The unearthed site includes the remains of a water-powered flour mill used to grind grain and produce food for the soldiers, clothes, food remains, graves and pottery.
It also contains evidence the Roman occupants might have worn socks, experts who analysed ancient sandals said.
The site was excavated as part of a £318 million Highways Agency scheme to upgrade the A1 between Dishforth and Leeming in North Yorkshire.
It is close to a ruined fort at Healam Bridge, which formed part of the Roman frontier 2,000 years ago.
It is thought the military outpost was used by the Roman Ninth Hispanic Legion, which disappeared some time in the 2nd Century AD.
Cultural heritage team leader Blaise Vyner said: “We know a lot about Roman forts, which have been extensively studied, but to excavate an industrial area with a mill is really exciting.
Ötzi, the 5,000-year-old iceman found in the Italian Alps may have been buried where he was found.
In the new study, researchers produced a detailed map of where the corpse and artefacts were found.
Based on guesses about how the artefacts had dispersed down slope over time, they inferred that the body had originated on a rock platform nearby. They argued that this was a later burial site, and not the original scene of his murder.
This “burial theory” may explain some perplexing facts about Oetzi.
For example, analysis suggests he died in the spring because the pollen of plants that bloom at that time of year is found in his gut. However, pollen within the ice suggests that the corpse was deposited in the late summer.
Professor Bondioli and his team say that these facts makes most sense if the body was deliberately carried to its site of discovery many months after death.
This suggests a burial.
In December of last year I reported about the discovery of a tomb in China which belonged to Cao Cao, the third century politician and general. Now a newspaper in China is reporting that more than 20 experts have declared the tomb to be a fake.
Today’s Modern Express reports that a tomb in Anyang, Henan Province excavated late last year that was claimed to contain the remains of legendary warrior Cao Cao is fake.
Cao Cao was one of the three warlords competing for control of China after the downfall of the mighty Han empire (BC206 – AD 220 CE). Cao’s life was popularized in The Legend of Three Kingdoms, a novelized history which has been revered as one of the four Chinese literature classics.
According to the Modern Express, 23 experts at an academic forum in Suzhou have declared that the tomb is a fake, citing anachronistic styles of engraving Chinese characters as one of the sources of their suspicion. The reports says that Chinese historians are now divided into “pro-Cao” and “anti-Cao” factions.
The article also notes that soon after the announcement, the excavation site was opened to the public, with a ticket price of 60 yuan a person.
A substantial Egyptian settlement has been found in Kharga Oasis, Egypt.
Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, announced that the settlement is dated to the Second Intermediate Period (ca.1650-1550 BC) and was discovered during excavation work as part of the Theban Desert Road Survey. This project serves to investigate and map the ancient desert routes in the Western desert.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the newly discovered settlement is 1km long from north to south and 250m wide from east to west. It lies along the bustling caravan routes connecting the Nile Valley of Egypt and the western oasis with points as far as Darfur in western Sudan. Hawass continued that archaeological evidence at the site indicated that its inhabitants were part of an administrative center and they were engaged in baking on a massive scale.
This is a blog about history. It is edited by me, Sevaan Franks, and features news articles and links to interesting anthropology, archaeology, geology, palaeontology and other general history-related items from around the world. If you have a story you would like to see featured on this site, please drop me a line.
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