As if the fact that Tracy and Rory Vorster found a hidden trap door on a ledge above their toilet in their home in Lincoln weren’t cool enough, when they opened it, they found a slab of stone carved with a grotesque face bearing a striking resemblance to local icon, the Lincoln Imp. A hole in the open mouth suggested it had been a drain of some sort, or perhaps a urinal. When it was examined by an expert at the Lincoln Civic Trust, the initial impression was confirmed: it was a drain from the middle or late 14th century. [The couple] said the discovery is an example of why Lincoln is “amazing ..read more

A 2,500-year-old Greek-Illyrian helmet has been discovered in the village of Zakotorac on Croatia’s Pelješac peninsula. It was unearthed by archaeologists from the Dubrovnik Museums at the Gomile cave tomb site where rich graves from the second half of the 1st millennium B.C. have been discovered since the excavation project began in 2020. This is the second Greco-Illyrian helmet found in the Gomile excavations. The previous example was found in a grave along with fragments of iron weapons and thus likely belonged to a member of the warrior elite who was buried there. The recently-discovered h ..read more

The Roman lead coffin discovered in Garforth, near Leeds, in 2022 will go on display for the first time in an exhibition at the Leeds City Museum next month. The coffin was unearthed in an excavation of a previously unknown cemetery containing burials of more than 60 men, women and children from the late Roman and early Saxon periods. The lead coffin was used as the inner lining of a larger wood coffin which has decayed leaving only the metal interior in place. Lead coffins were expensive and rare, only affordable by the elite of Romano- British society. Pieces of jewelry — a bracelet, glass b ..read more

Archaeologists have discovered a hoard of silver bracteates from the 12th century in a grave at the Brahekyrkan church in Visingsö, southern Sweden. It is rare to find extensive grave goods in Christian graves, and large numbers of coins have been found in only a handful of burials from the period. What makes this find unique is that some of these coins are completely unknown on the archaeological record. The county museum archaeologists were overseeing the installation of the church’s new geothermal heating system in mid-March of this year when a skeleton was discovered in a shaft where wirin ..read more

Metal detectorists have discovered a unique bronze portrait of Alexander the Great near Ringsted on the Danish island of Zealand. The circular object is just over an inch in diameter and depicts Alexander with his characteristic wavy, center-parted hair and rams horns over his ears, a representation of his claim to be the son of the Greco-Egyptian deity Zeus Ammon. It dates to around 200 A.D. The portrait is heavily worn, and the finders did not immediately recognize the face as bearing the attributes of Alexander the Great. The fact that it was a face and seemed ancient was more than exciting ..read more

The excavation of insula 10 in Pompeii’s Regio IX neighborhood next to the recently-unearthed bakery has uncovered a banqueting hall with splendid wall frescoes depicting mythological characters and motifs from the Trojan War. Set against a solid black background are Paris and Helen, Apollo and Cassandra, and a supporting cast of maenads and satyrs acting almost as caryatids holding up the top register of the murals. The oecus (banquet hall) is part of a large domus whose architectural style dates it to the middle of the 1st century B.C. It is 48 feet long and 20 feet wide, a huge room coverin ..read more

A preventative archaeology excavation on the Rue de Beaucaire in Nîmes has uncovered graves, cremation pyres and secondary burials ranging in date from the 2nd century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D. The current street follows the east/west axis of the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul linking France to Spain, and a second road running northeast/southwest was unearthed in the excavation. Burials had been discovered on both roads, a common practice in ancient Roman cities which forbade burials within city limits. Several funerary enclosures containing up to 15 burials were found along the ..read more

The name of the Iranian city of Shiraz has been identified on a 7th century Sasanian clay seal discovered almost 100 years ago at Qasr-i Abu Nasr in southern Iran. The clay was impressed with four seals: a lion walking right, a monogram, an inscription in Pahlavi script (Middle Persian) and a horned animal. Iranian archaeologist Mohammadreza Nasab-Abdollahi has now deciphered the name “Mugh-e Shiraz” in the Pahlavi inscription. Sasanian clay seals were lumps of clay of different shapes and sizes used as official administrative stamps. The wet clay was wrapped around the tie of a document or bu ..read more

An excavation at the site of a real estate development in Grove, Oxfordshire, has uncovered the remains of a richly-decorated Roman villa complex that contained a wealth of artifacts including coins, jewelry, lead curse tablets without curses and tiny votive axes. It had a long period of occupation, from construction in the 1st or 2nd century through abandonment in the late 4th or early 5th century. During a year of excavation, archaeologists from the Red River Archaeology Group unearthed a monumental aisled building with internal colonnades typical of the late 1st century A.D. The building wa ..read more

Newly published research into the Roman gold coins in the Vindelev treasure points to a strong local power in the small town in East Jutland with connections to a network of the European elite. The hoard consists of 23 gold objects dating to the Migration Period (375-568 A.D.) unearthed at a farm in Vindelev outside of Jelling in South Jutland by a metal detectorist in December of 2020. There are 13 Nordic gold bracteates (thin, round gold sheets carved with figures from Norse mythology) from the 5th century A.D, including the largest bracteate in the world, and one with a runic inscription th ..read more