+- RomanArmyTalk (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat)
+-- Forum: Recreational Arena (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=6)
+--- Forum: Off-Topic (https://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/forumdisplay.php?fid=18)
+--- Thread: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! (/showthread.php?tid=17433)
The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - ParthianBow - 08-30-2010
Here's a fun question:
If you could ensure that everything you wanted to know about Rome (well, maybe we should limit it to 5 things) could be found in one archaeological site, what would they be? We can include Vindolanda style tablets which describe things/rituals/customs, so it's not just actual items such as a complete lorica segmentata, sub armalis, or military tunic etc.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Robert Vermaat - 08-30-2010
Quote:Here's a fun question:1) an emperor
If you could ensure that everything you wanted to know about Rome (well, maybe we should limit it to 5 things) could be found in one archaeological site, what would they be?
2) his wife
3) his historian carrying a full library
4) a fully armed legionary in (red or white) tunica
5) a T-rex
If possible all together in a bog, preferably.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Astiryu1 - 08-30-2010
A "Roman" transport ship in the English Channel dated to the time of Caesar. Maybe with a shipment of supplies/men :| (military or civilian) So many questions answered.
Some shields with "Legion Number Identification" engraved on the back as well as campaign info sort of a "I was here during _ b.c./a.d." sort of thing.
Scrolls/Tablets depicting combat techniques of Legionaries and/or Gladiators.
One of the Eagle Standards; maybe from the Teutoborg.(Unless the Germans got a hold of it)
Something to do with "he who shall not be named" :| D
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Robert Vermaat - 08-30-2010
Quote: One of the Eagle Standards; maybe from the Teutoborg.(Unless the Germans got a hold of it)Difficult - the germans got 'em, the Roman got them back, but it would be an interesting question what happened next! Were they ritually buried? Destroyed? Placed in the vaults of the Vatican? Are they in Dan Brown's loft?
Quote: Something to do with "he who shall not be named" :| DI do not know of any such person in ENGLAND. :evil: Unless you mean Harry Potter or Prince Charles.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - D B Campbell - 08-30-2010
Quote:That guy in England that everyone speculates about.Lord Lucan?! :?
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Jona Lendering - 08-30-2010
The Library of Alexandria. Nothing else. If that's too much, just the scrolls; they can keep the building.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Astiryu1 - 08-30-2010
Okay I'll bite. "Arthur" but please understand all I want is proof of the guys existence not to go into the usual possibilities.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Robert Vermaat - 08-30-2010
Quote:Okay I'll bite. "Arthur" but please understand all I want is proof of the guys existence not to go into the usual possibilities.How would you recognise him if he was to be dug up? Holding a name-tag perhaps? "It is I, Arthur, King of the Britons".
(shrill voice: "king of the Who"?)
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Nathan Ross - 08-30-2010
The entire Ninth Legion, fully armoured and equipped, and perfectly preserved in a sealed chamber beneath an unexcavated barrow in western Scotland. They were deposited there, of course, in AD117, after being overcome by Mystical Druidic Fog. All except a handful, who went off to make rooftiles in Nijmegen...
-
The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - ParthianBow - 08-30-2010
:lol: funny! Thanks for your responses.
I am being serious, though. What would you like to be found?
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Jona Lendering - 08-30-2010
Quote:What would you like to be found?Any ancient text is always a sensation.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Nathan Ross - 08-30-2010
Quote:I am being serious, though. What would you like to be found?
Well, if archeology could tell me everything I wanted to know, there'd be nothing left to talk about here would there? :| (or write novels about eh!)
But seriously? - a large cache of Roman armour and equpiment securely dated to AD285 would be splendid. The later third century is a bit of a black hole in our knowledge of military equipment, and a fascinating crossover period too. I confess I've always wanted somebody to unearth a certain pattern of helmet, otherwise unattested in the archeological record but known from pictures (the best example is here), which I've long believed to have been used in the third century.
Other than deposits of military equipment, written records would be best - something like the complete letters, despatches and records of the logistics and commissariat department (if such a thing could be assumed to exist) for Trajan's campaign into Dacia (or anybody's campaign into anywhere, come to that...)
- Nathan
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Paullus Scipio - 08-30-2010
I think the best Roman archaeological find EVER! already exists.......the towns and country villas buried by Vesuvius, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, Stabiae, the Villa of the Mysteries, the Villa of Diomede, and the Villa of the Papyri, which grants Jona's wish - a whole library of charred scrolls which technology has now found a way to read. Only two dozen or so are in Latin, including a fragment of a poem on Augustus' victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. Many more are in Greek, mostly Epicurean treatises, many by Philodemus leading to the supposition that the Villa belonged to his friend and patron, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesonius, father-in-law of Julius Caesar. Robert's wish too was almost granted - the discovery on the Herculaneum foreshore of a veteran wearing his equipment
Sadly, the excavated parts to date are falling into wrack and ruin, much vandalised by graffiti, but the good news for the future is that more than two-thirds of Pompeii and Herculaneum lies undisturbed, and many more villas and villages await discovery.
Most people don't fully appreciate that most of what we know of everyday Rome, and the vast majority of artifacts seen, come from this best Roman archaeological find EVER!
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Lanista - 08-31-2010
Transcript of the interview between one Jesus of Nazereth and Pontius Pilate and a copy of the investigation after the mysterious disappearance of Jesus's body would be interesting. It might wreck a few sang royal careers, but hey...it might prove them right too.
Re: The best Roman archaeological find EVER! - Vindex - 08-31-2010
1. A bog man, but this time a perfectly preserved cavalryman with his horse and ALL their every day kit from the 2nd/3rd century.
2. An account dated between the departure of the Romans from Britain and the Venerable Bead's History (preferably 5th century).
3. A Legionary fortress mansio, with stables.
4. Alexandrian Library vault with all the spare volumes they didn't have shelf space for...
5. Another 'schola' associated with a fort and evidence that it was a meeting place/club/collegia for the Legionaries.