Archaeologists digging up ancient Roman port

[Michael]

From The Guardian, although I have seen reference to this project in several major news sources this week.

The secrets of ancient Rome
The discovery of a major new archaeological site in Italy is a reminder that the world is still stuffed with secrets

Look down from a height at any landscape in this slanting autumn light, and you'll see that the ground is only a thin blanket thrown over the remains of the past. The faint marks of fields and walls, houses and roads, show up even in the heart of cities – in relics as humble as the outline of a lost Edwardian rose bed, marring the bland green perfection of a suburban lawn.

The past week has shown once again how hard it is to destroy anything built by man so that it vanishes without a trace. Days after the discovery was announced of a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold that could have come straight out of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings – but actually came from a dull field in Staffordshire – archaeologists from Southampton University revealed something else that history had completely forgotten.

Read the full article here.

I'm not sure if this is connected with badlands' blue grotto discovery.

I haven't had as much time for scientific reading lately as I am accustomed to and I think that is starting to show in my responses to various discussions. I'm like the guy saying, "Um, you know, I heard about that ... thing, yeah, you know...."

In any event, as I understand it, this ancient port outside of Rome has been known for over a century but archaeologists missed the amphitheater and an imperial palace. I think.

You know.

[august]

Unsure about the blue grotto - that's probably on Capri (off the coast of Naples) where there is a popular geological feature called the Blue Grotto, and the island was Tiberius's retreat back in the day.

They did recently discover some new remains of Nero's palace in downtown Rome - this wasn't unknown, but all of his stuff is directly under the Rome equivalent of Times Square, and so it isn't easy to go digging around everywhere.

And yep - the article seems to indicate that this was yet another area that just had never really been excavated fully until now.