Anthropomorphic figurines. Image Credit: Peruvian Ministry of Culture

The discovery was announced by Peru’s Ministry of Culture, following excavations by researchers from the Caral Archaeological Zone led by archaeologist Ruth Shady Solís of the National University of San Marcos.

A city built to link coast, mountains, and rainforest

Peñico was founded around 1800 BC and covers roughly 19.4 hectares, sitting about 13 kilometers from the Sacred City of Caral-Supe itself, the monumental center that gives the broader Caral civilization its name. Archaeologists have identified 15 separate public buildings at the site, which appears to have functioned as an important hub connecting Peru’s coastal communities with populations in the Andean highlands, while also maintaining exchange networks reaching into the Amazonian rainforest.

The offering was found within the site’s Major Public Building, deposited during the very earliest stages of constructing a new platform there, as part of dedication ceremonies meant to consecrate the structure before it was completed. The objects were arranged in a small area bordered by a semicircle of rounded stones, topped with a single larger stone marking the spot.

Forty-three figures, carved and burned

The offering itself consists of 43 objects worked from wood and bone. Several carry intricate engraved designs, and a number show clear signs of having been exposed to fire, evidence of ritual treatment rather than accidental damage. Among the figures researchers identified representations of mythical beings, anthropomorphic figures including a distinct female form and what may be deities or authority figures, alongside birds, snakes, tadpoles, and a range of geometric and abstract motifs.

A 3,800-Year-Old Offering of 43 Carved Figures Uncovered at Peñico, Peru. Image credit: Peruvian Ministry of Culture

Comparing the new material against artifacts from earlier, better-known Caral sites, researchers found strong similarities in materials, engraving technique, and iconographic themes, a continuity that speaks directly to how deeply rooted these ritual traditions were across the wider Caral cultural sphere and across time.

A tradition that outlived Caral’s earliest cities

What makes the Peñico offering especially significant is timing. The find dates to a period after the decline of Caral’s earliest urban centers, yet the ritual knowledge, beliefs, and practices on display closely echo those documented at the older sites. The Ministry of Culture points to this as clear evidence that the cultural and religious traditions developed during Caral’s earliest phase did not simply vanish with the decline of its founding cities, but were carried forward and actively practiced by the communities that followed, with Peñico continuing to serve as a genuine center of political and religious authority in the centuries afterward.

That pattern fits a broader theme researchers have traced across the Caral cultural sphere more generally, in which communities repeatedly marked moments of construction, transition, or hardship with carefully deposited ritual offerings, a practice also documented at other related sites in the region, including figurine caches found at nearby Vichama in earlier excavations.

Marking nine years of work

The Peñico announcement lands just ahead of the second annual Peñico Raymi festival, scheduled for July 11, 2026, a free public event marking nine years of ongoing archaeological research and conservation work at the site. The festival will include traditional ceremonies honoring Pachamama, the Andean earth deity, alongside cultural performances celebrating the region’s deep history, a fitting way to mark the unveiling of an offering that has waited nearly four thousand years to be seen again.

Share Ancient Content

Sources. Andina News Agency (July 10, 2026); Peru's Ministry of Culture; HeritageDaily; Euronews.

Excavations at Iskandar Tepa. Image credit: Ladislav Stančo et al. (2022).

The site, called Iskandar Tepa, sits in the Sherobod District of Surkhan Darya Province, near the Loylagan valley, commanding a clear view of the surrounding oasis landscape. New geophysical survey work, combined with targeted excavation, has overturned the site’s earlier identification as a modest rural settlement, revealing instead a fortified, short-term encampment from the Hellenistic period.

The research, led by Ladislav Stančo of Charles University in Prague working with a Czech-Uzbek archaeological team, is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports.

From village to garrison

The site was first surveyed in 2017, but it was the team’s return in 2021, equipped with magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar, that transformed the picture. The scans revealed a camp area of nearly six hectares, encircled by a defensive ditch stretching roughly 400 meters and enclosing a core area of about 1.2 hectares. Excavation later confirmed the ditch measured four to seven meters wide and up to 85 centimeters deep, cut with a stepped profile, and accompanied by postholes suggesting a wooden palisade rather than any permanent stone or mudbrick fortification.

That combination, an elevated position, a circular defensive ditch, and the conspicuous absence of solid buildings, is precisely what led Stančo to the camp identification. He noted that this pattern matches historical descriptions of Greek military camps closely, a type of site only rarely documented anywhere in Central Asia, and that the find demonstrates just how effective geophysical survey can be in dry, poorly preserved landscapes where almost nothing is visible on the surface.

Map of the Bactro-Sogdian borderlands showing Hellenistic and Transitional period settlements. Credit: L. Stančo and T. Tencer.

Water carried up the hill

Inside the enclosure, excavators found large ceramic storage jars known locally as khums, buried directly into the ground. Three were fully excavated and showed traces of white mineral crusts, residue the team believes came from stored water rather than from grain or other foodstuffs. Since no permanent buildings or water source were identified anywhere at the site itself, researchers believe the jars held water hauled up from the valley below or drawn from a nearby canal identified during the survey, logistics consistent with a temporary garrison rather than a settled village.

Coins that fix the date

Dating the camp fell largely to numismatics. Coins recovered at the site, including issues of the Greco-Bactrian kings Euthydemus I and Demetrius I, point to occupation mainly during the second century BC, with the possibility of some continuation into the first century BC. That places Iskandar Tepa within the Hellenistic world that persisted in Central Asia long after Alexander’s own campaigns, when Greco-Bactrian rulers controlled swaths of the region and maintained military outposts to secure valleys, routes, and contested frontier zones.

The Alexander connection in the site’s name is more symbolic than direct. The camp itself was almost certainly not used by Alexander’s own army, since it postdates his campaigns by roughly a century. Its real significance lies in showing how the Greek military and political framework his conquests established in Central Asia continued to shape the region for generations afterward, long after Alexander himself had died.

A borderland with a wider system

Iskandar Tepa was not an isolated position. Researchers compared its layout directly to Boysari Tepa, a similarly shaped hilltop site in Sogdiana, which shares the same basic template, a shallow encircling ditch and simple wooden postholes rather than permanent architecture. Earlier work by Stančo’s team had already proposed that Iskandar Tepa belonged to a wider system of outposts and watch-posts maintained by the last Greco-Bactrian rulers specifically to control the Sogdian-Bactrian borderlands and the communication routes running through them, a network that also included the well-documented fortress of Kurganzol guarding the mountain passes between the two regions, and the more recently excavated fortress at Uzundara nearby.

Iskandar Tepa, trench IT21-03/04. Khum vessels B (right) and C (left). Credit: J. Kysela.

A hilltop that outlived its garrison

The military phase was not the end of the hill’s story. Around its edges, the survey detected close to 90 oval pits, clustered mainly along the eastern and western margins of the site. Excavation confirmed these as burial pits, some dating to the first century BC and later, well after the camp’s active military use had likely ended. A handful of these graves overlap directly with the settlement area itself, suggesting that once the garrison moved on, the hilltop continued to serve the surrounding community as a burial ground for a considerable time afterward.

Earlier research by the same team had also identified a subsequent phase at the site, in which newly arrived semi-nomadic groups took control of northern Bactria during the second half of the second century BC, occupying the same hilltop after the Greco-Bactrian military presence had faded, a reminder of how quickly political control could shift along this contested frontier in the wake of Alexander’s fractured Hellenistic inheritance.

Source. Stančo, L., Kysela, J., Tencer, T., Milo, P., and Shaydullaev, S. (2026). “Geophysical and Archaeological Survey of the Hellenistic-Period Settlement Iskandar Tepa in the Bactro-Sogdian Borderlands.” Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports, 72, Article 105742. doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105742

New Tombs Discovered at Egypt's Ancient Leukaspis. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

The mission also revealed remains of the ancient city’s extensions and architectural components beyond the burial ground itself, pushing the total number of tombs recorded at Marina El Alamein since the site’s discovery in 1986 up to 44 and reinforcing its standing as one of the most prominent ancient coastal cities on the Mediterranean.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy described the find as an important scientific and archaeological addition, one that contributes to understanding the cultural identity of ancient Marina El Alamein’s inhabitants and to re-evaluating the city’s historical role as a civilizational and cultural center linking Egypt with the wider Mediterranean world. He noted that the ministry is giving considerable attention to the scientific excavation work at the site in preparation for opening it to visitors, adding a new cultural tourism product alongside the beach tourism for which the North Coast is already known.

Hisham El-Leithy, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, outlined the site’s development plan, which includes a visitor center, routes for electric vehicles and pedestrians, a museum storage facility, an administrative headquarters, and an open-air theater. Completion is expected within the first half of next year, after which Marina El Alamein is meant to stand as a fully integrated archaeological and tourism destination.

Skeletal remains uncovered during excavation at Marina El Alamein, found alongside pottery vessels and wooden elements from the burial. Photo Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

A city of rock-cut tombs and altars

Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the newly discovered tombs include eleven cut entirely into the rock, known as hypogea, with an average depth of about eight meters, in addition to seven surface tombs built of limestone. Some of the tombs stand out for their exceptional state of preservation, with burial openings still sealed by their original stone slabs, untouched since antiquity.

The excavation also revealed numerous surface burials around the tombs, reflecting the social diversity of the city’s inhabitants, along with a water well that had later been reused for burial purposes, a clear example of how ancient Egyptian influence persisted in funerary architecture through the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. The work yielded a distinguished group of artifacts as well, including complete and near-complete pottery vessels, amphorae, oil lamps, plates, limestone altars and basins, and architectural elements associated with the tombs.

The interior of one of the rock-cut tombs uncovered at Marina El Alamein, showing a sealed sarcophagus and skeletal remains within a burial niche. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Hisham Hussein, head of the Central Administration for Lower Egypt Antiquities, pointed to a limestone altar for offerings with a distinctive architectural facade imitating the false door known from ancient Egyptian funerary belief. Also among the finds were an unfinished marble statue believed to represent the goddess Aphrodite, a limestone funerary stele depicting a seated man holding a bird, and a number of glass tear bottles.

The plaster sphinx statue found at Marina El Alamein, discovered beside the sealed granite sarcophagus in one of the tombs. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

A sealed sarcophagus and a sphinx in plaster

Iman Abdel Khalek, head of the mission and director of the area, reported the discovery of a granite sarcophagus 2.5 meters long, its original lid still in place, containing skeletal remains now under study. Beside it, the team found the remains of a plaster sphinx statue, further confirming the persistence of Egyptian religious and artistic influence within the city through the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

The limestone funerary stele found at Marina El Alamein, showing a seated man holding a bird. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Gold on the tongues of the dead

Among the most striking finds, Abdel Khalek noted, were 24 gold pieces placed inside the mouths of some of the deceased, representing what is known as the golden tongue, one of the elements tied to the funerary beliefs of that era. One of the pieces was shaped as the Eye of Horus, among the most important protective symbols in ancient Egyptian belief.

Gold tongue amulets from Marina El Alamein, laid out together after their recovery from the burials. Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

A city called Leukaspis

Marina El Alamein lies on Egypt’s northwestern coast, about 100 kilometers west of Alexandria, and is believed to represent the city of Leukaspis, mentioned by the Greek geographer Strabo. The city flourished from the Hellenistic era through the Byzantine era, reaching the height of its urban and economic activity during the first three centuries AD.

The site was discovered by chance in 1986 during construction work in the Marina area, and the extensive excavation and study that followed has revealed one of Egypt’s best-preserved ancient coastal cities, with a street network, houses, public facilities, a port, commercial districts, and extensive cemeteries reflecting the cultural and civilizational diversity that marked Egypt’s Mediterranean coastal cities during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

The ministry describes this discovery as a new step toward completing our understanding of the city’s history, and toward reinforcing its position as one of the most important archaeological and cultural destinations on the North Coast, within the framework of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ efforts to preserve Egyptian heritage and make it accessible to the public.

Source. Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, official statement.

Picene Prince’s Chariot Tomb Unearthed on Italy’s Conero Coast. Credit: Soprintendenza Abap Ancona Pesaro Urbino

The find emerged during preventive archaeology work carried out by the firm ArcheoLab in collaboration with the Comune di Sirolo, and funded by Italy’s Ministry of Culture. What the team uncovered is not a single grave but an organized aristocratic burial ground, and with it a clearer picture of the ruling families who dominated this stretch of coast some 2,600 years ago.

The context of a warrior found in 2020

The new complex finally makes sense of an earlier discovery. In 2020, in the same area, archaeologists found the tomb of a warrior who lived in the second half of the sixth century BC, buried with a first-rate set of arms that included a helmet, a spear, a long sword, and a dagger. His grave goods also held a refined bronze oinochoe, a wine jug in the Greco-Etruscan tradition, and something rarer still, a diphros, the folding stool that ranked among the most exclusive emblems of authority in pre-Roman Italy.

At the time, that warrior stood alone. The new excavation shows he belonged to a much larger monumental cemetery organized around a central princely burial. For the first time, researchers can read the group rather than the individual, tracing the hierarchical and symbolic relationships that bound an entire aristocratic nucleus together.

Archaeologists excavating the Tomb of the Chariot. Credit: Soprintendenza ABAP Ancona–Pesaro Urbino.

A prince buried with his chariot

At the heart of the newly revealed monumental circle lay a large male burial containing the remains of a currus, a two-wheeled chariot that appears to have been placed intact in the grave pit. In the funerary world of the Picenes and pre-Roman Italy more broadly, a chariot was among the clearest markers of princely rank, and this one places its owner firmly among the elite.

The weapons buried with him, including a helmet, an axe, and other offensive arms, reinforce that status. So do several other objects, still being cleaned and studied, that seem to point to forms of power and authority not previously well documented in Picene territory. The excavators suggest these pieces may eventually reshape how we understand the roles played by the Conero’s ruling class in the sixth century BC.

A banquet sealed for the afterlife

Among the most striking finds are large vessels of beaten bronze sheet recovered from the chariot tomb. Sealed with ceramic lids and still full, they held organic material, ceramic fragments, and animal bones. The team reads them as the traces of a funeral banquet held at the burial, or as food offerings meant to sustain the dead man on his journey into the afterlife. That they remained closed for more than two and a half millennia gives researchers a rare chance to study the contents directly.

Excavation of the female burial. Credit: Soprintendenza ABAP Ancona–Pesaro Urbino.

A woman adorned in fibulae and amber

Beside the central tomb lay a female burial of considerable richness. Excavators documented textiles, decorative elements, and the remains of footwear with metal fittings still in their original positions. Numerous fibulae, the ornamental brooches used to fasten clothing, were arranged directly on the body at the chest, shoulders, pelvis, and feet, holding in place the garments and shroud that wrapped her. A large fibula with an amber core lay just beyond her head, possibly part of a headdress or hairstyle. These details promise new insight into ritual practice and into how prestige was expressed for aristocratic women in Picene society.

A monument built to be seen

The complex also rewrites part of what was known about how these burials were designed. The great funerary circles of the Conero and the wider Piceno had always been defined by a ring ditch, usually cut in a V-shaped profile, that separated the space of the living from that of the dead. The Sirolo complex does something new. Its boundary is marked not by a ditch but by a ring palisade, traceable through a regular series of post holes, each holding small deposits of carefully selected pottery fragments at its base.

Its placement looks equally deliberate. The circle sits on a low natural rise that commands the surrounding land, a choice that seems meant to make the monument immediately visible across the funerary landscape and to underline its symbolic weight. It lies not far from the celebrated Tomb of the Queen and the area long known as the necropolis of the Pini, and geophysical surveys suggest the burial ground extended well beyond its previously understood limits.

Why it changes the picture

For Stefano Finocchi, the excavation’s scientific director, the value of the find is that it lets researchers see a whole aristocratic community rather than a lone grave. He describes a nucleus with legible hierarchical and symbolic relationships, one that opens new perspectives on the elites who led the major Picene center that grew up in the Conero area. The scale of the monument, the quality of the grave goods, and the objects still under study together sketch a ruling group woven into a dense web of contacts, one that linked the middle Adriatic to the leading centers of central Italy.

Source: Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Ancona e Pesaro e Urbino (July 1, 2026).

Excavations at the newly discovered site. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

What makes the find unusual is its completeness. Rather than a single building or a lone cemetery, the excavators have exposed the interlocking parts of a working settlement, residential, economic, and funerary, offering a rare and rounded picture of daily life in the eastern Delta nearly three and a half thousand years ago.

A community caught in full

Sherif Fathy, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, described the discovery as an important addition to understanding how people settled the eastern Delta during this era, noting that it reveals an economically and socially integrated community combining living quarters, stores, production facilities, and areas for the dead. The Ministry framed Tell el-Kua as a self-sufficient settlement, a place where the everyday rhythms of housing, food storage, manufacture, and burial can all be read from the ground.

Dr Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, stressed the strategic position of the site on the Wadi Tumilat axis, one of the most important routes connecting the eastern Delta with Egypt’s eastern borders. That location, he said, points to the settlement’s part in trade and cultural exchange, and helps illuminate the passage from the Second Intermediate Period to the beginnings of the New Kingdom.

One of the newly discovered tombs. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Houses, ovens, and grain stores

According to Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, the mission uncovered ten tombs built of mudbrick, some rectangular in plan and others fronted by distinctive architectural facades, all assigned to the Fifteenth Dynasty associated with Hyksos rule. Alongside the cemetery lay an organized residential quarter measuring about 30 by 60 meters, containing rooms and several halls together with ovens and silos for storing grain. The combination signals clear economic activity on the spot, a settlement that produced, stored, and consumed rather than merely buried its dead.

The site covers roughly 55 feddans, or about 23 hectares, and the evidence suggests it remained in use until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty. That long life span reflects an unbroken continuity of settlement across the very moment when Egypt passed from Hyksos control into the New Kingdom, a transition usually told through battles and royal inscriptions rather than through the houses and storerooms of ordinary people.

Aerial view of the site. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Scarabs, bronze, and the mark of the Levant

The excavation produced a rich assemblage of small finds. Among them were scarabs, bronze tools, a range of pottery vessels, kohl pots carved from alabaster, and juglets in the so-called Tell el-Yahudiya style. That last category is telling. Tell el-Yahudiya ware, a dark, polished juglet decorated with patterns filled with white paste, is a hallmark of the Middle Bronze Age and circulated widely between Egypt and the Levant during the Hyksos period, a ceramic signature of the connections that bound the eastern Delta to the lands beyond Sinai.

A finely preserved ceramic vessel uncovered during the excavations, offering insight into daily life at the site. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Study of the human remains revealed individuals who had died between the ages of 25 and 40, while animal bones recovered from the graves shed light on diet and on the offerings placed with the dead. Some of the pottery carried seals and production marks, which the team reads as evidence of broad trading networks and a possible role for Tell el-Kua as an important center for commercial distribution in the region.

A well-preserved ceramic jug with a handle, recovered from the excavation, reflecting everyday domestic pottery traditions at the site. Credit: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Burials that break the pattern

For the first time at the site, archaeologists found human burials placed outside the built mudbrick tombs, some of the bodies laid in a crouched or squatting position. Mostafa Hassan, director of the Ismailia antiquities area and head of the mission, noted that this is an unusual practice that will be the subject of further archaeological study. Such departures from the expected funerary norm are exactly the kind of detail that can reshape understanding of belief and social difference in a period for which written sources are thin.

The Second Intermediate Period in context

The Second Intermediate Period, conventionally dated to roughly 1650 to 1550 BC, was a time of political fragmentation between the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. In the north, the Hyksos, rulers of Asiatic and Levantine background, established the Fifteenth Dynasty and governed from their capital at Avaris, also in the eastern Delta. They introduced or popularized new technologies and maintained close ties with the wider eastern Mediterranean world, and their eventual expulsion by the Theban kings around 1550 BC opened the imperial age of the New Kingdom.

The Wadi Tumilat, where Tell el-Kua sits, was a natural gateway between the Egyptian heartland and the deserts and routes leading toward the Levant. Settlements along it stood at the meeting point of Egyptian and foreign influence, which is part of what gives this discovery its weight. By preserving the residential, productive, and funerary life of a single community in one place, Tell el-Kua promises to add flesh to a period more often defined by its rulers than by the people who lived under them, and to reinforce the standing of the eastern Delta as a vital crossroads in ancient Egyptian history.

Excavation and study at the site are expected to continue, with further analysis of the unusual burials, the human remains, and the marked pottery likely to refine the picture in the seasons to come.

Source: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announcement of 29 June 2026, as reported by Egyptian outlets including El-Watan News and Masrawy.

Aerial view of the Bath Complex. Credit: Soprintendenza archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per le province di L'Aquila e Teramo

At a locality known as Case Pente, excavations have revealed the buried plan of a prehistoric village marked by the post holes of 52 huts, an associated cemetery, and, a short distance away, the remains of a Roman farm with its own private bath complex. Together the finds trace an almost unbroken human presence across several thousand years, from the close of the Copper Age to the Roman period.

The discoveries were summarized on 26 June 2026 in a statement from the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the provinces of L’Aquila and Teramo, the state body responsible for protecting archaeological heritage in the area. Work at the site has been under way since March 2023.

A settlement four thousand years old

The oldest and, in many respects, most striking layer at Case Pente is a village dating to the end of the Eneolithic, or Copper Age, and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. Because the huts were built of perishable materials that decayed long ago, the settlement survives chiefly as a field of dark post holes, the footprints of timber uprights that once held up 52 dwellings. Alongside the houses, archaeologists identified a necropolis belonging to the same community.

The scale of the evidence is what makes the find exceptional. Documenting an entire village layout, rather than a few isolated structures, allows researchers to study how a community living more than four thousand years ago organized its space, how it built its homes, and how it related the world of the living to its burial ground. Excavators also recorded numerous later burials, showing that this stretch of the valley continued to be occupied and used, without long interruptions, across the millennia.

For the prehistoric sector, the Superintendence reports that the archaeological deposit has been excavated and recorded in full, in keeping with the procedures of preventive archaeology, so that the scientific information held in the soil has been recovered and preserved in the documentary record.

The Roman baths during archaeological excavations. Credit: Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Provinces of L'Aquila and Teramo.

A Roman farm and its baths

The Roman phase is represented by a rustic building, most likely part of a working agricultural estate, and by a more elaborate complex of heated rooms set along an ancient roadway that continued to shape the valley’s landscape in later centuries. In the bath rooms, the small brick pillars that once raised the floor are still visible. Hot air and smoke from a service furnace circulated through the cavity beneath, and the darkened earth still carries traces of that heating system.

Bath suites of this kind were a mark of prosperity. The wealthier Roman estates combined production buildings, storerooms, and workshops with a residence and, often, a small private bath, evidence that the owner had reached a certain level of comfort. Its presence at Case Pente suggests that the farm belonged to a substantial enterprise tied into the wider economy of a valley that, in Roman times, lay along routes linking the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian coasts.

Because of their historical value, the Roman walls will be conserved where they stand. The Superintendence has begun designing a visitor route that will make the structures accessible to the public, and restoration of the bath building has already been completed.

Postholes from the prehistoric settlement. Credit: Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the Provinces of L'Aquila and Teramo.

Study, conservation, and a future exhibition

The fieldwork is one part of a broader program set out in a valorization agreement between the Superintendence and Snam, the energy infrastructure company whose project prompted the dig. The agreement provides for the restoration of all recovered finds and conserved structures, the reconstruction of a prehistoric hut beside the Roman remains, and a full scientific study of the materials. Planned analyses include anthropological and genetic study of the burials, together with archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, and archaeometric investigations and radiometric dating. The results are to be released through scientific publications and a closing exhibition intended to return the findings to the local community.

The site received its first visitors on 13 June 2026, during the European Archaeology Days, when limited numbers of residents, scholars, and enthusiasts were able to see an excavation still in progress and meet the archaeologists at work.

A long history beneath the valley

The importance of the finds is easier to grasp against the deeper history of the Valle Peligna. Before the Roman conquest the region was home to the Peligni, an Italic people who spoke an Oscan-Umbrian language and who sided with the Samnites during the Social War of the early first century BC. At nearby Corfinium, less than twenty kilometers from Case Pente, the allied Italic peoples established the capital of their confederation and pointedly renamed it Italia, one of the earliest political uses of a name that would come to identify the whole peninsula. Pelignian religion gave a central place to springs, woods, and mountains, with sanctuaries often set on high ground or beside water.

Recent work in archaeogenetics has added another layer to that picture. Studies of ancient DNA suggest that the inhabitants of Iron Age central Italy were already genetically close to the modern populations of the center and south of the country, with no sign of recent large-scale migration or population replacement. A Pelignian living in the centuries before the common era would have been broadly similar, in genetic terms, to a present-day inhabitant of Abruzzo or the neighboring regions. Their distinctiveness lay above all in culture, language, and politics rather than in ancestry.

A discovery shadowed by controversy

The Superintendence issued its statement partly in response to a public debate that had grown around the site in recent weeks. The work at Case Pente forms part of the authorization process for a Snam gas compression station, and the excavation, spread across roughly twelve hectares, is one of the largest preventive archaeology operations carried out in Abruzzo in recent years. When the project began, the area carried no archaeological protection, and what little was known came mainly from chance nineteenth-century finds.

Local activists, including a climate coalition campaigning against the plant, have argued that the construction has come at the cost of important remains, pointing in particular to a gravelled Roman road that was uncovered during the dig and then, they say, covered over as building work advanced. Critics have suggested the road may have connected Corfinium and Sulmo toward the interior of Samnium, and have linked the choices made at the site to the pressure of construction deadlines tied to substantial European recovery funding. The Superintendence, for its part, maintains that all operations were carried out lawfully and under its direct responsibility, that every find was documented, studied, and given the necessary protection, and that the most significant structures will be conserved and opened to the public.

Source: Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di L’Aquila e Teramo, press release of 26 June 2026.

Archaeologists uncovered 82 pit houses believed to have served as places where people lived and worked. Credit: Moesgaard Museum

The Vikings are most often remembered as fearsome seaborne raiders, willing to burn and plunder their way across Europe. A newly excavated site in Denmark tells a very different story, one of skilled labor, organized production, and international commerce.

Archaeologists from the Moesgaard Museum have uncovered the remains of a sophisticated textile production complex in Søften, a small town roughly six miles north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, on the Jutland peninsula. The find points to a community that was deeply embedded in a far-reaching trade network rather than an isolated outpost of plunderers.

A Site on an Industrial Scale

The settlement covers more than 100,000 square meters, over one million square feet, making it one of the largest Viking-era sites ever documented in Scandinavia. Archaeologists date the complex to the late Iron Age or early Viking Age, sometime between roughly 600 and 950 CE.

Excavators identified a dedicated area for processing flax, the plant fiber used to make linen, alongside more than 80 semi-buried pit houses that appear to have functioned as both workshops and living quarters. A single, larger residential structure was also found on the site, a detail researchers believe points to centralized oversight of resources and production by a single powerful figure.

Researchers believe this artifact may have been used in textile production. Credit: Moesgaard Museum

Spindles, Looms, and Silver

The ten-month excavation, which began in August 2025, yielded an extensive toolkit tied to cloth-making, including spindle whorls used to spin raw fiber into thread and loom weights used to keep threads taut during weaving. Alongside these textile tools, archaeologists also recovered silver coins, glass beads, pearls, pottery, a pair of scissors, a knife, and a key.

According to historian Kasper Andersen of the Moesgaard Museum, the scale of the operation indicates that Vikings were not simply disorganized, uncivilized hordes wandering Europe. Sustaining a production center like Søften, he notes, required a well-organized society with an established production line and access to a market well beyond the immediate area.

Researchers hope that future analysis, including carbon dating and pollen studies, will clarify exactly what kinds of textiles were being produced at the site.

Aarhus: A Hub of Trade and Power

During the Viking Age, generally dated from 793 to 1066 CE, Aarhus (then known as Aros) served as a royal and commercial center linking Scandinavia to wider trade routes. Archaeologists believe residents of surrounding villages and settlements, Søften among them, funneled their goods through the city to reach distant markets.

As Andersen put it, a production site of this magnitude cannot be explained by local demand alone; it has to be understood as part of a much larger international network.

A Neighboring Cemetery Adds Context

The discovery builds on other recent finds in the region. Last year, archaeologists uncovered a substantial Viking-era burial ground in the nearby village of Lisbjerg, just a few kilometers from both Aarhus and the Søften site. The cemetery contained 30 graves, some furnished with valuable goods such as pottery, coins, pearls, gold thread, and scissors, suggesting high social status. Other, simpler graves were also found, which researchers suspect may belong to enslaved individuals.

Investigators believe the cemetery is connected to a large estate discovered at Lisbjerg in the late 1980s, likely belonging to a nobleman, possibly an earl or steward, who served under Harald I, king of Denmark and parts of Norway from about 958 to 985 CE. Moesgaard Museum archaeologist Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg has suggested the estate’s owner likely held considerable economic, political, religious, and social influence.

In a separate find from 2024, an archaeology student using a metal detector discovered seven silver armbands in the nearby village of Elsted, later dated to around the ninth century CE. Such armbands may have been worn as jewelry, but are also thought to have circulated as a form of payment in Viking-era exchange.

A Fuller Picture of Viking Society

Taken together, the Søften textile complex, the Lisbjerg cemetery, and the Elsted armbands are reshaping how archaeologists understand daily life, social hierarchy, and economic activity in Viking-Age Denmark. Far from a society defined solely by raiding, the picture emerging from Aarhus and its surrounding settlements is one of organized industry, skilled craftsmanship, and integration into a commercial world that stretched well beyond Scandinavia’s shores.

Source: “Were Vikings Really ‘Uncivilized’ Barbarians? Large Textile-Production Site Discovered in Denmark Challenges That Stereotype.” Smithsonian Magazine, June 24, 2026. Additional findings courtesy of the Moesgaard Museum.

Rare Assyrian Stele Found at Nineveh’s Sun Gate. Credit: Iraq’s General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage

The stone monument dates to the seventh century BC and is linked to the reign of King Ashurbanipal, one of the last great rulers of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It was found on June 6 during restoration work at the gate, a major entrance in the eastern fortifications of ancient Nineveh, now within modern Mosul.

The discovery was announced by Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. According to Iraqi officials, the stele preserves relief imagery and cuneiform inscriptions connected with royal building projects in Nineveh and possibly elsewhere in the Assyrian Empire.

The full inscription has not yet been published or translated in detail. Even so, the monument already stands out as a major archaeological find. It links the final century of Assyrian imperial power with one of Nineveh’s most symbolic thresholds: the gate of Shamash, the sun god associated with justice, order, and divine authority.

A royal monument from the Assyrian capital

The newly discovered stele is a large stone monument, about 2 meters high and 1.55 meters wide. It was carved from Mosul marble, a local stone closely tied to the region’s ancient and modern architectural identity.

The front of the stele shows a relief of King Ashurbanipal. The back reportedly includes smaller images of two other Assyrian kings, along with cuneiform writing. Researchers believe the inscription records building activities carried out during Ashurbanipal’s reign, although specialists are still studying the text.

This kind of monument was part of the political language of Assyrian kingship. Royal inscriptions were created to preserve achievements, announce construction works, honor the gods, and project authority across generations.

In the Assyrian world, writing was not only a record. It was power carved into stone.

A stele placed near a major gate could speak to everyone entering or leaving the city: officials, soldiers, merchants, envoys, priests, workers, and foreign visitors. It marked the city as a royal space and the king as the builder, protector, and legitimate ruler of that space.

Rare Assyrian Stele Found at Nineveh’s Sun Gate. Credit: Iraq’s General Authority for Antiquities and Heritage

Ashurbanipal and the last great age of Assyria

Ashurbanipal ruled in the seventh century BC, during the final great phase of Assyrian power. He inherited an empire built by earlier kings such as Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon.

By his time, Assyria controlled or influenced enormous territories across the ancient Near East. Its armies had campaigned from Mesopotamia to the Levant and Egypt. Its capitals were filled with palaces, temples, libraries, administrative archives, reliefs, statues, gates, and monumental inscriptions.

Ashurbanipal is often remembered as both a warrior king and a patron of scholarship. His royal library at Nineveh preserved more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments, including literary, medical, ritual, astronomical, lexical, administrative, and divinatory texts. Among the most famous works preserved there is the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This combination of violence, empire, scholarship, and urban display makes Ashurbanipal one of the most complex rulers of the ancient world.

The newly found stele belongs to this same world. It is not only a royal image. It is part of a larger system in which kingship, architecture, writing, religion, and urban order were tied together.

Aerial Photo of the Shamash Gate from the east. Credit: Cambridge.org

The Shamash Gate

The stele was found at the Shamash Gate, one of the major gates of ancient Nineveh.

The gate stood on the eastern side of the city and controlled movement along the road toward Arbela, modern Erbil. This made it strategically important. It was part of Nineveh’s defensive system, but it also served as a ceremonial and symbolic entrance into the imperial capital.

The name Bab Shamash means “Gate of Shamash.” Shamash was the Mesopotamian sun god, strongly associated with justice, truth, judgment, and the lawful order of the world.

That connection is important. A city gate was a place of movement, control, visibility, and authority. Placing royal imagery and inscriptions near a gate named for the god of justice created a powerful message: the city’s defenses, roads, royal works, and public order all stood under divine witness.

The gate was therefore more than a military structure. It was an architectural statement about power.

A threshold between road and empire

Ancient city gates were practical, but they were also deeply symbolic.

They controlled access. They shaped traffic. They protected the settlement. They framed the first impression of the city. They could also carry names, inscriptions, reliefs, divine associations, and ritual meaning.

The Shamash Gate was one of Nineveh’s great eastern thresholds. From the outside, travelers approached from the direction of Arbela. From inside, the route led toward the city’s monumental center, including royal and sacred zones.

A stele placed in this setting would have belonged to a space of transition. It stood between outside and inside, road and city, visitor and king, ordinary movement and imperial ideology.

This is why the discovery is so important. The stele was not found in isolation. It was found at a charged urban location where architecture, movement, and royal authority met.

Nineveh under Sennacherib

The story of the Shamash Gate begins before Ashurbanipal.

Nineveh became a major imperial capital under King Sennacherib, who ruled from 705 to 681 BC. He transformed the city into one of the largest and most impressive capitals of the ancient Near East.

Sennacherib expanded the city, built new walls, improved water systems, constructed palaces, and reshaped Nineveh as a monumental seat of Assyrian power. His famous “Palace Without Rival” was decorated with carved reliefs showing campaigns, royal ceremonies, landscapes, engineering works, and the king’s command over the empire.

The Shamash Gate formed part of this enlarged urban system. Scholarly work on the gate indicates that its construction was connected with Sennacherib’s expansion of Nineveh. Later work may have taken place under Ashurbanipal or earlier successors.

The new stele therefore appears in a gate complex that had already carried royal meaning for generations.

Relief of Ashurbanipal hunting a Mesopotamian lion, from the Northern Palace in Nineveh, as seen at the British Museum

Ashurbanipal at the gate

If the stele records Ashurbanipal’s building works, it would add a new layer to the history of the Shamash Gate and the wider city.

Royal inscriptions often described construction as an act of piety and legitimacy. A king rebuilt walls, restored gates, strengthened temples, improved roads, and made the city worthy of the gods. These acts were political, but they were also religious.

Ashurbanipal’s image on the stele suggests that the monument was intended to place his authority into the architectural fabric of Nineveh.

The presence of other royal figures on the back may indicate dynastic memory or a connection between Ashurbanipal and earlier kings. Until the inscription is fully translated, this remains open.

Still, the basic message is clear: the stele belongs to the Assyrian tradition of monumental royal self-presentation. It turned stone, image, and text into a permanent record of kingship.

Cuneiform as imperial memory

The cuneiform text is one of the most important parts of the discovery.

Assyrian royal inscriptions were written in Akkadian using the cuneiform script, a writing system made from wedge-shaped signs. These texts could be carved on stone, written on clay, stamped on bricks, or inscribed on cylinders and prisms.

They often followed established formulas. The king named himself, listed his titles, invoked gods, described construction projects, recorded military achievements, and asked future rulers to preserve the monument.

The new stele may belong to this tradition. Reports suggest that its text concerns building projects in Nineveh and across the empire.

If the inscription is well preserved, it could provide valuable details: the exact royal names, the works described, the language used, the building sequence, and the purpose of placing the monument at the gate.

For now, the text remains the key unanswered part of the discovery.

The final century of the Assyrian Empire

The date of the stele places it in a dramatic period.

In the seventh century BC, Nineveh was one of the most powerful cities in the world. It was the political center of a huge empire, the home of kings, administrators, scribes, priests, soldiers, artisans, and captives from across the Near East.

But this was also the final century of Assyrian rule.

After Ashurbanipal’s reign, Assyria entered a period of political instability, succession struggle, and military pressure. In 612 BC, Nineveh fell to a coalition that included Babylonian and Median forces. The city was violently destroyed, and Assyrian imperial power collapsed soon afterward.

This gives the newly discovered stele a special historical position. It belongs to the late imperial world shortly before its fall.

It preserves the confidence of a royal system that still spoke in the language of construction, divine order, and imperial achievement, even as the empire moved toward crisis.

The walls of Nineveh at the time of Ashurbanipal. 645–640 BC. Credit: British Museum BM 124938

The fall of Nineveh

The destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC was one of the major turning points in ancient Near Eastern history.

The city’s fall ended the dominance of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which had shaped the region for centuries through warfare, deportation, administration, monumental building, and imperial ideology.

Archaeological work at the Shamash Gate has revealed evidence connected with this destruction. Recent research has shown that the gate preserves traces of catastrophic episodes separated by more than 2,600 years: the ancient destruction of Nineveh and the modern destruction connected with ISIS occupation and the battle for Mosul.

This makes the Shamash Gate a rare archaeological location. It holds the physical record of two periods of violence, one ancient and one modern.

The new stele enters that story as a monument of royal ambition found within a landscape scarred by collapse and recovery.

Damage under ISIS

The Shamash Gate suffered major damage during the Islamic State occupation of Mosul between 2014 and 2017.

Archaeological research has documented how the gate was converted into a defensive position. Tunnels were cut through its foundations and superstructure. Some stone elements, including alabaster and limestone orthostats, were damaged or destroyed.

The gate’s modern history is therefore inseparable from the wider destruction of cultural heritage in Mosul and Nineveh during that period. Parts of Nineveh’s walls, gates, and monuments were attacked. The Mosul Museum was also heavily damaged.

The discovery of the stele during restoration work gives the find a powerful modern context. It was uncovered in the process of recovering a site that had itself become a battlefield.

Restoration at the Shamash Gate

Work at the Shamash Gate has continued through Iraqi and international collaboration.

The project has involved documentation, mapping, damage assessment, tunnel stabilization, excavation, conservation, and plans for future public presentation. The University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures has been involved through the Nineveh East Archaeological Project, working with Iraqi authorities and international partners.

Earlier work showed that the gate’s core structure survived despite severe damage. Stabilization of the tunnels was essential because they threatened the integrity of the ancient gate complex.

The new stele was found during this wider effort. That makes the discovery part of a larger story of rescue archaeology and cultural restoration.

At Nineveh, conservation is not only about preserving stone. It is about returning a damaged ancient landscape to the people of Mosul and Iraq.

A gate with a long excavation history

The Shamash Gate has attracted archaeological attention for nearly two centuries.

In the mid-19th century, Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam investigated parts of Nineveh and its gates. Their work brought many Assyrian monuments to European museums, but it also belonged to an era of colonial excavation practices that often prioritized the removal of spectacular objects.

In the 1960s, Iraqi archaeologists carried out more systematic work at the Shamash Gate. They excavated parts of the structure and undertook reconstruction, including the restoration of sections of the outer wall and the gate’s massive mudbrick form.

Modern work has returned to the site with different priorities: stabilization, documentation, conservation, local heritage recovery, and careful archaeological recording.

The new stele therefore emerges from a place with a long and complicated archaeological biography.

Mosul marble and local material identity

The stele was carved from Mosul marble.

This detail connects the object to the landscape around Nineveh. Stone was not simply a neutral material in Assyrian architecture. It carried local identity, durability, and visual authority.

Assyrian palaces and gates used carved stone slabs, orthostats, inscriptions, and reliefs to turn buildings into historical and ideological statements. Walls were not passive surfaces. They were places where kings told stories about conquest, construction, divine support, and world order.

The newly discovered stele belongs to this same tradition of monumental stone communication.

Its material, size, and placement all suggest that it was meant to endure.

The royal image

The figure of Ashurbanipal on the front of the stele would have been central to its message.

Assyrian royal images were highly controlled. Kings were shown with symbols of power, authority, piety, and command. Their bodies, clothing, gestures, weapons, and posture communicated status.

A royal relief at a gate created a direct visual encounter between the king and anyone passing through that space. Even if the viewer could not read cuneiform, the image carried authority.

The stele’s combination of image and text allowed it to speak on two levels. The relief communicated royal presence. The inscription preserved royal memory.

Together, they made Ashurbanipal visible at one of Nineveh’s most important entrances.

The god Shamash and royal justice

The gate’s association with Shamash gives the discovery another symbolic layer.

Shamash was the sun god, but also a god of justice, truth, and judgment. In Mesopotamian thought, sunlight could reveal what was hidden. The sun’s daily journey across the sky made Shamash a divine witness to human conduct, legal order, and royal decision-making.

Kings often linked themselves with divine justice. A ruler who built or restored a city gate under the name of Shamash could present his work as part of a larger cosmic order.

This does not mean the stele was only religious. Assyrian kingship did not separate politics, religion, and urban construction in a modern way. A royal building inscription could be a political document, a sacred dedication, and a public display at the same time.

At the Sun Gate, those meanings came together naturally.

A monument waiting to be read

The most important work now belongs to epigraphers and conservators.

The inscription must be cleaned, documented, photographed, drawn, compared, translated, and published. Scholars will examine the script, grammar, royal titles, formulae, divine references, and any unusual historical details.

They will also compare the stele with other Ashurbanipal inscriptions, including building records from Nineveh and other Assyrian sites.

The results could clarify whether the monument refers specifically to the Shamash Gate, to a wider building program, or to another royal project. It may also help researchers understand how Ashurbanipal framed his role in maintaining Nineveh late in Assyrian imperial history.

Until that work is complete, the stele remains partly silent.

But even before full publication, its location, date, imagery, and scale make it one of the most important recent finds from Nineveh.

Future display in Mosul

Iraqi authorities have not yet made a final decision about where the stele will be displayed.

Reports suggest that it may remain near the Shamash Gate or eventually be shown in the planned Mosul Civilization Museum. Either option would carry strong meaning.

Keeping the stele near the gate would preserve the connection between monument and original setting. Displaying it in a museum would allow controlled conservation, public interpretation, and wider access.

In both cases, the find belongs to Iraq’s cultural heritage and to the recovering historical identity of Mosul.

After years of destruction, the discovery of a royal Assyrian monument at Nineveh has become part of a broader cultural resurgence.

Nineveh after destruction

The story of the new stele is not only ancient.

It is also modern.

The monument was found at a gate damaged by ISIS, in a city deeply affected by war, during restoration work designed to preserve a heritage landscape for the future.

That context gives the discovery a rare emotional force. A stone monument created to record royal building works in the seventh century BC was uncovered while modern teams were repairing damage from the 21st century.

Nineveh’s ancient and modern histories meet at the Shamash Gate.

The gate witnessed Assyrian power, imperial collapse, 19th-century excavation, 20th-century reconstruction, modern conflict, and now recovery. The stele adds another layer to that long sequence.

A new royal voice from the Sun Gate

The discovery at Bab Shamash adds a remarkable new object to the archaeology of Nineveh.

It brings together Ashurbanipal, cuneiform writing, royal building, Shamash, the eastern road to Arbela, the memory of the Assyrian capital, and the modern restoration of Mosul’s heritage.

The stele’s full text is still awaiting detailed publication. Its historical value will grow once specialists complete the reading.

For now, the monument already tells a powerful story.

It shows that Nineveh still holds major evidence beneath its damaged stones. It shows that restoration can become discovery. It shows that the gates of an ancient empire can still speak, even after conquest, collapse, excavation, destruction, and rebuilding.

At the Sun Gate of Nineveh, a royal message from Ashurbanipal’s world has returned to the surface.

Sources

1. Greek Reporter. (2026, June 26). Rare Assyrian Stele Found at Ancient Nineveh’s Sun Gate in Iraq. Greek Reporter.

2. The National. (2026, June 25). Rare stele of Assyrian king who reigned 2,600 years ago unearthed in Iraq’s Nineveh. The National.

3. Arkeonews. (2026, June 25). 2,700-Year-Old Assyrian Stele Discovered at Nineveh’s Ancient Sun Gate. Arkeonews.

4. SyriacPress. (2026, June 24). New ancient Assyrian stele discovered at Bab Shamash, Iraq. SyriacPress.

5. Harrison, T., AbuJayyab, K., Batiuk, S., Gibbon, E., Marchesi, G., Evans, B., Shafiq, R., & Fonti, A. (2026). The Shamash Gate, Nineveh: A Window into Two Episodes of Instability. Iraq, 87, 163-183. DOI: 10.1017/irq.2026.10042

6. Harrison, T. P., & Abu Jayyab, K. (2024). Nineveh Shamash Gate Project. Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago, Annual Report 2023-2024.

7. British Museum. (2018). A library fit for a king. British Museum.

8. British Museum. What was Ashurbanipal’s Library? British Museum Research Project.

View of excavations. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities وزارة السياحة والآثار

The discovery was announced by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities after excavations by an Egyptian archaeological mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The work took place at the temple site in the village of El-Qasr, in Bahariya Oasis, about 335 kilometers west of Giza.

The temple itself dates mainly to Egypt’s 26th Dynasty, around 2,600 years ago. But new finds show that the site’s sacred and architectural history reaches much further back, into the New Kingdom, around 800 years before the Saite temple took shape.

A new phase of excavation at Qasr El-Qadim

The latest season of excavation revealed additional architectural remains belonging to the Temple of Qasr El-Qadim. Among the most important finds are the remains of a sandstone room and several inscribed stone blocks.

Some of these blocks carry the names and titles of King Psamtik I, the founder of Egypt’s 26th Dynasty. His reign marked the beginning of the Saite revival, a period when Egypt regained political strength and placed renewed emphasis on traditional religious and artistic forms.

Another view of the newly uncovered structures. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

These inscribed blocks are valuable because they help archaeologists reconstruct the temple’s plan, building history, and royal patronage. Rather than seeing the temple as a single-phase monument, the new finds support a longer and more layered story of construction, reuse, and development.

Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, described the discovery as new evidence for the historical and archaeological importance of Qasr El-Qadim. He emphasized the site’s role as a religious and administrative center across successive periods of Egyptian history.

A temple from the Saite period

The main temple at Qasr El-Qadim belongs to the 26th Dynasty, also known as the Saite period. This dynasty ruled Egypt from the 7th to the 6th century BC, a time of political renewal after earlier instability.

According to the excavation results, the temple began during the reign of Psamtik I and continued to develop under later kings, including Wahibre, known to Greek writers as Apries, and Ahmose II, known as Amasis.

This long royal sequence shows that the temple held significance beyond a single reign. It remained important enough to receive additions, decoration, and architectural attention over several generations.

Earlier work by the mission had already uncovered major parts of the temple, including its principal hypostyle hall. That hall contains 16 sandstone columns, along with connected rooms and chapels. Remains of scenes and hieroglyphic texts preserve the names of Egyptian deities, especially Amun-Ra, Amunet, and Khonsu.

These divine names place the temple within the wider religious landscape of Egyptian oasis cults, where forms of Amun worship played an important role.

The ancient capital of Bahariya

Qasr El-Qadim is one of the most important archaeological sites in Bahariya Oasis. During the Late Period, it appears to have functioned as an old capital or central settlement of the oasis.

This location was strategically important. Bahariya formed part of Egypt’s Western Desert network, linking the Nile Valley with desert routes, oasis communities, agricultural zones, and trade paths toward Libya and other western regions.

The oasis landscape was productive because underground water made agriculture possible. Date palms, olives, grapes, cereals, and other crops could be grown in a desert environment that would otherwise have been difficult to sustain.

The new finds confirm that Qasr El-Qadim was deeply connected with both religion and administration. The presence of royal inscriptions, temple architecture, industrial installations, storage zones, and written documents suggests a complex settlement with many functions.

Evidence from 800 years earlier

One of the most important aspects of the discovery is the evidence for activity before the 26th Dynasty temple.

The mission found a stone stela dating to the reign of Amenhotep II of the 18th Dynasty. Amenhotep II ruled during the New Kingdom, many centuries before Psamtik I. The team also recovered archaeological pieces connected with Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty.

A stele uncovered during the excavations. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

These finds show that the site had religious and architectural importance long before the Saite-period temple was built. The title of the discovery — that Bahariya was sacred 800 years before its temple — reflects this New Kingdom evidence.

This is significant because it changes the way the site can be understood. Qasr El-Qadim was part of a long sacred landscape. The 26th Dynasty temple may have formalized, enlarged, or monumentalized an older religious tradition already present in the oasis.

A temple developed across many reigns

The discoveries support the idea that the Temple of Qasr El-Qadim was a multi-phase project. It began in one period, expanded in another, and continued to attract use and modification over time.

The stela of Amenhotep II and the fragments from Ramesses II point to earlier New Kingdom interest. The inscribed blocks of Psamtik I show strong 26th Dynasty royal involvement. Later architectural elements and finds show continued occupation into the Greek and Roman periods.

This long sequence gives researchers a rare opportunity to study continuity in an oasis setting. Instead of a short-lived monument, the temple appears as part of a sacred center that remained meaningful across changing dynasties, political systems, and cultural phases.

Dr. Hussein Abdel-Basir, an Egyptian archaeologist, described the discovery as important for redrawing the religious and administrative map of Bahariya during the Late Period. He noted that the finds show Bahariya as an active part of the Egyptian state system, rather than an isolated desert settlement.

Later Greek and Roman activity

The site also preserves strong evidence for continued use after the Pharaonic period.

Archaeologists found ostraca, as well as Coptic and Latin texts, showing that Qasr El-Qadim remained active into the Greek and Roman periods and as late as the 4th and 5th centuries AD.

The team also identified industrial installations, including basins used for producing wine and oils, along with storage areas. These features show that the site had an economic life alongside its religious and administrative role.

During the Roman period, Egypt’s oases were important agricultural zones. Wine, olive oil, dates, and other products could be produced in desert settlements and connected to wider provincial networks. The evidence from Qasr El-Qadim fits this pattern closely.

The site therefore reveals a shift in function across time. A Pharaonic sacred center continued to be used in later periods, while parts of the complex or surrounding area became connected with production, storage, and daily economic activity.

Wine, oil, and oasis economy

The discovery of wine and oil production installations is especially important because it shows how Bahariya functioned as a productive oasis.

In desert environments, water is the foundation of settlement. Where springs and underground water were available, communities could grow crops, maintain orchards, raise animals, and support religious or administrative centers.

Wine and oil production required organized agriculture, specialized installations, storage vessels, labor, and distribution. Their presence at Qasr El-Qadim suggests that the site was connected with a wider economic system.

This also helps explain why the oasis mattered to the Egyptian state. Bahariya was valuable as a religious center, but also as an agricultural and logistical zone in the Western Desert.

Earlier discoveries at the temple

The current excavation builds on years of earlier work. The mission has been active at Qasr El-Qadim since 2014, and previous seasons have already revealed major parts of the temple.

One earlier discovery was especially important: a metal seal or stamp found inside the temple that preserved the ancient name of the sanctuary, “Ib-Set,” meaning “Seat of the Heart” or “Place of the Heart.”

The team also recovered a group of religious and artistic objects, including a statue of the god Thoth, a bronze figure of Osiris, a bronze amulet of Ra-Horakhty, the head of a statue representing a priest or prominent official, and a chapel connected with a local governor and priest named Pa-di-Iza.

These finds show that the temple was not just an architectural shell. It contained cult objects, votive material, elite religious imagery, and evidence for local officials tied to the administration of the oasis.

Bahariya as a religious landscape

The new discoveries also strengthen the idea that Bahariya was part of a wider sacred geography.

Egyptian oases were often connected with Amun worship, local forms of divine authority, and desert routes. Amun and related deities appear in several oasis contexts, linking local cults with major religious traditions of the Nile Valley.

At Qasr El-Qadim, the presence of Amun-Ra, Amunet, and Khonsu in temple inscriptions suggests a religious program connected with the Theban divine world, adapted to an oasis setting.

The discovery of earlier New Kingdom material adds depth to this picture. It suggests that official or religious interest in Bahariya began long before the Saite rulers developed the monumental temple.

A site with many lives

Qasr El-Qadim now appears as a site with many historical lives.

In the New Kingdom, it was already connected with sacred activity. In the 26th Dynasty, it became the location of a major temple linked with royal patronage. In the Greek and Roman periods, it continued to function within a changing oasis economy. By the 4th and 5th centuries AD, written material in Coptic and Latin shows the site remained part of a living cultural landscape.

The new excavations give archaeologists more than isolated objects. They reveal continuity across almost two thousand years.

Bahariya Oasis was a sacred center, a regional capital, an agricultural producer, and a desert crossroads. The new finds at Qasr El-Qadim bring those roles into sharper focus and show how much of the oasis’s history still remains beneath the sand.

Support Independent Ancient Content :
Your support helps me create more archaeology posts, articles, and mini history videos:

Buy Me a Coffee

Detail of the Roman lime kiln discovered in Hungary. Credit: Szent István Király Museum.

The kiln was built into the natural slope of a hill, using the landscape itself as part of the structure. Its unusually good preservation makes it one of the most important Roman industrial finds of its type in Hungary in more than a century.

The excavation was carried out by the National Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian National Museum in cooperation with the Szent István Király Museum. The fieldwork was led by archaeologist Alexandra Kiss, with specialists and volunteers participating in the rescue excavation.

Archaeology ahead of motorway expansion

The discovery came to light during spring excavations linked to the widening of the M1 motorway. Large infrastructure projects often reveal archaeological remains hidden beneath modern transport corridors, and this work near Bicske exposed traces of human activity from several periods.

The area had already produced important finds in previous investigations. Earlier work identified part of an early Roman settlement, remains of an Árpád-period settlement, and three Roman-period child burials. The latest excavation added more features from the early Roman and late Árpád periods, along with storage pits and sunken structures from the late medieval and Ottoman periods.

This long sequence shows that the landscape near Bicske was used repeatedly across many centuries. People returned to the same area in Roman, medieval, and Ottoman times, making use of its terrain, resources, and position.

Within this multi-period archaeological landscape, the Roman lime kiln stands out as the most significant scientific discovery.

View of the Roman lime kiln uncovered in Hungary. Credit: Szent István Király Museum.

A Roman kiln built into a hillside

The kiln was constructed by taking advantage of the natural slope of a hill. This was a practical and efficient choice. By setting the structure into the hillside, the builders could use the ground itself for support, insulation, and access.

The circular kiln measured about 230 centimeters in diameter and reached a depth of approximately three meters. It was built from mudbrick, and its walls were reinforced with clay plaster. This type of construction would have helped the kiln withstand repeated heating during the lime-burning process.

Archaeologists also identified a firing opening facing west. This opening would have allowed fuel to be added and airflow to be controlled. Around the lower part of the interior wall, a ledge ran in a circular line. This ledge probably supported the limestone that was placed inside for firing.

The structure’s lower section survived in unusually good condition. A thin layer of lime still remained on the floor and side walls, directly confirming the kiln’s original function.

How Roman lime production worked

Lime was one of the essential materials of Roman construction. To make it, limestone was heated at very high temperatures in a kiln. This process produced quicklime, which could then be mixed with water and other materials to create mortar, plaster, and concrete.

Without lime, Roman construction would have looked very different. It was used in walls, floors, baths, aqueducts, villas, military buildings, urban infrastructure, and decorative plasterwork. In provinces such as Pannonia, lime production supported both large-scale public building and local settlement construction.

The Bicske kiln therefore represents more than a single industrial installation. It belongs to the practical infrastructure that made Roman building possible. Behind every stone building, bathhouse, road station, villa, or military installation, there had to be systems for producing and transporting construction materials.

Finds that helped date the kiln

The lower fill of the kiln contained fragments that helped archaeologists date the structure. Among them were pieces of Roman tegula roof tiles and fragments of a grey ceramic bowl with a distinctive S-shaped profile.

Tegulae were flat Roman roof tiles used widely across the empire. Their presence in the kiln fill helps connect the structure to Roman-period activity at the site. The ceramic fragments also provide chronological evidence, helping specialists place the kiln within the early Roman occupation of the area.

These finds are especially valuable because industrial structures are sometimes difficult to date precisely. When datable pottery, tiles, or associated settlement remains are found in or around a kiln, they give archaeologists a clearer chronological framework.

Another view of the excavation area. Credit: Szent István Király Museum.

An exceptional state of preservation

The kiln is considered nationally significant because of its condition. According to the museum’s announcement, a Roman lime kiln preserved to a comparable degree had last been found in Hungary in the early 20th century, during Bálint Kuzsinszky’s excavations at Aquincum.

That comparison is important. Aquincum, in present-day Budapest, was one of the major Roman centers of Pannonia. It included a military camp, a civilian town, public baths, houses, workshops, and urban infrastructure. A lime kiln comparable to the Bicske example was therefore associated with one of the province’s best-known Roman sites.

The Bicske discovery shows that high-quality evidence for Roman industry can also survive outside major urban centers. Rural and roadside landscapes supported the Roman building economy in ways that are often less visible than monumental architecture.

Roman Pannonia and local industry

Bicske lies in Transdanubia, within the territory that once formed part of Roman Pannonia. This region was important to the empire because of its position near the Danube frontier and its network of roads, settlements, military sites, villas, farms, and production zones.

Roman power in Pannonia depended not only on forts and cities, but also on the everyday systems that supplied them. Kilns, quarries, workshops, farms, and storage facilities formed the economic background of provincial life.

The lime kiln near Bicske fits this broader picture. It shows that Roman construction material was being produced locally, probably to support nearby buildings or settlement activity. The kiln may have served a local community, a rural estate, road-related construction, or a wider building project in the region.

The natural hillside setting also suggests practical knowledge. Roman builders and craftspeople adapted their industrial installations to the landscape, choosing locations that made production easier and more efficient.

A landscape used from Rome to the Ottoman period

Although the lime kiln is the most important find, the wider excavation revealed a dense archaeological landscape with remains from several eras.

The early Roman features show activity during the period when Pannonia was integrated into the Roman Empire. The Árpád-period settlement remains point to medieval occupation after the foundation of the Hungarian kingdom. Later storage pits and sunken features from the late medieval and Ottoman periods show that the area continued to be used long after the Roman kiln had gone out of operation.

This continuity matters because it shows how certain landscapes remained attractive across very different historical periods. People settled, stored food, worked, built, and buried their dead in the same general area for centuries.

The Bicske site therefore offers more than a single Roman discovery. It preserves a layered history of occupation, production, and land use.

The significance of the kiln

The Bicske lime kiln is important because Roman industrial archaeology often receives less attention than temples, villas, forts, mosaics, or inscriptions. Yet industrial features are essential for understanding how the Roman world functioned.

A kiln like this shows the technical side of empire. It reveals how raw materials were transformed into building materials. It shows how rural production supported architecture and infrastructure. It also helps archaeologists reconstruct the labor, planning, and resource management behind Roman construction.

The preserved lime layer, firing opening, internal ledge, mudbrick walls, and clay plaster all provide direct evidence for how the kiln was built and used. These details make the structure a rare and valuable case study for Roman lime production in Hungary.

Rescue archaeology and modern development

The discovery also highlights the importance of rescue archaeology. Modern road construction can damage archaeological remains, but when properly monitored, it can also bring unknown sites to light.

In this case, work connected with the M1 motorway revealed a complex archaeological zone with Roman, medieval, and Ottoman-period remains. The lime kiln is the clearest and most unusual feature, but it is part of a much wider historical landscape.

The excavation near Bicske demonstrates how modern infrastructure and heritage protection can intersect. Beneath a present-day transport corridor, archaeologists uncovered traces of an older world of roads, settlements, production, and building technology.

A rare window into Roman construction

The Roman lime kiln near Bicske gives researchers a rare opportunity to study an industrial structure preserved in remarkable condition. Its hillside construction, circular plan, three-meter depth, firing opening, internal ledge, and surviving lime traces all help reconstruct the process of Roman lime burning.

The find adds an important new piece to the archaeology of Pannonia. It shows that the building materials behind Roman architecture were produced through carefully planned local systems, not simply imported or improvised.

For Roman Hungary, the discovery is especially valuable because comparable lime kilns in this condition are extremely rare. More than a century after the Aquincum example, the Bicske kiln now provides another major reference point for studying Roman industrial technology in the region.

What was uncovered beside a modern motorway is therefore much more than a kiln. It is evidence of the technical knowledge, labor, and material infrastructure that supported life in a Roman province.

Support Independent Ancient Content :

Your support helps me create more archaeology posts, articles, and mini history videos:

Buy Me A Coffee

Sources:

1. Szent István Király Museum / Archaeological Heritage Protection and Scientific Department published the primary announcement on Facebook, describing the Roman lime kiln near Bicske, its hillside construction, circular form, 230 cm diameter, roughly 3 m depth, mudbrick walls, clay plaster, west-facing firing opening, internal ledge, preserved lime layer, and associated Roman finds.

   Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Rare River God Mosaic Unearthed in Ancient Aspendos. Credit: Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism

The mosaic was found during excavations on Theatre Street, the route that connected the acropolis of Aspendos with its famous Roman theatre. The newly exposed pavement belongs to a large mosaic-decorated architectural structure located in the eastern square of the street, between the square and the eastern city walls.

At the center of the composition is a youthful figure identified as “Young Eurymedon,” the divine personification of the Eurymedon River, today known as the Köprüçay River. In antiquity, this river was central to the life of Aspendos, supporting agriculture, trade, water supply, and the prosperity of the surrounding landscape.

A major discovery on Theatre Street

The discovery was announced by Türkiye’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy stated that the find is scientifically important because it provides new evidence for Roman-period Anatolian mosaic art.

The structure containing the mosaic measures approximately 6 by 25 meters. Excavation has so far been completed in an area of about 6 by 7.5 meters, but the mosaic pavement continues into sections that remain unexcavated. This suggests that the visible part may represent only a portion of a larger decorated floor.

The building was uncovered in the eastern square of Theatre Street, one of the important routes inside Aspendos. This street linked the city’s acropolis with the theatre, the monument for which Aspendos is best known today.

Initial assessments suggest that the building was constructed in the early 3rd century AD, probably as a pool or water-related structure. The presence of a river god mosaic in such a setting is highly significant. The imagery of flowing water, fish, reeds, and an amphora would have matched the function and atmosphere of a water installation.

Aerial view of the place of discovery. Credit: Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism

A structure changed after the AD 262 earthquake

Archaeologists believe the building went through later alterations. After the earthquake of AD 262, the structure appears to have been divided by interior walls and converted into separate spaces.

This detail gives the discovery an urban-historical dimension. The mosaic does not only show artistic taste; it also records how Aspendos changed after a major seismic event. Buildings that originally served one purpose could be reorganized, subdivided, and reused as the city adapted to new conditions.

The mosaic therefore belongs to more than one phase of the building’s history. Its original design points to a 3rd-century water-related structure, while later architectural changes reveal how the space was modified after damage or urban restructuring.

Two panels: geometry and divine imagery

The exposed mosaic floor consists of two main panels. One panel contains geometric decoration, while the other carries the figurative scene that makes the find exceptional.

The figurative panel shows the youthful river god Eurymedon. Based on iconographic features and comparisons with similar examples, specialists identify the figure as the local river deity of Aspendos.

In Greco-Roman art, rivers were often represented as divine beings. They could appear reclining beside flowing water, leaning on vessels, holding reeds, or surrounded by aquatic imagery. The Aspendos mosaic follows this broader artistic language but gives it a local identity by representing Eurymedon, the river that sustained the city.

Rare River God Mosaic Unearthed in Ancient Aspendos. Credit: Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism

The “Young Eurymedon”

The central figure is shown with reed leaves on his head and in his hand. These details connect him directly with river vegetation and wetland imagery. He is also shown leaning against an amphora from which water flows, a familiar symbol in classical art for the source or abundance of a river.

Fish figures accompany the scene, swimming through the water around the god. These fish add movement and help complete the aquatic setting. Together, the reeds, amphora, flowing water, and fish create a composition built around fertility, abundance, and the life-giving power of water.

The fact that Eurymedon is shown as a young figure is also interesting. Many river gods in Greco-Roman art appear as mature or bearded male figures. A youthful representation gives the Aspendos mosaic a more dynamic visual character and may emphasize renewal, flow, and vitality.

The Importance of the Eurymedon River

The river was essential to Aspendos. The ancient city stood in Pamphylia, in what is now Antalya Province, and was positioned near the Eurymedon River. Its location gave it access to fertile land, inland routes, and a river harbor connected to the Mediterranean.

The Aspendos Project of Ankara University describes the ancient city as closely tied to the Eurymedon and to the surrounding resource-rich territory. Ancient written sources and archaeological evidence point to Aspendos as a prosperous city whose economy was supported by agriculture, production, and trade through the river harbor.

This context makes the mosaic especially meaningful. The river god was not an abstract mythological figure. For the inhabitants of Aspendos, Eurymedon represented a real waterway that helped sustain the city’s wealth, landscape, and daily life.

Craftsmanship and small tesserae

Minister Ersoy emphasized the quality of the mosaic’s craftsmanship. The work stands out for its fine color transitions, rich detail, and the use of small tesserae. Tesserae are the tiny stone, glass, or ceramic cubes used to build mosaic images.

The smaller the tesserae, the more subtle the visual effects can be. Skilled mosaicists could use them to create shading, texture, movement, and naturalistic transitions between colors. In the Aspendos mosaic, these technical features help bring the river god and surrounding aquatic scene to life.

The mosaic’s artistic quality suggests that Aspendos still possessed significant cultural and economic resources during the Roman period. Such a pavement required trained craftspeople, expensive materials, careful planning, and a patron or civic authority willing to fund a high-quality decorated structure.

A rare theme in mosaic art

The discovery is important because river god depictions are rare in mosaic art, especially when they appear in such a locally identifiable form. While personifications of rivers are known in Greco-Roman visual culture, the Aspendos example stands out because it appears to represent a specific river directly tied to the city itself.

This makes the mosaic valuable for both art history and local religious history. It shows how Roman-period communities in Anatolia could use shared classical imagery while adapting it to local geography and identity.

The figure of Eurymedon links myth, place, water, and civic memory. It transforms the city’s river into a divine presence, visible in a public or semi-public architectural space.

Aspendos beyond its famous theatre

Aspendos is internationally known for its Roman theatre, one of the best-preserved ancient theatres in the world. Built in the 2nd century AD during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, the theatre remains the city’s most famous monument.

But the new mosaic shows why Aspendos should be understood as more than a single monument. The city also had streets, squares, market buildings, water systems, houses, civic spaces, and a wider urban landscape that continued to develop across different periods.

The theatre and aqueducts have long attracted scholarly attention. The aqueducts, with their impressive siphon system, carried water from sources north of the city and helped support both Aspendos and the surrounding plain. Water, therefore, was a central part of the city’s infrastructure and identity.

The discovery of a river god mosaic fits this broader picture. It adds a visual and symbolic layer to what archaeology already shows: Aspendos was a city deeply connected to water.

Roman Anatolia and local identity

The mosaic also contributes to the study of Roman Anatolia. Roman-period cities in Asia Minor often combined imperial culture, Greek artistic traditions, local religious identities, and regional forms of self-representation.

Aspendos was part of this world. Its monuments show Roman architectural influence, but its cultural identity was also shaped by local geography, older traditions, and the economic life of Pamphylia.

The Eurymedon mosaic reflects that mixture. The artistic language is Greco-Roman, but the subject is local. The image communicates the importance of a specific river to a specific city.

This is why the discovery has scientific value. It helps researchers understand how local communities in Roman Anatolia expressed place, prosperity, and sacred landscape through mosaic art.

A discovery still in progress

Excavation of the structure is ongoing. Since only part of the mosaic has been exposed, further work may reveal additional panels, borders, inscriptions, architectural details, or construction phases.

Future study may clarify the building’s exact function, the full extent of the mosaic floor, the workshop traditions behind its production, and the relationship between the structure and Theatre Street.

For now, the visible evidence already points to a major discovery. A 3rd-century mosaic of Young Eurymedon, placed in a likely water-related building in the heart of ancient Aspendos, gives researchers a rare image of how the city represented the river that sustained it.

The mosaic brings together art, water, mythology, urban history, and local identity. It is both a work of craftsmanship and a statement about the life-giving power of the Eurymedon River in one of ancient Pamphylia’s most important cities.

SOURCES:

Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism

The stele at the moment of discovery. Credit: INAH.

The discovery was made by specialists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH, during a salvage archaeology project in the San Lucas residential development area. The remains are located near the archaeological zone of Campo Viejo, an area that has been under research and protection by the INAH Veracruz Center for more than two decades.

The newly discovered structures probably date to the Early Classic period, between AD 200 and 600. This places them more than 1,400 years in the past, in a period when societies across Mesoamerica were developing complex ceremonial centers, regional identities, and long-distance cultural contacts.

A discovery during salvage archaeology

The excavation took place in a private property of approximately 12 hectares intended for residential development. Because the project required a change in land use, the work was reviewed and authorized by INAH’s Council of Archaeology.

Once fieldwork began, archaeologists identified cultural remains that required detailed documentation and protection. The operation became a formal archaeological salvage project, with specialists recording the structures, recovering associated materials, and defining areas that will remain restricted because of their archaeological importance.

The fieldwork began in late 2025 and is expected to continue until mid-August 2026. Laboratory analysis of the recovered materials is expected to continue into February 2027.

The project involves an interdisciplinary team coordinated by archaeologists Alberto Vázquez Domínguez and Lino Espinoza García of the INAH Veracruz Center. Fieldwork has been carried out by archaeologists Mireya Moreno Aguirre, Erika Ramírez Córdoba, Jorge Ulises Mota Landa, Emmanuel Hernández Sánchez, and around 30 field workers.

According to INAH, the discovery forms part of a wider research program that has been carried out around Campo Viejo since 2000, focused on documenting, protecting, and preserving the archaeological heritage of the area.

The stele in situ at the location where it was discovered. Credit: INAH.

A civic-ceremonial structure from the Early Classic period

The central architectural find is a large platform, about 30 meters long and 12 meters wide. It was built with flagstones and carefully worked white limestone. The stone has a pale, gypsum-like texture, apparently produced intentionally, perhaps through a heating or firing process used to create a decorative finish for the walls.

This detail is one of the reasons the structure has drawn attention. The construction technique and visual treatment of the stone appear unusual for the region. Archaeologists have also identified ornamentation made up of lines or square-like figures, as well as circular stones placed on two of the platform’s flanks.

These decorative features have not been previously recorded in the local archaeological record. Their presence suggests that the builders were working within a distinctive architectural tradition, possibly connected to a local group with its own ceremonial style.

The structure is interpreted as civic-ceremonial in character. In Mesoamerican archaeology, such platforms often served as places for ritual activity, public gatherings, elite display, or community ceremonies. Further analysis will be needed to understand its exact function.

Preliminary drawing of Stele 2. Credit: Lino Espinoza.

A monolithic sculpture with a symbolic scene

Associated with the platform, archaeologists found a large monolithic sculpture. The piece measures 1.88 meters high, 1.47 meters wide at its broadest point, and 0.68 meters wide at its narrowest point. Its thickness ranges between 22 and 25 centimeters.

The stone bears carved imagery that appears to represent a symbolic or ceremonial event. Two elite figures are shown seated, wearing elaborate garments and ornaments. In the scene, they receive a fluid in a container from a divine entity positioned above them.

The image is especially important because it suggests a ritual exchange between human elites and a supernatural being. The fluid may represent a sacred substance, offering, blessing, or divine essence, though its meaning remains under study.

One of the seated figures appears to show possible Mayoid traits. This detail is important because it may point to wider cultural interaction across Mesoamerica. Veracruz, positioned along the Gulf Coast, was historically connected with many regions through exchange, migration, and shared ritual traditions.

At this stage, archaeologists are avoiding firm conclusions. The sculpture’s meaning, cultural affiliation, and iconographic parallels will require detailed study.

A local culture with Gulf Coast connections

The cultural identity of the builders remains one of the most important open questions.

The Totonac culture is often associated with parts of Veracruz, especially regions between the Cazones and Papaloapan rivers. However, specialists have indicated that the newly discovered remains do not currently show clear indicators that would allow them to be assigned to the Totonac tradition.

Instead, researchers propose that the structures may belong to a local culture with its own traits, while also sharing broader features with other groups of the Gulf Coast.

This interpretation is significant. It suggests that the ancient cultural landscape of central Veracruz was more diverse than a single ethnic or cultural label can explain. The site may reveal a local society that participated in wider Mesoamerican networks while maintaining distinctive architectural and ritual forms.

Offerings of maize, buried vessels, and greenstone

The archaeological team also recovered materials associated with the platform. These include charred maize remains, buried vessels, and a greenstone bead broken into four parts.

The charred maize appears to have been deposited as an offering. In Mesoamerica, maize was both a staple food and a sacred substance deeply tied to origin myths, agriculture, fertility, and political authority. Its placement near the ceremonial structure suggests ritual activity connected with the building or its use.

The buried vessels may also have formed part of offerings or dedicatory deposits. Such deposits were often placed during construction, renewal, abandonment, or important ceremonial events.

The fragmented greenstone bead is also significant. Greenstone materials were highly valued in Mesoamerica and were often connected with water, fertility, preciousness, and elite status. The fact that the bead was found broken into four pieces may have ritual significance, although laboratory analysis and contextual study will be needed before a firmer interpretation can be proposed.

All recovered materials will be studied in the laboratory. These analyses may help determine chronology, ritual use, diet, exchange networks, and the social practices of the group that built the complex.

Conservation and protection

Both the platform and the monolithic sculpture were found in good condition. However, each requires different conservation work.

The architectural structure will need restoration, consolidation, and maintenance. Because it is a large built feature exposed during excavation, stabilizing the stonework and protecting the decorated surfaces will be essential.

The monolithic sculpture has already received consolidating treatments. Archaeologists also removed soil deposits that could damage the surface or interfere with preservation.

The importance of the discovery has led researchers to define protected areas within the property. These zones will remain restricted because of the archaeological value of the remains.

The property owners have provided economic, technical, professional, and logistical support for the salvage project, including specialized tools, equipment, and field personnel.

Significance of the discovery

The Coatepec discovery is important because it adds new evidence for the Early Classic period in central Veracruz. The platform’s architectural features, the carved monolith, and the associated offerings all suggest a complex ceremonial setting.

The monolithic sculpture is especially valuable because its imagery appears to show an elite ritual involving a divine being. Scenes of supernatural communication, offerings, and sacred substances were central to many Mesoamerican visual traditions, but the specific form of this Veracruz monument appears unusual for the region.

The possible Mayoid features on one figure add another layer of interest. During the Classic period, Mesoamerican societies were connected through trade, diplomacy, pilgrimage, elite exchange, and shared religious imagery. The sculpture may eventually help clarify how central Veracruz communities interacted with distant cultural spheres.

The discovery also matters because it challenges overly simple cultural labels. Rather than assigning the find automatically to a well-known tradition, archaeologists are treating it as evidence for a local group with distinctive traits and Gulf Coast connections.

A new chapter for Campo Viejo and Coatepec

The site lies near Campo Viejo, a place already recognized for its archaeological importance. INAH Veracruz has been studying the area since 2000, and the new salvage work shows that the surrounding landscape still preserves major remains.

The find demonstrates the importance of archaeological monitoring during development projects. Without salvage work, the platform, monolith, and associated offerings could have been damaged or lost before proper documentation.

Instead, the project has produced a major discovery that may reshape understanding of ancient central Veracruz.

Fieldwork will continue through 2026, and laboratory analysis will extend into 2027. The next phase of research will focus on dating, materials, iconography, construction techniques, and cultural affiliation.

For now, the Coatepec platform and monolithic sculpture offer a rare view of a local Gulf Coast society more than 1,400 years ago: a society that built ceremonial architecture, carved complex divine imagery, deposited ritual offerings, and developed traditions that archaeologists are only beginning to understand.

The discovery was made after reports of illegal digging led the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma, under Italy’s Ministry of Culture, to intervene at the site.

What began as an emergency protection operation quickly became a major archaeological investigation. The excavation revealed part of a wealthy suburban villa, decorated with mosaics, painted plaster, an atrium with an impluvium, and a fragmentary marble statue that may depict Silvanus, the Roman god associated with fields, woodland, boundaries, and rural life.

The find is especially important because the villa lies in the landscape of ancient Lorium, an area connected with the imperial estates of the Antonine dynasty and associated with Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius.

A discovery triggered by illegal excavation

The story began when unauthorized excavations were reported on land belonging to the Lazio Region, within the agricultural estate of Castel di Guido. The area lies outside Rome’s historic center, in a rural landscape that still preserves important archaeological remains beneath fields, estates, and protected natural zones.

After the report, the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma acted with the Carabinieri’s Cultural Heritage Protection Unit to stop the clandestine activity, secure the area, and begin a proper archaeological investigation.

The illegal digging had already damaged part of the site. Mechanical excavation had cut into ancient remains, exposing structures and leaving disturbed soil around the area. Archaeologists then expanded the work in a controlled way, documenting the remains, protecting the structures, and turning the emergency into a scientific excavation.

Italy’s Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, described the operation as an example of rapid heritage protection. In only a few days, officials and the Carabinieri were able to stop the illegal work, safeguard the archaeological area, and bring to light the remains of a Roman villa from the imperial period.

A large suburban villa near the ancient Via Aurelia

The excavation revealed part of a large suburban villa, probably connected to the ancient Via Aurelia by a secondary road. The Via Aurelia was one of the major roads leading out of Rome toward the northwest, and the surrounding countryside was dotted with estates, villas, agricultural installations, and imperial properties.

The villa belongs to the wider territory of ancient Lorium. Ancient sources place Lorium along the Via Aurelia, about twelve miles from Rome. The area became particularly important in the 2nd century AD because of its association with Antoninus Pius.

Antoninus Pius spent part of his youth at Lorium and later built a residence there. The area was also frequented by Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. This imperial connection gives the newly discovered villa a wider historical significance. It may have belonged to members of the Roman aristocracy who were close to the imperial estate, or to elite families linked to the political and social world of the Antonine period.

At this stage, archaeologists remain cautious. The villa has not yet been completely excavated, and its exact ownership is still unknown. However, the quality of the architecture and decoration points clearly to a high-status residence.

Well-preserved rooms, walls, and mosaics

The investigation is being carried out under the scientific direction of archaeologist Alessia Contino of the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma. The excavation has uncovered rooms preserved to an impressive degree, with walls surviving up to around 1.5 meters in height.

Among the most important architectural elements identified so far is the atrium. This was the central reception space of many Roman houses and villas. At Castel di Guido, the atrium contained a central impluvium, a basin designed to collect rainwater from the roof opening above.

Around this central feature, the floors were decorated with refined mosaic designs. The decoration included geometric and vegetal motifs, black tesserae, and colored marble inserts. A large threshold also survived, decorated with a braided frame and black pelta motifs set against a white background.

The mosaics show the careful planning and expense invested in the residence. They also help date and interpret the villa as part of the culture of elite Roman domestic architecture.

Painted walls and collapsed decoration

The villa also preserved evidence of painted wall decoration. Archaeologists found traces of a red-painted lower band still in place. Other fragments recovered from disturbed soil suggest that the upper walls once included yellow and probably blue panels.

Some of these painted fragments appear to have included human figures and plant motifs. The fragments most likely collapsed during the ancient abandonment of the building and were later disturbed by the illegal excavation.

These painted surfaces are important because they show that the villa was decorated as a refined domestic space, not simply as a rural working estate. The owners invested in both architectural layout and visual display, using mosaics, color, and figural decoration to create a sophisticated interior environment.

Rooms arranged around the atrium

Several rooms developed around the atrium. Some preserved mosaic floors, each with different decorative schemes.

One room had a black-and-white mosaic divided into square panels with geometric patterns. Another included black octagons on a white background. A third used a design of black rectangles with curved sides, a type of pattern associated with refined Roman domestic decoration.

These rooms may have served different functions within the residence, including reception, living, and private spaces. Their arrangement around the atrium suggests a planned architectural composition, with the impluvium and decorated entrance area forming the visual center of the house.

The excavation also identified structures linked to the productive activities of the villa. This is important because Roman villas often combined elite residence with agricultural management. They were places of status, but also centers of land ownership, production, storage, and economic control.

A marble statue from the villa

One of the most valuable finds from the excavation is a fragmentary statue carved from fine white marble. The figure represents a bearded male carrying a small domestic animal, possibly a calf or piglet.

The statue is now under study, but archaeologists have suggested that it may depict Silvanus. In Roman religion, Silvanus was a rural deity connected with woods, fields, boundaries, flocks, and agricultural protection. Such a figure would fit well in a villa set within a productive rural estate.

Other interpretations may still be considered as research continues, but the connection with Silvanus is significant. A rural god placed in a wealthy countryside villa would have carried both religious and symbolic meaning. It would have reflected the agricultural identity of the estate while also serving as a marker of elite taste.

The statue also reinforces the high social status of the villa’s owners. Imported marble sculpture was expensive, and its presence in a suburban villa near Rome points to wealth, cultural ambition, and access to high-quality artistic production.

A villa connected to the elite world of Lorium

The location of the villa is one of the most important aspects of the discovery. Castel di Guido lies in the area of Lorium, a territory known from ancient sources and linked to imperial property.

Antoninus Pius is especially connected with Lorium. He was raised there and later had a residence in the area. He also died at Lorium in AD 161. Marcus Aurelius is known to have spent time there as well, and Hadrian had earlier connections with the region.

This historical background makes the new villa more than a local discovery. It adds another piece to the map of Rome’s western suburbs during the imperial period, when aristocratic and imperial residences were spread through the countryside along major roads.

The villa may have belonged to wealthy patricians or high-ranking Roman elites close to the imperial estate. Its mosaics, painted walls, marble sculpture, and architectural quality all support that possibility. Further excavation will be needed to clarify its full plan, chronology, and ownership.

A landscape changed by modern development

The area around Castel di Guido has changed significantly in recent decades, especially because of urban expansion around Rome. However, large sections beyond the Grande Raccordo Anulare still preserve rural landscapes and archaeological potential.

The Castel di Guido estate and the surrounding area of the Litorale Romano Nature Reserve remain important for understanding the countryside of ancient Rome. The new discovery shows that major archaeological remains can still survive outside the monumental center of the city.

Daniela Porro, Special Superintendent of Rome, emphasized that the discovery demonstrates the archaeological richness of Rome beyond the historic center. It also shows the importance of cooperation and rapid intervention in protecting cultural heritage.

Public access and restoration

The Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma announced that the site would be opened to the public through a free archaeological trek on June 20, 2026. Two guided visits were scheduled, one at 5:00 p.m. and another at 6:15 p.m.

The route was planned to last around one and a half to two hours and included a walk of approximately one kilometer to reach the excavation. Visitors were expected to see the remains of the villa and the mosaics undergoing restoration.

The event was designed to return the results of the excavation to the public and show how an operation that began with the prevention of illegal activity became an opportunity for research, conservation, and public engagement.

What this Roman villa reveals about life outside ancient Rome

The Castel di Guido villa is significant for several reasons. First, it reveals a previously undocumented imperial-period villa in the countryside west of Rome. Second, it adds new evidence to the study of Lorium, a district strongly linked with the Antonine emperors. Third, it preserves a high-quality decorative context, including mosaics, painted plaster, and marble sculpture.

The discovery also highlights the vulnerability of archaeological sites to illegal excavation. Without the initial report and rapid intervention, more of the villa could have been damaged or lost.

Instead, archaeologists were able to secure the area, record the remains, begin conservation, and open a new chapter in the study of Rome’s imperial countryside.

The villa’s final story is still being written. Future research may clarify when it was built, how long it remained in use, whether it changed function over time, and how closely it was connected to the imperial estates of Lorium. For now, the find offers a rare view of elite life, rural production, and artistic display on the edge of ancient Rome.

Subscribe now

Sources:

Italian Ministry of Culture / Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma — official press release on the Castel di Guido discovery, published June 15, 2026.

Finestre sull’Arte — report with additional excavation context, including the illegal excavation timeline, decorative details, and the Lorium background.

Tabula Peutingeriana / KU Eichstätt database — background on ancient Lorium, its location along the Via Aurelia, and literary references connecting it with Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.

An Etruscan well cleared during the Late Roman period, 3rd–4th century AD. Credit: Cetamura del Chianti Project / FSU.

The seeds were preserved in deep wells where wet, oxygen-poor mud protected organic material for centuries. This rare preservation allowed scientists to recover ancient DNA from grape pips and compare them with other ancient and modern grapevine data. The result is one of the most detailed genetic studies of ancient grapevines from a single archaeological site.

The research was led by specialists connected with the University of York and published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The team examined grape seeds from Cetamura using ancient DNA, seed-shape analysis, radiocarbon dating, and other methods. The study shows that the vineyards of Etruscan and Roman Tuscany were part of a long-running agricultural tradition, with some vines maintained across several centuries.

A deep well with exceptional preservation

Cetamura del Chianti lies in the modern province of Siena, in a region now strongly associated with red Chianti wines, especially those based on Sangiovese grapes. The archaeological story from the wells shows an earlier and more complex picture.

One of the wells at the site was cut into rock to a depth of about 32.4 meters, equivalent to 100 Etruscan feet. The wells produced thousands of artifacts and biological remains, including pottery, bronze vessels, wood, pollen, animal bones, nuts, seeds, and large numbers of grape pips. The waterlogged conditions created a stable environment for plant remains, which is why the grape seeds survived well enough for modern genetic analysis.

Between about 300 BC and AD 300, people living at Cetamura discarded grape seeds into the wells. Over time, these small remains became a biological archive of local viticulture. For archaeologists, they offer direct evidence of how grapes were grown, selected, and possibly exchanged during the transition from Etruscan to Roman control.

Local inhabitants of the area discarded grape seeds into deep wells. Credit: Florida State University.

DNA from 80 ancient grape seeds

The new study focused on 80 grape seeds. These were selected from a larger collection of grape remains recovered from the wells. Researchers sequenced their DNA and used genetic markers to understand relationships among the ancient vines.

One of the strongest findings was continuity. A large number of the tested seeds belonged to a single clonal group, meaning they came from the same grapevine lineage. In practical terms, this points to the repeated cultivation of a valued vine through cuttings. This method produces genetically identical plants and remains central to viticulture today.

The evidence suggests that a particular grapevine variety was maintained from the Etruscan period into the Roman period. Radiocarbon dating supports a minimum continuity of several centuries. This matters because it shows that ancient growers were managing vines deliberately, preserving preferred varieties across generations instead of relying only on seed-grown plants.

Chianti’s earlier white-grape phase

The most surprising result concerns grape color. Genetic markers showed that the dominant ancient clone most likely produced white berries. This is striking because Chianti today is internationally known for red wines.

The discovery suggests that before Chianti became famous for its red wine identity, the region had an important white-grape tradition. The ancient landscape around Cetamura may have produced white wines for centuries during the Etruscan and Roman periods. Red grapes also appear in the evidence, but the dominant lineage identified in the study points strongly toward white berries.

This changes the way the history of Chianti can be understood. The modern reputation of the region is built around red wine, yet the ancient genetic record shows that white grapes had a major role in its early viticultural history.

Roman networks and new grape varieties

The study also shows change after Roman expansion. Following Roman control of the settlement, new grapevine varieties appeared at Cetamura. This suggests that vines may have been brought into the region from other parts of the empire.

Genetic links connect the dominant Cetamura clone with two ancient grape seeds previously studied in southern France. That connection is important because it gives biological evidence for long-distance agricultural movement during the Roman period. Grapevines, techniques, and preferred varieties may have circulated through networks that linked Italy, Gaul, and other parts of the Roman world.

These findings fit a broader picture of Roman agriculture: vines were selected, propagated, transported, and standardized across wide territories. Wine production was both a local craft and part of an imperial economic system.

Wild grapes and cultivated vines

The researchers also used seed-shape analysis to distinguish between domesticated and wild grape remains. The evidence indicates that cultivated grapevines were central at Cetamura, while some wild grapes may also have been collected or used.

This combination is valuable because it shows how ancient people interacted with both managed vineyards and the surrounding landscape. Wild vines could have grown nearby, while cultivated vines were maintained for wine production. The presence of both forms helps reconstruct the agricultural and environmental setting of the settlement.

A link to living European grape traditions

Another seed from Cetamura belonged to a grape family still represented in Central and Eastern Europe. Its closest modern comparison is a rare Hungarian grape called Baratcsuha szürke. The same broader family is connected with Žametovka, the grape variety of the famous old vine in Maribor, Slovenia.

The Maribor vine is widely recognized as the oldest living grapevine still producing fruit. It is more than 400 years old and is preserved as a major symbol of Slovenian wine heritage. The Cetamura evidence suggests that some grape families have very deep histories, with ancient genetic lineages surviving in forms that still exist today.

What the discovery means for the history of wine

The Cetamura study concerns the roots of modern European viticulture, especially the continuity of grapevine cultivation from Etruscan to Roman Tuscany. It also shows that ancient growers were capable of preserving selected grape clones for centuries.

The findings should be understood within the wider history of wine. The earliest known biomolecular evidence for grape wine comes from the South Caucasus, in present-day Georgia, around 6000–5800 BC. Cetamura belongs to a much later period, but it helps explain how ancient Mediterranean wine traditions became more organized, connected, and durable.

The value of the Cetamura seeds lies in their precision. They show continuity, grape color, clonal propagation, regional change, and long-distance connections from tiny remains that were once thrown into wells. For the history of Chianti, the discovery adds an unexpected chapter: before its red wines became famous, the region may have been shaped by a long-lived white-grape tradition preserved through Etruscan and Roman hands.

Sources:

University of York / EurekAlert — “Ancient DNA from Tuscan wells reveal origins of modern wine,” 11 June 2026

PNAS — Patrick McGovern et al., “Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus,” evidence for grape wine and viniculture around 6000–5800 BC.

Slovenia Tourism / Maribor sources — background on the Old Vine of Maribor.

Subscribe now

Ancient human remains and artifacts uncovered at a Greco-Roman cemetery in northern Egypt. Photo credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

The excavation was carried out by an Egyptian archaeological mission working under the Supreme Council of Antiquities. According to the ministry, the cemetery belongs to the Greco-Roman period, but the deeper archaeological layers show that Tell Kom Aziza had been active across a far longer span of Egyptian history.

The burial area contained several different forms of interment. Some individuals were placed directly in simple pits cut into the soil. Other graves were framed with mudbrick, creating more formal burial spaces. Archaeologists also found painted plaster coffins and barrel-shaped pottery coffins, a burial type especially associated with the Ptolemaic period.

Preliminary examination of the human remains shows a wide range of funerary practices. Burials were arranged on different axes, including north-south and east-west orientations. The position of the hands also varied. Some individuals had their hands crossed over the pelvis, while others had them placed near the neck. Some were arranged in the Osirian position, with the arms crossed over the chest, and others had the arms extended alongside the thighs.

This variation matters because it points to a cemetery used by communities with different burial habits, social traditions, or chronological phases. Rather than presenting one uniform funerary system, Tell Kom Aziza shows a more complex picture of how local communities treated the dead during the later periods of ancient Egyptian history.

One of the most unusual discoveries at the site was the presence of complete wild boar burials. Such finds are rare in ancient Egyptian funerary contexts. The animal carried difficult religious associations in Egyptian belief, especially because of its connection with the god Set. For that reason, the discovery raises questions about whether the boars were connected to domestic activity, economic life, local ritual behavior, or another practice that still requires further study.

Human remains uncovered at a Greco-Roman cemetery in northern Egypt. Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

The cemetery was built above older occupation layers. These earlier levels produced material connected with the Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, Late Period, Greek period, and Roman period. This means the Greco-Roman cemetery represents only one stage in a much longer history of activity at Tell Kom Aziza.

The finds from the older layers include pottery vessels, stone vessels, bread molds, multi-purpose stone tools, ovens, storage containers, and large quantities of fish, bird, and animal bones. These objects shift the importance of the site beyond burial alone. They show food preparation, storage, craft activity, and interaction with the Delta environment over many centuries.

Mohamed Abdel-Badie, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, described the site as a multi-period archaeological record. The evidence suggests that Tell Kom Aziza first functioned as a place of habitation and daily work before later becoming an area of intensive funerary use.

Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy also emphasized the importance of the discovery for understanding the Nile Delta. The value of the site comes from the combination of burial remains, settlement layers, tools, food remains, and architectural traces. Together, they provide evidence for how communities lived, worked, adapted, and buried their dead across thousands of years.

The discovery is especially important because Delta archaeology often preserves a complicated sequence of occupation. River activity, agriculture, later building, and modern development can all disturb ancient sites. A stratified site such as Tell Kom Aziza can therefore help archaeologists reconstruct long-term patterns of settlement in a region that played a major role in Egyptian history.

Earlier research has already pointed to the wider importance of Beheira Governorate during the Late Dynastic, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods. Kom Aziza had previously produced Dynastic, Ptolemaic, and Roman material, showing that the site was occupied earlier than expected for a settlement usually discussed in relation to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

The new cemetery discovery adds another layer to that picture. It connects the site’s domestic and settlement evidence with funerary behavior, allowing researchers to examine how the same landscape changed function over time. A place used for daily life in one period could later become a cemetery, while older materials beneath the graves preserved traces of earlier communities.

The complete wild boar burials may become one of the most discussed elements of the discovery. Their meaning remains open to interpretation, but their presence inside an archaeological layer at Tell Kom Aziza adds a rare animal-related component to a site already rich in human burial evidence and domestic remains.

Further excavation seasons are expected to clarify the chronology of the cemetery, the relationship between the different burial types, and the role of the animal burials. Future analysis of the bones, pottery, coffins, and settlement debris may also help identify changes in diet, economy, burial customs, and religious practice across the long life of the site.

Additional Context: Newly Unearthed Coffins at Dra Abu el-Naga in Luxor

The Tell Kom Aziza discovery follows another major announcement from Egypt’s archaeological sector concerning finds at Dra Abu el-Naga on Luxor’s West Bank. Excavations there began in November 2025 and focused on the southeastern area of the tomb of Roy, an 18th Dynasty royal scribe, and the area between Roy’s tomb and the nearby tomb of Baki.

Archaeologists uncovered a burial shaft containing ten wooden coffins. The coffins were reported in good condition and carried painted scenes and inscriptions. Preliminary study dated four of them to the 18th Dynasty, including one inscribed with the name Merit, identified as a chantress of Amun.

Another coffin dated to the Ramesside period and carried the name Padi-Amun, identified as a priest in the Temple of Amun. The remaining coffins were assigned to Egypt’s Late Period, approximately 664–332 BCE.

The Luxor discoveries also included evidence for previously unrecorded individuals and titles, showing how continued excavation in known necropoleis can still expand the historical record. Together, the finds at Tell Kom Aziza and Dra Abu el-Naga show two different sides of Egyptian archaeology: one in the Delta, where settlement and funerary layers overlap across millennia, and one in Thebes, where elite tomb landscapes continue to produce new information about named individuals, religious offices, and burial practices.

Researchers suggest the rock art discovered in northern Oman may have been carved over many generations, possibly spanning thousands of years.. Image courtesy of the Omani Ministry of Heritage and Tourism

The discovery centers on a large rock surface covered with engravings made directly into the stone. According to the ministry, the motifs include animal forms, human-like symbols, and geometric shapes. These images were produced using a pecking technique, in which the surface of the rock is repeatedly struck to create lines, figures, and patterns.

This technique is well known in rock art studies across the Arabian Peninsula. It leaves a physical mark that can survive for long periods, especially in dry and rocky environments. At Hajar Al Sinanat, the density of the engravings suggests that the site was not a casual marking place. It was a location people returned to, possibly over multiple generations.

Initial assessment has linked the carvings to ancient historical periods. The Art Newspaper reported that preliminary studies by Angelo Eugenio Fossati, an Italian specialist in rock art and professor of prehistory and protohistory at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, suggest the site may date to the first millennium BC. This dating remains preliminary, because rock art sites often develop over long periods rather than in one single phase.

Researchers are approaching the chronology cautiously. The dating is based on comparisons with other documented rock art in Oman and the wider region, along with the study of motif types, surface weathering, patination, and archaeological context. These indicators help specialists separate older carvings from more recent marks, although further work is still needed before the site can be placed securely within Oman’s archaeological sequence.

The subjects carved into the rock are especially important. Animal figures can offer clues about the environment, movement, hunting, herding, or symbolic associations. Human-like and geometric motifs are harder to interpret, but they may relate to identity, memory, ritual, territory, communication, or social activity. At this stage, the safest reading is that the carvings preserve visual evidence of how ancient communities interacted with their landscape.

A close up of the rock art discovered in northern Oman. Credit: Omani Ministry of Heritage and Tourism

Oman has a long and underdocumented rock art tradition. Petroglyphs and pictographs have been recorded in mountains, valleys, deserts, and coastal zones, showing that rock surfaces were used as visual media across different periods and environments. Earlier research in northern Oman has shown that rock art can include animals, weapons, riders, abstract signs, and inscriptions. Some regional traditions may extend back thousands of years, while others belong to later historical phases.

This wider background makes the Hajar Al Sinanat discovery more significant. It is not an isolated curiosity, but part of a larger pattern of human expression across the Oman Peninsula. Rock art is especially valuable in areas where ancient communities may have left fewer permanent buildings or portable objects. A carved rock face can preserve direct human activity in a place where other evidence has disappeared.

The site also highlights the importance of documentation. Rock art is exposed to erosion, temperature changes, water movement, vandalism, and accidental human damage. Even touching a carved surface can contribute to gradual wear. For this reason, recording the site through photography, mapping, and technical study is a major part of its protection.

The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has said that archaeological and artistic studies of the site are continuing. Conservation measures are also being prepared to protect the carvings and preserve their historical and tourism value. This is important because newly publicized archaeological sites can attract attention quickly, but without controlled protection, that attention can become a risk.

For Oman, the discovery strengthens the country’s position as one of the key landscapes for studying rock art in southeastern Arabia. From northern mountain regions to central and southern zones, Oman’s rock art record shows long-term human engagement with animals, movement routes, belief systems, and changing environments.

Previously discovered rock engravings associated with human settlements in the Oman desert spanning from 5000 BC to 1000AD. Credit: Omani Ministry of Heritage and Tourism

The Hajar Al Sinanat carvings do not provide every answer yet. Their exact date, full meaning, and relationship to nearby archaeological activity still require further research. But the discovery is already important because it expands the known visual archive of ancient Oman.

In simple terms, this rock face is evidence of people making deliberate marks in a meaningful place. Whether the images recorded animals, identity, memory, ritual, or movement through the landscape, they show that ancient communities in Oman were using stone as a surface for communication long before modern writing and documentation.

The next stage will depend on careful archaeological study, comparison with other Omani rock art sites, and long-term preservation. Until then, Hajar Al Sinanat stands as a newly recorded chapter in Oman’s ancient visual history.

Photos: credit: arkeonews.net / AA

The grave was found during archaeological investigations carried out before the construction of a solar park near the town, in the Limburg-Weilburg district. The find has been presented by hessenARCHÄOLOGIE, part of the State Office for Monument Preservation of Hesse, together with the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture.

According to Hesse’s state archaeologist Prof. Dr. Udo Recker, the discovery is important because it provides material evidence for the presence of a local Celtic elite in the region. Until now, such an elite presence in this area had only been assumed. The new tomb offers direct archaeological proof that a high-ranking individual lived, died, and was buried with exceptional status in the Taunus region during the Iron Age.

The burial is thought to date to the middle of the first millennium BC, placing it more than 2,000 years in the past. It belongs to the early La Tène period and is associated with the Hunsrück-Eifel culture. This was a time when Celtic communities in Central Europe were developing complex social structures, elite burial traditions, and long-distance connections with the Mediterranean world.

The grave goods found at Bad Camberg point clearly to a person of high rank. Archaeologists recovered massive gold jewelry, imported goods, and weapon remains. Among the most striking objects is an Etruscan beaked jug, likely brought from present-day Tuscany in Italy. Such an imported vessel suggests that the buried individual, or the community around him, had access to long-distance exchange networks reaching far beyond the local region.

The presence of weapon remains also helped archaeologists interpret the burial as likely belonging to a male individual. The grave has therefore been described as the resting place of a Celtic warrior or elite figure. However, further analysis is still needed before researchers can reconstruct the person’s identity, life, and role in the community with greater precision.

One of the most important elements of the discovery is the evidence for a two-wheeled wagon. Archaeologists found wheel hub fittings, axle cap fittings made from non-ferrous metal, and iron tire fittings. These remains show that the deceased was buried with a vehicle, making the tomb a rare example of a Celtic wagon burial.

Wagon burials are closely linked with high status in Iron Age Europe. They were not ordinary graves. They required wealth, labor, technical skill, and social authority. Placing a wagon in a tomb was a strong statement about rank, mobility, power, and identity. In the case of Bad Camberg, the wagon evidence makes the find even more significant.

Only a small number of comparable Celtic wagon burials are known from Hesse. Experts have stated that just a few similar examples exist in the region, and none reaches the quality of the Bad Camberg find. This makes the tomb one of the most important Celtic elite burials discovered in Hesse so far.

The discovery has also drawn comparisons with the famous Celtic prince of Glauberg, another major Iron Age elite burial from Hesse. The Bad Camberg grave appears to belong to roughly the same broad period. Although the grave goods from Bad Camberg are described as simpler than those from Glauberg, the new find still holds major importance for understanding Celtic power structures in the region.

Christoph Degen, State Secretary in the Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture, said the discovery adds to Hesse’s rich Iron Age heritage. Sites such as Glauberg had already shown the important role of today’s Hesse within the Celtic cultural world. The Bad Camberg tomb may now expand that picture by offering new evidence about elites, craftsmanship, long-distance contacts, and burial customs.

The excavation itself was carried out quickly and carefully. Despite the importance of the find, the archaeological work was completed in about two weeks by a team from SPAU GmbH. The work was done without stopping the planned construction project, showing how preventive archaeology can protect major heritage discoveries during modern development.

The grave had already raised interest before excavation. Geophysical prospection of the planned construction area had suggested the possible presence of a Celtic elite burial. However, archaeologists did not expect to find not only a princely tomb but also a wagon burial.

Dr. Kai Mückenberger, district archaeologist for Limburg-Weilburg, described the discovery as an exceptional moment. For archaeologists, a find of this quality is rare. It combines elite jewelry, weapon remains, imported Mediterranean material, and wagon evidence in one context.

The tomb has not yet revealed all its information. After the grave was discovered, parts of it were recovered in blocks of earth and taken for detailed laboratory investigation. X-ray and CT scans have already shown that more objects remain inside the blocks. These finds still need to be carefully exposed, interpreted, and conserved.

The use of modern imaging is especially important. Instead of removing every object immediately in the field, archaeologists can now scan the soil blocks and study the position of hidden artifacts before excavation continues under controlled conditions. This reduces the risk of damaging fragile materials and allows researchers to understand how the objects were originally placed.

The ongoing research involves the restoration workshop of hessenARCHÄOLOGIE, the research center of the Celtic World at Glauberg, and the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology in Mainz. The cooperation with LEIZA allows specialists to use advanced CT technology and conservation methods to study the burial in detail.

The grave goods already visible suggest a burial designed to communicate status. Gold jewelry signaled wealth and rank. The Etruscan jug pointed to contact with the Mediterranean world. Weapons marked the individual as a warrior or elite male. The wagon connected him with one of the most prestigious burial traditions of Iron Age Europe.

Such finds are important because Celtic societies did not leave written records in the same way as later Roman communities. Much of what is known about their social organization comes from settlements, graves, objects, and later written accounts by Greek and Roman authors. Elite tombs therefore play a major role in reconstructing Celtic society.

The Bad Camberg tomb may help researchers understand how power was organized in the Taunus region during the Iron Age. It shows that local elites were not isolated. They took part in broader cultural and exchange networks. Their burial practices also shared features with other high-status Celtic graves in Central Europe.

At the same time, the find raises new questions. Was the person buried at Bad Camberg a local ruler, a warrior aristocrat, a member of a powerful family, or a figure connected with wider trade routes? How did this elite group relate to nearby communities? What role did imported objects play in local status display? Future analysis may help answer these questions.

For now, the discovery is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for a Celtic elite presence in this part of Hesse. It also shows that major archaeological finds can still emerge from areas investigated because of modern infrastructure and energy projects.

Sources:
Anadolu Agency, Princely Celtic tomb dating back over 2,000 years discovered in Germany, 10 June 2026.
hessenARCHÄOLOGIE / State Office for Monument Preservation of Hesse, Der Keltenfürst des Taunus, 8 June 2026.
Hessian Ministry of Science and Research, Art and Culture, hessenARCHÄOLOGIE präsentiert unbekanntes eisenzeitliches Fürstengrab, 8 June 2026.
Euronews, Archaeological sensation: Iron Age Celtic grave discovered in Hesse, 9 June 2026.

The mass burial of skeletons in the settlement ditch (below) with drawings of the individual skeletons (above).(Image credit: Katharina Fuchs, Agnes Heitmann, Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Till Kühl)

Archaeologists studying the early Neolithic settlement of Vráble-Veľké Lehemby in southwestern Slovakia have uncovered one of the most unusual burial contexts known from the Linear Pottery culture. The site contains dozens of human skeletons placed in a ditch near the entrance of a prehistoric settlement. Most of them are missing their heads.

The discovery was first reported after excavations in 2022, when archaeologists identified a mass deposition of around three dozen headless bodies. Continued fieldwork has since changed the scale of the find. New research published in 2026 records at least 78 individuals in the area, including 77 headless skeletons and one young child whose skull remained in place.

Vráble-Veľké Lehemby is not a small or isolated site. It was one of the largest known settlements of the Linear Pottery culture, also called LBK, in Central Europe. This early farming culture spread across large parts of the continent during the sixth millennium BCE. The settlement at Vráble existed for several centuries, roughly between 5250 and 4950 BCE.

The site was made up of more than 300 house outlines grouped into three separate neighborhoods. At certain points, up to 80 buildings may have been occupied at the same time. This makes Vráble important not only for the study of burial practices but also for understanding how some of Europe’s earliest farming communities organized space, labor, households, and social boundaries.

One of the three settlement areas was surrounded by a ditch. Archaeologists believe this ditch probably marked a boundary around that neighborhood. Human remains had already been found in the area during earlier excavations, but the scale of the discovery became clearer after fieldwork resumed in 2022.

Archaeologists excavating skeletons at the site of Vráble in Slovakia. Image credit: Katharina Fuchs

The skeletons were found near an entrance into the enclosed part of the settlement. They were not arranged like normal graves. Bodies lay in different positions, some on their backs, some face down, others twisted or overlapping. There was no clear pattern in their orientation. Some had limbs bent or spread, while others were partly covered by additional bones.

This irregular arrangement initially raised dramatic questions. Were these people victims of a massacre? Were they executed? Were they killed during conflict between groups? Were the bodies part of a sacrifice? These possibilities have not been fully dismissed, but the latest research suggests that the situation is more complex than a simple episode of violence.

The absence of heads is the central mystery. Of the 78 individuals currently recorded in the mass deposition, 77 were missing skulls. Only one skeleton, belonging to a young child, still had its head. This detail is important because it shows that the missing skulls were not the result of random destruction in the soil. The pattern points to deliberate treatment of the bodies.

Preliminary observations indicate that many of the bodies were placed in the ditch before advanced decomposition had taken place. In several cases, the neck vertebrae were still aligned. Hands and feet, which often separate early during decomposition, were also preserved in ways that suggest the bodies were still relatively intact when deposited.

Researchers also observed cut marks on cervical vertebrae. These early findings suggest that the heads were removed with sharp tools rather than by rough chopping or blunt-force damage. This points to controlled body manipulation, not simply chaotic violence. However, more detailed forensic and osteological work is still needed before archaeologists can say exactly how the heads were removed and whether the people died violently.

The missing heads have not yet been found. Only a small number of skull fragments were recovered from the ditch. This raises another major question: where did the heads go? They may have been placed elsewhere in the settlement, stored, displayed, buried separately, or removed from the site entirely. At the moment, archaeologists do not have enough evidence to choose one explanation with confidence.

The ditch itself seems to have played a special role. The bodies were not spread randomly across the settlement. Many were concentrated near the entrance area, where people would have passed into and out of the enclosed neighborhood. This suggests that the deposition was connected to the boundary of the settlement, the entrance, or the social meaning of the enclosed space.

The finds also included objects and materials mixed among the bones, although archaeologists do not describe them as typical grave goods. A complete LBK vessel was found in the ditch fill. Other finds included a bone needle, pieces of grinding stone, potsherds, flint and obsidian tools, stone pebbles, a stone axe head, and perforated teeth. The pebbles are especially interesting because they do not naturally occur in the loess soil at the site, meaning they were brought there from another location.

These details matter because they show that the ditch was not simply a place where bodies were discarded. The deposition may have been part of a repeated practice with social or ritual meaning. The presence of pebbles and selected objects may point to structured actions around the dead, although their exact meaning remains unclear.

The discovery also fits into a broader pattern seen at some other late LBK sites in Central Europe, where human remains appear in ditches, pits, or unusual burial contexts. In the past, such finds were often interpreted mainly as signs of crisis, violence, or warfare. The Vráble evidence is forcing researchers to take a more careful view.

The settlement itself may have gone through social tension before it was abandoned. Earlier research suggested that Vráble developed increasing internal divisions over time. The construction of the enclosure around one neighborhood may have marked a shift in how the community organized itself, possibly separating one group from the others. Human remains along the ditch may reflect these changing social relationships.

This does not mean violence played no role. A massacre, sacrifice, or conflict-related event remains possible for at least part of the evidence. But the pattern of head removal, repeated deposition, and placement near the ditch entrance may point to a longer practice rather than one sudden event. The bodies may have been involved in rituals connected with death, identity, ancestry, boundaries, or community membership.

One of the challenges is that modern categories do not always fit Neolithic behavior. Today, separating a head from a body is often interpreted immediately through violence or punishment. In Neolithic societies, the head may have carried meanings connected with personhood, kinship, memory, or ritual power. Archaeologists must therefore avoid forcing modern assumptions onto a 7,000-year-old community.

Comparable attention to human heads is known from other prehistoric contexts. In different regions and periods, skulls were removed, kept, modified, displayed, or buried separately. These practices varied widely and cannot be explained by one single rule. At Vráble, the lack of the skulls themselves makes the interpretation even harder.

The discovery is still under study. Researchers are continuing to analyze the bones to determine age, biological sex, injury patterns, cut marks, decomposition processes, diet, mobility, and genetic relationships. DNA and isotope studies may reveal whether the individuals came from the local community or from outside the settlement. This could help determine whether they were insiders, outsiders, captives, relatives, or a mixed group.

For now, Vráble-Veľké Lehemby remains one of the most important Neolithic sites in Central Europe. Its headless skeletons are not only a mystery about death. They also open a wider question about how early farming societies understood the body, the head, the dead, and the boundaries of community life.

Sources:
Live Science, 7,000-year-old mass grave in Slovakia may hold human sacrifice victims, 3 October 2022.
Kiel University, Headless skeletons offer new insights into farming societies 7,000 years ago, 8 June 2026.
Furholt, Cheben, Hukeľová, Wunderlich, Bistáková, Furholt, Kühl, Müller-Scheeßel and Fuchs, Neolithic Bodies in Vráble, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2026.
Popular Science, 77 headless skeletons found in a field date back 7,000 years, 2026.
European Association of Archaeologists abstract, Headless Skeletons in the Ditch, Vráble-Veľké Lehemby.

Archaeologists excavated a series of rooms hidden beneath a modern Italian high school. Image credit: Cantieri Narranti / Special Superintendency of Rome

The discovery began through student curiosity. Pupils exploring the underground areas of the school came across ancient spaces beneath the gymnasium. After the find was brought to the attention of a teacher, the information was passed to the relevant archaeological authorities. This eventually led to a formal investigation by specialists from the Special Superintendency of Rome.

The site is now known provisionally as the Domus Liceo Cavour. The name is temporary because archaeologists are still working to clarify the full history of the residence, including its construction phases and ownership. Current evidence places the house in the middle imperial period, around the mid-second century AD.

The high school itself stands in one of the most historically dense areas of Rome, between the ancient districts of the Carinae and the Esquiline, very close to the Colosseum. In antiquity, this was not an ordinary neighborhood. Important Roman figures, including Cicero, Pompey, and Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, are associated with this part of the city. Yet despite its importance, the area remains difficult to study archaeologically because modern buildings, roads, and later construction have covered much of the ancient landscape.

The building now used by the school was originally connected with a Catholic missionary congregation. During construction work in the late nineteenth century, parts of a Roman domus were already noticed. In 1895, archaeological work revealed part of the eastern sector of the residence, but that area was later lost during the creation of Via degli Annibaldi. The recent work beneath the school has brought attention back to this forgotten ancient house.

The preserved rooms lie below the male gymnasium of Liceo Cavour. Before the current intervention, the ancient spaces were largely filled in, but several vaulted and decorated rooms were still visible. Official descriptions note five visible rooms, although not all of them are currently part of the active work. The survival of the decoration is especially important: the walls and vaults still preserve painted plaster, floral motifs, human figures, and monochrome stucco ornament.

These features show that the structure was not a modest dwelling. It was part of a large elite residence. The decorative program, including frescoes, stucco work, and mosaic flooring, points to a wealthy domestic environment in imperial Rome. In one room, archaeologists identified a mosaic made with large, irregularly shaped tiles, a style associated with elite taste in the second century AD.

Well-preserved stucco ornamentation remains visible on the vaulted ceilings of an ancient Roman house. Image credit: Cantieri Narranti / Special Superintendency of Rome

A lead water pipe discovered during earlier investigations may help identify the social setting of the residence. The pipe bears the names Umbria Albina and L. Fabius Gallus. This evidence does not yet provide a complete biography of the owners, but it gives archaeologists an important clue about the people connected with the property. Some interpretations link the house to the Umbrii, a family that may have had origins in Samnium, a region of south-central Italy.

The discovery also contains a modern layer of history. Archaeologists recorded more recent graffiti and traces of damage on the ancient surfaces. Some markings appear to date from the twentieth century, including names, dates, and marks left by students, tourists, or underground explorers. These modern intrusions are now part of the conservation challenge, because the site must be protected without erasing evidence of its later history.

The current project is not only an excavation. It includes documentation, restoration, structural consolidation, and public access planning. Specialists are removing modern fill from selected rooms, recording the spaces with modern survey methods, cataloguing materials from the excavation, and stabilizing the ancient walls, vaults, and decorated surfaces. Conservation work also includes cleaning, treatment of biological growth, and careful repair of damaged plaster edges.

The project is part of a wider effort to protect and present Rome’s archaeological heritage. Plans include improving access, creating a visitor route, installing educational material, and developing both printed and digital resources. A direct entrance from the street is also part of the plan, along with ventilation and safety improvements for the archaeological area.

Only part of the Domus Liceo Cavour has been investigated so far. The residence appears to continue beneath other areas of the school, and possibly under the courtyard. Further excavation may reveal more rooms, more decoration, and a clearer picture of the building’s original layout.

One of the most interesting parts of the project is the role of the students themselves. The same school community that kept the underground stories alive may eventually help present the site to the public. Authorities and the school have discussed the possibility of opening the domus to visitors, potentially with students acting as guides.

The discovery is a strong example of how deeply layered Rome remains. Beneath classrooms, gyms, streets, and modern institutions, ancient buildings can still survive in remarkable condition. In this case, a school rumor led to the rediscovery of a decorated Roman residence only steps from one of the most famous monuments in the world.

Now, ongoing research at Side Ancient City has revealed an important development in the study of one of Anatolia’s lost languages.

Researchers working on ancient inscriptions have identified a total of 31 letters belonging to the Sidetic alphabet, expanding the previously recognized alphabet and opening new possibilities for understanding the language once spoken there.

A Forgotten Language of Ancient Anatolia

Sidetic, or Sidece in Turkish, was spoken in ancient Side more than 2,000 years ago.

Unlike Greek, which later became dominant across much of Anatolia, Sidetic belongs to the family of native Anatolian languages and is considered related to the broader Luwian linguistic tradition, alongside languages such as Lycian and Carian.

Although inscriptions written in Sidetic have been known for decades, the language remains only partially understood.

One of the biggest challenges has always been the limited amount of surviving material. Most previously discovered inscriptions contained only a few lines of text, making interpretation difficult and slowing attempts to reconstruct vocabulary and grammar.

New Discoveries Are Changing the Picture

Research at Side Ancient City, carried out under Türkiye’s cultural heritage initiatives, has produced new inscriptions that may significantly improve understanding of the language.

The work is being led by archaeologist Prof. Dr. Feriştah Alanyalı, together with linguists Michaela Zinko and Alfredo Rizza, in collaboration with international researchers.

Recent discoveries include not only additional Sidetic inscriptions but also bilingual texts and unusually long inscriptions containing around 30 to 40 lines.

These longer texts are particularly important because they provide more repeated patterns, context, and opportunities for comparison.

As a result of this ongoing analysis, researchers now report that the known Sidetic alphabet has expanded from 26 to 31 identified letters.

This does not mean a complete decipherment of the language has been achieved. Instead, scholars now have a broader alphabetic framework that may allow future readings to become more accurate.

The Mystery of “Siruawn” and the Name of Side

Among the most intriguing observations are recurring words appearing in Sidetic inscriptions.

Researchers studying these texts increasingly suggest that the forms “Siruawn” and “Siruawan” may refer directly to the city of Side itself.

If confirmed through further study, these terms could provide new evidence for understanding the origin of the city’s ancient name.

The discovery may also strengthen long-standing discussions connecting the name Side with the pomegranate, a symbol closely associated with the city and frequently shown on its ancient coinage.

Before Greek Dominance

The findings contribute to a broader archaeological question: what was Side before becoming part of the Hellenistic world?

Ancient literary traditions describe settlers arriving from Kyme and eventually adopting the local language already spoken in the region.

While such accounts should be interpreted carefully, they suggest that Side preserved a strong local identity before Greek became dominant following the campaigns of Alexander the Great.

Even after major political changes across Anatolia, evidence indicates that local traditions and writing systems continued to survive for generations.

Sources

• Anadolu Ajansı, Anadolu’nun kayıp dili “Sidece”de 31 harf tespit edildi
• Side Ancient City excavation statements, Prof. Dr. Feriştah Alanyalı
• Recent reporting on Sidetic inscription research and Anatolian languages

Help support ancientcontent.com. Every coffee helps fund more research, articles, visuals, and stories from archaeology, artifacts, and lost civilizations.

Buy Me a Coffee