Archaeological discoveries

• Artaxata, the story of the 'Armenian Carthage'

  According to the Greek historian Plutarch in his account of the life of Lucius Licinius Lucullus, the ancient city of Artaxata (located south of modern Artashat, in the Armenian province of Ararat) was built thanks to the advice of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who also would have directed the

• The only surviving Roman curia portico, which was saved from disappearing under the waters

  A curia was one of the subdivisions of the people in ancient Rome, and by extension the place where the Senate met to discuss their affairs was also called that. The best example is, of course, the Curia Hostilia in Rome, built in the Forum according to tradition by the third king of Rome, Tulio Hos

• They find next to the island of Kasos the wreck of a Roman ship loaded with amphorae from the Iberian Peninsula

  Off the coast of Kasos Island, east of Crete in the Dodecanese, archaeologists found several ancient shipwrecks, including a Roman ship from the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. whose cargo consisted of oil amphorae from ceramic workshops in the Iberian Peninsula. The amphorae were made in workshops around

• Modern humans arrived in Western Europe 5,000 years earlier than previously thought.

  Modern humans arrived in the westernmost part of Europe between 41,000 and 38,000 years ago, about 5,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to Dr. Jonathan Haws, of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Louisville, and an international team of researchers. researchers. Th

• They find the tomb of the Greek astronomer poet Aratus, from the 3rd century BC.

  Some time ago we dedicated an article to the tomb of the famous Greek astronomer poet Aratus, a tomb whose location was known but had never been excavated and therefore opened. In 2017 the local press echoed the difficulties of its excavation, and only a sign in Turkish and English informed tourists

• The Vespasian and Titus system of tunnels and canals in the port of Antioch, a marvel of Roman engineering

  Around the year 300 B.C. Seleucus I founded, on the current southeast coast of Turkey, the city of Seleucia Pieria. Located north of the mouth of the Orontes River and at the foot of the Amanus Mountains, he gave it the name of Pieria, because the place reminded him of the Macedonian region of the s

• How a Danish historian invented the Three Ages, the periodization system of Prehistory and Protohistory

  Unless he was born in Denmark - and even then - it is unlikely that any reader knows who Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was. He is a Danish historian who, despite his lack of training -he was only fond of numismatics- and even today is almost unknown to most, created the basic classification of prehist

• How English travelers found the Lion of Chaeronea in 1818, erected in 318 B.C. as a monument to the fallen of the Sacred Battalion of Thebes

  Located on the shores of Lake Copaide (a large lake that was in the center of Boeotia, dried up in the 19th century) northwest of Thebes, the city of Chaeronea was already famous in ancient times for having been the scene of many important battles. But without a doubt the best known of all was the

• The unique Visigoth hypogeum of Valdecanales

  In a remote rural area of ​​the municipality of Rus (Jaen), nestled in an olive farm that extends over the current Giribaile reservoir, there is an exclusive Visigothic monument called the Cuevas de Valdecanales. His story is as follows: At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the political situation

• The ancient Mayans built sophisticated water filters

  The ancient Maya of the once bustling city of Tikal built sophisticated water filters using natural materials imported from miles away, according to the University of Cincinnati. The researchers discovered evidence of a filter system in the Corrientel reservoir, an important source of drinking wate

• Renea, the island where the inhabitants of Delos were born and died

  Renea (or Rinia) is a small island located west of Delos, in the Cyclades archipelago, from which it is separated by a channel of about 700 meters. This was where, in ancient times, women who were going to give birth took refuge, and where those who were about to die were transferred to Delos, since

• The Colossus of Barletta, the impressive Roman statue from the 5th century AD. that it is not known which emperor he represents

  In the Italian city of Barletta, located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in the Apulia region, and in front of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher there is a colossal statue of more than 5 meters high that represents a Roman emperor. It is not known how he came to the city or where he came from, no

• They find an inscription from the 4th century BC. which tells the story of a pirate on the Greek island of Kythnos

  Archaeologists investigating the site of Vryokastraki, an islet in front of the ancient city of Vryokastro on the island of Kythnos in the Cyclades archipelago, for two years, found inscriptions that confirm the story told in previous finds in Athens, about a 4th century BC pirate The islet, on whi

• Domus de Janas, the unique prehistoric 'fairy houses' of Sardinia

  Although they are found in various areas of the Mediterranean, the Domus de Janas they are especially abundant in Sardinia, where they were built by a prenuragic (i.e. pre-Bronze Age) culture called the Ozieri culture , which developed on the island between 3200 and 2800 BC The main religious cente

• A study links paleolithic Venuses with climate change and diet

  The famous Paleolithic Venuses, those statuettes of female figures that stand out for their bulky stature and exaggerated features, are among the first examples of human art, dating back some 30,000 years. Researchers, since the first example, the Venus of Brassempouy, was discovered in 1893, have

• The impressive neolithic burial mound of Saint-Michel in Carnac

  The French commune of Carnac, in the Morbihan department on the northwestern coast of France, is famous for its alignments of menhirs, accounting for almost 3,000 of these megaliths that were raised during the Neolithic between 6,000 and 2,000 BC. But the area is also home to another prehistoric st

• They identify the mathematical values ​​of the fractional signs in the ancient Linear A script of the island of Crete

  A recent study by a team from the University of Bologna published in the Journal of Archaeological Science , has shed new light on the Minoan system of fractions, one of the most prominent enigmas of ancient number writing. About 3,500 years ago, the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete devel

• They find in Rome a monumental pool that could have been a shipyard

  A monumental swimming pool over 40 meters long dating from the 4th century BC, was found in Rome, at the crossroads between Via Ostiense and Via di Malafede. The discovery was made thanks to preventive archeology research conducted by the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma . Remains of other buildings

• The Canal of the Pharaohs, the precedent of the Suez Canal that was in use until the 8th century

  On November 17, 1869, eight years after work began, the Suez Canal was officially opened. That great engineering work that linked the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, greatly facilitating communication between Europe, the eastern coast of Africa and Asia, had an obvious geostrategic importance that h

• The strange paleolithic engravings of the Addaura Caves in Sicily, with human figures that seem to perform acrobatics

  The Addaura complex, located on the northeast slope of the Monte Pellegrino massif in northern Sicily, is made up of several caves that were used by the allies after the invasion of Sicily in 1943 as an ammunition store. Towards the end of the Second World War there was an accidental explosion in th