Four people, three faces. Geta erased from the Severan family portrait.

A circular wooden panel barely 30.5 centimetres across contains four members of the imperial family, yet only three faces survive. Septimius Severus, Julia Domna and Caracalla still look out from a portrait painted around 200 CE. The figure of the couple’s second son remains in place, but his face has been scraped away almost to the bare wood. This was no accidental loss. Someone deliberately removed the very feature that made Geta identifiable.

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13 October 2026

Silver mines – adeffered death sentence?

Following its victory in the Second Punic War (201 BCE) and the conquest of the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Roman Republic – and subsequently the Empire – began the intensive exploitation of the region’s metal deposits. Silver was among the most valuable resources and also the most dangerous to mine; it served as the basis for Rome’s coinage.

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22 September 2026

Twelve faces, zero answers. The greatest mystery in Roman archaeology

The Romans left behind thousands of texts, inscriptions, and objects that allow us today to reconstruct a surprising number of details about their lives. And yet there is one object whose purpose we still cannot explain. What’s more, not a single contemporary description or depiction survives to tell us what it actually was.

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22 September 2026

Face of Roman child from 1,800 years ago

In 1878, during archaeological work in Paris, a Roman sarcophagus containing the burial of a small child was discovered. The find comes from the area of ​​ancient Lutetia, a Roman city that developed on the site of present-day Paris. Preserved within the grave was a remarkable imprint of the face of the child, who was between six and twelve months old at the time of death.

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12 September 2026

Divine hare

There are six species of hare found in Europe (Lepus europaeus, L. timidus, L. granatensis, L. castroviejoi, L. corsicanus, and L. capensis). Unlike their close relatives, rabbits, they have never been domesticated. Although their population has now declined significantly, hares were once a common sight, especially in rural areas. It’s no surprise, then, that they also appeared in almost all ancient cultures and mythologies – from Britain and Rome to Greece and Egypt and Persia.

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7 September 2026

Nero’s night watchmen. How the vigiles fought fires and crime

Densely populated Rome was a city under constant threat from fire. Tall, tightly packed residential buildings and the widespread use of fire in everyday life meant that fires ranked among the greatest dangers faced by the city’s inhabitants. Plutarch even describes how Marcus Licinius Crassus exploited these fires to increase his wealth, buying up burning or threatened buildings for next to nothing.

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7 September 2026

“Patcham Woman” – mysterious woman from Roman Britain

The “Patcham Woman” is one of the most intriguing figures from the Roman period in Britain. Her remains were discovered in 1936 in Patcham, now part of Brighton, southern England. Bone analysis, DNA testing, and facial reconstruction have allowed us to reconstruct not only the woman’s approximate appearance but also some details about her life.

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26 August 2026

Emperor who invented new letters: Claudius’ forgotten alphabet reform

Emperor Claudius, regarded by his contemporaries as a harmless eccentric, a stammerer, and a reclusive scholar, surprised Rome after unexpectedly coming to power in 41 CE with a decision that even many enthusiasts of antiquity know little about today. He introduced three entirely new letters into the Latin alphabet and, by imperial decree, attempted to impose their use in official documents and on public buildings. The reform survived for exactly as long as his reign did.

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24 August 2026

Gladiator games under Trajan – thousands of warriors in arena

During the reign of Emperor Trajan (98-117 CE), gladiatorial games reached a massive scale. One of the most spectacular events was the games held in 113 CE, during which 2,000 gladiators fought in the arena for about four months.

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16 August 2026

Roman bronze medallion with Perseus and Andromeda discovered in India

A small bronze disk depicting Perseus freeing Andromeda is an interesting example of a Roman artifact found outside the Roman Empire. The artifact dates to the 1st century CE and was discovered during archaeological excavations in Brahmapuri, India.

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16 August 2026