A volunteer digger at the Roman auxiliary fort of Vindolanda in Northumberland unearthed a rare silver phalera with a relief of the head of Medusa earlier this month. It was discovered on the floor of a barracks dating to the Hadrianic period of occupation in the 2nd century A.D.

The silver disc has a raised rim with the bust of Medusa facing the viewer. She has wings on the top of her head and wild wavy hair, the prettified version of the formerly terrifying snake-haired gorgon. The only snakes on the portrait are two slim fellas tied in a knot under her chin like a bolo tie.

Phalerae were worn by centurions and standard-bearers in the Roman legions, emblems of rank and valor. They came in sets of three to 10 roundels mounted on leather straps that buckled on the back. They could be plain discs or decorated with reliefs of deities, animals, mythological creatures or emperors. The Gorgon Medusa was a popular motif for phalerae, breastplates and other military accoutrements as her image was believed to be apotropaic (ie, have the power to ward off evil or bad luck).

An example comparable to the Vindolanda find is engraved on the tombstone of Roman centurion Marcus Caelius, notable as the only archaeological epigraphic source to explicitly reference the Varian disaster of 9 A.D. Marcus Caelius was the primus pilus (senior centurion) of the XVIII Legion, one of the three legions Publius Quinctilius Varus led haplessly into an ambush in the Teutoburg Forest that would destroy them all and bring the Roman attempt to conquer Germany beyond the Rhine to a screeching halt. After his death in the calamitous battle, Caelius’ brother had the funerary stone erected in his honor. Now in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn, the tombstone depicts the centurion wearing his phalerae. The central roundel, larger than the others, is a gorgoneion.

Phalerae were valuable status symbols and would not have been intentionally discarded. The one at Vindolanda was probably lost by accident, much to its owner’s dismay. It is currently undergoing conservation and will be exhibited next year at the Vindolanda museum.

Archaeologists excavating an ancient Roman battle site in the Oberhalbstein Alps have discovered a Late Bronze Age metal hoard containing more than 80 bronze objects weighing a total of 20 kg (44 lb). Found in a field just south of a prehistoric settlement on a transalpine trade route, the hoard dates to the 12th or 11th century B.C. It is the largest and most important Bronze Age hoard ever found in the Graubünden canton.

Hundreds of Roman sling bullets, hobnails, a richly decorated dagger and other military equipment have been found at the site near the modern-day municipality of Surses since 2003. The sheer quantity of projectiles, weapons and gear from the Augustan era identify it as the location of a large-scale military action between the local Suanetes tribespeople and three Roman legions led by future emperor Tiberius and his brother Drusus in 15 B.C. This is the only proven Roman battlefield in Switzerland. The remains of the Roman military summer camp they established to control the strategically important Septimer Pass were discovered in 2008.

In 2021, ADG launched a new research project to systematically examine the landscape for remains of the conflict between Rome and the Suanetes. The Bronze Age hoard was discovered as part of this project. The Archaeological Service of Graubünden (ADG) unearthed the hoard in October 2022 after a volunteer metal detectorist surveying the site alerted the team to its presence. The objects were densely packed inside a small, well-defined pit indicating they had been deposited inside a wooden box that was wrapped in leather and buried in the ground.

Most of the metal objects are cast cakes, raw copper chunks that were used in the production of metal objects in the Alpine region. Other artifacts include sickles, axes, saw fragments and jewelry parts. They were damaged deliberately, “killed” before being buried as an offering.

The sensational discovery of what is by far the most extensive and important repository to date is a great moment for Graubünden archaeology. “The comprehensive scientific investigation that will now follow of this find, which is unique in our area, will certainly provide far-reaching insights into late Bronze Age cultural, economic and landscape history,” says Graubünden canton archaeologist Thomas Reitmaier with conviction. “It also underscores the potential of large-scale archaeological prospecting and collaboration with volunteer probers.

The excavation of a block of houses in Regio IX of Pompeii has uncovered a wall painting of a still life of food and drink featuring what looks very much like a pizza. It is not a pizza, of course, as tomatoes and mozzarella didn’t even exist in Italy when the fresco was painted 2,000 years ago. It’s actually a round, flat focaccia topped with fruits and spices and what may be a pesto-like herb cheese spread known as moretum. The focaccia is shown on a silver tray next to a silver kantharos of wine. Dried and fresh fruits are also on the tray, among them two dates, a pomegranate, a fig and a garland of yellow arbutus berries.

A passage in Virgil’s The Aeneid describes the Trojan refugees eating a focaccia similar to this one when they reach the coast of Lazio. It’s about as appetizing a meal as you would think, ie, barely edible. From Book VII, verses 128-136:

Aeneas, handsome Iulus, and the foremost leaders,
settled their limbs under the branches of a tall tree,
and spread a meal: they set wheat cakes for a base
under the food (as Jupiter himself inspired them)
and added wild fruits to these tables of Ceres.
When the poor fare drove them to set their teeth
into the thin discs, the rest being eaten, and to break
the fateful circles of bread boldly with hands and jaws,
not sparing the quartered cakes, Iulus, jokingly,
said no more than: ‘Ha! Are we eating the tables too?’

The hard focaccia topped with fruits may not have been the height of deliciousness, but the food on a silver tray represents the Greek concept of Xenia, hospitality offered to all visitors creating a powerful, ritualized bond of friendship between host and guest. The offering of food was an essential element, one frequently captured in the art of Greece and Rome. Vitruvius writes about Xenia, as a hospitality concept and as artwork, in Book VI 7,4 of De Architectura:

On the right and left, moreover, are small sets of apartments, each having its own door, triclinium, and bed-chamber, so that on the arrival of guests they need not enter the peristylium, but are received in rooms (hospitalia) appropriated to their occupation. For when the Greeks were more refined, and possessed greater wealth, they provided a separate table with triclinia and bed-chambers for their guests. On the day of their arrival they were invited to dinner, and were afterwards supplied with poultry, eggs, herbs, fruits, and other produce of the country. Hence the painters gave the name of Xenia to those pictures which represent the presents made to guests. Masters of families therefore, living in these apartments, were quite, as it were, at home, being at liberty to do as they pleased therein.

Depictions of Xenia were popular motifs in Roman visual arts, particularly in the Pompeiian Fourth Style (aka the Intricate Style) of mural painting. There are about 300 murals of food offerings known from the cities buried in the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius (Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, etc.). This example is notable for the high quality of its execution.

It was discovered in the atrium of a house in the Insula 10 block of Regio IX. The house with an attached bakery was first explored between 1888 and 1891, but only a small part of it. Excavations resumed this January with the goal of stabilizing the structures excavated in the 19th century and largely neglected since then.