“Archaeologists say they have found part of an ancient ship near Rome during repair work to a bridge. The 11 metre vessel is one of the largest ancient vessels excavated near Ostia Antica, a port city founded some 2,500 years ago.”
(via Past Horizons)
There’s a nice example of the black and white style of mosaic which is so commonly found in Ostia!
Features - The Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel
“Many Roman mosaics have been found in Israel, but the discovery at Lod has attracted considerable attention because the mosaics are of exceptional quality and in an excellent state of preservation. Lent to the Metropolitan Museum for this special exhibition by the Israel Antiquities Authority are the three most impressive and well-preserved mosaics.”
The artistry of this mosaic blows my mind. I’d love to go to the Met and see it!
“The floor of the colosseum, where you might expect to see a smooth ellipse of sand, is instead a bewildering array of masonry walls shaped in concentric rings, whorls and chambers, like a huge thumbprint. The confusion is compounded as you descend a long stairway at the eastern end of the stadium and enter ruins that were hidden beneath a wooden floor during the nearly five centuries the arena was in use, beginning with its inauguration in A.D. 80. Weeds grow waist-high between flagstones; caper and fig trees sprout from dank walls, which are a patchwork of travertine slabs, tufa blocks and brickwork. The walls and the floor bear numerous slots, grooves and abrasions, obviously made with great care, but for purposes that you can only guess. The guesswork ends when you meet Heinz-Jürgen Beste of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, the leading authority on the hypogeum, the extraordinary, long-neglected ruins beneath the Colosseum floor. Beste has spent much of the past 14 years deciphering the hypogeum—from the Greek word for ‘underground’—and this past September I stood with him in the heart of the great labyrinth.” (via Secrets of the Colosseum | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine)
Using predominantly Roman sources from the third to second centuries BC, an artist synthesizes archaeological evidence and historical description to create this catalog of “Celtic” arms and armor.
This wall painting is from the villa at Boscotrecase near Pompeii. It has fortunately been preserved, even after such a cataclysmic natural disaster (and several other smaller ones).
I’m showing this to you as it demonstrates the Roman ideal of country life. Most of the villas destroyed by Vesuvius were secondary residences where the wealthy could escape the hustle and bustle of city life. In many villas (Oplontis, for example), idyllic scenes of bucolic life were painted upon the walls. Here’s the thing: these scenes are highly idealised. Country life for a Roman was quite difficult.
This is a reconstruction of one of those grotto statues of Sperlonga I just mentioned.
Also, this is the original sentiment of: “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” The more you know…
The fragments we actually have:
(via)
This is the grotto of Tiberius (r. 14-37 CE) at Sperlonga, on the western coast of Italy. From what we can gather, it was like a private entertainment venue for the emperor. Just outside of the actual grotto was a small “island” which contained a small dining area and a fish-farm of sorts. That way, the emperor could always have a fresh meal when entertaining.
Think about this grotto as a tunnel of love or some other sort of carnival attraction. To access the grotto (and the dining area, for that matter), you’d need to row around in a tiny boat. Inside the grotto was a great display of statues which depicted important scenes from the epics we all know and love. Archaeologists were able to piece together one such scene from The Odyssey, the one where wily Odysseus and his crew set up to blind the cyclops, Polyphemus. Another scene depicted Scylla massacring Odysseus’s crew. That one was a lot harder to put back together.
Portions of these statues remained in situ for millennia since the actual structure of the grotto collapsed (while Tiberius was present, too!). I wonder what the gods were trying to tell him…
Sasha’s side note: The city’s current name, Sperlonga, comes from the Latin word for “cave” (spelunca, -ae). Seems fitting, doesn’t it?
The Romans called the Mediterranean Sea “mare nostrum,” which means “our sea.” This is because the Roman Empire controlled the entire Mediterranean coast. In addition, they expanded their territory to the British Isles, Greece, Turkey, and Albania.
