Discoveries and news in Rome

In 2015, magnificent antique mosaics from two millennia ago were unveiled by Turkish researchers in the south of the country.

In 2015, in Binchester, County Durham, UK, further discoveries were made at an extraordinary Roman fort. The silver ring found in it may be evidence of early signs of Christianity in Roman Britain. Archaeologists also discovered a 2-meter-high bathhouse.

An international team of archaeologists returned to the site of the sinking of the famous wreckage after more than 100 years, where an ancient computer was found – the Antikythera mechanism. It turned out that the wreck hides more unusual secrets.

North of Pompeii, archaeologists have discovered a well-preserved slave room in the villa Civita Giuliana, near the stables. In the room, there were wooden bunks, chamber pots and fragments of harnesses for horses and a carriage.

In 2015, scholars discovered that from the 9th century, at least until 1349 (that is, until the earthquake partially damaged the building), the former ancient battle arena – the Colosseum – functioned as a rental space for the inhabitants of the Eternal City. The houses and workshops were located in the former arena, where gladiators fought to the death.

Roman history as we know it may change with the discovery made in 2015 in Britain. A new archaeological find from Durotriges in Dorset can provide a wealth of information about the life of Britain’s provincial late Roman elite. The skeletons owe their uniqueness to the fact that they are located right next to a Roman villa. Most likely, these are the remains of its owners or residents – thus, for the first time in Britain, the remains of villa owners were found near the building itself.

Even when serving in provinces remote from Rome, Roman legionaries took great care of their toilets. This is evidenced by the discoveries of Polish archaeologists from 2015 in the Novae legion camp (currently in Bulgaria), where from 69 CE the first Italian legion was stationed.

Roman gladiators were largely vegetarians and drank a tonic to strengthen a drink made of plant ash after training. Such conclusions were reached by scientists from the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Bern, who conducted an anthropological study of skeletons in 2015 from the 2nd-3rd-century necropolis in Ephesus discovered in 1993.

Preserved under volcanic ash, the monuments of Pompeii, a city affected by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, are endangered by the Italian bureaucracy and heavy rainfall. The city was discovered by archaeologists in the 18th century and to this day is a unique source of knowledge about the everyday life of the Romans.

Scientists emphasize in “Journal of Archaeological Science” from 2015 that female children did not account for the vast majority of infanticide victims. It was customary to think that at birth, the Romans spared the male offspring more often due to the obvious gender imbalance at the time.