A previously unknown subterranean tract nearly half a mile long of an Augustan-era aqueduct has been rediscovered by spelunkers in Naples, southern Italy. Spelo-archaeologists from the non-profit Cocceius Association were able to investigate 647 meters (2123 feet) of a branch that tunnels through the Posillipo Hill. The Aqua Augusta was unique in the Roman world because it supplied not just one main urban nucleus, but at least eight of them in the Bay of Naples area, including Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Cumae. It was built between 33 and 12 B.C by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, best friend an ..read more

A unique gold and enamel heart-shaped pendant bearing the initials and emblems of King Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon has been unveiled at the British Museum. It is in impeccable condition and of such exceptionally high quality that it could plausibly be connected to the royal couple themselves. The jewel was discovered by Birmingham café owner Charlie Clarke in a field in Warwickshire on a clearly auspicious Friday the 13th in December of 2019. After his screaming abated, Clarke notified the Finds Liaison Officer who in turn contacted Historic England. A subsequent excavation of the find ..read more

A shipwreck discovered off the coast of Eastbourne in southern England has been identified as the 17th century Dutch warship Klein Hollandia. It was built in 1656 and for the next 16 years fought in every major battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) before going down at the beginning of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In 1672, the ship was part of the squadron of Admiral de Haese to escort the Smyrna fleet while sailing from the Mediterranean into the English Channel, en-route to the Netherlands. At the Isle of Wight, the squadron was attacked by an English squadron under Admiral Holmes ..read more

Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) archaeologists have revealed a large garnet at the center of the silver cross from the exceptionally wealthy 7th century bed burial found at Harpole, Northamptonshire, England. Discovered last April, the burial of an elite Saxon-era woman contained an ornate necklace with an unprecedented number of pendants made of garnets, semi-precious stones, Roman gold coins (all from the reign of Theodosius I, 379-395 A.D.) and glass pendants separated by gold wire spacer beads. The necklace is the largest, finest and most ornate example of its kind. Another uniquely l ..read more

A life-sized marble statue of a Hercules figure has been discovered on the Appia Antica, the ancient road leading south out of Rome. He wears the skin of the Nemean lion, its open mouth on his head like a hat, its front paws tied at the clavicle like a scarf, its hind legs draped over his left arm. His facial features, however, do not match the iconography of Hercules. This is the portrait of a man wearing a Hercules suit. The statue was not found in an archaeological excavation, but during construction of a new sewer line. The failure of a 19th century pipeline was causing sinkholes to appear ..read more

Votive deposits of bronze objects from the Iron Age have been discovered near the city of Chełmno in northern Poland. Dozens of bronze ornaments and numerous human bones were unearthed, the remains of sacrificial rituals that took place at the site about 2,500 years ago when the Lusatian culture inhabited the area. The important Lusatian fortified settlement of Biskupin lies just 60 miles southwest of the find site. Today the area is farmland, but in the 6th century B.C. it was a lake. Leaving metal objects in bodies of water as offerings was a well-known practice in prehistoric Europe and mor ..read more

The longest sword in Japan and a large bronze mirror that is also unprecedented in the Japanese archaeological record have been unearthed at the Tomio Maruyama burial mound in Nara. The burial mound (known as a kofun) and artifacts date to the second half of the 4th century. The sword is 2.37 meters (7’9″) long and 6 cm (2.34 inches) wide, more than twice as long as the previous record-holder that was found in a late 5th century burial mound in Hiroshima. It is the longest iron sword ever found in East Asia. The sword is a serpentine shape. Only 85 serpentine swords have been unearthed in Japa ..read more

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a late medieval gatehouse riddled with holes from musket and pistol shots that may be evidence of the first clash in the English Civil War, one that does not appear on the historical record. The site in Coleshill, Warwickshire, is being excavated because it is on the route of the new HS2 high-speed rail line. It’s pasture land now, but a medieval manor house, Coleshill Hall, once stood there. It was built in the 14th century and expanded in around 1600 with a grand formal garden, the remains of which were discovered by the HS2 team last year. The gat ..read more

A whole grave recovered from the oldest burial ground in Germany has been excavated almost four years after it was removed in a soil block. Radiocarbon analysis of the remains dates the burial ground to approximately 8,000 years ago in the Mesolithic era, just on the cusp of the Neolithic Revolution that saw the arrival of the first farmers in Brandenburg. The presence of ancient human burials on a vineyard in the village of Groß-Fredenwalde, northern Brandenburg, was first revealed in 1962 during construction of a radio tower. While some bones were unearthed at that time, there was no systema ..read more

Dozens of ancient wells and latrines rich in preserved organic remains have been unearthed in Sens, north-central France. They date to between the 1st and 3rd century A.D. and contain an abundance of ceramics, leather, wood, plus botanical and faunal remains. One extremely rare find is a wooden writing tablet with visible traces of ink lettering. Last May, a team of archaeologists from France’s National Institute for Preventative Archaeological Research (INRAP) excavated a previously unexplored district at the southern edge of the ancient city in advance of housing development construction. T ..read more