicting people (and feathers) in motion, so not two-headed monsters or gods, but men captured in blurred movement like two frames of animation in one panel. They may also be wearing masks.

Constructed beginning in around 550 A.D., the Pañamarca architectural complex is richly decorated with murals that are unique iconographic testaments to Moche ritual, clothing, adornments and even to their trade links over long distances. Only an estimated 10% of the wall paintings at Pañamarca have been uncovered since the first mural was discovered in 1958. The hall of pillars is particularly dense with these murals, and archaeologists still don’t know what the room’s purpose was, but it probably was not meant for public use because the passages are very tight and warren-like.

The Paisajes Arqueológicos de Pañamarca research project has been ongoing since 2018 under the joint leadership of an international team of archaeologists from Peru, Columbia University and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. These murals were discovered during last year’s dig season. The summer 2022 dig aimed to document the stratigraphic phases of construction of the monumental temple complex and to excavate and conserve any murals encountered.

There is now a clearer throughline for Peruvian history and culture thanks to recent finds at Pañamarca and earlier ones made there during the past century. Digital photography, photogrammetric modeling, and virtual reality simulation will make these insights more widely available.

“Pañamarca was a place of remarkable artistic innovation and creativity, with painters elaborating on their knowledge of artistic canons in creative and meaningful ways as the people of Nepeña established their position in the far southern Moche world,” said Lisa Trever, Lisa, and Bernard Selz Associate Professor of Pre-Columbian Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University.

An archaeological survey of the site of a future Aldi supermarket in Olney, Buckinghamshire, has uncovered a Roman polychrome mosaic. The mosaic consists of geometric designs made with tesserae in four colors: dark grey, red, dark blue and white. One thick border contains the two-strand woven guilloche pattern. The larger decorative panel contains Solomon knots, stylized palmette patterns that look like stretched out hearts and diamond shapes.

The mosaic paves the floor of a large room in a Roman building. Most of the mosaic that has been recovered thus far was from the edge of the room. The remains of two smaller rooms were found next to it. Mosaics were expensive decorations usually reserved for the homes of the wealthy or public buildings. It is not clear which function this structure had. Several other stone structures found at the site were identified as a bath house or water collection cisterns.

The design style is consistent with the work of the Durobrivan group from the East Midlands and as such likely date to the third quarter of the 4th century. This school of mosaic art is named after Durobrivae, a Roman town in what is now Water Newton, Cambridgeshire. Durobrivae was a civilian settlement attached to a 1st century A.D. Roman fort that is about 50 miles north of Olney. It was a center of production for a distinctive light-on-dark pottery type known as Nene Valley Colour Coated Ware, and one of the 10 or so identified school of mosaic design in Roman Britain.

The excavation was triggered by the location of the planned Aldi which is near the Roman site at Olney, the remains of an ancient settlement dating to between the 2nd and 4th centuries A.D. Archaeologists expected, therefore, to make some Roman finds, but were thinking more along the lines of burials rather than a luxury mosaic installation.

Much of the mosaic pavement extends under a city street, so unfortunately it will not be fully excavated. Nor will it be removed. The mosaic will remain in situ, covered for its protection. Archaeologists and cultural authorities have proposed a plan to keep it safe while construction continues.

Archaeologists from France’s National Institute for Preventive Archaeology (INRAP) have discovered an ancient Roman-era monumental complex from the 2nd-3rd century A.D. in Reims.

The structure consists of two porticoed galleries 65 feet long forming the arms of a U. More than 20 rooms occupy the galleries, from corridors to living spaces with chalk floors and fireplaces. Nine of the rooms were part of the ancient baths. Five of them had a hypocaust underfloor heating system; many of the pilae stacks (square tile piles) that supported the floor are still in place and in excellent condition. In the empty space between the galleries are two rectangular masonry structures that were likely part of garden. One of the two was a basin or fountain. Two pressurized water pipes were found that filled the basin and/or fed the water feature.

Archaeologists have unearthed painted plasters richly decorated with floral motifs. Some pigments used, including a blue similar to “Egyptian blue”, are rare. This discovery characterizes a very easy set. The large number of rooms, their organization, the richness of the decorations, the two large galleries, the hydraulic network and the archaeological elements discovered (ceramics, architectural blocks, copper alloy tableware, etc.) allow two possible interpretations. These vestiges could correspond either to the domus (house) of an extremely wealthy personality or to a spa complex, perhaps public, given the monumentality.

The monumental complex was discovered just 100 meters (328 feet) from the Porte de Mars, a 3rd century A.D. triumphal arch that is the widest surviving Roman arch. The arch was named after a nearby Temple of Mars, and was one of four monumental gates in the city walls.

This was a very ritzy location in the 3rd century, but by the beginning of the 4th, the area was all but abandoned and its buildings quarried for recycled construction materials. The shift may have been caused by the construction of the 4th century walls of Reims. The neighborhood was used for agriculture for another 1400 years, only converting back into a populated area at the end of the 18th century.

Reims was founded as the town of Durocortorum around 80 B.C. It was the capital of the Remi, a Belgic people who became allies of Caesar during the Gallic wars (58-51 B.C.) and their city prospered greatly under Roman rule. At its peak, 30,000 people lived in Durocortorum making it the most populated city north of the Alps.