Archaeology news

• Once as tourist, once as prisoner

  22-07-2024 00:41 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  I once told Professor Wendy Davies, no less, when she was threatening to get into Catalan charters as well as those from further west, that all the weirdest stories came from the archive of the near-Barcelona monastery of Sant Cugat del Vallès. I suspect this is probably being quite unkind to some other archives – have I ever told you all about Ramio’s and Julio’s bread dispute, for example? Doesn’t look like it – but there is still a bit of a concentration o
  
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• Excavating the CA archives – Wiltshire IV

  04-07-2024 16:11 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  After last month’s scramble through Stonehenge, this month I turn north to amble around
  Avebury. I know I am not the only one to hold this site in high affection. Even on its busiest days, the circle there is rarely too crowded since it is so spread out, and, if you have the time, you can easily head out into the larger landscape.
  AVEBURY VILLAGE AND HENGEThe Stone Circles at Avebury made the ‘Context’ in CA 332.
  For many people, Avebury means the Neolithic stone circle locate
  
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• Building Roman Cirencester and beyond

  04-07-2024 16:10 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  Roman tile production in the north Wiltshire countryside
  A community excavation in the small village of Minety has found a Roman tile kiln, which marked its products with a series of stamped letters. As the investigation, led by Cotswold Archaeology, revealed, this industry was of more than just local importance – and with another season of digging set to take place this summer, Neil Holbrook and Peter Warry report on the story so far.Overlooking the community excavations at Brandier Farm
  
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• Current Archaeology 413 – ON SALE NOW

  04-07-2024 16:09 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  This month’s cover feature tells the ‘story so far’ of a Wiltshire community excavation that is uncovering the remains of a Roman tilery with an impressively far-reaching tale to tell.
  We then travel to early medieval Ipswich, where analysis of bone- and antler-working evidence has shed vivid light on the evolution of this craft within a single settlement – with some Viking Age surprises thrown in.Next come the results of a Leicestershire excavation from the 1990s, recent
  
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• Medievalist in North Wales, II: Post-Roman hillfort use?

  01-07-2024 00:33 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  Well, I am feeling somewhat better—and thankyou all for sympathetic comments, sympathetic commentators—but this weekend unforeseen, though not as unwelcome, circumstances have seen me on the road for almost all of it, so I now sit down to write for you on Sunday evening hoping to scrape a post under the weekend wire. It’s another photo post from my July 2021 trip to North Wales, and this time the destination was here.
  This is the start of the footpath which leads…
  &helli
  
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• Egyptian scribes suffered work-related injuries, study says

  27-06-2024 17:00
  
  Higher incidence of damage to hips, jaws and thumbs reveals their writing efforts may have taken a tollFrom bad backs to eye strain, office work can take its toll on the body.But it seems such perils are nothing new: researchers have found Egyptian scribes experienced damage to their hips, jaws and thumbs as a result of their efforts. Continue reading...
  
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• Fossil of Neanderthal child with Down’s syndrome hints at early humans’ compassion

  26-06-2024 21:25
  
  Skull anatomy shows the boy or girl would have been severely disabled, yet survived until the age of sixA Neanderthal child with Down’s syndrome survived until at least the age of six, according to a new study whose findings hint at compassionate caregiving among the extinct, archaic human species.Recent examination of a human fossil unearthed at the Cova Negra archaeological site in the Spanish province of Valencia found traits in the inner-ear anatomy which indicated Down syndrome, in th
  
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• Stonehenge likely to be put on world heritage danger list over tunnel plan

  25-06-2024 18:16
  
  Unesco officials recommend adding Wiltshire stone circle amid fears road scheme would compromise its integrityStonehenge is likely to be put on a list of world heritage sites that are in danger because of the plan to build a tunnel under the precious landscape.Unesco officials have recommended adding the Wiltshire stone circle and the area around it to the list because of concerns that the tunnel would “compromise the integrity” of one of the Earth’s great prehistoric sites. Co
  
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• ‘Prehistory under our football pitches’: bronze age finds excavated from Cardiff sports field

  25-06-2024 07:00
  
  Artefacts including a roundhouse and a clay furnace – only the second ever found – have been discovered at Trelai ParkAt first sight, it does not feel like the sort of spot where you may happen upon extraordinary insights into the daily lives of the people who inhabited bronze age Britain.But in the corner of a sports field in Cardiff, archaeologists and volunteers are uncovering a trove of artefacts on the site of two roundhouses that give clues into how people lived and worked ther
  
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• Requiescat

  23-06-2024 15:18 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  Hac est Hildegarda catta Luguvalensis in horis ante diem quam fuit viva et mortua
  ('This is Hildegard the cat of Carlisle in the hours before the day when she was alive and dead')
  The hours between this and the last one got pretty bad, and your blogger is feeling above averagely terrible even a couple of days on. Normal writing will resume next week. Thankyou for your understanding. Also, forgive me if I don’t reply to comments on this post.
  
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• ‘They had no idea it was Caligula’: bronze bust of Roman emperor found

  23-06-2024 15:00
  
  A tiny Roman rarity cast near Vesuvius and once owned by the writer and politician Horace Walpole hasbeen discovered by an eagle-eyed curatorA bronze bust of the “mad and bad” Roman emperor Caligula has been found 200 years after it disappeared – and 2,000 years since it was cast. It had been gifted in the mid-18th century to Horace Walpole, the writer, aesthete and Whig politician, who designed his own gothic home, Strawberry Hill, in Twickenham, south-west London.After his de
  
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• Does a cave beneath Pembroke Castle hold key to fate of early Britons?

  22-06-2024 11:20
  
  Scientists hope wealth of prehistoric material in Wogan Cavern in Wales is well preserved enough to reveal what really happened to our most ancient ancestorsPembroke Castle has been a seat of power for centuries. It was the birthplace of Henry Tudor, father of Henry VIII, and is one of the country’s best preserved medieval strongholds, containing a maze of passages, tunnels and stairways, as well as a vast gatehouse tower. Scientists have discovered that the fortress has also been con
  
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• Easter Island study casts doubt on theory of ‘ecocide’ by early population

  21-06-2024 20:00
  
  Researchers challenge long-held idea that islanders chopped down palm trees at an unsustainable rateEaster Island has long been put forward as a prime example of humans undermining their own survival by destroying the environment they rely on. But now fresh data is turning the narrative on its head.Also known as Rapa Nui, the remote island in Polynesia is well known for its huge stone statues called “moai” and for the idea that its growing population collapsed because of “ecoci
  
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• Letter — Unlocking the Past: Prehistoric Anti-Theft Technology

  21-06-2024 13:03 via archaeology.co.uk
  Submitted by Paul TownsonI would like to preface this text by saying that I am an English teacher and am in no way a qualified historian or archaeologist, however I do have an interest in history, specifically the Ribble Valley in Lancashire around 900AD when the Vikings were up to their shenanigans travelling along the Ribble Valley between Dublin and York.  However, for the purposes of this article we must go back even further, to the Bronze age.While doing my Viking research, I came acro
  
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• Beach buried by eruption of Mount Vesuvius reopens to public after restoration

  19-06-2024 19:16
  
  ‘Extraordinary and unique’ ancient beach that was destroyed in AD79 disaster resurrected in southern ItalyAn ancient Roman beach that was buried by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius has reopened to the public at Herculaneum archaeological park in southern Italy.The beach has been reinstated after conservation work in recent years restored its original level, including bringing back sand, which is aimed at giving visitors the experience of walking along the beach almost as it was be
  
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• Sir John Boardman obituary

  19-06-2024 18:12
  
  Archaeologist who became a leading authority on the history of Greek art, with a particular interest in gems and finger ringsAs a student, John Boardman, who has died aged 96, was able to recite by heart texts in Attic Greek, the form of the language used in ancient Athens. But while studying classics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he encountered two archaeologists whose work encouraged him to apply that flair to the study of classical objects: Charles Seltman showed him coins, and Robert Cook
  
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• Oldest wine ever discovered in liquid form found in urn with Roman remains

  18-06-2024 15:08
  
  Reddish-brown liquid found in untouched 2,000-year-old Roman tomb is a local, sherry-like wineThe oldest wine ever to have been discovered in its original liquid form is reddish-brown and, quite conceivably, full-bodied. Reddish-brown because of the chemical reactions that have taken place in the 2,000 years since the white wine was poured into a funeral urn in southern Spain – and potentially full-bodied because the urn also contained, among other things, the cremated bones of a Roman man
  
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• The young viscounts’ birthday party

  17-06-2024 00:11 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  As well as providing some good photos, summer 2021 was about the last time I was able to do any serious work on Catalan charters, which is of course my whole big thing. (Not being able to do much since then is more or less why I’m not at the IMC this year, since a number of people have asked about that; nothing fresh to present…) The form that work took was a methodical chomping through the final volumes of the immense Catalunya Carolíngia project, those for the medieval coun
  
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• North Yorkshire landmark has ‘finest view’ – but did it also have a Nazi spy?

  14-06-2024 13:00
  
  Project will examine Sutton Bank’s rich history, including German aristocrats and a bloody 14th-century battleToday, Sutton Bank is as peaceful and tranquil a spot as you might find anywhere, offering visitors what has been called “England’s finest view”. But could it also have an untold history involving rich German aristocrats and a Nazi spy?A three-year archaeology project has begun to investigate the many histories of the landmark, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. Cont
  
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• Maya twins myth may have influenced child sacrifices, study suggests

  13-06-2024 14:53
  
  ​DNA testing on 64 skeletons shows related boys were probably chosen as offerings in ancient city of Chichén ItzáGenetic analysis of the skeletons of 64 infant boys who are thought to have been sacrificed in the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá more than a thousand years ago may shed light on the symbolic role twins played in the myths and rituals of their civilisation.In 1967, the remains of more than 100 children were found in a repurposed chultún, or
  
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• Barry Kemp obituary

  12-06-2024 13:39
  
  Egyptologist whose discoveries at Amarna shed new light on urban life in the ancient worldThe Egyptologist and archaeologist Barry Kemp, who has died aged 84, transformed our understanding of everyday life in ancient Egypt. His greatest contribution to archaeology, carried out between 1977 and 2008, was the excavation of Amarna, a site in Egypt roughly halfway between Cairo and Luxor.Here lie the ruins of the short-lived capital city built by the revolutionary pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th centu
  
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• Nicholas Molyneux obituary

  10-06-2024 18:23
  
  My brother, Nicholas Molyneux, who has died aged 68 from heart problems, was an architectural historian known for the depth of his subject knowledge and his enthusiasm for historic buildings, in particular those in Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.For much of his working career he was with English Heritage as principal inspector of historic buildings for the West Midlands, a job that involved him in many projects, including the rebuilding of the Royal Shakespeare t
  
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• Sharks, murder and a neolithic ‘spaceship’: the mysteries of Ireland’s new national parks

  10-06-2024 08:00
  
  The ecological jewel of Kerry Marine national park and the archaeological splendour of Brú na Bóinne in the east are the latest additions to the country’s portfolio of protected areasIreland’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has had a busy time in recent months, adding another two sites to its portfolio of six national parks since last September. First, it announced the state purchase of 223 hectares (551 acres) of land on the Dowth Hall estate in County Meat
  
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• Smallest known great ape, which lived 11m years ago, found in Germany

  07-06-2024 20:00
  
  Buronius manfredschmidi estimated to have weighed just 10kg and was about the size of a human toddlerThe smallest known great ape has been discovered in Germany, dating to 11m years ago.The tiny creature, far smaller than any other great ape on record, is estimated to have weighed 10kg (1st 8lbs), about the size of a human toddler. The species, called Buronius manfredschmidi, is an ancient hominid, part of the ancestral family that gave rise to modern humans, gorillas and chimpanzees. Continue r
  
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• Current Archaeology 412 – ON SALE NOW

  06-06-2024 18:25 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  Almost a decade ago, I stood on a viewing platform at Must Farm in Cambridgeshire, spellbound by the Bronze Age settlement spread before me. We first featured its astonishing archaeology in CA 312, so it feels fitting that it is issue 412 that returns to this unique site now that analysis has been published in full.Still in Cambridgeshire, our next feature explores thought-provoking research into medieval cemeteries, asking: when faced with uniform ranks of anonymous skeletons, how do you restor
  
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• Current Archaeology 412

  06-06-2024 18:25 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  Almost a decade ago, I stood on a viewing platform at Must Farm in Cambridgeshire, spellbound by the Bronze Age settlement spread before me. We first featured its astonishing archaeology in CA 312, so it feels fitting that it is issue 412 that returns to this unique site now that analysis has been published in full.Still in Cambridgeshire, our next feature explores thought-provoking research into medieval cemeteries, asking: when faced with uniform ranks of anonymous skeletons, how do you restor
  
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• Must Farm revisited

  06-06-2024 18:24 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  Extraordinary insights into everyday Bronze Age lifeBetween 2015 and 2016, Cambridge Archaeological Unit excavated Britain’s most completely preserved prehistoric settlement outside Whittlesey, near Peterborough. As a time-capsule of late Bronze Age life, Must Farm is unique; now, with post-excavation analysis published in full, Carly Hilts explores how the site’s significance lies in its ordinariness.
  Such was the vibrancy of this material assemblage, there was a sense upon excavat
  
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• Excavating the CA Archives – Wiltshire III

  06-06-2024 18:23 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  StonehengeIn my columns to date I have barely mentioned Stonehenge. This is deliberate; for all that I love archaeology I am an atheist about this most famous of sites. I do not denigrate the emotion that it arouses, but personally it leaves me cold. There are so many other prehistoric places that I prefer. But to tell the story of the archaeology of the British Isles and conclude in Wiltshire without speaking of Stonehenge is impossible, and it is by sheer volume the single most mentioned loca
  
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• Medievalist in North Wales, I: Castell Dolbadarn

  01-06-2024 09:22 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  After such a huge post for last week, and so late, it seems wise to go for something lighter this week, so here are some pictures. In July 2021, right after the digital IMC was finished, my partner and I lit out for Wales. This was still on the declining edge of lockdown, so that we weren’t always sure what would be open, but enough seemed safe that we had quite an itinerary. This was, for once, not medievalist in intent – industrial heritage, if anything, was our plan – but yo
  
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• Scientists have discovered a 50,000-year-old herpes virus – and perhaps how modern humans came to rule the world | Jonathan Kennedy

  30-05-2024 17:03
  
  Revolutionary ancient DNA evidence indicates that Homo sapiens finished off Neanderthals through deadly infectious diseases Less than a decade ago, the American anthropologist James C Scott described infectious diseases as the “loudest silence” in the prehistoric archaeological record. Epidemics must have devastated human societies in the distant past and changed the course of history, but, Scott lamented, the artefacts left behind reveal nothing about them.Over the last few years, t
  
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• Detectorist unearths bronze age hoard after getting lost on treasure hunt

  30-05-2024 12:39
  
  John Belgrove, 60, uncovered rare sword, axe head and bangle in Dorset after becoming separated from groupAn amateur detectorist has described how he unearthed a bronze age hoard, including a rare sword, after getting lost during a treasure hunters’ rally.John Belgrove, 60, became separated from the main group of detectorists and headed to higher ground to try to spot them when he made what he has called the find of a lifetime. Continue reading...
  
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• IMC through a screen: the International Medieval Congress for 2021

  29-05-2024 01:27 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  The late post this Bank Holiday weekend is partly because of various stuff involving builders and friends that has kept me from a keyboard. But, it is also, I admit, because when I looked at where I was in my backlog I realised it was up to the International Medieval Congress of July 2021, and then my brain rapidly grabbed at anything else that would be easier to do for a while. And I asked myself as usual, what is the point in reporting on conferences from years ago? But on reviewing my notes q
  
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• Remains of horses buried 2,000 years ago found in central France

  28-05-2024 19:24
  
  Archaeologists trying to determine whether animals were killed in battle or buried as part of a ritualFrench archaeologists have uncovered nine large graves containing the remains of horses from up to 2,000 years ago, in a find described as “extraordinary”.The 28 stallions, all around six years old, had been buried shortly after they died, each placed in pits on their right side with their head facing south. Nearby a grave contained the remains of two dogs, heads facing west. Continu
  
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• Drawings depicting gladiators among latest discoveries at Pompeii

  28-05-2024 19:12
  
  Charcoal graffiti believed to have been sketched by children uncovered at ancient Roman cityDrawings of gladiators believed to have been made by children inspired by watching battles at Pompeii’s amphitheatre are among the latest discoveries in the ruins of the ancient Roman city.The charcoal drawings were found during excavations at I’Insula dei Casti Amanti, a cluster of homes in Pompeii’s archaeological park that opened to the public for the first time on Tuesday. Continue r
  
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• Hobbyist archaeologists identify thousands of ancient sites in England

  27-05-2024 16:04
  
  Exclusive: Bronze age remains and Roman roads among 12,802 sites discovered using latest technologyBronze age burial mounds, Roman roads and deserted medieval villages are among almost 13,000 previously-unknown ancient sites and monuments that have been discovered by members of the public in recent months, it will be announced this week.Truck drivers and doctors are among more than 1,000 people who participated in Deep Time, a “citizen science project” which has harnessed the power o
  
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• ‘Moai designs are getting lost’: extreme weather chips away at Easter Island statues

  21-05-2024 08:00
  
  Experts call for conservation action as the features on Rapa Nui’s famous monoliths are eroded by fire and rainThe Ahu Tahai moai, on the east side of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is an impressive 4.5 metres high. Carved from a soft volcanic rock, the statue looks out solemnly over the island, with its back to the bay.The Tahai (“where the sun sets”) and the island’s other thousand or so moai were erected roughly between 1100 and 1700 as a representation of Rapa
  
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• Fragments of Mercian Memorial

  19-05-2024 23:23 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  I’m travelling today for family reasons, so have only time for something short and hopefully sweet. At the very end of May 2021, for reasons I no longer remember, my partner and I were travelling through Derbyshire and there was a sign to a historic church. One of my great good fortunes in life is having someone with me in it who when asked, "shall we have a look?", will say yes if it’s even halfway sensible. So we did, and it turned out to be St Mary’s Wirksworth.
  St Mary&rsqu
  
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• Scientists find buried branch of the Nile that may have carried pyramids’ stones

  16-05-2024 18:42
  
  Discovery of the branch, which ran alongside 31 pyramids, could solve mystery of blocks’ transportationScientists have discovered a long-buried branch of the Nile River that once flowed alongside more than 30 pyramids in Egypt, potentially solving the mystery of how ancient Egyptians transported the massive stone blocks to build the monuments.The 40-mile-long (64km) river branch, which ran by the Giza pyramid complex among other wonders, was hidden under desert and farmland for millennia,
  
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• Bad numbers by Karl-Ferdinand Werner

  11-05-2024 22:13 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  I’m not sure how true this is in this third decade of the twenty-first century, but if like me you were first learning about the Carolingian empire of Charlemagne and sons in the last decade of the previous one, you probably didn’t get far before you encountered the name Karl-Ferdinand Werner (1924-2008). Some of the really major studies of how that empire worked, administratively, came from his pen or typewriter, and he always seemed to be capable of understanding that the administr
  
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• Neolithic site in Orkney to be reburied after 20 years of excavation

  11-05-2024 16:00
  
  After one final dig, Ness of Brodgar is to be covered up to protect it for future generationsIn a few weeks, archaeologists will gather at the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney and for the next two months excavate at one of Europe’s greatest prehistoric sites.For the last 20 summers, scientists and volunteers have dug here, revealing wonders that include 5,000-year-old remains of temples, hearths, a ceramic figurine, and elegant pottery. Continue reading...
  
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• Teacher finds stone with ancient ogham writing from Ireland in Coventry garden

  08-05-2024 13:02
  
  Exclusive: Sandstone rock featuring language markings created 1,600 years ago to go on display at museumA geography teacher was tidying his overgrown garden at his home in Coventry when he stumbled across a rock with mysterious incisions. Intrigued, he sent photographs to a local archaeologist and was taken aback to learn that the markings were created more than 1,600 years ago and that the artefact was worthy of a museum.The rectangular sandstone rock that Graham Senior had discovered was inscr
  
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• Call for port extension to be halted as genocide remains are found on Namibia’s Shark Island

  06-05-2024 14:00
  
  Researchers say more bodies of Herero and Nama people from early 20th century concentration camp could be in waters around portThe Namibian authorities are being urged to halt plans to extend a port on the Shark Island peninsula after the discovery of unmarked graves and artefacts relating to the Herero and Nama genocide.Forensic Architecture, a non-profit research agency, said it had located sites of executions, forced labour, imprisonment and sexual violence that occurred when the island was u
  
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• ‘You struggled with my film? Fantastic!’ Alice Rohrwacher and her riotous new tomb-raiding tale

  06-05-2024 09:00
  
  La Chimera looks like a crime caper about looters in 1980s Italy. But it’s about way more than that. The great director, loved by everyone from Scorsese to Gerwig, talks about the dark secrets of the heart – and her debt to beesAlice Rohrwacher could be the European arthouse made flesh, or its distilled essence, bottled and preserved for the ages. She’s quoting Italian poets one minute and German poets the next. She’s discussing nature, civilisation and the power of colle
  
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• What could the Roman dodecahedron have been used for?

  05-05-2024 15:01
  
  The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsA 12-sided, 1,700-year-old object with no known purpose was found in Lincolnshire last summer and has just gone on display at Lincoln Museum. What could it have been used for? Paul Elliott, by emailPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to [email protected]. A selection will be published next Sunday. C
  
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• Not what the textbooks usually mean by ‘manuscript illustration’

  05-05-2024 00:02 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  
  Thankyou all those who have encouraged me to keep going with the blog! Plans remain afoot, but for now you can certainly have this little gem (not a lettuce) which apparently I stashed for future writing up in May 2021. It speaks to some of the blog’s oldest themes, to wit protochronism, micro-histories in administrative documents and, not least, medieval sex, and I owe it to the sharp observation of Rebecca Darley, who had she known she was going to be doing the blogging thing herself aft
  
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• Is this the answer to the Roman dodecahedron puzzle that has archaeologists stumped? | Letter

  03-05-2024 19:33
  
  Guardian readers speculate on the purpose of a mysterious object unearthed at Norton Disney, near LincolnI wonder if the object (Mysterious Roman dodecahedron to go on display in Lincoln, 29 April) could be some kind of puzzle (quite apart from being a puzzle to archaeologists). Unless some Roman puzzle book survived, it seems unlikely that a puzzle object would crop up in Roman literature. It is small enough to be held in the hand, and possibly the puzzle was to wrap a string around each protub
  
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• A villa unveiled

  03-05-2024 18:45 via archaeology.co.uk
  
  Uncovering luxury living and ‘ritual activity’ in Roman OxfordshireArchaeological work in rural Oxfordshire has uncovered the remains of a winged corridor villa that was occupied for much of the Roman period. Carly Hilts spoke to Louis Stafford to learn how the story of this long-lived, high-status residence is evolving as investigations continue.The remains of a Roman villa are being excavated on the outskirts of Grove, near Wantage in Oxfordshire. Although most of its buildings ap
  
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• Alex Hooper obituary

  03-05-2024 17:07
  
  My husband, Alex Hooper, who has died aged 82 after a long illness, had an extraordinarily varied career, including as an archaeologist, film-maker, merchant seaman, teacher and gallery curator.In the late 1960s, while doing an MA in film studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, Alex became close friends with Peter Gibson of Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts, and the pair made a documentary about the blues musician John Mayall, The Turning Point (1969). Through going on tour with Mayall, and mak
  
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• Leprosy passed between medieval squirrels and humans, study suggests

  03-05-2024 17:00
  
  Genetic analysis of Winchester samples shows similar strains of disease and supports theory that fur trade played role in spreadLeprosy passed between humans and red squirrels in medieval England, research suggests, supporting the theory that the fur trade could have played a role in the spread of the disease.Leprosy is one of the oldest infectious diseases recorded in humans and is typically caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Second renaissance’: tech uncovers ancient scroll secrets of Plato and co

  03-05-2024 15:05
  
  Researchers and Silicon Valley are using tools powered by AI to read what had long been thought unreadableMore than 2,000 years after Plato died, the towering figure of classical antiquity and founder of the Academy, regarded by many as the first university in the west, can still make front-page news.Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the
  
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