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View Full Version : Rome 'ages' 200 years as archaeologists discover new remains



skywizard
15th April 2014, 14:24
The city of Rome is two centuries older than previously thought, archaeologists say, as they uncover new artefacts during an excavation of the Forum.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02836/ROME_2836935b.jpg
The Colosseum and Roman Forum in Rome, Italy Photo: Alamy


It's already known as one of the world's oldest cities – but ancient Rome just got a little older.

Excavations inside the Roman Forum have found the remains of a wall dating back to 900 BC – suggesting that the Eternal City was settled two centuries earlier than previously believed.

Using the latest technology, archeologists in Italy uncovered pieces of the wall made from tufa – a type of limestone – along with fragments of ceramics and grains, during excavation of the Lapis Niger, a black stone shrine that preceded the Roman Empire by several centuries.

According to local legend Rome was founded by twin brothers Romulus and Remus in 753 BC. But this discovery has convinced leading Italian archeologists the city may have been founded 200 centuries before that.

"Examination of the recovered ceramic material has enabled us to chronologically date the wall structure to between the 9th century BC and the beginning of the 8th century BC," said Dr Patrizia Fortuni, an archeologist from Rome's cultural superintendency, who heads the research team.

"So it precedes what is traditionally considered the foundation of Rome."

The Lapis Niger site lies next to the Arch of Severus Septimius, a marble monument built in the heart of the Forum centuries later in 203AD.

Experts have been working on the dig since 2009, using historic photos, images and other research left by archeologists including Giacomo Boni who led the excavation of the Roman Forum from 1899 until his death in 1925.

From Boni's images, Dr Fortuni and her team created 3D images of the location and used laser scanners and high-definition photography to pinpoint the precise location of the buried wall, which she described as the "first structure" in the sacred site.

Previous excavation at the site uncovered a block of stone known as the "lex sacra" which has the oldest known ancient Latin inscription in Rome, dating back to 565 BC.



Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10763755/Rome-ages-200-years-as-archaeologists-discover-new-remains.html



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