Discoveries and news in Rome

Archaeologists are conducting research on Monte Testaccio, a large artificial mountain in the centre of Rome, which consists of about 25 million fragments of broken amphorae, for example from Spain or North Africa. This place hides many intriguing facts about how people traded in antiquity.

In 2015, British scientists discovered new fragments of the border wall, which proves that the capital of the Empire was larger than previously thought. The wall was discovered in Ostia. Scientists believed that the Tiber was the northern border of Ostia, but this discovery proved that the wall continued beyond the river.

In 2015 scientists believed that they have found a way to learn about the contents of the only ancient library that has survived to our times. The library is located in a villa in Herculaneum, a city that in 79 CE was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

In 2015, a Roman tent in very good condition was discovered at an archaeological site in Vindolanda (northern England). The object was made of animal skin.

According to researchers, the ancient monuments in Britain are in danger of being destroyed. The reason is climate change, and more precisely, the progressive increase in temperature, and with it, the drying out of the wet earth, which for centuries was able to keep Roman remains in excellent condition.

Roman blue bowl was discovered in its entirety in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The object is estimated to be about two thousand years old. According to the researchers, the vessel could have been made in Roman centres in Germania: Cologne or Xanten, or Italy.

Archaeologists say that the 1.2-meter-high granite stone at Rufford Abbey, near Ollerton (England), dates back to around 150 CE. It was part of the column of the villa of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius. Interestingly, visitors to the park often used the processed stone as a camera tripod.

Scientists conclude from well-preserved documents that the health problems of Julius Caesar were not due to epilepsy as previously thought, but rather to mini-strokes. The Roman commander, who was stabbed to death in 44 BCE, according to specialists from Imperial College in London, was to have many symptoms indicating this ailment.

In July 2021, the wreckage of a Roman transport ship was discovered near the coast of Sicily, with numerous vessels and amphoras. The object is dated to the 1st-2nd century BCE.

On Friday, February 6, 2015, another rainstorm in Pompeii meant that in the so-called In the Centennial House, two pieces of plaster detached from the wall. The name of the villa comes from the fact that the building was discovered in 1879, i.e. 1800 years after the eruption of Vesuvius.