Hoard of Roman gold found in Spain

Divers off the coast of Spain have uncovered a treasure trove of 53 gold coins from the Roman Empire. Luis Lens and César Gimeno were freediving in the Mediterranean Sea while on vacation in Xàbia, Spain. They came across a shiny object that resembled a "10 cent coin." After retrieving the object, they noticed an inscription with an ancient Greek or Roman face. Using the corkscrew of a Swiss Army knife, they discovered another seven coins embedded in a rock crevice. Experts were called and 53 gold coins were found.

The hoard contains; Valentinian I (3 - AD 364 to 375), Valentinian II (7 - AD 375 and 392), Todosio I (15 - AD 379 to 395), Arcadius (17 - AD 383 to 408), Honorius (10 - AD 393 to 423), and an unidentified coin. Experts suppose the coins could have been intentionally hidden to avoid looting barbarians, such as the Alans.

The coins shed light on a historical moment of insecurity with the arrival of barbarians, such as the Suevi, Vandals, and Alans, leading to the fall of the Roman Empire.

The mines of Ancient Greece

In 480 BCE, the Persian army defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae and invaded parts of Greece. When all seemed lost, Themistocles proposed an unusual plan: the Greeks should not face the superior Persian soldiers on the battlefield, but instead invest in a fleet. In the naval battle of Salamis, the newly-built ships destroyed the Persian fleet.

Without a navy to support their army, the Persians were forced to retreat. The battle of Salamis was a critical turning point. The ships that won the battle of Salamis were paid for with silver from the mines of Laurion. 20,000 slaves worked to provide the silver for the fleet. Without it victory would have been impossible.

After the defeat of Persia, Sparta and Athens waged a long and taxing war. As the silver mines became exhausted, a backwater territory, Macedonia, thrived and became the new power. The gold mines of Macedonia played a critical role. The largest gold mines in antiquity were operating in Macedonia and Thrace and they supported the rise of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great.

Marble head found in Forum dig Dionysus

The white marble head unearthed during excavations at the Roman Forum on 24 May 2019 is believed to represent a male deity, most likely Dionysus. Initially it was thought that the head - with its feminine features and thick, wavy hairstyle - represented a female goddess. A band around its head decorated with a "typically Dionysian flower, the corymb, and ivy", proves it to be Dionysus. The slightly larger-than-life head has been dated from the first century BC to the fifth century AD. He is better known as Bacchus to the Romans.

Dionysus is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.

UK Spitalfields skeleton a high ranking Roman woman

The woman's body was first discovered in March 1999 under London's Spitalfields Market.

A noble Roman woman who lived in the fourth century was buried under what is now a market in London. The body was found in a decorated lead coffin that itself was placed inside a stone sarcophagus, indicating she was someone of great wealth and status.

The woman was wrapped in Chinese silk with fine gold thread. Her clothing was found to be purple — a hallmark reserved for Roman elite.

See ----->Tyrian Purple

King Ptolemy I, C. Cassius Longinus lead ancients

Ptolemy I Soter. 305/4-282 BC. AV Stater. Euhesperides mint. Struck early 290s BC. $52,000.

Ptolemy was pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 305/304 BC to his death. He was the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC. Ptolemy himself wrote an eyewitness history of Alexander's campaigns (now lost). In the second century AD, Ptolemy's history was used by Arrian of Nicomedia for his writings on Alexander, and hence large parts of Ptolemy's history is thought to have survived.

C. Cassius Longinus. Spring 42 BC. AV Aureus. Military mint; M. Aquinus, legate. Diademed head of Libertas right; $50,400.

C. Cassius Longinus was one of the principal conspirators against Julius Caesar. Following the assassination, he moved to the east, where he amassed an army. His prior reputation of military success proved invaluable, and by 43 BC his army boasted nearly twelve legions.

See ---->Gaius Cassius Longinus

Aztec Gold: The History And Science Of Popcorn

Popcorn is a truly ancient snack. Archaeologists have uncovered popcorn kernels that are 4,000 years old. They were so well-preserved, they could still pop. Corn, and specifically popcorn, helped lay the foundations for the Aztec empire. A highly productive crop like corn makes the rise of higher civilizations possible.

The oldest popcorn ever found was discovered in the "Bat Cave" of central New Mexico. It is thought to be about 5,600 years old. Sometimes, conditions can preserve ancient popcorn so perfectly that it still looks fluffy and white when the dust is blown off of it. In a cave in southern Utah, researchers found surprisingly fresh-looking 1,000-year-old popcorn.

Europeans learned about popcorn from Native Americans. When Cortes invaded Mexico, and when Columbus arrived in the West Indies, each saw natives eating popcorn. Native Americans brought a bag of popped corn to the first Thanksgiving. A common way to eat popcorn at that time was to hold an oiled ear on a stick over the fire, then chew the popped kernels off it.

Natives in the Americas also made a popcorn beer. Some made popcorn soup.

After the Spanish invaded, popcorn spread around the world, and people began learnef how popcorn works. The rock-hard kernel — the thing that makes popcorn impossible to eat raw — is the key. It acts as a pressure cooker with the durable kernel keeping water and starch sealed inside. When a kernel is heated, the starch liquefies and the pressure builds until the seed coat breaks. A popcorn kernel is a seed. Like other seeds, inside it has a tiny plant embryo. The embryo is surrounded by soft, starchy material that would give the embryo energy for growing into a plant. The ideal popcorn kernel contains about 14 percent moisture. If the popcorn is too much drier, it will not pop.

Untouched ancient burial chamber in Turkey’s Muğla

	A burial chamber dating to 2,400 years ago was unearthed in 2016 at a construction site in the province of Muğla’s Milas district. Officials found 103 artifacts in the burial chamber, untouched for millennia.	Findings included earthenware candles, offering bowls, gifts for the dead, and cosmetic tools.

The burial chamber was unearthed close to the holy road between the city of Mylasa, which was the capital of the Karia region in the ancient era, and the Labraunda religious center. A settlement had been existing at the site for 2,600 years. The region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia was colonized by Ionian and Dorian Greeks forming Greek-dominated states.

The inhabitants of Caria, known as Carians, had arrived long before the Greeks.

Gümüşkesen chambered tomb monument in Milas.

In the southern Turkish province of Adana’s Yumurtalık district, a rare mosaic depicting the ancient Greek god of the sea, Poseidon. It dates to the 3rd or 4th century B.C.

Ancient Iron

According to researchers, ancient metalworkers hunted for iron from meteorites to create highly prized weapons before they could extract the metal from the earth. In 2016 X-ray scans on a dagger from Tutankhamun's tomb were made to determine what it was made from. Research indicates that before the very first kilns for smelting iron ore emerged around 3,200 years ago, all iron was crafted from meteorites.

Most meteorites that collide into the earth contain high levels of nickel or cobalt. Tutankhamun’s dagger was made with iron containing nearly 11 percent nickel and traces of cobalt.The oldest-known furnace for smelting iron ore is at Tell Hammeh in Jordan and dates to about 930 B.C. During the Bronze Age iron, because it could not be smelted, was valued at ten times the price of gold. As the Iron Age advanced, the price dropped rapidly allowing for a series of important discoveries using the harder and more durable metal. Iron production in significant quantities began around 500 BC. Archaeological finds are very rare because the metal was so valuable, artifacts were rarely lost or discarded.

The Romans produced large quantities of iron. They had various sources of iron ore with the key source being the island of Elba. Extensive deposits of hematite occur there. Hematite is pure, concentrated iron oxide and is an excellent iron ore. The technology required to separate iron from its ores and convert it into useful objects is far more complicated than that needed to work copper and bronze. It requires a temperature of about 3650 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2020 degrees Celsius) to cause iron to melt sufficiently so that it will flow.

The hardness of the resulting iron, after it had been formed and allowed to cool, depended upon the amount of carbon in the mixture. What the ancient ironworkers didn't realize was that in reality they were making steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, with some special steels containing other elements. Steel containing less than about one quarter percent carbon is too soft. Six or seven tenths of a percent is a good mix for items that needed to keep an edge. Anything over one percent was hard and brittle, and would shatter when struck too hard.

See ----->Tutankhamun's dagger made of meteorite

Unearthed Ancient Greek mosaics of Amazon

Penthesilea was an epic warrior, the prodigy of Otrera, the first queen of the Amazons, and Ares, the Greek god of violence and war. Her battle skills were legendary, leading her to side with King Priam in the Trojan war, but she eventually came up against a larger force. Achilles defeated her after an equally matched struggle. According to Homeric tradition he fell in love with her after removing her helmet. Restoration experts are meticulously examining the unique mosaics depicting Amazon women and other artifacts which were unearthed in ongoing excavations at the Gobeklitepe site — known as the “world’s oldest temple.”

Peru’s pre-Inca treasures unmasked at British Museum

Funerary mask, Copper and shell, Moche, AD 100–800.

More than 40 objects came to London from nine museums in Peru and will go on show alongside 80 treasures from the museum’s collection. Among the artifacts going on display in 'Peru: A Journey In Time' are a miniature gold figurine of a llama and a gold headdress, which dates to around 800BC.

Sanxingdui ruins reveal second gold mask

Another gold mask has been discovered at the Sanxingdui Ruins site in Guanghan, Sichuan province. It is the biggest of its kind unearthed at the site so far. The mask, which is relatively intact, is 37.2 centimeters wide, 16.5 cm high and weighs about 100 grams. Relatively intact relics from the pits include 314 bronze objects and 147 elephant tusks.

Shropshire sun pendant goes on display

The pendant has been purchased for £250,000.

The British Museum has acquired a 3,000-year-old gold sun pendant heralded as one of the most important bronze age finds of the last century. The well-preserved pendant, or bulla, was discovered by a metal detectorist in Shropshire in 2018. It was made by someone who was clearly skilled in their craft sometime around 1,000-800 BC.

The sun pendant will go on public display for the first time at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery as part of the British Museum's national programmes. The elegant form and intricate decoration of the gold pendant includes a rare depiction of the sun. The bulla is only the second ever found in Britain. The other Irton bulla – now lost – was discovered near Manchester in 1722 and is only known from a picture. Its quality was so high that experts of the day believed it must be Roman.

Danish detectorist lands huge gold hoard

Schytz stumbled across 22 pieces of gold treasure, weighing just over two pounds. It had been buried for some 1,500 years.

Ole Ginnerup Schytz was using a metal detector for the first time when he found a cache of 6th century gold jewelry in a field near the town of Jelling in Denmark. Roman emperor Constantine

Much of the treasure are bracteates, a flat thin medallion with engravings on one side that was common in northern Europe around 375–568. The jewelry is decorated with runes, magical symbols, and religious imagery such as the Norse god Odin, all reflecting delicate craftsmanship of the highest order. Women would have worn the amulets for protection.

Odin

Experts believe the gold hoard was buried around the time of a large volcanic eruption in the year 536, which triggered widespread crop failures and famine in Scandinavia. Gold discoveries date to this period, likely because the items were sacrificed to the gods by a people desperate to have the sun shine again.