Ancient Roman altars found in Scotland to go on display

Two ancient Roman stone altars found near Edinburgh go on public display for the first time as part of a new exhibition at the National Museums of Scotland. The altars were used by soldiers worshipping the god Mithras almost 2,000 years ago in a temple at the northern frontier of the Roman empire. The discovery of the altars was made at Inveresk in East Lothian and dates to about 140 AD - when southern Scotland was reoccupied under Emperor Antoninus Pius.

The altars, which were excavated in 2010, are the only examples of their kind ever found in Scotland. Experts say the altars were once the centrepiece of the most northerly temple to the god Mithras in the Roman empire. Mithras was the focus of a secretive, male-only cult followed mainly by Roman soldiers. One altar shows the face of Sol, the sun god. It was designed so that light shone from behind, making the god's face and crown appear to glow in the darkness. It also includes carvings of the four seasons, shown as female figures, reflecting the passage of time.

Both altars were dedicated by a Roman centurion, probably named Gaius Cassius Flavianus, who was likely in charge of the fort at Inveresk. Around 140–142 AD, Emperor Antoninus Pius ordered the reoccupation of southern Scotland, reversing Hadrian's policy to push the Roman frontier north. Led by governor Quintus Lollius Urbicus, Roman legions built the turf-based Antonine Wall between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde.

Construction of the 37-mile (60 km) turf-and-timber fortification began around 142 AD, featured 16–20 forts and a wide ditch. The wall served as a new, shorter frontier though it was only occupied for about two decades before being abandoned.

Ancient jewels shine

Two pairs of Greek and Roman gold earrings, circa 2nd century B.C. - 2nd century A.D. GBP 10,625. Estimate GBP 2,000 – GBP 3,000.

Two pairs of Greek gold earrings, circa 3rd - 2nd century B.C. 8,750 - Estimate GBP 2,000 – GBP 3,000

5 Roman gold intaglio finger rings circa 1st Century B.C. 3rd Century A.D. - 8,750 Estimate GBP 1,500 – GBP 2,500.

A Greek bronze helmet of Cortinthian Type, Archaic period, circa mid-6th century B.C. GBP 250,000. Estimate GBP 100,000 – GBP 150,000 An Egyptian core-formed glass amphoriskos, New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, circa 1292-1185 B.C. GBP 175,000 - Estimate GBP 15,000 – GBP 25,000

Gold at Christies - The Ten Thousand

Prices for two ancient plaques exploded past estimates in 2021.

An Achaemenid gold appliqué of a winged bull, reign of Artaxerxes II, 404-359 BC. was estimated £100k-150k. It made £1.4m. A lamassu was estimated the same and made £1.6m. HERE. The spectacular objects were reputedly discovered during an excavation at the city of Hamadan, in northwest Iran, in 1920. Among the trove of 23 gold items were two plaques, coming to auction at Christies.

Artaxerxes II was a powerful leader who defended the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen — stretching from Greece to India — against his brother, Cyrus the Younger, and his army of Greek mercenaries known as ‘The Ten Thousand’. Between 401 and 399 BC, the Ten Thousand marched across Anatolia, fought the Battle of Cunaxa, and then marched back to Greece. Artaxerxes II also waged successful campaigns against the Spartans, Athenians and Egyptians.

Achaemenid gold applique of a winged bull. Iran, reign of Artaxerxes II, 404-359 B.C.

The Gate of All Nations (Gate of Xerxes), in the ruins of the ancient city of Persepolis, Iran, is flanked by a pair of lamassus.

The Pre-Columbian Gold Museum

The Pre-Columbian Gold Museum is a museum in San José, Costa Rica. It is located in a subterranean building underneath the Plaza de la cultura and is managed by the Banco Central de Costa Rica.

The museum has a collection of over 1600 artifacts of Pre-Columbian gold. The Central Bank began collecting the country's gold patrimony in 1950.

The Costa Rican metallurgical tradition was imported from Colombia, and its hallmarks include a casting method involving wax and the use of gold-copper alloys to make the metal more malleable. The earliest pieces are small and realistic; some are trade goods from Colombia. In southern Costa Rica, the discovery of gold deposits meant that artisans could afford to be more profligate, and the artifacts became bigger and bolder.

In Peru and other countries, gold was used to fashion armor and musical instruments. But in Costa Rica gold objects were less utilitarian and more often symbols of prestige and rank.

Warriors projected fierceness and social standing with pectorals, headdresses, armbands and nose pins. Shamans, considered conduits between the natural and supernatural worlds, were represented by finely worked pendants that combined human and animal features, often in the form of masks. In Costa Rica the first metal objects appeared around 400-500 AD.

The manufacture of metal objects reached its maximum development after the year 700 AD and lasted until contact with the Spanish. The majority of the metal objects that have been recovered in Costa Rica come from the southern Pacific area. This is due to the existence of natural gold and copper deposits in the region.

Shimao - China's Pompeii

Villagers in the hills of China’s Loess Plateau believed that the crumbling rock walls near their homes were part of the Great Wall.

Locals, and then looters, began finding pieces of jade in the rubble. Jade is not indigenous to this part of Shaanxi Province, the nearest source is almost a thousand miles away. The rubble was not part of the Great Wall but the ruins of a magnificent fortress city. Carbon-dating determined that parts of Shimao date back 4,300 years, nearly 2,000 years before the oldest section of the Great Wall was built. The ongoing dig has revealed more than six miles of walls surrounding a 230-foot-high pyramid.

80 human skulls with no bodies were found, suggesting human sacrifice.

Shimao flourished for nearly half a millennium, from around 2300 B.C. to 1800 B.C. It is the largest known Neolithic settlement in China with its 1,000-acre expanse. Fortified walls eight feet thick and six miles long ringed the city. Suddenly and for unknown reasons, it was abandoned.

Only a small fraction of Shimao has been excavated so far.

Vivid fresco depicting gladiators from Pompeii

A vivid fresco depicting a gladiator standing victorious as his wounded opponent gushes blood was discovered in Pompeii in 2019.

A 'murmillo' holds aloft his shield in his left hand, as he grips his short sword in the right. On the ground next to him lies the shield of the defeated 'thraex', who has suffered wounds and is bleeding. The thraex is gesturing with his hand, possibly asking for mercy.

A murmillo was a heavily armored Roman gladiator who fought with a large rectangular shield and a short sword, named after the Greek word for a type of fish due to his distinctive helmet. A Thraex, or Thracian, was equipped with a distinctive Thracian-style weapon and armor, including a small rectangular shield called a parmula and a curved short sword known as a sica. They also wore leg greaves.

Archaeology intern unearths spectacular Roman dagger

Nico Calman, 19, had a good internship in 2019. He unearthed a 2,000-year-old silver dagger that helped the Romans wage war against a Germanic tribe in the first century A.D.

Discovered in its sheath in the grave of a soldier at Haltern am See (Haltern at the Lake), the weapon needed nine months of meticulous work to reveal a spectacularly ornamented 13-inch-long blade and sheath that once hung from a leather belt.

Dating to the Augustan period from 37 B.C. to 14 A.D., the blade had a front row seat to some of the most humiliating defeats in Roman history. At that time, Haltern, which sat on the fringes of the vast Roman empire, housed a military base for soldiers. Up to 20,000 Roman soldiers were slaughtered when Germanic tribes swept through the region in 9 A.D. Though thousands of Roman soldiers were stationed in Haltern over almost 15 years or more, there are very few finds of weapons, attesting to their great value.

Up to 5,000 soldiers from the XIX Legion were stationed at Haltern am See to secure the region, with the camp serving as a pivotal, heavily fortified outpost before its abandonment following the Varus Battle.