Friday Archaeology Blogging
Interactive Edition

Gentle readers, I am need of your aid. I've been working on a little project related to Greek mythology, and in the course of it I came across this image:


Click the image for a truly gigantic version.

The provenance of the piece is unknown, although it originally decorated the base of a statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, and probably dates to the third century A.D. The statue was part of the collection of Cardinal Albani, and was set up in his villa at Porta Salaria in about 1763. When the Papal States capitulated to Napoleon in 1797, the piece was seized under the terms of the Treaty of Tolentino, and taken to France. Although it was formally returned to the Vatican in 1815, Louis XVIII of France re-purchased it along with several other confiscated works of art, and it resides today in the Louvre.

What is depicted on the relief is the creation of the human race from clay by the Titan Prometheus. He is seated, in the shade of a tree, on the right hand side of the image, and is just finishing the moulding of a male figure. On the left side of the image is the goddess Minerva, easily recognizable by her helmet and spear, and by the gorgon's head on her breastplate. Between them a number of newly created people are cavorting about.

My question for you folks is this: What is Minerva holding in her right hand, and what is she doing with it? It looks a little bit like a bird (her iconic owl, perhaps?), but if so she's holding it in a very strange way. Anyway, post theories, speculation, ideas, etc. in the comments! Also, if you have any thoughts on who the being in the tree is, I'd love to hear those as well! For the record, the project was simply to find images of Prometheus; I'm interested in the Minerva figure out of mere curiosity.

Friday Archaeology Blogging
Pre-Roman Italy Edition



So, I thought today that I'd babble on about some of the peoples inhabiting Italy prior to the Roman domination. There were quite a number, many of them ethnically or linguistically related to the Romans, and some of them definitely not. Here's a small sample, working roughly from the South of the peninsula to the North. I've provided only very brief notes about them - perhaps I'll take one of them and do a much fuller Friday Archaeology Blogging about them at another time.

Lucanians: A people related to the Samnites, the Lucanians took over the southern part of Italy during the 5th century B.C., expelling the previous inhabitants (the Oenotrii and Ausones on the map). They almost immediately lost the region of the Calabria to insurrection on the part of the Bruttii, however. The Lucanians fairly quickly got crosswise of the Romans, and suffered badly after backing Hannibal during the 2nd Punic War (218-202 B.C., roughly). Although they managed to get up again to fight the Romans in 90-88 B.C., during the so-called Social War, they were beaten badly again, and faded into insignificance.


The Lucanian sanctuary at Rossano di Vaglio - I was there this summer!

Samnites: Of all the indigenous peoples of Italy (leaving aside the Etruscans for the moment), the Samnites probably came closest to upstaging the Romans. In fact, they came very, very close. In 321 B.C., the Samnites inflicted upon the Romans a humiliating defeat at the Battle of the Caudine Forks in south-central Italy, forcing the defeated Roman survivors to pass under a yoke as a symbol of their surrender.

The Samnites inhabited the region of the Appennine Mountains, just to the South of Rome, bordering Lucanian territories, and spoke a language related to Latin. They warred with the Romans throughout the last half of the fourth century B.C., before being overcome early in the third. A brief rebellion in the 80s B.C. was, according to the sources, punished with extreme ferocity by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and the Samnites basically fade from history at that point, although the name "Samnite" was given to a particular style of gladiator (there is, in fact, some evidence that the Romans copied the conept of gladiatorial combat from the Samnites).


A Samnite bronze helmet.

Umbrians: The Umbrians were a very, very old people, first attested archaeologically in the 9th century B.C. Dwelling in what is still called Umbria, to the East of the Etruscans, they spoke a language related to Latin. Although conquered by the Romans in the third century B.C., the Umbrians generally managed to avoid the kind of devastation that was visited on peoples like the Lucanians; they seem to have simply gradually romanized over time. They were granted Roman citizenship in 90 B.C., mostly as a reward for not opposing Rome too energetically during the Social War.

Etruscans: Ah, the mysterious Etruscans... Speaking a language that is most definitely not related to Latin, and in fact may even be non-Indo-European, the Etruscans exercised dominion over North-central Italy until the rise of Roman powers. Indeed, the Etruscans in fact at times held considerable power over Rome itself. Even after the end of Etruscan independance (more or less the beginning of the first century B.C.), ethnic Etruscans continued to occupy important positions in the Roman political hierarchy.

The main debate over the Etruscans, of course, revolves around who the heck they were. Some scholars have proposed a middle-eastern origin for them (the foundation myths of some Etruscan cities involve the fall of Troy), while others suggest that the Etruscans were in fact autochthonous, descendants of the earlier Villanovan culture. The jury is pretty much still out on this one.


An Etruscan fresco from Orvieto.

Non-Indigenous Inhabitants: A brief word is in order about those peoples who came to Italy from elsewhere before the rise of the Romans. The main group here is the Greeks, who had heavily colonized the southern part of the peninsula and Sicily beginning in about the 7th century B.C. Sicily, in particular, became a fairly major player in the Greek world before finally being absorbed by the Romans. They had significant contact, obviously, with the Lucanians, and there's a fair bit of research that's being done (some of it by a very good friend of mine), on exactly what that relationship was like. The influence of the Greeks on southern Italy cannot be overstated; to this day, there are remote communities in Calabria whose dialect of "Italian" is in fact ancient Greek.

The other non-indigenous group roaming around Italy during the pre-Roman period that bears mentioning is the Celts. The Celts, at various times, passed through and even settled in parts of Italy. In fact, in 390 B.C. they sacked and burned the city of Rome, in retaliation for the Romans having opposed them in an earlier fight against a different city. The only reason, according to legend, that Rome survived at all, was that many of its inhabitants took shelter in the town's citadel, a relatively defensible position. An attempted night raid on the citadel by the Celts had the misfortune to stumble into an enclosure containing sacred geese, who objected loudly to this intrusion and woke the defenders. One group of Celts who are known to have been in Italy is the tribe known as the Boii, who inhabited the Adriatic coast for a while. Upon being driven from Italy, the moved North, and settled in the area of modern Slovakia, a region to which they gave the name "Bohemia."

I realize here that I have not even barely scratched the surface of the topic of pre-Roman Italy; indeed, there are scholars who base their life's work on minor aspects of even one of the cultures listed above (or of one of a number of other pre-Roman cultures - I've by no means been comprehensive here!). However, I think it's worthwhile just to get the names out there, and to remind people that the Italian peninsula was not a monolithically Roman geographic entity!

Friday Archaeology Blogging
Slightly Less Late Edition.

Some time ago, we did a post on the discovery of Lupercale, the cave wherein the ancient Romans believed that Romulus and Remus had been nursed by a she-wolf. Well, we finally have pictures!



As you can see, the mosaic decorations in the cave are extremely elaborate, as would befit a place with that type of ritual significance. However, wait a second:

Italian expert skeptical of sacred Roman cave
Sat Nov 24, 2007 12:47am IST
By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - A leading Italian archaeologist said Friday that the grotto whose discovery was announced this week in Rome is not the sacred cave linked to the myth of the city's foundation by Romulus and Remus.

Now, archaeologists disagreeing is not really news, and some extremely reputable archaeologists (Andrea Carandini among them), have opined that the cave is in fact Lupercale, so I would hesitate to leap in and claim that this fellow has a point. Furthermore, he bases his argument against the identification of the cave as Lupercale largely on the writings of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a first-century B.C. historian who may be interpreted as having situated the Lupercale elsewhere on the Palatine Hill. While Dionysius has a decent reputation as a historian, it's always a bit dodgy to base archaeological hypotheses ancient written sources. So, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out! In the meantime, we'll look at the pretty mosaics...

Friday Archaeology Blogging
On Monday Edition.

My favourite type of Roman pottery is the shiny red fineward known technically as "Italian Terra Sigillata", usually abbreviated to "ITS". Yes, I have a favourite type of Roman pottery. Anyhoo, ITS (also known as "Arretine Ware" or "Samian Ware") first developed in Etruria, in and around the Roman city of Arretium (modern Arezzo) roughly during the middle of the first century B.C. Later, its manufacture spread throughout northern Italy and southern Gaul, before the pottery was finally replaced as the dominant form of fineware in the early second century A.D.

ITS pottery had a number of basic forms. Among them were moulded "chalices," often portraying extremely intricate designs showing scenes from mythology, erotica, bucolic scenes, and the like:


ITS Chalice - Click for larger image.

However, a great many ITS forms were what are generally referred to as "plainware" - pieces of extremely high quality, but without the extensive moulded decoration. Such decoration as exists on these pieces is often applied rather than part of the original moulded vessel. However, the vessels could be completely undecorated, as was often the case with the large platters which were a signature form of ITS:


ITS Platter, top view - Click for larger image.

Helpfully, ITS potters were not shy about stamping their names on their products. Originally, these stamps took a simple rectangular form, as below:


Maker's Stamp of Gaius Sertorius Proculus (or possibly from the workshop of Gaius Sertorius, which the actual craftsman being a slave named Proculus), from Arezzo, 15 B.C.-A.D.5. Click to enlarge.

However, during the later history of ITS, the so-called "foot stamps" became very popular, as well as evidence for a rather whimsical sense of humour. With foot stamps, the maker's name is actual enclosed in the shape of foot, a nod to the stamp's usual location on the foot of the vessel.


Maker's Stamp probably of Quintus Castricius (the meaning of the "VE" at the end is unknown), location unknown, but dating to the latter half of the first century A.D. Click to enlarge.

So, why do I like ITS so much? Well, it is genuinly beautiful pottery, with a smooth, strong glaze. It's also the signature Roman fineware; even though it went out of general use relatively early, it continued to exert stylistic influence over what came after it. Finally, it's one of the forms of pottery with which I am really familiar, which is a weak reason I know, but still...

Friday Archaeology Blogging: Lost & Found Edition

Catching up on a few bits of archaeological news that occurred while I was away...

FOUND:



Hatshepsut was fat and bald
8 Jul 2007, 0017 hrs IST,ANI

WASHINGTON: Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's greatest female Pharaoh was fat, balding and had beard. (She wore a false beard along with men's clothing when she proclaimed herself the Pharaoh of Egypt).

Back in June, DNA testing confirmed that a mummy in the Cairo museum was in fact that of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, who reigned during the 15th century B.C. Much has indeed been made of the fact that she wore a false beard (as portrayed below), although this ignores the fact that a beard was standard part of pharaonic regalia, and it might actually have been odder if she hadn't worn one (in fact, Ancient Egyptian has no separate word for a female ruler; Hatshepsut is referred to as "king" on inscriptions). Despite the horrendous condition of her health at death (there is evidence that she was suffering from some or all of diabetes, liver cancer, bone cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis, rampaging tooth decay, and an unidentified skin ailment), she was, in her day, considered a ravishing beauty. She was also an energetic and competent pharaoh, particularly in the area of building projects, and may also have taken part in a number of military excursions.


Click to enlarge

A brief word on the tooth decay issue. According to the ancient sources, Egyptian bread was extraordinarily hard on one's teeth, due to the presence of sand in the dough, and abcesses like the one that actually killed Hatshepsut must have been fairly common.


Ancient Egyptian teeth

On final extract from the article:

Findings revealed that Hatshepsut was balding in front, but let the hair on the back of her head grow really long. The Egyptian Queen also sported black and red nail polish, a rather Goth look for someone past middle age, reports LiveScience.

Archaeologists have so far failed to find Hatshepsut's storied collection of KMDFM albums.

FOUND:



Well, they didn't find the lake - they knew that was there. It was what was in it that was interesting:

UK divers find 'underwater village'
7/18/2007 2:29:00 PM - Erinn Piller

A team of divers have come across building remains in a lake in Wiltshire that may help solve the mystery of the lost village of Bowood.

Legend has it that the village was 'drowned' 250 years ago when Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, a famous English landscape gardener, flooded the area to make way for a new design he had envisioned for the area.

I'm interested here in how a village that was only "lost" a couple of centuries ago managed to get completely forgotten. One would think that some sort of record would have survived, somewhere.

FOUND:



Father and son discover 10th century Viking hoard buried in field
By Arifa Akbar
Published: 20 July 2007

The most important Viking treasures to be discovered in Britain for 150 years have been unearthed by a father and son while metal detecting in North Yorkshire.

David and Andrew Whelan uncovered the hoard, which dates back to the 10th century, in Harrogate. The British Museum said yesterday that the treasures were of global significance and could shed new light on the period.

Jumping ahead a bit:

After transporting the hoard to their home, they left it on their kitchen counter while they went to report it to their local finds liaison officer in Leeds. It was transferred to the British Museum where conservators carefully examined each item over months.

The British system for monitoring amateur archaeologists works extremely well, most of the time, and there is comparatively little friction between "professional" diggers and the folks who haul their metal detectors around on weekends. There is, in fact, a formal code of conduct, agreed upon by both amateurs and pros, and since it went into effect, the number of reported finds has skyrocketed. What's more, these finds are getting processed properly, with their provenances recorded, as opposed to simply sold off on the black market. This is a very good thing.

This is not:

LOST:



No, they didn't actually lose the Trevi Fountain; as far as I know, it's still there. However, the ancient aquaduct which supplied it was damaged in the course of a construction project:

Pipe blunder robs Trevi's supply

Water is being diverted to the Trevi from another ancient aqueduct
A builder's mistake has cut off the water supply to one of Rome's most famous fountains - the Trevi.

Water company Acea said the wall of an ancient Roman aqueduct which supplies the fountain was damaged by builders constructing an underground garage.

The aquaduct in question is the Aqua Virgo, built originally in the late first century B.C. under the auspices of the same Marcus Agrippa whose name adorns The Pantheon. It was restored in the 8th century A.D., and then again during the Renaissance.



The Aqua Virgo carried 100,000 cubic metres of water per day over a course whose net downslope was about a tenth of a degree, which is pretty snazzy engineering when you think about it. Understandably, the locals are fairly pissed over the damage done to the aquaduct:

"The Aqua Virgo aqueduct was one of two Roman water channels built underground. It was one of the few to escape being destroyed by the barbarians and to survive intact," Mr Signore said.

"Unfortunately, it has been destroyed by their descendants," he added.

Word.

Friday Archaeology Blogging

This is what happens when you take a break from blogging; you forget what you're supposed to be doing on Friday afternoons.

Anyway, as mentioned in the last post, I'm heading off across the water next week, to do a couple of months' worth of what Alison from Creekside referred to as "bones-bothering." I'll be here, more or less:


Lake Trasimene - Click for larger version

We've got a number of projects on the go this summer. Excavation will continue at a Roman villa site we've been digging since 1992, but we've also got a couple of interesting survey projects starting up. In both cases, the sites involved are suspiciously flat-topped hills, with not much growing on top of them. We're going to go and wander around and see what's lying on the ground on both these hills. My betting is that we'll find more Etruscan stuff than Roman, but that's just a guess at this point.

However, the area is significant to Roman history and archaeology, and I know precisely what the Umbrian Archaeological Superintendency wants us to find; they're hopeing that we'll over definitive proof of the location of the Battle of Lake Trasimene, fought in 217 B.C. This battle was one of the worst disasters ever suffered by Rome; the Roman army was lured into a massive ambush by the brilliant Carthaginian general Hannibal, and pretty much annihilated. Oodles of circumstantial evidence exists suggesting that the battle was fought along the western half of the north shore of the lake, although the battlefield itself has never been precisely identified.


Hannibal

We're not going to be particularly interested in finding the battlefield this time out; if we do, it will be more or less by accident. What we are interested in doing is studying the transition in the area between the Etruscan civilization and the Roman, a somewhat nebulous process usually referred to as "Romanization." For my part, my own interests lie somewhat later, in what scholars have referred to as the
"Third-Century Crisis." The mid-3rd century A.D. has usually been portrayed as a time of economic depression and depopulation in the rural areas of central Italy, but archaeological evidence is starting to argue against that, at least near Lake Trasimene. What I'm interested in discovering is whether this evidence is an aberation, or part of a larger regional pattern, and I'm hoping that our hill-walking this summer will provide at least some clues concerning the third century.

Friday Archaeology Blogging
Short, smelly edition.

Aphrodite perfumes sniffed out
22nd March 2007, 8:45 WST

The world’s oldest perfumes have been found on Cyprus by a team of archaeologists.

The perfumes were scented with extracts of lavender, bay, rosemary, pine or coriander and kept in tiny, translucent alabaster bottles. The remaining traces found in Pyrgos, in the south of the island, are more than 4000 years old.

As the article goes on to point out, it's appropriate that the material was found on Cyprus, given that that island is the traditional site of the birth of Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love.


The birth of Aphrodite

Anyway, the interesting thing here is that not only were Bronze Age Cypriots making perfumes, they were apparently doing so in bulk; the size of the recently discovered "perfume factory" is about 43,000 square feet. This is not terribly surprising - perfume in the ancient world was as much a luxury item as it is now.


An elaborate bronze-age perfume bottle

Perfume maintained its popularity through the age of Classical Greece; the infamous courtesan Lais of Corinth (10,000 drachmas per "appointment", apparently!), is said to have developed her own perfume from orange blossoms and oyster shells in the 4th century B.C., a perfume which has never been successfully duplicated. The Romans, too, were very into perfumes; some figures from the time of Augustus indicate that roughly 3,000 tons of frankincense was used in Rome per year.


Ancient Roman perfume bottles

Friday Archaeology Blogging
Grab bag o'Roman stuff edition.

A couple of recent developments in the world of Roman archaeology:

Roman settlement found next to 'devil's hill'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

Evidence of a Roman sacred site has been discovered at the foot of a man-made hill created thousands of years before the Romans arrived in Britain, it was announced yesterday.

That would be Silbury Hill:


Click to see larger version

It's a massive construction, originally terraced, with a presumably ceremonial walkway to the top. It's surrounded by a sort of moat, bridged by two causeways (the material used to build the hill was originally dug out of the moat). It was probably built in about 2600 B.C., roughly contemporary with some of the early phases of Stonehenge. Various myths and legends have arisen about the hill; according to one tradition, it is the tomb of the legendary King Sil and his golden horse. Another tale, the source of the "Devil's Hill" moniker, relates that the devil was carrying a load of earth to drop on a nearby town. When he was stopped by some priests from Avebury, he dropped the dirt, creating Silbury Hill. Although various theories have been put forward (e.g. an enormous sundial), the truth is that we have no idea whatsoever what that hill was built for, or how it was used in neolithic times.

Returning to the Romans, it's not at all surprising that they would build a religious site there. Contrary to what one might expect, the Romans were extremely open-minded about other religions (they tended to outlaw religions only in cases where there were issues of pubic order), to the point where they made a practice of adopting the worship of "foreign" gods. A prime example of this is the Egyptian goddess Isis, whose cult became very popular in Roman Italy.


The Temple of Isis at Pompeii - click to enlarge

The main question, yet to be answered, about the Roman site at Silbury Hill is to which deity it was devoted. It remains distinctly possible that it was actually a Celtic deity whose worship was promoted at the site.

Anyway, moving along, awhile back I did a Friday Archaeology Blogging on the insignia of Maxentius. There have been further developments:

Scepter from Roman emperor exhibited
Telegraph, 27 February 2007

The scepter, which is topped by a blue orb that represents the earth, was discovered at the end of last year and is believed to have been held by Emperor Maxentius, who ruled for six years until 312AD.


This is the best picture of the scepter that I've been able to find so far.

Hopefully, we'll get a chance to see the rest of the insignia soon.

Friday Archaeology Blogging

They're apparently having a fine old time up on the Palatine Hill these days! A few weeks ago, we dealt with the discovery of the insignia of Maxentius. Now, they've apparently found something else:

Sacred Cave of Rome's Founders Discovered, Archaeologists Say
Maria Cristina Valsecchi in Rome
for National Geographic News
January 26, 2007

Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale—the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born.

Pretty much everyone knows the tale of Romulus and Remus. Abandoned at birth, the were rescued and nursed by a she-wolf (I pass lightly over the fact the Latin word for a she-wolf is the same as the Latin word for a female prostitute) before being raised by a humble woodsman. When grown, they returned to found a city at the spot where the wolf had nursed them. The two brothers later fell out, and Romulus killed Remus and named their new city after himself.

Not surprisingly, the episode of Romulus and Remus became a major source of inspiration for ancient artists, the most famous result of which is probably this:


The Capitoline Wolf

The bronze wolf is Etruscan, and dates to the 6th century B.C., a time when the ruling family of Rome was Etruscan. Interestingly, the babies weren't added to the statue until the Renaissance. Depictions of the wolf story also occur on coinage:


Denarius of Antoninus Pius, dated to A.D. 140

Anyway, back to what they've found on the Palatine Hill. The main question, I suppose has got to be whether the cave they've found is "the" cave. The cave is described as richly decorated, particularly with mosaics; however, no mention is made of what sorts of imagery, if any, is involved. Since the archaeologists haven't yet found the entrance to the cave, they haven't been able to investigate it terribly closely. However, given that it is richly decorated, and it is on the Palatine, chances are fairly good that they've actually discovered that the ancient Romans associated with the myth of the she-wolf.

I would close by mentioning that this discovery came about during fairly frantic efforts to shore up a number of ancient structures on the hill. The Palatine, which really ought to be an archaeological showpiece for the city of Rome, has suffered from shoddy maintenance for quite a long time, and it's excellent that serious, concerted, steps are now being taken to preserve it.

UPDATE: Added a wee link.

Friday Archaeology Blogging
Roman Lamp Edition.

I warn in advance that this will be a fairly lazy edition of FAB, but it will have lots and lots of pretty pictures. Some of the pictures can be clicked on to get a bigger version. Anyway, Roman lamps! Generally made of either terracotta or bronze, they were usually fueled by olive oil (which must have smelled just lovely, but anyway...). The fuel was inserted into the reservoir through a hole in the top of the lamp, and an oil-soaked wick ran from the reservoir to the main opening in the nozzle, where the actual flame burned.


A Roman lamp doing its thing

The main point of interest in dealing with roman lamps is in looking at the artwork. While many lamps were relatively plain affairs,


Late Roman lamp

others were extremely highly decorated.


A couple of decorated lamps

Typical scenes on Roman lamps included gladiatorial combat,


Lamp depicting a victorious gladiator and his opponent, from the reign of Augustus

real-life animals,


A 2nd-century A.D. lamp depicting a cockerel

mythical animals,


Pegasus depicted on a Roman lamp

religious scenes,


A lamp depicting Lilith. The hand stamped on the bottom of the lamp is a maker's mark.



An early Christian lamp showing the Chi-Rho symbol

and, erm, "recreational activities."


Move along, nothing to see here!

Sometimes, these elements could be combined in amusing ways.


Lamp showing a scene from "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius.

In shape, lamps typically took the form shown above, with a small vertical handle, a round oil reservoir, and one nozzle. However, lamps were also made with more than one nozzle,


A gold(!) lamp with two nozzles

or in bizarre and fantastic shapes.


A Roman lamp in the shape of a foot.

There are many many more pictures of Roman lamps I could hurl up here, but this will do for now, as it gives a basic overview of the types of lamps that were out there. And, as promised, lots of pictures! Something more "substantial" next week.

Friday Archaeology Blogging

As is well known, Roman legions marched into battle behind standard-bearers, who, well, bore standards displaying the battle honours of the particular legion involved.


Roman battle standards

The standards were objects of great pride for the legionary soldiers, as was dramatically shown during Julius Caesar's first invasion of Britain (De Bello Gallico 4.25). Faced with the prospect of having to fight their way ashore through deep water, the soldiers of the 10th Legion hesitated to disembark from their ships, until the legion's standard-bearer leapt overboard by himself, taking the standard with him. Shamed, the soldiers followed him, and forced their way ashore.


A rather fanciful depiction of the above-mentioned event.

On those rare occasions when a legion lost its standards, the result was disgrace, and strenuous efforts were made to recover the lost items. The Emperor Augustus was so proud of his recovery in 19 B.C., through negotiation, of the standards lost by Crassus' 10th Legion at Carrhae in 53 B.C., that he commemorated the event not only coins,


A denarius of Augustus

but also on one of the most famous statues of him ever carved.


The Prima Porta Augustus.


Detail of the breastplate, showing the return of the standards from Carrhae. Click for slightly larger image.

The recovery of the standards lost to Arminius at the Battle of Teutoberger Vald (about which we have written elsewhere), was similarly celebrated.


A coin of Germanicus, from A.D. 16, showing a recovered standard.

So, where are we going with all this? Well, on October 28, A.D. 312, the Emperor Constantine defeated his colleague Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, just outide Rome.


Maxentius.

When it was clear that the battle was going against them, some supporters of Maxentius decided to take steps to keep his insignia, including his standards, from Constantine. The took the items into Rome, and hid them in a sanctuary near the Colosseum, on the Palatine Hill. And it must be said that they did a hell of an effective job hiding them, because they were only found last year.

Emperor Maxentius insignia found in Rome
Mon. Dec. 4 2006 9:07 AM ET
Associated Press

ROME -- Archeologists have unearthed what they say are the only existing imperial insignia belonging to Emperor Maxentius -- precious objects that were buried to preserve them and keep them from enemies when he was defeated by his rival Constantine.

The items have apparently been undergoing restoration for past little while, and should be available for public viewing soon; pictures will be posted as soon as I can find any! While I am often leery of supposedly "dramatic" archaeological discoveries, this, I must say, represents something quite special. While they may not add too much to our knowledge of the Roman Empire, these items are a physical, tangible, legacy of a monumental turning-point in the history of Rome.