The History Blog

A tomb from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 A.D.) containing a rich group of pottery figurines has been discovered in Datong, Shanxi province, northeastern China. Tomb 113, unearthed in the center of a group of tombs, contained dozens of burial objects, mostly earthenware figurines. The figurines are led by pottery horsemen. Behind them is a full entourage of labourers, animals, objects of daily life, bullock carts and 10 Hu figurines, musicians, acrobats and dancers posted in dynamic forms.

Typical of Hu figurines from the Northern Wei, the players have deep, wide-set eyes and short, high noses. They wear long robes with round necks and narrow sleeves. The robes have slits at the bottom sides revealing the performers’ boots. A set of three female musicians is particularly striking. They are all seated and wearing a high cloche-shaped hat with a cross-shaped groove down the front and back. The hat is tied around the back of the head, and a little skirt covers the back of the neck underneath the hat’s tie.

Pingcheng (modern-day Datong) was the capital of the Northern Wei Dyanasty from 398 until 494. Under pressure from drought, repeated famines and incursions from the proto-Mongolic Rouran Khaganate to the north, Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang in 494 A.D. over the protests of his court. Luoyang had been a capital for several ruling dyasnties going back millennia and the Yellow River basin area was extensively settled and cultivated, unlike Pingcheng which was in the nomadic steppe. It remained a regional administrative center through the 520s, but its population and prosperity plummeted after the move.

The quantity and quality of pottery found in Tomb 113 indicates he was someone of high status in Northern Wei society. The style of the pottery vessels date it to the last years of Pingcheng as the capital.

An obsidian amulet of Egyptian origin has been unearthed in the Roman-era remains of the ancient city of Amastris in northern Turkey. It was discovered in a Roman structure built out of marble in the 2nd century A.D. The amulet is the only artifact recovered from the structure.

The amulet is a pyramidal stamp seal with a square base. it is two centimeters (.78 inches) high with (.35 inches). The sides are carved with letters in demotic script. The base is incised with a figure of the Egyptian god Bes.

Bes was unusual in the ancient Egyptian pantheon because images of him appear in private homes, not just in religious and funerary contexts. He was the protector of the household, warding off evil spirits and paying particular attention to pregnant women and children. Much like an apotropaic figure from Greek mythology, the gorgoneion or head of Medusa, Bes was depicted facing forward with a fierce expression, mouth open and tongue out. This too makes him unusual among his peers in the pantheon as Egyptian deities were mostly depicted in profile.

The presence of Bes and the demotic inscriptions identify the object as a talisman carried to protect the owner from any and all manner of ills.

“We see that there is a figure depicting the god Bes, whom we know from the Egyptian religion, depicted with incised lines at the base of the work. On the upper part of the work, we see that there are letter characters and talismanic words from the ancient Egyptian religion called demotic. The letter characters on the work probably represent this meaning of protection. As a kind of talismanic object, we can define it as an object that a person wears to be protected from evil and diseases or in whatever sense he wants to be protected. We can say that it is the only example of its kind found from the Roman layer in Anatolia during excavations,” [Associate professor Fatma Bağdatlı Çam, head of the Archeology Department of the Faculty of Literature at Bartın University] said.

Çam stated that the discovery of the artifact is an important and exciting development for archaeologists.

“We will investigate what this seal means and whether the person wearing it is a priest, a religious official, or whether someone carries it for health and safety purposes. Perhaps we will find out whether a soldier in the legion brought it here (after) his mission in the east.”

A 2,000-year-old Roman wooden boat has been discovered in the shallow waters of the Adriatic off the coast of central Croatia. The boat is about 10 feet wide and so far marine archaeologists have uncovered about 30 feet of its length. The edges of the boat have been ravaged by shipworms, but the bulk of the hull has survived in good condition, preserved under layers of sand.

The wreck was found in 2021 when maritime archaeologists spotted Roman coins on the seabed next to a single wooden board. They returned to the site this year and excavated the find site, revealing the hull. It was less than seven feet under the surface of the water, buried among the remains of the Roman port town of Barbir.

“The ancient port of Barbir near Sukošan was discovered in 1973, and for a long time it was documented only on the surface, thanks to research by archaeologist Boris Ilakovac. In 2017, new, more serious work began in the area, in parallel with the research on a Roman villa on the mainland, which was significantly damaged due to modern construction. Luckily, part of the site under the sea is well preserved,” said [Mladen Pešić, director of the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology in Zadar] who is also the head of this extensive research project.

Since excavations resumed five years ago, archaeologists have focused on the Roman pier, some of which is still visible above the water today. The team discovered that the pier was built in two phases: in the 1st century A.D. and then extended in the 4th century.

The vessel has been labelled and documented, but the work is not finished yet. The team will return to the site next year and continue to excavate the boat. Meanwhile, they have released some beautifully clear video of the work they did underwater. It’s not often you get to see marine archaeologists go about their business in ideal visibility conditions.

The gold quaternio struck by the emperor Maxentius around 308 A.D. to celebrate himself for rebuilding the Temple of Venus and Roma in Rome sold at auction on November 2nd for $312,000, well above its pre-sale estimate of $100,000 – $200,000.

Another Roman gold medallion minted for a less virtue-signaling purpose also sold at the same coin auction. It is an eight aurei medallion, so a single gold coin weighing eight times the amount of a circulation aureus, but it sold for $63,000, a fifth of the price of the quaternio. It was minted in Milan in 268 A.D. by a brand-new emperor, Claudius II. His predecessor Gallienus had been assassinated by one of his officers while besieging Milan to quash yet another attempted usurpation. The troops then acclaimed Claudius emperor.

There were rumors that Claudius was in on the assassination, but if so, he was unusually kind to the allies and family of the man he killed to snatch his throne. He spared Gallenius’ supporters from reprisals and focused instead on fighting the Gothic invasion of Rome’s Balkan provinces. To accomplish his military goals, Claudius had to ensure the loyalty of the army. The best way to accomplish that, established by centuries of tradition at this pont, was to buy it. The price to buy off the officers was 10 gold aurei each, an enormous sum. The highest-ranking and most influential officers received their bribes in the form of these gigantic gold medallions.

The eight-aurei medallion of Claudius II features the laureate cuirassed bust of the emperor on the obverse and the goddess Concordia holding the standards of the legions on the reverse. The inscription on the reverse reads CORCORDIA EXERCITVS, ie, “harmony in the army,” because that was exactly what he was buying. Claudius was famous for his strength as a wrestler and in hand-to-hand combat. He once reputedly punched a horse in the face and knocked out its teeth. He was a direct man, to put it mildly, and called them as he saw them even on his giant bribe coins.

It worked, though. In 270, Claudius led the army to a massive victory over the Goths at the Battle of Naissus in modern-day Serbia. He was granted a triumph and the cognomen Gothicus. He didn’t get to enjoy either, but not because of treachery among the officer staff. Plague took his life before the bloom was off the rose. He was immediately deified and heavily mourned in spite of (or perhaps because of) his all-too-brief reign.

A group of 24 bronze statues in exceptional condition have been discovered in the excavation of the ancient sacred baths at San Casciano dei Bagni near Siena. They date to between the 2nd century B.C. and the 1st century A.D., making this the largest store of bronze statuary from ancient Italy ever found. It is so significant a find that it is comparable, according to Director General of Museums Massimo Osanna, to the sensational discovery of the pair of 5th century B.C. bronze warriors off the coast of Riace in 1972.

The hot springs and mineral waters of San Casciano dei Bagni were believed to cure all manner of illnesses and conditions via the intervention of deities versed in the medical arts, like Hygieia (goddess of health), Apollo (god of healing and diseases) and Asclepius (god of health). By bathing in the hot springs, the devout believed they were in direct contact with the gods. Those who could afford to, left figurines of bronze and terracotta representing an ailing body part, or offerings of shiny new coins struck at the sanctuary’s official mint. More than 6,000 coins have been recovered already.

The Etruscans built the first sanctuary at the site at least as early as the 3rd century B.C. and it was expanded into a much larger complex by the Romans in the early 1st century. It was closed in the 5th century A.D. and the basins sealed with toppled columns. The effigies of the gods and votive figurines, left by generations of worshippers, however, were not disturbed.

Since excavations of the sanctuary began in 2019, archaeologists have found numerous votive offerings shaped like body parts (uteruses, penises, arms, legs, ears) that were left at the sacred site by petitioners seeking healing. Larger, whole-body statuary emerged from the pools in the first weeks of October. The hot, muddy basins preserved the metal, leaving many statues intact. Among the large statues are effigies of Hygieia, a snake wound around her arm, a nude of Apollo and a togate youth.

The discovery of two dozen bronze sculptures is so significant because most of them were destroyed in antiquity, melted down for reuse. They are also a unique record of the transition between the decline of Etruscan influence and the dominance of Rome. Etruscans, as with the other Italic peoples losing the battle (military, political and cultural conflicts with Rome , assimilated Roman culture and adopted Roman lifestyles. The statues illustrate this transitional period in their design style and in the inscriptions that were carved onto the bronzes in both Latin and Etruscan. The inscriptions contain the names of members of powerful Etruscan families like the Velimna of Perugia and the Marcni outside Siena who dedicated statues to the sacred pools.

The town of San Casciano has big plans for this unique sanctuary. It will be converted into an archaeological park, and the 16th century palace overlooking the pools will become a museum exhibiting the thousands of archaeological treasures recovered from the site.