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Romeins schrijfplankje oudst bewaarde tekst
[bron: NU]

LEEUWARDEN – Een Romeins schrijfplankje, dat in 1914 in een Friese terp is gevonden, blijkt de oudst bewaarde geschreven tekst van Nederland te zijn.

Onderzoek van het Fries Museum en het Fries Historisch Centrum (Tresoar) wijst uit dat de tekst is opgesteld op 23 februari in 29 na Christus. Dat maakte het Fries Museum donderdag bekend.

Het onderzoek is uitgevoerd door de professoren Alan Bowman en Roger Tomlin van de Universiteit van Oxford en professor Klaas Worp van de Universiteit van Leiden. Volgens Worp werd het plankje in 1914 ''met de klompen modder er nog aan'' gevonden in een terp bij het Friese Tolsum.

Datering
Jarenlang kon de precieze datering van het plankje niet worden achterhaald. De datering is nu dankzij nieuwe technieken vastgesteld.

Het wetenschappelijke jaarboek De Vrije Fries publiceerde in 1917 een vertaling van de tekst. Het zou een koopcontract voor een Friese koe zijn. Maar het blijkt een schuldverklaring te zijn, ondertekend door een Bataafse soldaat.

Briefpapier
Schrijfplankjes waren het Romeinse briefpapier. Op het hout werd een laag was gesmeerd waarin men met een griffel een tekst schreef. Bij het plankje uit Tolsum drukte de schrijver zo hard, dat de tekst nu nog leesbaar is in het hout.

Dat de professoren nu tot een andere vertaling komen heeft te maken met de slechte leesbaarheid. Voor dit onderzoek zijn vanuit verschillende hoeken foto's genomen. Op die manier is de belichting steeds anders, zodat de schaduwen van de inkepingen veranderen

Ancient Rome's elite in Los Angeles
[bron: Ansa]

Los Angeles, May 5 – An exhibition celebrating the art, culture and luxurious lifestyle of Ancient Rome's wealthy elite has reached Los Angeles. Entitled 'Pompeii And The Roman Villa', the event features over 120 items from ancient villas in the Bay of Naples, destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.

The mosaics, sculptures, paintings and jewellery, some of which only uncovered in the last few years, are mostly on loan from the Naples Archaeological Museum.

The Bay of Naples area was a popular summer getaway for prominent Romans from the first century BC onwards, as well as being home to a growing number of permanent wealthy residents. Over the decades, dozens of sumptuous seaside villas and gardens were built, decorated in ornate style by some of the empire's greatest artists.

The exhibit asks visitors to imagine the Bay of Naples as a kind of modern-day Malibu in California, providing a relaxing resort for those with money to spare.It reconstructs the homes of Rome's upper crust, which boasted lush gardens, inner courtyards decorated with valuable artworks and private swimming pools.

It also spotlights a host of luxury goods discovered by archaeologists in the 300 years since excavations first started in the area. Solid silver wine goblets, jewelled caskets that once contained exotic perfumes and the remains of gourmet delicacies, such as flamingo tongue and roast ostrich, are among the items uncovered.

In addition, the exhibition documents the fascination of Rome's nouveau riche with Greek culture, through books by Epicurius and Plato, garden sculptures of nude athletes and scantily clad statues of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.

The exhibition arrived in Los Angeles following a successful run at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.Speaking ahead of the Washington opening, Campania region Social Policies Councillor, Alfonsina De Felice, said she hoped the exhibit would help visitors look beyond media stereotypes and interest them in the real beauties of the southern region. ''This is a marvellous exhibit that will help us show the real Campania, a treasure trove of rare and precious items,'' she said.

'Pompeii And The Roman Villa' run at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art until October 4.

Pompeii frescoes on show in Naples
[bron: Ansa]

A stunning collection of frescoes that once adorned the walls of Ancient Roman buildings in Pompeii are set to go on show in Naples.

The National Archaeological Museum is to open its completely revamped fresco section, which hosts 400 works of art, following a ten-year renovation project. Preserved by a hail of lava and ash from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79, the precious artwork lay untouched for centuries until excavations started in the 1700s. Over the next 150 years, hundreds of frescoes were removed from their original location and carried away, sometimes for profit, sometimes in a bid to protect the art.

In nearly all cases, removing the artwork damaged the walls of the ancient buildings. Today, the collection housed in the Naples museum is the largest in the world, and is ready to go on show again. The principal change is an entirely new layout, which seeks to place the works in their historical context. The new layout offers visitors a chronological route through the works, charting developments in Pompeian art, as well as a thematic route, which groups together items removed from the same building wherever possible. The developments in art are mapped out through the four so-called ”styles” of Pompeian wall-painting. The collection contains no examples of the first style, dominant from the 2nd century BC until around 80 BC, as this mainly simulated marble and other materials, and so was of little interest to early archaeologists and was rarely removed. However, there is an extensive selection of art from the second style, which was popular throughout the first century BC. This period saw a focus on architectural features and trompe l’oeil compositions, such as a renowned painting of Macedonian princes and philosophers.

The third style, which peaked in around 10 BC but still appeared in Pompeian art 70 years later, favoured ornate and colourful decoration. Well-known examples from this era include a series of beautifully intricate paintings from the Boscotrecase villa, and bedroom decorations from the House of Fatal Love. The fourth style saw a resurgence in architectural scenes, although without the illusionary depth that characterized the second style.

However, a number of categories were eternally popular subjects for wall-painting. Religious and mythological subjects were long-running favourites, such as the feats of Hercules, Dido’s abandonment by Aeneas, Perseus rescuing Andromeda or the love of Mars and Venus, which appears in 30 paintings. Landscape paintings also appear throughout the ages, ranging from idyllic mythological scenes to elaborate gardens to exotic locations such as Egypt, complete with Nile and crocodiles. Paintings from taverns and shops provide another recurrent category.

Generally hurried works with little preparation, these served the sole purpose of attracting attention. However, they are today of particular interest to archaeologists as they depict rare scenes from everyday life, such as tradesmen, market people, labourers and tavern scenes.

Acropolis museum to open in June
[bron: AFP]

The ultra-modern Acropolis museum, situated below the ancient landmark that defines the Greek capital Athens, will belatedly open in June, Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Sunday.

"We are preparing a jewel of a museum whose opening on June 20 will be a major, global event," said Samaras after giving European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso a guided tour of the venue.

The three-level museum, with a total area of 25,000 square metres (270,000 square feet), includes a section reserved for the disputed Parthenon Marbles, currently at the British Museum in London.

Greece is pursuing a campaign for the return of the priceless friezes, removed in 1806 by Lord Elgin when Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, which the British Museum refuses to repatriate.

Designed by Franco-Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, the Acropolis museum was supposed to open in time for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, but that target date fell by the wayside due to technical and bureaucratic hurdles.

Controversial plans for a lavish opening ceremony and global promotional launch — at an estimated to cost six million euros (7.9 million dollars) — were scrapped earlier this year.

Barosso said after his visit: "I believe that Greeks should be proud of this excellent museum. It is one of the world's most important for our heritage, the heritage of Europeans but also of world culture."

Shedding light on the Catacombs of Rome
[bron: BBC News]

Rome's underground Christian, Jewish and pagan burial sites, the Catacombs, date back to the 2nd Century AD. There are more than 40 of them stretching over 170km (105 miles).

But, until now, they have never been fully documented, their vast scale only recorded with handmade maps.

That is now changing, following a three-year project to create the first fully comprehensive three-dimensional image using laser scanners. 

A team of 10 Austrian and Italian archaeologists, architects and computer scientists have started with the largest catacomb, Saint Domitilla, just outside the Italian capital. The tunnels, caves, galleries and burial chambers of Saint Domitilla stretch for about 15km (9 miles) over a number of levels.

At a time when Christians, in particular, were persecuted, the Catacombs became a relatively safe place to bury the dead. The soft, volcanic tufa rock was an especially workable, yet durable, material that was burrowed out over the course of nearly three centuries.

Yet, because of concerns about safety, only about 500m (1,640ft) are accessible to the public today.

Scanner
The new, moving, images of this entire underground system will change all that and open up this beautiful subterranean world in a way that it has never been seen before.

The leader of the project, Dr Norbert Zimmerman of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, was behind the idea to use laser scanners to record every part of the Catacombs. His scanner, which looks like a cylinder on a tripod, stands a metre or so high and is a piece of kit you usually find in the construction industry. Gone are the days when archaeologists just used shovels, brushes and sieves to unearth the past.

The scanner has been placed in hundreds of different locations in the Catacombs. It turns slowly, sending out millions of light pulses that bounce off every surface they come into contact with. The light pulses rebound back into the scanner and are recorded on a computer as a series of white dots, known as a "point cloud".

Gradually, every wall, ceiling, and floor is bombarded with the dots, enabling the computer to build up a picture of each room. Eventually, the computer completes a 360-degree, three-dimensional, moving image of that room, with every surface looking like it is made up of small white dots.

At the same time a camera on the scanner takes a picture of each surface. That information is also fed into the computer enabling colour to be added to "fill in" the dots.

'Real data'
When the process is finished, it looks like an actual film of the particular room in question.

In all, four billion dots were recorded, enabling practically the whole catacomb to be documented in this way. Only a handful of small spaces were left out because it simply was not possible to get the scanner in.

The final result is astonishing. On a computer screen, you can now see the whole underground complex. Using different buttons on the key pad, you can zoom in on the tunnels. You can travel "through" walls, down corridors and into chambers, giving the first real sense of its beauty, scale and detail.

Paintings on walls, which have not been seen in nearly 2,000 years, are now visible – their colours vivid and clear. "It is not a virtual image, it is not animation – what you are seeing is real data," says Mr Zimmerman.

I ask him why he did not just video the whole thing. "Well, you could have filmed each room. But that would not have given you the ability to 'travel' through the catacomb in a way that the scanned images allow," he says. "Its moving, 3D flexibility, gives you the chance to compare areas, to assess the ways the Catacombs were developed over time, to analyse how and why those who built them did what they did," he adds. "That's never been possible before."

'Big job'
Mr Zimmerman and his team have nearly completed their work on the Saint Domitilla catacomb. It is now back to Vienna to study the images in more detail. Dr Zimmerman says much of the work will be made available to the public.

Examining the images from the Saint Domitilla catacomb alone will keep them busy for the next year or so. He has no plans to scan all the Catacombs. "That is a big job, but it may well be needed if we are to really understand this incredible historical phenomenon and if we are to make a proper detailed study whilst these caves are still intact."

"We will publish our findings to reveal, for the first time, just how impressive these tombs were and how the people of that time went to so much effort to bury their dead," he says.

KLIK HIER VOOR EEN VIDEO OVER DEZE EXPEDITIE

Archaeologists keen to trace origins of Roman skeleton
[bron: This is Gloucestershire]

A ROMAN skeleton which was found in Kingsholm is being investigated by archeologists who are keen to trace his origins.

The male skeleton was discovered in 1972, north of Kingsholm Square and ever since experts have wondered where he came from. Now, the Gloucester City Museum has had funding for the analysis of the skeleton using new technology to work out where he originated. Member and former president of The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Carolyn Heighway, said: "We believe he was a special person in the late Roman period in Gloucester, judging by his grand belt and buckles and that sort of thing.

"Subsequently it was judged by academics that he could have been of eastern European origin and was probably part of the Roman army."

The body had been placed in the floor of a mausoleum and the man, aged between 25 and 30 years old, was wearing distinctive military gear which included a silver belt buckle, shoe buckles and strap end, and a knife with a strip of silver set into the handle.

It was found by city archaeologist Henry Hurst and was thought to date from the late 4th century, or the early years of the 5th.

Experts believe the man was obviously well regarded in Roman society of the period because of the unusual style of fittings and dress.

Mrs Heighway added: "What we don't know is whether he came from Gloucester and was part of the army, but wore the foreign clothes or whether he was here with the army from abroad."

The Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society is providing financial assistance to Gloucester City Museum for the analysis of the skeleton and using the latest scientific methods it is hoped to establish where this man came from originally and any evidence of his diet.

This is one of seven grants awarded this year totalling over £3,000, provided by a legacy from a Miss Irene Bridgeman and others, which are awarded once a year to individuals, towards the cost of historical and archaeological research in Gloucestershire.

Aristotle school to become open-air museum
[bron: msnbc]

The remains of the ancient school where philosopher Aristotle taught his pupils nearly 2,500 years ago are to be turned into an outdoor museum thanks to a donation from a betting company, Greece's Culture Ministry says.

The project in central Athens is slated for completion next year at a cost of $5.9 million. But it will not use funds from the government, which has promised spending cuts amid the global financial crisis.

Aristotle, who lived from 384 to 322 B.C., studied under Plato and tutored Alexander the Great. Later, in Athens, he taught in the grounds of the Lyceum, a public sports complex frequented by the city's young men.

The outdoor museum will involve building a translucent roof over the site, Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Wednesday. "Saving money from the (ministry) budget is very important," he said.

Funding for the venture will be provided by Greek betting company OPAP, which is partly state-owned. Greece has promised wide-ranging spending cuts in 2009 after the budget deficit last year exceeded EU limits. Samaras said the sponsorship money had helped revive the long-delayed venture.

The scant remains are mostly foundations and lower courses of walls from a wrestling hall, as well as parts of Roman-era baths used by the athletes after workouts. They were discovered in 1996 during construction for a planned modern art museum that was later abandoned. Plans to open the site to the public have languished for about a decade.

"This is a big project," Athens archaeological service official Aris Koronakis said at the site Thursday. "The arc-shaped roof will cover the entire area which is 50-by-48 meters (yards)."

The official said construction is the main source of archaeological discovery in Athens."That's how antiquities are found: The archaeological service inspects all main construction sites in Athens," he said. "All of the city is under scrutiny for possible archaeological remains."

Standing in what was once a wooded, riverside location outside the ancient city walls, the Lyceum was considered one of the three greatest schools of philosophy in ancient Greece and archaeologists had sought its remains for more than 150 years. Ironically, it was finally found at the end of a modern street named after the ancient school.

Samaras said he hopes the new outdoor museum would eventually help expand a network of ancient sites in the capital — including Plato's Academy — that are easily accessed by visitors touring the city on foot.

Athens underwent a major redevelopment project ahead of the 2004 Olympics, with a cobblestone walkway built around the Acropolis Hill. A long-awaited museum which will house ancient masterpieces from the Acropolis is to be inaugurated in June.

Roman glass dish found in grave
[bron: BBC News]

A rare Roman millefiori dish has been unearthed by archaeologists from the grave of a wealthy Londoner. The dish, which has gone on display at the Museum of London in Docklands, was found during excavations in Prescot Street, in Aldgate, east London.

It was pieced together from its many fragments. It is made up of hundreds of translucent blue indented glass petals, bordered with white embedded in a bright red glass background.

Other ceramic and glass vessels were also ranged along the sides of the casket.

Liz Goodman, Museum of London archaeology conservator, said: "Piecing together and conserving such a complete artefact offered a rare and thrilling challenge. "We occasionally get tiny fragments of millefiori, but the opportunity to work on a whole artefact of this nature is extraordinary."

She said the dish is extremely fragile but the glasswork is intact and illuminates nearly two millennia after being crafted.

The dish formed part of the grave goods of the Roman Londoner whose cremated remains were uncovered in a container in a cemetery in Londinium's (the Roman name for London) eastern quarter. 

Archaeologists believe its complexity means it was a highly-prized and valuable item. Glass experts say it is the first time such a complete dish has been found outside the eastern Roman empire.

Millefiori means "one thousand flowers" and is a glass working technique using glass rods with multi-coloured patterns that are only visible at the cut ends. 

The name of the Roman Londoner whose grave the fragments were found in has not been revealed.

Ook op Yahoo News stond dit nieuws te lezen:

Unique Roman glass dish found at London grave site
[bron: Yahoo News]

Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman glass bowl, thought to be a unique find in the Western Roman Empire, at an ancient cemetery beyond the walls of the old city of London.

The "millefiori" dish (a thousand flowers), believed to date from around the 2nd to 3rd century A.D., is a mosaic of hundreds of indented blue petals with white bordering.

"For it to have survived intact is amazing. In fact, it is unprecedented in the western Roman world," said Jenny Hall, curator of the Roman collection at the Museum of London. "We are still checking out whether there are similar examples surviving in the eastern part of the empire, in ancient Alexandria for example, but it's the only one in the West," she told reporters.

Archaeologists said the dish was colored bright red when it was first pulled from the earth, as the intricate design was imbedded in opaque red glass.

The bright vermilion color has slowly disappeared since excavation as the water-saturated glass dried out. The moisture had preserved the original coloring, but some of the pigment is still distinguishable around the rim.

The artifact was found 2.5 to 3 meters (yards) down at a sprawling ancient cemetery in Aldgate, east London, just beyond the old city walls. Romans were required by law to bury their dead outside the city gates.

It formed part of a cache of grave goods found close to a wooden container holding the ashes of a probably wealthy Roman citizen from the ancient imperial outpost of Londinium, now mostly hidden beneath modern-day London.

Other artifacts recovered with the bowl included ceramic pottery and glass flasks which once contained perfumed oil used to anoint the body.

Guy Hunt, director of commercial archaeology services firm L-P: Archaeology who was in charge of the six-month dig at the site, said the cemetery covers a massive area. "No-one knows how big the cemetery really is. Some think it could be up to 16 hectares (40 acres), disappearing under roads and buildings," he said.

Hunt said the section of the cemetery that was excavated originally sat under Victorian houses flattened during World War Two. Subsequently turned into a car park and now about to be redeveloped, the site offered an opportunity for proper exploration. The rubble from the shattered buildings helped to inter the finds, Hunt said. "It is a miracle of preservation."

The dish goes on show at the Museum of London Docklands in the southeast of the British capital from the end of April.

Kilns discovery could lead to a Romans rethink
[bron: This is Kent]

The discovery of two Roman structures in Otford could lead to a revaluation of their time in Britain. The last two weeks of an archeological project to excavate a site in the village drew to a close earlier this month with experts believing they may have unearthed two pottery kilns, each around 4m in diameter.

Until now it had not been thought that the firing of pottery – a huge industry in Roman times – was carried out in this area.

Sevenoaks archeologist Diarmaid Walshe spearheaded the dig. He believes if scientific analysis proves his finds are kilns, Otford could have been at the centre of an industry that supplied pottery to Roman settlements all over the South East. "If they are pottery kilns it's very important because, according to experts, there were no pottery kilns in this area. We can't confirm it yet, but on the face of it they do appear to be pottery kilns because we've got massive quantities of pottery sitting in there. Pottery was like plastic is today. It would have been used from day to day. It could confirm Otford was a very important centre in Roman Britain and the South East because it would have been a large centre of production."

Although Mr Walshe admitted the structures could in fact turn out to be bread ovens, the further discovery of a puddling pond nearby seems to add weight to his theory. He explained the puddling pond, around 20m by 10m, would have been used for processing the clay before moulding and then firing it in the kilns.

Items such as roof tiles would almost certainly have been made there and transported around the region. "This would have been a large scale industry," he said. Scientific analysis should confirm his theory one way or another within the next three months.

As well as the structures, his team of 45, who came from as far away as Florida in the US, also discovered around 50 coins dating from the 1st century right up until the end of the Roman period in the 4th century.

Seven broaches, one of which can still be fastened, were uncovered too. And the discovery of an early Saxon whorl, which would have been used to spin thread, gave further cause for excitement. The Saxons prospered after the Romans deserted Britain, although comparably little is known about their society.

Mr Walshe said: "That was the Dark Ages so we're not fully sure what happened. All we do know is that even after the Romans left, there was still some form of settlement in Otford."

This is not the first time Mr Walshe has made the headlines. Last year the Chronicle reported he had uncovered evidence that suggested the site in Otford – the exact location of which remains a closely guarded secret – dated back to the Stone Age.

And in 2007 he discovered a mosaic floor at an archeological site near Tel Aviv.