Archaeology
Roman capitolium temple discovered in Sarsina
In a press announcement by the Italian Ministry of Culture (MIC), archaeologists have discovered a Roman temple in the Italian town of Sarsina.
During antiquity, Sarsina was a settlement of the Umbri, an Italic people that were conquered by the Romans during the 3rd century BC.
Following the annexation of Umbri territories, Sarsina emerged as a major centre of a pasture district, and was also the birthplace of Plautus, a Roman playwright whose comedies are among the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety.
Today, the town contains the remains of several ancient buildings from the Roman period, such as the public baths, remains of other temples, town defences and fortifications, in addition to a number of amphorae, ceramics, pillars, and bronze objects discovered by archaeologists in recent years.
Image Credit : MIC
Recent excavations have discovered the remains of a large quadrangular temple that preliminary dating places to the 1st century BC. Surviving archaeological elements includes lines of horizontal courses of sandstone blocks that rise to a podium, and sandstone flooring of the adjacent forum.
According to the researchers, the structure is most likely a capitolium, a temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of gods: Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. During the Augustan and Julio-Claudian eras, capitolium temples were generally constructed at places of high importance to the early Roman Empire, such as Rome, Pompeii, Ostia Antica, Brescia and Cosa.
Gennaro Sangiuliano, Minister of Culture, said: “This finding is an important archaeological treasure that can offer valuable information about the history and evolution of a specific geographical area. It is an important contribution to our understanding of the past and it can have significant implications for historical and archaeological research.”
Italian Ministry of Culture (MIC)
Header Image Credit : MIC
Archaeologists from Cotswold Archaeology are excavating the crash site of a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress in an English woodland.
The B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC).
The bomber was mainly used in the European theatre for daylight strategic bombing, complimenting the RAF Bomber Command’s night bombers in attacking German industrial, military and civilian targets.
Cotswold Archaeology have been tasked by the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency to search the crash site for the remains of the pilot, who died when the B-17 crashed following a system failure in 1944.
Image Credit : Cotswold Archaeology
At the time, the plane was carrying a payload of 12,000lbs of Torpex, an explosive comprised of 42% RDX, 40% TNT, and 18% powdered aluminium. Torpex was mainly used for the Upkeep, Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs, as well as underwater munitions.
The pilot was declared MIA when the plane exploded into an inferno, however, using modern archaeological techniques, the researchers plan to systematically excavate and sieve the waterlogged crash site to recover plane ID numbers, personal effects, and any surviving human remains.
It is the hope of the excavation team members that they will be able to recover the pilot’s remains and return him to the United States for burial with full military honours.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense whose mission is to recover unaccounted Department of Defense personnel listed as prisoners of war (POW) or missing in action (MIA) from designated past conflicts.
Header Image Credit : Cotswold Archaeology
Sources : Cotswold Archaeology
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists excavating at the ancient Tharsa necropolis have uncovered a Roman Era tomb guarded by two carved bull heads.
Tharsa is located near Kuyulu village in southeastern Turkey along the Adıyaman-Şanlıurfa Highway.
The site was situated on a major Roman highway from Doliche to Samosata, which today consists of a two settlement mounds and a large necropolis that dates from the 3rd century to the Byzantine period.
Excavations first commenced in 2021 which discovered a collection of Turuş Rock Tombs, a type of tomb construction carved directly into the bedrock.
In the latest season, archaeologists have excavated another Turuş Rock Tomb, however, this example was found to have two carved bull heads which is decorated with garlands and rosettes between the horns.
Bull heads, known as Bucranium, were a form of carved decoration commonly used in Classical architecture. In Ancient Rome, bucrania were often used on the friezes of temples in the Doric order of architecture, later influencing the architecture of buildings from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassical periods.
Architectural examples of bucrania are representations of the practice of displaying garlanded, sacrificial oxen, whose heads were displayed on the temple walls.
Like similar Turuş Rock Tombs, the bull heads are carved directly into the bedrock, guarding a dozen rock cut steps descending into the burial chamber which has three arched niches known as acrosolia.
Mustafa Çelik, Deputy Director of Adıyaman Museum, said, “Tharsa Ancient City consists of 3 main archaeological areas: Big Mound, Small Mound and Necropolis Area. We started excavations in the necropolis area in 2024. We added 2 more rock tombs to the rock tombs we had previously uncovered. One of them is the rock tomb we identified today.”
Header Image Credit : Adıyaman Museum
Sources : Adıyaman Museum
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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