Drones reveal ancient settlement in Iraqi Kurdistan

During the Cold War era, US spy satellites snapped images of the Soviet Union, China and their allies. When these images were declassified in the 1990s, photos of a rocky terrace in Iraqi Kurdistan caught the attention of archaeologists, who believed they saw the remnants of a large, square fort. Qalatga Darband is located at a strategic point on the Darband-i-Rania pass, which once linked Mesopotamia to Iran. Archaeologists think the city was built on a route that Alexander of Macedon took in 331 BC while pursuing Persian King Darius III; who was fleeing from his defeat at the Battle of Gaugamela.

Drone images of Qalatga Darband were processed to enhance color differences in 2022. The city, nearby Lake Dukan, was encircled by a wall and had a fort, a temple, and wine presses.

The Parthians were a major power, conquering vast swaths of territory.

Qalatga Darband appears to have been occupied during the early Parthian period, which spanned from the first century B.C. to the first century A.D. A coin discovered at the site depicts the Parthian king Orodes II, who ruled between 57 B.C. and 37 B.C.

Search for Cleopatra's tomb

The location of Cleopatra and Mark Antony's tomb is one of archaeology's unsolved mysteries. Taposiris Magna, an ancient temple complex 30 miles west of Alexandria, has been studied.Researchers discovered a 4,300-foot underground tunnel, a large sunken ancient port off the coast, and hundreds of coins bearing Cleopatra's image.

The most widely accepted theory places the tomb of the pair somewhere in Alexandria, likely submerged due to a massive earthquake and tsunami in 365 AD.

The remains of a temple of Osiris, Taposiris Magna, has been in the spotlight as the site of the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

Cleopatra VII was born in 70 or 69 B.C. and ruled Egypt as co-regent for almost 30 years. After the forces of Cleopatra and Anthony were defeated by Octavian, she committed suicide in 30 B.C.

Cleopatra VII was the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt. She was part of a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. In 2010 archaeologists discovered a huge headless granite statue of a Ptolemaic king, and the original gate to a temple dedicated to the god Osiris. It could represent Ptolemy IV.

Domitius Domitianus aureus - $1.6m

A gold coin of an obscure, ill-fated Roman usurper led the way in elite auctions by Numismatica Ars Classica in late May. Graded Ch AU★, 5/5 Strike and 4/5 surface, it raced past its pre-auction estimate and made $1.63 million. Lucius Domitius Domitianus launched his rebellion from Egypt in 297 AD, seizing control of Alexandria and the Nile Delta. Capitalizing on local grievances against Diocletian's high taxes, he declared himself Augustus and minted his own coins. Its believed to be one of three aurei in private hands.

"One of the great ironies of Roman coinage is that some of the most valuable coins are of emperors who most people have never heard of,"

The revolt of Domitius Domitianus in Egypt interrupted the grain supply to Rome and opened the possibility of Persian (Sasanian) invasion. For about 8 months Domitianus controlled Alexandria and its mint, striking aurei and folles, as well as a series of pre-reform imperial Greek denominations. Diocletian personally led an expedition to Egypt to quell the rebellion. Diocletian retook most of the lost territory by December 297, which is when Domitianus died.

The rebellion was briefly sustained by Domitianus' corrector (designated successor), Aurelius Achilleus. Diocletian laid siege to Alexandria, ultimately recapturing the city and brutally crushed the final resistance in March 298. Diocletian was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. Diocletian was unique in Roman imperial history for choosing retirement. He would die in 313 CE as a farmer growing cabbages.

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 disaster. The entire XIX legion was wiped out.

Murum aries attigit - 'The ram has touched the wall'

Murum aries attigit is Latin for 'the ram has touched the wall.' It refers to a strict Roman military ultimatum: once a battering ram made contact with a city's fortifications, the offer of surrender and mercy was revoked, and the city would be sacked.

The ram touching the wall referred to the battering ram in an assault. The Roman battering ram (or aries) was a massive siege engine used to breach fortress walls and gates. It featured a heavy timber beam with a reinforced metal tip, suspended on ropes inside a mobile wooden shelter called a testudo ("tortoise") Romans held that once an assault had begun, no mercy or quarter would be given.

When a city resisted a Roman siege and was breached, standard protocol was complete devastation. Soldiers were frequently ordered to kill every living thing they encountered until the commander gave the signal to stop, at which point the survivors were enslaved as war booty.

The term "missio" refers to the sign that a gladiator may give when they cede a fight to their opponent. It serves as both an acknowledgement of defeat and a plea for mercy.

The loser asks the munerarius to stop the fight and send him alive (missus) from the arena. If he had not fallen he could be "sent away standing" (stans missus). The editor took the crowd's response into consideration in deciding whether to let the loser live. "Without missio" was a fight with no possibility of a reprieve for the loser.

Expensive ancient coins

A gold aureus of Diadumenianus (or Diadumenian). He was son and co-emperor of Macrinus who ruled from April 217 to June 218. Macrinus came to power by murdering his predecessor, the demented Caracalla. He then made Diadumenianus, his 9 year-old son, co-emperor. Defeated in battle, both were hunted down and executed by rebel troops. In 1973 an aureus sold for $65,825 USD. In 2018 a comparable example made $336k.

Julius Saturninus was the Roman governor of Syria. He was forced by his troops and an unruly mob to proclaim himself as emperor in the year 280. After a few months, he was killed by his own troops. Only two coins are known. One resides in the French national collection, the other sold by Sotheby’s in 1972 for $61,500. It appeared again at auction in 1991 and brought $180k.

Jewish War Year 5 Silver Shekel. Judea rose in revolt in the year 66. The war dragged on for five bloody and bitter years. Around 25 genuine examples of the Year 5 shekel are known. One appeared at auction in 2020 and brought $300k.

Marius aureus. In 269 CE, a blacksmith who had risen through the ranks of the Roman army on the Rhine was proclaimed emperor by his troops under the name “Marcus Aurelius Marius”. He reigned for a few months before he was executed, according to legend with a sword that he had forged. Only 9 gold aurei of Marius exist. The sole undamaged coin in private hands sold for $59,305 in 1972. When it came to market again in 2003, it made $138,598.

Tutankhamun's dagger made from meteorite

Analysis of a dagger found in Tutankhamun's sarcophagus found the blade is made of iron from a meteorite. The dagger has a finely embossed gold handle with a crystal pommel. It was encased within a golden sheath. The blade contains high levels of nickel, along with traces of cobalt and phosphorus. Researchers were able to match the chemical composition to a meteorite which was found in 2000 on the Maras Matruh plateau in Egypt, 150 miles west of Alexandria. Hieroglyphic term for iron, it translates as “iron from the sky”. The high quality of Tutankhamun's dagger suggests a mastery of iron working in his time.

Ancient Egyptian royal archives from 1,400BC mention royal gifts of iron in the period immediately before Tutankhamun's reign. Tushratta, King of Mitanni – a kingdom in northern Syria and Anatolia – sent iron objects to Amenhotep III, the grandfather of Tutankhamun.

The 13 inch long (34.2cm) dagger was found lying beside the right thigh of King Tutankhamun's mummy. It was likely handed down from his father. Ancient Egyptians believed iron from meteorites had magical powers that could usher souls into the afterlife. To the ancient Egyptians, meteorites were gifts from the gods. They considered the sky divine, so anything that fell from it would have been seen as a gift from the gods – if not a physical piece of one. They believed that the gods had bones made of iron. (and flesh of gold, skin of silver and hair of lapis lazuli)

Kamil crater in southern Egypt

There is no evidence of iron smelting in the region until nearly 1000 years later, so there is no question where the metal came from.

Tutankhamun’s daggers

Mass burial of Roman soldiers

Construction workers renovating a Vienna football field in 2024 found a grim piece of history: a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of what are believed to be warriors from a 1st-century Roman battle. The site yielded evidence of a brutal battle involving Germanic tribes. Located in the Simmering district of Vienna, the mass grave holds the intertwined remains of at least 129 men. Finding the dead is uncommon for Roman history as soldiers in the Roman Empire were typically cremated until the 3rd century.

Every skeleton examined showed signs of injury — typically to the head, torso and pelvis. This rules out execution. Victims were all male. Most were aged 20 to 30 years old and all were in good health.

Bones dated to between 80 and 130 A.D. That was consistant with history of relics found in the grave – armor, helmet cheek protectors, and the nails used in the Roman military caligae. A rusty dagger (pugio) of a type in use specifically between the middle of the 1st century and the start of the second was found.

The best theory is that the battle was connected to the Danube campaigns of Emperor Domitian, from 86 to 96 A.D. In the winter of 85/86 AD after 116 years of peace along the Roman frontier, King Duras swarmed over the frozen Danube and pillaged Moesia. The Romans were caught by surprise and most forces, including the Legio V Alaudae, were annihilated.

Domitian (A.D. 81-96), aureus. Rome mint, struck A.D. 92-4. Domitian in triumphal quadriga. 7.55g. An excellent example. $39k USD

Santorini - Thera

The Greek Island of Santorini was in the headlines in early 2025 because of a swarm of severe earthquakes. The earthquake swarm prompted an exodus from the island. Santorini, classically Thera, is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Greece's mainland. It is the remnant of a volcanic caldera.

The eruption of Thera was a catastrophic eruption which is thought to have occurred some 3,400 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. It was the largest volcanic event on Earth in recorded history. The eruption devastated the island of Thera, and may have led to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete.

Kolumbo is a submerged active volcano. Its most recent eruption in 1650 CE, generated a tsunami causing destruction in the islands of Santorini, Ios, and Sikinos, while the poisonous gas emitted from the eruption killed 70 in Santorini.

Kolumbo’s edifice was created by at least five eruptive cycles, the earliest dating back more than 1M years.

New research into ancient tree rings from half a world away helped settle lingering questions about when Thera erupted. Scientists believe the volcano erupted in the 16th century B.C., about 3,400 years ago, blowing some 24 cubic miles of rock and ash into the atmosphere. The eruption had long lasting and wide ranging effects world wide. Researchers were able to determine colder years in the tree rings of Irish oaks and bristlecone pines in California. Scientists believed that the eruption happened between 1600 and 1525 B.C.

Evidence of a catastrophic tsunami that followed the eruption of Thera was found at Çesme-Bağlararası on Turkey’s Aegean coast, more than 100 miles north-northeast of Santorini.

Researchers found an articulated skeleton of a man (and his dog) believed to have been killed by the tidal wave following the eruption that devastated the Aegean island. Calibrated radiocarbon ages found within the tsunami deposit say the remains date no earlier than 1612 BCE. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep.

The myth of Atlantis, described by Plato, may be based upon the Santorini eruption. Excavations in 1967 at Akrotiri made Thera the best-known Minoan site outside Crete.

Only the southern tip of a large town was uncovered, yet it revealed complexes of multi-level buildings, streets, and squares with remains of walls standing as high as eight metres, all entombed in the solidified ash. Pipes with running water and water closets found at Akrotiri are the oldest ever discovered.

The advanced architecture, and the layout of Akrotiri resemble Plato's description of the legendary lost city of Atlantis.

Dense patches of crocus flowers on the fresco ‘The Saffron Gatherers’ from Santorini suggest cultivation. Saffron crocuses are effectively clones dating back to saffron’s emergence in ancient times.

In 2015 archaeologists discovered 39 ingots scattered across the sea floor near a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sicily. The ingots were made from orichalcum, a cast metal which ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote was from the legendary city of Atlantis. X-ray fluorescence analysis indicate the ingots were made from a mixture of zinc (15-20 per cent), charcoal and copper (75-80 per cent) with traces of nickel, lead and iron. Orichalcum is a brass-like alloy, which was made in antiquity through the process of cementation, which was achieved through the reaction of zinc ore, charcoal and copper metal in a crucible.

In Plato's Critias, orichalcum was described as a lustrous metal second only to gold in value. It was used to cover the walls of the inner sanctuary in the Temple of Poseidon in Atlantis. Roman coins were made of orichalcum. Orichalcum was officially valued higher than bronze, but sat just below silver and gold.

Dupondius of Faustina the Younger.

The Romans standardized their use of orichalcum during Augustus's monetary reforms in 23 BCE. The alloy was typically reserved for higher end base metal coins, the prestigious sestertius and slightly smaller dupondius. Coins were brightly gold coloured when newly struck but tarnished over time to a darker or greenish patina.