guy

A Roman mosaic held for years in a Los Angeles storage facility has been repatriated to Italy: According to officials involved the case, the mosaic appeared in “cultural property records” in 1909. Then, in 1959, the mosaic resurfaced in a newspaper advertisement for sale in the Los Angeles area. No details surrounding the former owner’s acquisition of the piece have been released. According to the FBI, the owner offered to repatriate the work after learning it was unsellable due to lack of sufficient provenance information. Italy’s police force, the Carabinieri, authenticated the mosaic and worked with the owner to facilitate its return to Rome, which occurred in April. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.artnews.com/art-news/news/roman-mosaic-repatriated-to-italy-1234638576/amp/ https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/06/fbi-returns-roman-mosaic-italy

A turret along Hadrian’s Wall has been discovered near Newcastle during a construction project. Berm obstacle pit – Image Credit : PCA Pre-Construct Archaeology https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/09/archaeologists-uncover-remains-of-roman-turret-at-hadrians-wall/144602?amp

A skull found in a duck pond in Fulstow, England launched a murder investigation. Forensic studies, however, suggest the individual was alive during the Roman period, between AD 276 and 342. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-62839169

I found this excellent article below very helpful on the subject with numismatic evidence. It appears that Sol was probably always part of the Roman Empire's pantheon of gods (at least till the outlawing of pagan gods by Theodoseus I in AD 381). It was not till Aurelian, however, that Sol was elevated to the highest position among the gods (reign AD 270-275). Sol and Oriens on Roman Coins (forumancientcoins.com) I'm sorry I missed your original post. Below is an older post on the subject.

Fossils of a dinosaur, known as the Hadrosaur, were found with the skin intact in the badlands of Calgary, Canada. https://allthatsinteresting.com/canadian-hadrosaur-fossil

Below is a thorough and very well-produced video on the entire history of Roman Britain. (It is also available on podcast, too.) I stumbled on this during a bout of insomnia. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-time/id1385144701?i=1000545374653

A portion of the Roman road Via Flaminia have been excavated outside the city of Rome. http://archeologialazio.beniculturali.it/it/238/news/1469/a-riano-emersi-due-tratti-dell-antica-via-flaminia_ Via Flaminia - Wikipedia (Special thanks to Nina Willburger @DrNWillburger for bringing this article to my attention)

Here is a brief press release about Roman pottery shards found in an archaeological digs near Driffield, Britain. The above shard depicts a dog. The location is thought to be “one of the earliest examples of Roman settlement north of the Humber estuary.” https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-62769708

Here is an excellent video on getting dressed in Roman Britain.

There are many reasons for the Byzantine Empire outlasting the Western Empire: geography, Greek Fire weaponry, leadership, diplomacy, etc. (See the link below). This short video emphasizes the geographic military advantages of Constantinople: https://historycollection.com/7-reasons-byzantine-empire-lasted-long/3/

The dig around the large Roman temple building in Britain at Caistor St Edmund, near Norwich continues to yield interesting finds. The defeated indigenous Iceni continued to interact with the Roman world around them after Boudica and her Iceni tribe were defeated in AD 60-61. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-62677813 Here is a previous post on other recent excavations in the area.

After visiting the Getty Villa Museum garden, Max Miller has been inspired to create his own Roman Garden. (The Getty Villa, located in the Los Angeles area, was inspired by the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum.) Here’s another great video by Max:

We have already discussed the irregular dice found at Roman sites. (See post below.) Here’s an interesting video on Roman gaming:

Recent droughts have resulted in many fortuitous discoveries. (See posts below.) A severe drought in Texas has revealed dinosaur tracks 113 million yeas old: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/drought-reveals-new-dinosaur-tracks-texas-rcna44533

Europe’s drought and heatwave revealed an ancient Roman military camp complex, Aquis Querquennis, as water levels in the Lima River in Galicia, Spain, dropped. GALIDRONE Screengrab from Farodevigo's Twitter Recent droughts have impacted the regional landscapes throughout the world. This drought in northwestern Spain has revealed new findings at the military site at Aquis Querquennis when reservoir levels fell around 50%. Aquis Querquennis is a Roman fort in Ourense Province, Galicia. It was constructed circa 69-79 AD to house soldiers building the Via XVIII and was occupied by the Legio VII Gemina until that unit was posted to Dacia in 120 AD and the fort abandoned. Wikipedia https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article264947409.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquis_Querquennis

More information: https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-08-25/archaeologists-discover-one-of-the-largest-phallic-sculptures-of-ancient-rome.html?outputType=amp

David: Welcome. I try to post up-to-date news about Britain archaeology in the sub forum “Archaeology News: Britain and Roman-Britain.” Please also consider posting.

Another day, another phallus discovered. This time it is in Córdoba, Spain. Findings of these depictions were common in Ancient Rome. Many phallic imagines have been discovered at Hadrian’s Wall, for example. https://www.heritagedaily.com/2022/08/giant-phallic-carving-from-roman-period-found-during-excavations-in-cordoba/144522?amp

A possible aqueduct has been found at Caistor Saint Edmund, UK, site of the Roman town of Venta Icenorum. The pipeline was thought to be underground. The Roman town of Venta Icenorum https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/roman-aqueduct-found-at-caistor-st-edmund-9231042

The town of Cupra Marittima in the Italian region of Marche on the Adriatic coast once was an important Roman city involved in Adriatic Sea commerce. Archaeologists have recovered remnants of a first century AD temple with the rare-finding of colored paint still intact. (Location of Cupra Marittima) https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/italy-cupra-temple-interior-discovery-scn/index.html

There have been numerous posts about the use of LiDAR to find numerous archaeological discoveries in recent years. Here is an article that explains the technology. https://ocnjdaily.com/marta-hall-david-hall-explain-lidar-technology/

Another article on the find: Archaeologists pose near the inscription found on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee Courtesy of the El Araj Excavation Project https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/did-archaeologists-find-st-peters-birthplace-180980607/

Those are good questions and that's a good explanation. It might be, however, that the sites in Germany have been more thoroughly excavated and preserved than some sites in the far reaches on the eastern Empire. This would give the false impression that the cult was more prominent in the more western Germany than the eastern borders of the Empire.

Novosedoff: Thanks for reading my posts. Here's another map of suspected Mithraic sites throughout the Empire. It's not surprising that most the sites were on the borders where the soldiers encamped since this cult was especially popular with the solders, most notably among the troops on the eastern borders. Mithras: Roman army god - blue networks (weebly.com) Some other maps:

I agree with you partially. Isis was an important part of the Hellenized Egypt. Serapis is a Greco Egyptian deity. Cybele was an important deity in rural Greece. I agree, however, that Mithra was never popular in the Greek world. I imagine Mithra was associated with the Greeks' enemy Persia; thus, his worship was never totally embraced in Greece. Nevertheless, the Roman god Mithras [note the added letter “s”] was worshiped throughout the Roman Empire, including Hadrian’s Wall. So, how did Mithras come to the Roman world? Plutarch gives us a hint: “ According to the historian Plutarch, who lived in the first century A.D., the Romans became acquainted with Mithras through pirates from Cilicia, a province of Asia Minor. These were the pirates who constituted such a threat to Rome until Pompey drove them from the seas. In his biography of this skilful general, Plutarch writes of the pirates: 'They brought to Olympus in Lycia strange offerings and performed some secret mysteries, which still in the cult of Mithras, first made known by them [the pirates]'. In the middle of the second century A.D. the historian Appian adds that the pirates came to know of the mysteries from the troops who were left behind by the defeated army of Mithridates Eupator. It is well established that all kinds of Eastern races were represented in that army.” Interestingly, there is no evidence of Mithras found in the ruins of Pompeii (AD 79). https://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions/iranian/Mithraism/m_m/pt2.htm