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The ancient city of Tripolis, near the town of Baldun, is one of the best-preserved ancient sites in western Anatolia. Over the past 13 years, archaeologists from Pamukkale University have been investigating the city, and have uncovered numerous Roman and Byzantine era ruins, including monumental fountains, a 1,500-year-old church, and colorful mosaics. Türkiye Today reports that the team recently uncovered a luxurious 1,600-year-old villa that is one of the most significant properties yet uncovered. Spreading across 16,000 square feet, the opulent residence contains vibrant frescoes, spacious halls, and a large colonnaded inner courtyard. The highlight of the sprawling estate was...

Did you know ancient Rome was "sustainable"? Romans probably didn't use that exact buzzword, but apparently, they were recycling pioneers. When they weren't creating a mountain made out of garbage, that is. As someone who's been to Italy recently, I can tell you that that legacy of recycling lives on. Frankly, it's a mixed bag. If fact, the convoluted waste disposal system in that beautiful Mediterranean peninsula is the perfect embodiment of the current state of Europe. Garbage in, garbage out In America, you take your trash, and you throw it in the can underneath the kitchen sink. Then, when...

A newly discovered 2,000-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Adrasan in southern Turkey is offering a rare glimpse into ancient sea trade, with remarkably well-preserved ceramics still in their original arrangement. Experts date the vessel to the Late Hellenistic to Early Roman period, a time when Greek cultural and economic influence remained strong across the eastern Mediterranean.The ship was found between 120 and 150 feet below the surface. What makes the discovery especially significant is the state of the cargo. Archaeologists recovered dozens of ceramic items -- bowls, plates, trays, and pots -- still stacked as they were when the...

...Gibbon’s Causes: Decline and Fall of Rome First, there are the external threats Gibbon believes that even more damaging were the internal threats that existed within Roman society and administration. In Gibbon’s view, these causes are all interconnected and grow off one another. They start with the fall of the Antonines, when imperial power became dependent on military support over constitutional appointment. This made the army kingmakers with the power to extort the empire’s leadership. This resulted in repeated civil wars as generals vied for power with the support of their men, resulting in significant instability. Alongside this, Gibbon points...

What does it really mean to have German ancestry? If you’ve taken a DNA test and seen the "Germanic" label, your story is far richer, older, and more dynamic than any single result. Groundbreaking genetic research reveals that Germans descend from a tapestry of Ice Age hunters, early farmers, horse-riding steppe migrants, Celtic warriors, and global travelers. Each left its enduring mark, blending survival, innovation, and migration into the DNA of modern Germans. Why German Genetic Origins is Different | 22:17 Evo Inception | 52.4K subscribers | 47,642 views | July 18, 202500:00 – Introduction: Beyond the "Germanic" Label 00:21...

How the Romans Armed 400,000 Soldiers | 8:38 toldinstone | 587K subscribers | 159,503 views | December 22, 2023Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:35 Legionary arms 1:03 Auxiliary arms 1:42 Auxiliary cavalry 2:12 Buying and selling arms 2:56 Customizing arms 3:35 War Thunder 4:33 Weapon manufacture 5:01 Civilian contractors 5:37 Camp workshops 6:16 Military craftsmen 6:40 Arms factories

Morocco’s OCP Group reached today a significant milestone in water sovereignty with the commissioning of the country’s longest water pipeline. The 203-kilometer engineering feat transports desalinated water from the Atlantic coast to the heart of the country’s phosphate mining region. The Jorf Lasfar-Khouribga (J2K) pipeline, operated by OCP Green Water (OGW), marks a decisive step toward Morocco’s water independence while simultaneously addressing the country’s ongoing water stress challenges that have persisted since 2018. The ambitious project emerged from Morocco’s urgent need to combat water scarcity. In 2022, the Moroccan government called upon OCP Group to contribute to national water security...

Japanese archaeologists found further evidence that a large ancient villa buried on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy may have belonged to the Roman emperor Augustus (reigned 27 b.c.–a.d. 14), The Mainichi reports. The sprawling 40,000-square-foot property, which was buried by the a.d. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, is located in an area where Augustus' noble family is known to have had an estate. Archaeologists have been excavating the site at Somma Vesuviana for two decades, and while they have uncovered the remains of a luxurious villa that they suspect belonged to Augustus, there has been no indisputable...

It was, the prosecutor declared, a “moronic mission” of historic proportions — a pair of hapless vandals who chopped down perhaps the most beloved tree in England, located in a gap in Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site built by the Romans. The victim of the brutal 2023 chainsaw massacre, the Sycamore Gap tree, appeared in the 1991 movie “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” starring Kevin Costner. Prosecutors, citing experts, said it was worth 458,000 pounds or about $613,000, though to admirers who viewed it as a symbol of the untamed beauty of the north, it was priceless. At...

Archaeologists working at the Magna Roman Fort in northern England have made a series of huge discoveries, in the very literal sense. Recent excavations at the ancient Roman fortification have unearthed several examples of gigantic shoes, with one representing what could be among the largest examples of historic footwear ever found. The unusual discoveries are offering researchers fresh new insights into the diversity of the people who worked along Hadrian’s Wall close to 2,000 years ago. A Gigantic Discovery The discoveries are among the latest that have made their way into the Vindolanda Charitable Trust’s remarkable collection, with similar examples...

Golden State Warriors guard Buddy Hield was not entertained when he visited the Colosseum in Rome. Hield was at an NBA Summer League game to watch the young players on the Warriors’ roster take on the Utah Jazz on Sunday night. The Warriors won the game 103-93, but it was Hield’s comments on his trip to Italy that caught the attention of the internet. "I was a little disappointed when I went to the Colosseum because I watched ‘Gladiator’ and I thought Maximus was a real warrior," he explained on the ESPN broadcast. "So, I’m going into the Colosseum screaming,...

To love and be loved is something most people want in their lives.In the modern world, we often see stories about the difficulties of finding love and the trials of dating and marriage. Sometimes, the person we love doesn't love us. Sometimes, we don't love the person who loves us.Ancient Greeks and Romans also had a lot to say about this subject. In fact, most of the issues people face today in their search for love are already mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature.So, what did they say? And is the advice they put forward still relevant for modern...

How did the Egyptians forget Hieroglyphs? | 10:53 toldinstone | 587K subscribers | 586,513 views | April 25, 2025 Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:53 Introducing hieroglyphs 2:15 Hieroglyphs in Roman Egypt 3:10 The great temples 3:53 Decline of the temples 5:04 FlexiSpot 6:28 Vanishing hieroglyphs 7:40 Roman ignorance of hieroglyphs 8:44 Hieroglyphica 9:28 Mysterious or powerless

Although ancient Rome had nothing like a modern middle class, a small but prominent part of the population was poised between affluence and poverty. Was there a Middle Class in Ancient Rome? | 10:49 toldinstone | 586K subscribers | 42,862 views | July 1, 2025 Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:33 The Roman elite 1:17 A middle class 1:41 Upper vs. middle 2:19 Respectable professions 3:03 Prosperous craftsmen 3:34 The material record 4:42 Romanis Magicae 5:27 Case study I: freedmen 7:20 Case study II: veterans 9:12 Being middle class

Underwater archaeologists located the remains of a Roman-era breakwater at the site of the ancient harbor of Misenum on the Bay of Naples, according to the Greek Reporter. The team from the Underwater Archaeology Office of the Archaeological Superintendency for the Metropolitan Area of ​​Naples was at first puzzled by the a six-foot-high collection of carved blocks, sculptural fragments, columns, and architectural elements that they found lying on the seafloor. They soon realized, though, that these were not part of a building collapse. Rather, the materials had been recycled and intentionally stacked to form a structure measuring 295 feet long...

The ancient city of Arles, once a major commercial hub in the Roman Empire, still holds many secrets. Some of them are buried in the bed of the Rhône. Little by little, working in complete darkness, archaeologists and scuba divers are braving its treacherous currents to uncover the remains of a mysterious Roman shipwreck and its cargo. For fear of looters, they work in total secrecy. Their investigations lead us to the 4th century AD – the golden age of the city of Arles and a time of great upheaval in the Roman Empire. During this period, the Empire switched...

The city of Amarna was built by the pharaoh Akhenaten in 1370 b.c. to be the new capital of Egypt. His decision to move the royal court from Thebes and impose worship of a single deity, the sun god Aten, is one of the most controversial episodes in Egyptian history. When Akhenaten's son Tutankhamun reversed his father's polices, it was thought that the site of Amarna was abandoned forever. According to a La Brújula Verde report, however, new evidence suggests that parts of the site were reinhabited by Christian populations in the fifth and sixth century a.d. Rather than reoccupy...

A colossal marble head was uncovered beneath Rome's Via Alessandrina, according to a report by the Greek Reporter. The discovery was made during archaeological work near the heart of the ancient city that is aimed at removing a modern section of road separating the forums of Augustus, Trajan, and Nerva. The statue head was embedded in a layer of medieval brick and mortar, which suggests that it had been reused as building material centuries after the fall of Rome. Archaeologists believe that the sculpture dates to the reign of Trajan (a.d. 98–117) and may have once stood in his forum...

Italian archaeologists working in the city of Ugento uncovered sections of an extensive ancient defensive network intended to protect the city and its inhabitants from an advancing Roman army, The Kansas City Star reports. The wall was originally built in the fourth century b.c. but was significantly enhanced a century later, when its thickness grew to 20 feet wide. Near one of the corner bastions, the team encountered a destruction layer that contained 450 lead sling bullets and nine iron bolts fired from Roman scorpio machines, weapons that resembled large stationary crossbows. Researchers believe these are evidence of a Roman...

Archaeologists searching for a lost tower at the site of Diocletian's Palace in Split were unable to locate the ancient structure, but they did find a secret tunnel that had been hidden for 500 years, according to Croatia Week. The Roman emperor Diocletian built his massive estate in the third century a.d. as a retirement retreat and today it lies at the heart of Croatia's second largest city. Almost every inch of the fortress is known to archaeologists, so they were surprised to find the hidden passageway, which was located in the eastern rampart of the palace wall. It would...