Herculaneum beach

The beach at the Herculaneum archaeological park, located in Campania, opened in June 2024 after a multi-year restoration project. Herculaneum lay buried under 35 meters of solidified ash until it was discovered by chance in 1709 as a worker drilled a well for a monastery.

Digs in the 1980s and '90s uncovered the skeletons of more than 300 people in stone boathouses near the beach. They died from the heat as they awaited rescue by Pliny the Elder.

Work at the Antica Spiaggia area began in January 2022. It was already partially excavated in the 1980s. Dozens of skeletons were found, including the famed 'Ring Lady,' named for the rings on her fingers. Herculaneum was much closer to Vesuvius than Pompeii, and was buried by pyroclastic surges. Excavations unearthed lavish villas, organic matter such as fruit and bread, wooden furniture, and hundreds of charred papyrus scrolls.

Evidence was found of high temperatures on the skeletons of those found in the arched vaults on the seashore, which is now 500 metres inland, as well as the existence of carbonized wood in the boathouses, which became their tombs. The beach is now about four metres below current sea levels.

In 2021, the skeleton of a man dubbed the “last fugitive,” was found. Its believed he had been attempting to escape toward the sea with his valuables. The man was aged between 40 and 45 and was found with a heavily blackened skull and bones with numerous heat-induced fractures. Under the left arm of the skeleton was a cloth shoulder bag inside which was a wooden box containing objects in metal, pieces of cloth, and traces of gold. He suffered the same fate as the others. The extremely high temperatures of the pyroclastic flow caused human tissue to instantly vaporize and the skeleton was imprisoned in a mass of ash, gas and debris.

Dubbed the ‘Herculaneum 300’, their remains were found just four miles (6.43 km) from Mount Vesuvius. Historians have suggested the group was minutes away from being rescued by Pliny the Elder, commander of the local naval fleet. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, wrote two letters describing the eruption, both of which have great historical significance due to their accurate description of the eruption.

The Herculaneum scrolls are a collection of over 1,800 ancient papyri carbonized and preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Discovered in an ancient library, they represent the only surviving library from classical antiquity. It was impossible to open the scrolls without destroying them. Today particle accelerators and AI have revealed their contents. Scientists recovered 1.5 meters of readable text across 20 columns from a document dated to 200–300 BC, making it the oldest Herculaneum scroll unwrapped. The recovered writings are lost works by the Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus, who wrote of ethics, theology, and human behavior. Instead of physically unraveling the fragile scrolls, teams use particle accelerators to generate ultra-high-resolution CT scans of the sealed bundles. Custom AI algorithms and deep learning programs detect microscopic differences in density between the carbonized papyrus and the carbon-based ink.

The successful decoding proves that hundreds of remaining sealed manuscripts can be read, promising to recover vast amounts of lost Greco-Roman philosophy, poetry, and history.

Ancient Salamis

Salamis was a major Mediterranean city for 1,500 years — founded around 1100 BC, and finally abandoned in the 7th century AD.

Salamis is an ancient Greek city-state on the east coast of Cyprus, 6 km north of modern Famagusta. According to tradition, the founder of Salamis was Teucer, son of Telamon, who could not return home after the Trojan war because he had failed to avenge his brother Ajax.

Earliest finds date to the eleventh century BC. The copper ore on Cyprus ensured the island was an essential ancient trade port. In 450 BC, Salamis was the site of a land and sea battle between Athens and the Persians. (not the earlier Battle of Salamis in 480 BC in Attica.) After Alexander the Great conquered the Persians, Ptolemy I ruled the island of Cyprus. In 306 BC Salamis was the site of a naval battle between the fleets of Demetrius I of Macedon and Ptolemy I. Demetrius won the battle and captured the island. In Roman times, Salamis prospered as part of the Roman province of Cilicia.

The city was particularly favoured by the Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian, who restored and established its public buildings. The "cultural centre" of Salamis during the Roman period was situated at the northernmost part of the city, where a gymnasium, theatre, amphitheatre, stadium and public baths have been revealed. Several strong earthquakes led to the destruction of Salamis at the beginning of the 4th century. The town was rebuilt under the name Constantia by Constantius II. There are extensive ruins. The theatre and the gymnasium have been restored.

Augustus denarius 27 BC to 14 AD

The reign of Augustus marked the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, a shift that altered the course of history.

Roman coins weren't just currency; they were a powerful medium of propaganda, designed to communicate political messages. The Gaius and Lucius Caesar type (2 BC – AD 4) features a laureate head of Augustus on the obverse, facing right. The laurel crown is often associated with victory and military achievement. The reverse features Gaius and Lucius Caesar, grandsons and heirs.

The son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder, Augustus' only daughter, Lucius was adopted by his grandfather along with his older brother, Gaius Caesar. As the emperor's adopted sons and joint-heirs to the Roman Empire, Lucius and Gaius had promising political and military careers. Lucius Caesar died suddenly at the age of 18. Gaius Caesar died at the age of 23 from complications from a serious wound he sustained during the siege of Artagira in Armenia. Augustus eventually adopted his stepson Tiberius.

Augustus, 27 BC-AD 14. Denarius struck in Lugdunum, 13-14 AD. Minted near the end of Augustus' reign, this coin depicts Tiberius, standing in a chariot. VF starting price: 75 CHF.

The Parthenon

Parthenon restoration has added marble slabs to the western pediment of the temple, restoring a key portion of the landmark.

The Acropolis Restoration Service says marble additions make the pediment the most complete it’s been in 220 years. It has deteriorated over the last 2,500 years due to looting, earthquakes, military conflict, air pollution and well-intended but ultimately harmful historic restoration efforts.

British aristocrat Thomas Bruce, Seventh Earl of Elgin, removed many of the decorative elements from the Parthenon’s pediments, a pair of triangular structures featuring marble sculptures and panels on its eastern and western facades. He transported the pieces back to England and later sold them to the British government. The “Parthenon marbles” or the “Elgin marbles” have remained stolen by the British Museum in London ever since.

The existing temple sits on the site of an older building that was razed by the Persians in 480 BCE. Construction of the second temple to Athena began in 447 BCE under the direction of Pericles.

Ictinus and Callicrates were called upon to create the building. Estimates put the cost of the Parthenon at 470 silver talents. The cost to build and fully outfit the most advanced warship of the era, the trireme, was a talent.

Restoration efforts are underway and they began in 1975.

The Elgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural pieces that were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. The collection of sculptures and artifacts was obtained in Athens by Lord Elgin, a British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in the early 19th century. The British Parliament bought the collection in 1816 and presented it to the British Museum.

The Parthenon, or the Temple of Athena was built between 447 and 438 BC.

The collection includes many pieces from the Parthenon, some of which Lord Elgin is said to have asked to be sawed off so that he could decorate his mansion in Scotland. He later sold the pieces to pay off debts. Britain says that Lord Elgin saved the Elgin marbles from destruction and acquired them fairly. Greece says the collection was looted.

Greek and British authorities have fought over the collection of sculptures for decades.

About 65% of the original sculptures from the Parthenon survive and are located in museums across Europe. The majority are divided between the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the British Museum in London, while important pieces are also held by other major European museums, including the Louvre and the Vatican.

The centuries-long debate over the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece hasn't resulted in their repatriation.

The Roman Polyspastos

The Roman Polyspastos was a compound-pulley crane powered by human labor. By combining multiple pulleys, ropes, and winches (or treadwheels), it allowed a small crew to lift heavy loads of 3,000 to 6,000 kg. This engineering leap propelled the construction of monumental temples, aqueducts, and amphitheaters. The simplest 3-pulley crane (the trispastos) could lift about 150 kg with one person. The polyspastos, with its multiple pulleys, could lift 3,000 kg when operated by four men.

To increase mechanical advantage, Romans often replaced the traditional hand-cranked winch with a large wooden treadwheel. Workers walked inside the wheel, doubling the maximum lifting capacity to 6,000 kg without adding more men.

The Haterii relief is a late 1st-century AD stone relief found on the Tomb of the Haterii. It shows a polyspastos at work. The ancient machine allowed the Haterii family to erect massive temple-style tombs, multi-storied tenements, and grand imperial monuments during the Flavian dynasty. While capable of lifting stones up to 6 tonnes, Romans used a separate method for even heavier loads. They built wooden lifting towers which housed specialized pulleys, winches, and human-powered treadwheels to lift weights that could exceed 50 tons.

Roman consul Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus

Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was consul in 54 BC and a fierce opponent of Julius Caesar. He was a leader of the aristocratic Optimates and fought to resist Caesar's rise to power during the Roman Civil War. He was Nero's great-great-grandfather. As the friendship between Caesar and Pompey cooled, Ahenobarbus threw his lot behind Pompey. The coin is a highly desired rarity, struck circa 41 B.C. at a mint that was traveling with Ahenobarbus. Hammer price was 650,000 Swiss francs ($697,882 U.S.)

Caesar crossed the Rubicon on 11 January 49 BC with Legio XIII, declaring that "the die is cast". By advancing under arms into the Roman home province of Italia, and beyond the boundaries of his own provinces where he held imperium, civil war came between the forces in support of Caesar and those in support of the Senate led by Pompey. The senate appointed Ahenobarbus to succeed Caesar as governor of the province of further Gaul, and when Caesar marched into Italy in 49, he was the only aristocrat who showed any courage. At Corfinium with about thirty cohorts, (3 legions) he expected support from Pompey but none came. His own troops compelled him to surrender to Caesar after a seven day siege. Caesar let him live.

Ahenobarbus was killed just after the Battle of Pharsalus in 48, in which he commanded the right wing against Mark Antony, who, according to Cicero, struck the blow that killed him.

The Boscoreale Treasure

The Boscoreale Treasure is a large collection of exquisite silver and gold Roman objects discovered in the ruins of the Villa della Pisanella at Boscoreale, near Pompeii.

It consists of 109 pieces of silverware, as well as gold jewellery (necklaces, bracelets and earrings) and over 1,000 gold coins. Items from the hoard date from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD. Many of the silver items from the treasure are considered masterpieces of Roman art. A Julius Caesar aureus,8.17gm, 46 BC, with Boscoreale Toning Ch XF. Strike: 5/5 Surface: 3/5 €32.500.

Boscoreale was buried by volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Skeleton cups of the Boscoreale Treasure

Among those who escaped Mt. Vesuvius was the owner of Villa Pisanella, a popular wine producing villa. It's believed that the owner was Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, a wealthy merchant and banker who was the son of a freed slave.

The priceless hoard was found in 1895.

The coins were stored in an empty cistern in the wine cellar. With a general exchange rate of one aureus as pay for one month of work, it is a significant sum.

The coins are known as “Boscoreale” aurei because of the distinctive toning found on many of them. Gold itself is inert, but when made into coins, it is alloyed with small amounts of silver and copper which are susceptible to toning.

Over the 1,800 years that the coins spent buried beneath the ash and pumice from Vesuvius, some examples developed significant toning.