Crisis? What Crisis?

[caldrail]

Suprising results from archeologists who found a thriving town from a period of crisis....

Archaeological discovery upends what we thought we knew about fall of Roman empire (msn.com)

[guidoLaMoto]

Does this upend our established theory or just show that, as Sherlock always said, it's a mistake to form a theory before all the data is in?

[guy]

Thank you for bringing this ongoing research to my attention about the Interamna Lirenas Project.

Two aspects of this find stand out to me: 

First, the finding of a roofed enclosed theater was unusual in Ancient Rome. (One suggestion that this theater had a roof is the presence of gutters on the side of the building.)

According to the video, there are around 100 known Greek and Roman theaters in the Peninsula of Italy, but only ten are thought to have been covered.

 

Second, the finding of an inscribed sundial at the site was absolutely fascinating. I learned a lot about precision time keeping in Ancient Rome (both sundials and water clocks). I had never thought about it but I learned from the videos below that the Roman hour during the summer was about 80 minutes; the winter, 40 minutes.

This sundial was a nice bit of self promotion.

According to the video, there are 600 sundials known from Roman history. About thirty are inscribed and less than half of them have a person’s name inscribed on them.

 

 

According to the video, the inscription on this sundial reads “Marcus Novius Tubula, son of Marcus, tribune of the plebs who donated this from his own funds.”
 

This sundial dates to the end of the 1st century BCE to the start of the 1st century AD. The office of tribune at this time was held in Rome. It appears from the presence of another inscription with a similar name at Interamna Lineras that this man was probably a local benefactor. This individual possibly made a successful career in Rome and he wanted to celebrate his success with his home town.
 

A short summary video of the find:

 

 

A more thorough video on the find with emphasis on the roofed theater, numismatic finds, and the inscribed sundial.

 

An excellent video on timekeeping in Ancient Rome.

 

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

According to the video, this town's founding has been dated to the end of the 3rd/beginning of the 2nd century BC-- no doubt founded as, or at least encouraged to grow as a Roman colony. The grid pattern of streets suggests it was a planned development. Located not only on a trade route, but more importantly on one of the few open plains of Italy. It would have been a prefered ag location--> the importance of N. Africa to the Romans was  as a source of grain. The topography/geology of the Italian penninsula does not lend itself well to   production of yields large enough to feed a large, growing population.

The Roman govt provided organization and a certain amount of protection across the empire. Once that protection was gone, towns situated out in the open were poorly defensible. The feudal states with castles on a hill became the survivors. It should be no mystery why this town fell. Only the details of which band of maurauders were the cause remains to be determined.

That particular sun dial was of very clever construction-- with shadow cast on the inside of a cone, it was "self-regulating," adjusting itself to the hours changing with the season....They showed a sun dial up on a tall column...Where did you have to stand to read it?

I was a little confused on the part about the inscription "...Caesari...patrono..."..Were they claiming Caesar, patron of the town, dedicated something here, or that something was dedicated to him?...Caesari is dative ("to him") but there is the Dative of Possession. ??

Roof on the theater? Very sunny and little rain. A roofed theater must have gotten very hot, and not much need for gutters... and no mention of the tiles that would have covered a large roof-- certainy a least a few tile shards should have been found.

[guy]

8 hours ago, guidoLaMoto said:

They showed a sun dial up on a tall column...Where did you have to stand to read it?

Below is the fragment of sundial discovered to the left and its imagined appearance in the towns forum to the right.

 

Interesting question. I had never thought about sundials before watching the video, especially conical sundials on a column (see 25:25 of the second video).

It is interesting that the sundial would have been prominently displayed in the open space of the forum for easy visibility and away from the other buildings’ shadows that would have interfered with the sundial. I imagine that there would have been a platform for easier visibility.

Another article on the discoveries:

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2023/12/new-study-changes-assumptions-of-roman-backwater-town/149927

Edited December 14, 2023 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

I suspected the clock on column was photo-shopped- the clock itself being identical to the one in question. If it was mounted on some kid of column, it would have had to have been no more than shoulder high...The accuracy of a sun-dial would be good enough for Italian society, where even today punctuality is cavalierly regarded...There is nothing new under the sun.

[guy]

Here is good summary article on the find:
 

https://www.aol.com/staggering-excavation-rewritten-fall-roman-140000046.html