A collection of finds from the Roman graves discovered in December 2023.Image credit: Veliko Tarnovo Regional History Museum
Posted on 02/22/2024 9:47:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In December 2023, a farmer unexpectedly found the graves while plowing his field in the village of Nova Varbovka. Because this region was a Roman province called Moesia in antiquity, archaeologists from the Veliko Tarnovo Regional Museum of History came to excavate the graves.
Both graves were built of brick, with plaster lining the walls and a large slab of limestone covering them. The larger of the two was roughly 10 feet (3 meters) long and contained the remains of two adults — a man and a woman who were both around 45 to 60 years old at death — buried with jewelry, coins, and ceramic and glass vessels.
The smaller grave, made somewhat earlier, contained the skeleton of a 2- to 3-year-old child and a rare bronze medallion depicting the Roman emperor Caracalla's (ruled A.D. 198 to 217) visit in A.D. 214 to Pergamon (also spelled Pergamum) in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), where he sought out the temple to Asclepius, the god of healing. Collectively, the two graves may represent a family's final resting place.
Some of the limestone from the graves appears to have come from a quarry near Nicopolis ad Istrum, a Roman and early Byzantine town founded by the emperor Trajan in the early second century...
Chakarov, who excavated the burials along with colleagues Nedko Elenski and Mihaela Tomanova, noted that the Caracalla medallion could point to an Asia Minor origin for the occupants of the graves, which would be consistent with the fact that Nicopolis ad Istrum was built mainly by settlers from Asia Minor. "Of course, we are searching for an opportunity to make DNA and other analyses which our museum can't afford, to see if this hypothesis is correct," Chakarov said.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
A collection of finds from the Roman graves discovered in December 2023.Image credit: Veliko Tarnovo Regional History Museum
The bronze medallion featuring the Roman emperor Caracalla (front).Image credit: Veliko Tarnovo Regional History Museum |
hmmmm ... again..... found the graves
Nova Varbovka
Moesia
Veliko Tarnovo
Asclepius
Nicopolis ad Istrum
emperor Trajan
Chakarov
Nedko Elenski
Mihaela Tomanova
Caracalla medallion
ok ok.... I know this one too ..
It starred that chick that married Brad Pitt .. right?
Angolena Jolee ...
is this Freeping after dark movie night?
I thought that was Friday.....
do I win something?
the two graves may represent a family’s final resting place.
May? They think they just stopped to rest a bit before moving on?
Wow!
“Tigilinus, my weeping vial.” Peter Ustinov in movie Quo Vadis.
The necklace appears to be of fiaence, and of a color and sectionals of a type that was quite common during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (c. 1400 B.C.), and Navajo jewelry, early 20th century. The more things change...
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