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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.
Ben Kane, bestselling author of the Eagles of Rome, Spartacus and Hannibal novels.
Eagles in the Storm released in UK on March 23, 2017.
Aguilas en la tormenta saldra en 2017.
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Quote: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?
1) an emperor
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.
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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
Craig Bellofatto
Going to college for Massage Therapy. So reading alot of Latin Terminology 
It is like a finger pointing to the moon. DON\'T concentrate on the finger or you miss all the heavenly glory before you!-Bruce Lee
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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" :| D
I do not know of any such person in ENGLAND. :evil: Unless you mean Harry Potter or Prince Charles.
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Quote:That guy in England that everyone speculates about. 
Lord Lucan?! :?
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The Library of Alexandria. Nothing else. If that's too much, just the scrolls; they can keep the building.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
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Okay I'll bite. "Arthur" but please understand all I want is proof of the guys existence not to go into the usual possibilities.
Craig Bellofatto
Going to college for Massage Therapy. So reading alot of Latin Terminology
It is like a finger pointing to the moon. DON\'T concentrate on the finger or you miss all the heavenly glory before you!-Bruce Lee
Train easy; the fight is hard. Train hard; the fight is easy.- Thai Proverb
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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"?)
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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...
-
Nathan Ross
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:lol: funny! Thanks for your responses.
I am being serious, though. What would you like to be found?
Ben Kane, bestselling author of the Eagles of Rome, Spartacus and Hannibal novels.
Eagles in the Storm released in UK on March 23, 2017.
Aguilas en la tormenta saldra en 2017.
www.benkane.net
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Quote:What would you like to be found?
Any ancient text is always a sensation.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
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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
Nathan Ross
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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!
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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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.
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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.
Moi Watson
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
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