Once Plundered by Thieves, Ancient Cave Reopens with 3-D Replicas of Stolen Fossils

A large steel door guards the entrance to Joint Mitnor, a rocky cave in Devon, England, littered with the fossilized bones of ancient mammals. But in September of 2015, thieves managed to smash through the door and make off with several bones—including the fossilized tooth of a 100,000 year old elephant—and trampled over many others. The cave was shuttered and the remains have yet to be found.

Last Saturday, Joint Mitnor formally reopened its doors after two years. Visitors to the site will find the cave just as it was before the devastating theft, thanks to a collaborative effort to create 3-D replicas of the missing relics, Maev Kennedy reports for the Guardian.

The initiative was fronted by experts at the University of Birmingham, the Natural History Museum, and the Pengelly Trust, which manages Joint Mitnor. The team created scans based on similar bones that were excavated from the cave, and fed those scans into a 3-D printer. It took multiple attempts—and two broken printers—to get the recreations right.

“Our printers were set up for small industrial tasks, not for leaving them working away hour after hour on objects as complex as the elephant tooth,” Robert Stone, professor of interactive multimedia systems at the University of Birmingham, tells Kennedy. “It broke two of them.”

The replicas have now been placed back in the cave, which was first excavated in 1939, according to the website of the Pengelly Trust. Some 4,000 bones—belonging to hippopotamus, bison, hyenas, straight-tusked elephants and other mammals—were found embedded in a talus of ancient debris.

The remains range in age from 80,000 to 120,000 years old, dating to a relatively warm period between two ice ages. It is believed that the unfortunate animals found in Joint Mitnor had fallen through a shaft on the roof of the cave.

Steve Peacock of the Totnes Times, a local UK paper, reports that in preparation for the cave’s new chapter, Trust officials reportedly bolstered security at the entrance to the site, just in case.

source

http://www.smithsonianmag.com

http://www.totnes-today.co.uk

https://www.theguardian.com

http://pengellytrust.org

http://www.bbc.com

Once Plundered by Thieves, Ancient Cave Reopens with 3-D Replicas of Stolen Fossils

Top Ancient Sites in Rome, Italy : Roman Forum

Top Ancient Sites in Rome, Italy

The ancient Roman Forum is a huge complex of ruined temples, basilicas, and arches. It was the ceremonial, legal, social, and business center of ancient Rome (The food stalls and brothels were removed in the second century BC). To get a good view, walk up the Capitoline Hill behind the museums. Give yourself at least 1-2 hours to wander around, then continue up to the Palatine Hill, also included in the ticket.

The Roman Forum (Latin: Forum Romanum; Italian: Foro Romano) is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.

It was for centuries the center of Roman public life: the site of triumphal processions and elections; the venue for public speeches, criminal trials, and gladiatorial matches; and the nucleus of commercial affairs. Here statues and monuments commemorated the city's great men. The teeming heart of ancient Rome, it has been called the most celebrated meeting place in the world, and in all history. Located in the small valley between the Palatine and Capitoline Hills, the Forum today is a sprawling ruin of architectural fragments and intermittent archaeological excavations attracting 4.5 million sightseers yearly.

Many of the oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located on or near the Forum. The Roman Kingdom's earliest shrines and temples were located on the southeastern edge. These included the ancient former royal residence, the Regia (8th century BC), and the Temple of Vesta (7th century BC), as well as the surrounding complex of the Vestal Virgins, all of which were rebuilt after the rise of imperial Rome.

Other archaic shrines to the northwest, such as the Umbilicus Urbis and the Vulcanal (Shrine of Vulcan), developed into the Republic's formal Comitium (assembly area). This is where the Senate—as well as Republican government itself—began. The Senate House, government offices, tribunals, temples, memorials and statues gradually cluttered the area.

Variations to the original model include shadows, adjusted for good lighting as well as the file being adjusted for color and contrast. 

Over time the archaic Comitium was replaced by the larger adjacent Forum and the focus of judicial activity moved to the new Basilica Aemilia (179 BC). Some 130 years later, Julius Caesar built the Basilica Julia, along with the new Curia Julia, refocusing both the judicial offices and the Senate itself. This new Forum, in what proved to be its final form, then served as a revitalized city square where the people of Rome could gather for commercial, political, judicial and religious pursuits in ever greater numbers.

Eventually much economic and judicial business would transfer away from the Forum Romanum to the larger and more extravagant structures (Trajan's Forum and the Basilica Ulpia) to the north. The reign of Constantine the Great saw the construction of the last major expansion of the Forum complex—the Basilica of Maxentius (312 AD). This returned the political center to the Forum until the fall of the Western Roman Empire almost two centuries later..

Unlike the later imperial fora in Rome—which were self-consciously modelled on the ancient Greek plateia (πλατεῖα) public plaza or town square—the Roman Forum developed gradually, organically, and piecemeal over many centuries. This is the case despite attempts, with some success, to impose some order there, by Sulla, Julius Caesar, Augustus and others. By the Imperial period, the large public buildings that crowded around the central square had reduced the open area to a rectangle of about 130 by 50 metres.

Its long dimension was oriented northwest to southeast and extended from the foot of the Capitoline Hill to that of the Velian Hill. The Forum's basilicas during the Imperial period—the Basilica Aemilia on the north and the Basilica Julia on the south—defined its long sides and its final form. The Forum proper included this square, the buildings facing it and, sometimes, an additional area (the Forum Adjectum) extending southeast as far as the Arch of Titus.

Originally, the site of the Forum had been a marshy lake where waters from the surrounding hills drained. This was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Because of its location, sediments from both the flooding of the Tiber and the erosion of the surrounding hills have been raising the level of the Forum floor for centuries. Excavated sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level in early Republican times.

As the ground around buildings rose, residents simply paved over the debris that was too much to remove. Its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus. Excavations in the 19th century revealed one layer on top of another. The deepest level excavated was 3.60 metres above sea level. Archaeological finds show human activity at that level with the discovery of carbonised wood.

An important function of the Forum, during both Republican and Imperial times, was to serve as the culminating venue for the celebratory military processions known as Triumphs. Victorious generals entered the city by the western Triumphal Gate (Porta Triumphalis) and circumnavigated the Palatine Hill  before proceeding from the Velian Hill down the Via Sacra and into the Forum.

From here they would mount the Capitoline Rise (Clivus Capitolinus) up to the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the summit of the Capitol. Lavish public banquets ensued back down on the Forum. (In addition to the Via Sacra, the Forum was accessed by a number of storied roads and streets, including the Vicus Jugarius, Vicus Tuscus, Argiletum, and Via Nova.)

Top Ancient Sites in Rome, Italy

Top Ancient Sites in Rome, Italy : Roman Forum

Explore an Ancient Cave City in Armenia

Residents lived in Old Khndzoresk up until the 1950s

In a rural corner of southeastern Armenia, livestock walk in and out of rooms carved into the cliffside, grazing among the ancient rock-hewn homes of Old Khndzoresk, a multi-level village built into the volcanic rocks. Archaeological evidence suggests habitation of the excavated caves goes back over a thousand years, ending only recently, in the 1950s. In the early 1900s, Old Khndzoresk was the largest village in eastern Armenia, housing about 8,300 residents in 1,800 homes. 

These homes had several rooms and were all stacked upon one another; one house’s roof was the yard of the one above. The village also had seven schools, four churches, three dyeworks, several leather workshops and about 27 other shops. Residents were known to have traveled to and from different spots in the village through a series of hidden tunnels or by using ropes to climb to higher levels.

The origin of the name is up for debate. Folklore has two accounts: “khndzor” means apples in Armenian, so the village was perhaps named for the various apple trees growing there; or the name might have origins in “khor dzor,” meaning "deep canyon"—because of the cliffs the town was built into. Although researchers aren't exactly sure when the cave village was first built, written records dating to the 13th century name it on a list of villages required to pay taxes to Tatev Monastery. 

Aside from being a fascinating architectural sightseeing opportunity, Old Khndzoresk is a must for military history buffs. Mkhitar Sparapet—once a key leader of the rebellion during Armenia’s fight for liberation from Ottoman rule in the 1700s—is buried nearby. Villagers are said to have murdered him in 1730, fearing the Ottomans would target their village if he was found hiding there. His stone tomb can be found at a 17th-century hermitage near the bottom of the gorge, slightly south of the old village. 

In 1958, Old Khndzoresk’s residents moved out, having built a new village higher up the canyon. The exact reason is under dispute: Some say an earthquake in the 1930s devastated the village and left the cave dwellings unsafe, leading to a gradual departure. Others suggest the residents were forced to move by Soviet leaders, who deemed the caves uncivilized and wanted to source the rock as building material. Whatever the case may be, the families built and moved into their new town, aptly called New Khndzoresk. Today a 525-foot-long swinging suspension bridge hangs about 200 feet above the river, linking the two villages. It opened in 2012, built by locals with local materials and can be accessed by a path that leads from a viewing platform.

From the bridge, visitors can see the several historic churches once frequented by villagers, as well as a fountain, “Nine Children,” named for a local legend: Once, during an attack on Khndzoresk, women and children were needed to fight alongside the men. A widowed mother, Sona, was killed in battle, leaving behind nine children. After the attack, Sona’s father Ohan built the fountain—installing a bowl that looks like a woman’s breast. He christened the fountain with a single prayer: “I beg you sacred fountain, let the water of the fountain turn into milk and protect my orphaned grandchildren.”

Explore the town's architecture, landscapes and legends in this 360-degree interactive map, created by 360 Great Armenia:

Source

Explore an Ancient Cave City in Armenia

A Mycenaean chamber tomb was discovered in Salamis

On 24 and 25 April 2017, in the center of Salamis, a chamber tomb belonging to a Mycenaean cemetery was investigated by the Archaeological Service of West Attica, Piraeus and Islands of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Clusters of the same cemetery have been excavated in 1964, 1992 and 2009. They revealed( then) two chambers of the same tombstones as the present.

The tomb chamber, carved in the natural rock of the area, was discovered during excavation works to connect an adjacent house with the main drainage duct of the city.

It is a chamber of 2.60m x 2.90m and height of 1.50m. at its highest point. Due to the existence of rich freshwater springs in this part of the city, the void of the chamber was flooded with water, which was pumped by mechanical means to conduct the investigation.

Mycenean chamber tomb with grave goods dating to the 13th-12th centuries BCE has been discovered on the island of Salamina.

Approximately 40 intact vases were discovered, with a very good state of preservation of their written decoration and about 10 fragments, as well as skeletal material of at least five people.
The grave from a first estimate was used from the second half of the 13th to the first half of the 12th century BC.

Source/Photography/Bibliography
http://www.ancienthellas.eu

A Mycenaean chamber tomb was discovered in Salamis

Hole accidentally cut in U.K. museum floor reveals stairs to hidden tomb of five archbishops

After the Resurrection, this tomb is crammed with the remains of former Archbishops of Canterbury.

Last year, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum, which is housed in a deconsecrated medieval parish church next to Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official London residence, builders made the discovery of a lifetime: a cache of 30 lead coffins that had lain undisturbed for centuries.

Closer inspection revealed metal plates bearing the names of five former Archbishops of Canterbury, going back to the early 1600s.

Building site managers Karl Patten and Craig Dick made the find by chance, as the former chancel at St Mary-at-Lambeth was being converted into an exhibition space. Stripping some stone to even out the precarious flooring and enable disabled access to the old altar, they accidentally cut a six-inch diameter hole in the floor and noticed a hidden chamber beneath.

Attaching a mobile phone to a stick, they dropped it into the void. What they filmed astonished them – a hidden stairway leading to a brick-lined vault. Inside, piled on top of each other, were the coffins. On top of one rested an archbishop’s red and gold mitre.

Two had nameplates – one for Richard Bancroft (in office from 1604 to 1610) and one for John Moore (in office, 1783-1805), whose wife, Catherine Moore, also had a coffin plate. Also identified from a coffin plate was Dean of Arches John Bettesworth (who lived from 1677 to 1751), the judge who sits at the ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

St Mary-at-Lambeth’s records have since revealed that a further three archbishops were probably buried in the vault: Frederick Cornwallis (in office from 1768 to 1783), Matthew Hutton (1757-1758) and Thomas Tenison (1695-1715). A sixth, Thomas Secker (1758-1768), had his viscera buried in a canister in the churchyard.

“It was amazing seeing the coffins,” says Patten. “We’ve come across lots of bones on this job. But we knew this was different when we saw the archbishop’s crown.”

Details of the find have been kept secret for months until Easter Day to make the vault safe ahead of the museum’s grand reopening next month. As the tomb had been undisturbed for centuries, there was a fear the roof may have been unstable.

A square manhole has now been let into the chancel floor, with a glazed panel that will offer a glimpse of the steps down to the vault. The coffins – which have been left exactly where they were discovered, undisturbed – will be out of bounds, for good reason. Most lead sarcophagi contain dry remains, but some bodies decompose into a viscous black liquid known as “coffin liquor”. Should the ancient casings crack, it will spray forth.

Today, I am the first outsider to be allowed a look into the hidden tomb. I lie on the newly flattened altar, stare deep into the gloom, and point my torch at that mitre, still gleaming away on the jumbled pile of archbishops’ coffins. It is a spine-tingling view – one that astounded Christopher Woodward, director of the Garden Museum when he first heard of the discovery.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “I knew there had been 20,000 bodies buried in the churchyard. But I thought the burial places had been cleared from the nave and aisles, and the vaults under the church had been filled with earth.”


Woodward was not alone in this. St Mary’s crucial role in the history of Lambeth Palace’s most prestigious residents had been lost over time. It was originally an Anglo-Saxon church, built in 1062. Lambeth Palace was built later, in the 13th century. As the palace grew in importance, St Mary’s was overshadowed, literally and metaphorically.

There were records of archbishops being buried in the church, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. But it was thought their coffins had been swept away in 1851, when the ancient church was almost entirely rebuilt, except for its tower. Historians, Woodward included, believed the vaults had been filled in. And so they had been, except for the one beneath the holy altar, the most important spot in the building.

Woodward employed archaeologists, who photographed the coffin plates and researched burial records. Finally, last month, they came up with their staggering conclusions.

Of the identified coffins, the most important belongs to Bancroft, the chief overseer of the publication of the King James Bible. Production began in 1604 and the Bible was finally published in 1611, the year after Bancroft’s death. To find his coffin after all these centuries is astonishing.

“Archbishop Bancroft was chosen by King James I to put together a new English translation of the Bible,” says Woodward. “He didn’t write it, of course, but he made it happen, and the words he forced into print still ring out across a thousand churchyards every Sunday morning. It feels very precious to have his coffin as cargo in our hold.”

Woodward has also consulted Dr. Julian Litten, Britain’s greatest expert on ancient funerals and author of The English Way of Death. The Lambeth mitre chimed with his research into senior church funerals. Archbishops were buried with painted, gilded mitres placed on their coffins as part of their funerary achievements.

Litten concluded that the Lambeth mitre was a fine, 17th-century example. He also worked out, from the stamped plate on the casket beneath, that the coffin was made between 1775 and 1825, probably by the crown undertakers, Banting of St James’s. In other words, the mitre belonged to an older coffin, lower down in the pile, and had been moved on top of the new arrival to prevent damage.

“There is no other vault in the UK so rich in its sacerdotal (priestly) contents,” says Litten. “In short, it is the only archiepiscopal vault in the UK and, therefore, unique in the true meaning of the word.”

You might think Archbishops of Canterbury would be buried in Canterbury Cathedral. And, indeed, more than 50 of them are. But there is no rule saying their remains must be interred there. Six are buried in Croydon; three in Oxford; one in St Lawrence Jewry, in the City of London; one in Westminster Abbey; two in Winchester; and several on the Continent, from Normandy to Viterbo in Italy.

It isn’t surprising, then, that six were buried in Lambeth, residence to Archbishops of Canterbury for nearly 800 years. What is surprising is that they should be in tiny St Mary’s, rather than mighty Lambeth Palace itself.

The archbishops lived in glitzy splendour in the palace, with their own grand apartments, hall and sprawling gardens. Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury still has his own magnificent, 13th-century chapel and crypt within the palace walls. But his predecessors were buried not inside the palace chapel, but in the humble church next door.

How the old archbishops adored the church. Every time a member of the royal family visited Lambeth Palace, the bells of St Mary’s were rung. When a new rector was recruited for the church, he was often one of the Archbishop’s own chaplains or household officers.

“St Mary’s was unique as a London parish church as it was also, in effect, an annex of Lambeth Palace,” says Woodward. “This discovery opens up that whole story.”

Deconsecrated in 1972, St Mary’s pews and bells were transplanted to churches and houses across the country. It was even due to be demolished before becoming the Museum of Garden History (later renamed the Garden Museum) in 1977.

How wonderful that while St Mary’s has risen from the dead, its ancient, holy spirits are still sleeping under the altar.

Hole accidentally cut in U.K. museum floor reveals stairs to hidden tomb of five archbishops

Peles Castle, Romania

The Peles Castle, built between 1873 and 1914, is one of the most important monuments of its kind in Europe.

The complex is northwest of the town of Sinaia, which is 48 kilometres (30 mi) from Braşov and 124 kilometres (77 mi) from Bucharest. Nestled in the southeastern Carpathian Mountains, the complex is composed of three monuments: Peleș Castle, Pelișor Chateau, and Foișor Hunting Lodge.

It is the summer residence of the kings of Romania and was built at the request of King Carol I of Romania.

The laying of the cornerstone of the castle took place in 1875, under the cornerstone being buried a few dozens of gold coins of 20 lei (Romanian currency ), the first Romanian coins bearing the image of Charles I.

The castle has 160 rooms and several entrances and interior staircases. The central tower measures not less than 66 meters in height. Besides Peles itself, two smaller facilities, Pelisor and the Turret, have been erected.

A mural in the inner court

Peles has a theater room with a small stage and 60 seats, plus a royal box. The castle had very modern facilities for the era in which it was built. For example, the glass ceiling of the Hall of Honor is mobile and can be driven by an electric motor. Since 1883, the Castle has central heating.

Garden of Peleș Castle

Pelisor , The Guard's Chambers, The Economat Building, the Hunting Turret Building, the Stables, the Power Plant and Şipot Villa had been built next to the castle. Because of its electrical plant , Peles castle was the first electrified castle in Europe.

The castle remained the residence of the royal family until 1948 , when it was confiscated by the communist regime .

Statues in the courtyard with the Carpathians in background

History

When the King Carol I of Romania (1839–1914), under whose reign the country gained its independence, first visited the site of the future castle in 1866, he fell in love with the magnificent mountain scenery. In 1872, the Crown purchased 1,300 square kilometres (500 sq mi) of land near the Piatra Arsă River. The estate was named the Royal Estate of Sinaia. 

The King commissioned the construction of a royal hunting preserve and summer retreat on the property, and the foundation was laid for Peleș Castle on 22 August 1873. Several auxiliary buildings were built simultaneously with the castle: the guards' chambers, the Economat Building, the Foișor hunting lodge, the royal stables, and a power plant. Peleș became the world's first castle fully powered by locally produced electricity.

The first three design plans submitted for Peleș were copies of other palaces in Western Europe, and King Carol I rejected them all as lacking originality and being too costly. German architect Johannes Schultz won the project by presenting a more original plan, something that appealed to the King's taste: a grand palatial alpine villa combining different features of classic European styles, mostly following Italian elegance and German aesthetics along Renaissance lines. 

Works were also led by architect Carol Benesch. Later additions were made between 1893 and 1914 by the Czech architect Karel Liman, who designed the towers, including the main central tower, which is 66 metres (217 ft) in height. 

The collection of arms and armor has over 4,000 pieces.

The Sipot Villa, which served as Liman's headquarters during the construction, was built later on. Liman would supervise the building of the nearby Pelișor Chateau (1889–1903, the future residence of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania), as well as of King Ferdinand's villa in the Royal Sheepfold Meadow.

The cost of the work on the castle undertaken between 1875 and 1914 was estimated to be 16,000,000 Romanian lei in gold (approx. US$ 120 million today). Between three and four hundred men worked on the construction. Queen Elisabeth of the Romanians, during the construction phase, wrote in her journal:

Italians were masons, Romanians were building terraces, the Gypsies were coolies. Albanians and Greeks worked in stone, Germans and Hungarians were carpenters. Turks were burning brick. Engineers were Polish and the stone carvers were Czech. The Frenchmen were drawing, the Englishmen were measuring, and so was then when you could see hundreds of national costumes and fourteen languages in which they spoke, sang, cursed and quarreled in all dialects and tones, a joyful mix of men, horses, cart oxen and domestic buffaloes.

Construction saw a slight slowdown during the Romanian War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78, but soon afterwards the plans grew in size and construction was quite rapid. Peleș Castle had its official Royal Ball of Inauguration on 7 October 1883. King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth lived in Foişor Villa during construction, as did King Ferdinand and Queen Mary during the construction of Pelișor Castle. King Carol II was born at the castle in 1893, giving meaning to the phrase "cradle of the dynasty, cradle of the nation" that Carol I bestowed upon Peleș Castle. Carol II lived in Foișor Villa for periods during his reign.

After King Michael I's forced abdication in 1947, the Communist regime seized all royal property, including the Peleș Estate. The castle was opened as a tourist attraction for a short time. It also served as a recreation and resting place for Romanian cultural personalities. The castle was declared a museum in 1953. Nicolae Ceaușescu closed the entire estate between 1975 and 1990, during the last years of the Communist regime. The area was declared a "State Protocol Interest Area", and the only persons permitted on the property were maintenance and military personnel.

Ceauşescu did not like the castle very much and rarely visited. In the 1980s, some of the timber was infested with the Serpula lacrymans. After the December 1989 Revolution, Peleş and Pelişor Castle were re-established as heritage sites and opened to the public. Today, Foişor Castle serves as a presidential residence. The Economat Building and the Guard's Chambers Building are now hotels and restaurants. Some of the other buildings on the Peleș Estate were converted to tourist villas and some are now "state protocol buildings". In 2006, the Romanian government announced the restitution of the castle to former monarch Michael I. Negotiations soon began between the former king and the government of Romania, and have not concluded yet. The castle is on lease from the royal family to the Romanian state. Peleș Castle receives between a quarter and almost a half million visitors annually.

Throughout its history, the castle hosted some important personalities, from royalty and politicians to artists. One of the most memorable visits was that of Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary on 2 October 1896, who later wrote in a letter:

The Royal Castle amongst other monuments, surrounded by extremely pretty landscape with gardens built on terraces, all at the edge of dense forests. The castle itself is very impressive through the riches it has accumulated: old and new canvases, old furniture, weapons, all sort of curios, everything placed with good taste. We took a long hike in the mountains, afterwards we picnicked on the green grass, surrounded by the Gypsy music. We took many pictures, and the atmosphere was extremely pleasant.

Artists like George Enescu, Sarah Bernhardt, Jacques Thibaud and Vasile Alecsandri visited often as guests of Queen Elizabeth of Romania (herself a writer also known under the pen name of Carmen Sylva). In more recent times, many foreign dignitaries such as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and Yasser Arafat were welcomed at the castle.

The castle was featured in the 2009 film The Brothers Bloom. The exterior of the castle is used to represent a large estate in New Jersey, the home of an eccentric billionaire played by Rachel Weisz. 

Description

By form and function, Peleş is a palace, but it is consistently called a castle. Its architectural style is a romantically inspired blend Neo-Renaissance and Gothic Revival similar to Schloss Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. A Saxon influence can be observed in the interior courtyard facades, which have allegorical hand-painted murals and ornate fachwerk similar to that seen in northern European alpine architecture. Interior decoration is mostly Baroque influenced, with heavy carved woods and exquisite fabrics.

Peleş Castle has a 3,200-square-metre (34,000 sq ft) floor plan with over 170 rooms, many with dedicated themes from world cultures (in a similar fashion as other Romanian palaces, like Cotroceni Palace). Themes vary by function (offices, libraries, armories, art galleries) or by style (Florentine, Turkish, Moorish, French, Imperial); all the rooms are extremely lavishly furnished and decorated to the slightest detail. There are 30 bathrooms. The establishment hosts one of the finest collections of art in Eastern and Central Europe, consisting of statues, paintings, furniture, arms and armor, gold, silver, stained glass, ivory, fine china, tapestries, and rugs. The collection of arms and armor has over 4,000 pieces, divided between Eastern and Western war pieces and ceremonial or hunting pieces, spreading over four centuries of history. Oriental rugs come from many sources: Bukhara, Mosul, Isparta, Saruk, and Smirna. The porcelain is from Sèvres and Meissen; the leather is from Córdoba. Perhaps the most acclaimed items are the hand-painted stained glass vitralios, which are mostly Swiss.

A towering statue of King Carol I by Raffaello Romanelli overlooks the main entrance. Many other statues are present on the seven Italian neo-Renaissance terrace gardens, mostly of Carrara marble executed by the Italian sculptor Romanelli. The gardens also host fountains, urns, stairways, guarding lions, marble paths, and other decorative pieces.

Peleș Castle shelters a painting collection of almost 2,000 pieces. Angelo de Gubernatis (1840–1913) was an Italian writer who arrived in 1898 in Sinaia as a guest of the Royal Family:

Inaugurated in 1883, Peleș Castle is not only a pleasant place during summer time; it has been conceived to be also a national monument, meant to keep the trophies of the Plevna victory, which explains the simple but majestic style. The castle's courtyard – Bramantes type – with a fountain in the middle, in the most accurate Renaissance style, pleasantly surprises the visitor. The courtyard has a merry decoration, made out of plants and flowers; all round, the building's facades are animated by elegant drawings. The interior of the castle is a true wonder, due to the beauty and richness of the sculpted wood and the stained glass windows. As you get in the vestibule, you are on the Honor Staircase, in front of the most important rulers of old Romania: Holy Stephen the Great, and Michael the Brave. In a proud attitude, wearing whether a fur cap or with the gold crown on their heads, they impress through the brilliant dressing, in which the white of ermine blends with the emerald green or the red of the large mantle. On the right and on left side of the two rulers, as servant knights, four shield bearers carry the Romanian Provinces escutcheons. Inside the Queen's library, over the groups of children symbolizing poetry and science, there is the image of Ulfilas (311–383 AD) a Goth religious ruler, from the northern side of Danube River, translating the Bible in their language and bringing his contribution in spreading Christianity, a Christian apostle of the Romans, and the image of Dante Alighieri, the creator of western poetry. Passing the library and getting into the dormitory, we will meet the image of Genies and Allegories of Painting and Music, as well as a series of legendary themes. Inside the apartments reserved for the honor guests, a number of coat-of-arms were shining through their heraldic abundance, speaking about the ancestors of the Royal Family. But among all, the glass paintings from the Peleș Castle are, beyond any doubt, the most profound and shining. Here, the subjects are taken out of Alecsandri's poetry.

Museum 

Public visits are made within guided tours. One of the tours is limited to the ground floor, another adds the first floor and the complete tour includes the second floor. Admission is charged, and there is an additional photography fee. The visiting hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. On Tuesdays the hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The castle is closed on Mondays. These visiting hours are subject to change by the Romanian Culture Ministry. The castle is closed in November each year for maintenance and cleaning.

The most notable grand rooms are:

Holul de Onoare (The Hall of Honour) was finished completely only in 1911, under the guidance of Karel Liman. It spreads over three floors. Walls are dressed in exquisitely carved woodwork, mostly European walnut and exotic timbers. Bas-reliefs, alabaster sculptures, and retractable stained glass panels complete the decor.

Apartamentul Imperial (The Imperial Suite) is believed to be a tribute to the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, who visited the palace as a friend of the Romanian Royal Family. Hence, decorator Auguste Bembe preferred the sumptuous Austrian Baroque in style of Empress Maria Theresa. A perfectly preserved five-hundred-year-old Cordoban tooled leather wall cover is the rarest of such quality.

Sala Mare de Arme (The Grand Armory or The Arsenal) is where 1,600 of the 4,000 pieces of weaponry and armor reside. One of Europe's finest collection of hunting and war implements, timelined between 14th and 19th century, are on display. The king added pieces used in his victory against the Ottoman Turks during the War of Independence. Famous are the complete Maximilian armor for horse and rider and a 15th-century German "nobles only" decapitation broadsword. Also on display are a wide array of polearms (glaives, halberds, lances, hunting spears), firearms (muskets, blunderbusses, snaphaunces, flintlocks, pistols), axes, crossbows, and swords (rapiers, sabers, broadswords, and many others).

Grand Hall Ceiling

Sala Mică de Arme (The Small Armory) is where predominantly Oriental (mostly Indo-Persian, Ottoman and Arab) arms and armor pieces are on exhibit, many of them made of gold and silver, and inlaid with precious stones. Included are chainmail armor, helmets, scimitars, yataghans, daggers, matchlocks, lances, pistols, shields, axes, and spears.

Sala de Teatru (The Playhouse) is decorated in Louis XIV style, with sixty seats and a Royal Box. Architectural decoration and mural paintings are signed by Gustav Klimt and Frantz Matsch.

Interior

Sala Florentină (The Florentine Room) combines revived elements of the Italian Renaissance, mostly from Florence. Most impressive are the solid bronze doors executed in Rome; ateliers of Luigi Magni; and the Grand Marble Fireplace executed by Paunazio with Michelangelo motifs.

Salonul Maur (The Moorish Salon) was executed under the guidance of Charles Lecompte de Nouy, and is meant to embody elements of North-African and Hispanic Moorish style. Mother-of-pearl inlaid furniture, fine Persian Sarouk and Ottoman Isparta rugs, and Oriental weapons and armor are perhaps the most expressive elements. The salon has an indoor marble fountain.

Salonul Turcesc (The Turkish Parlor) emulates an Ottoman "joie de vivre" atmosphere—a room full of Turkish Izmir rugs and copperware from Anatolia and Persia. It was used as a smoking room for gentlemen. Walls are covered in hand-made textiles like silk brocades from the Siegert shops of Vienna.

1933 stamp

In something remarkable in comparison to most recent-era royal families, the monarchs shared a bedroom.

Sources

http://www.romaniaregala.ro/jurnal/participarea-presedintelui-romaniei-la-dineul-oficial-de-la-castelul-peles/

http://www.dunavturs.com

Paul Constantin, Universal Dictionary of Architects (Dicționar Universal al Arhitecților), București, Editura Stiințifică si Enciclopedică, 1986 p. 39.

https://en.wikipedia.org

Romanian Landmark Peles Castle Blown Up In "Brothers Bloom" Movie

Peles Castle, Romania

Herxheim, an archaeological site in southwest Germany, was a ritual center and mass grave from the Neolithic Era

Herxheim, in southwest Germany, is a Neolithic site that dates back to 5300-4950 BC. Archaeologists found a mass grave that was used by the people of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK); they believe the site was a ritual center for the area. The site was discovered in 1996 when construction work uncovered bones and human skulls. The excavation ended up being a rescue dig, or salvage dig, as it had already been damaged in part during the construction work.

The structure, found at Herxheim, indicates a large village that was up to 6 hectares in size and surrounded by large ovoid pits had been dug over many centuries. Some of these pits cut into each other and created triple semi-circular areas that split into three sections. The patterns of pits suggest that there was a predetermined layout. Due to their age, they have eroded considerably; the structures inside the pits have also eroded over time, and not many still exist.

There are 80 oval pits around the settlement at Herxheim, containing the remains of both human and animals. Inside are also material goods, such as bone and stone tools, pottery, and decorative artifacts. Interestingly, remains of whole dogs have been found intact in some of these pits.

Using an equation called “minimum number of individuals,” which is a quantification process, the researchers decided that the site contains up to 500 humans, ranging from infants to the elderly. However, only half the site has been excavated so far. Few human remains in the pits are intact, and many were shattered and had been dispersed across a pit.

The people who resided in Herxheim in the Neolithic period were known to practice a style of burial called “secondary burial”. This means that the whole of the corpse or partial pieces of it are removed and placed elsewhere. It is also possible that they practiced “sky burials,” in which some parts of the decomposing bodies may have been allowed to be carried off by scavengers. In 2006, a study of the bones revealed that many had been intentionally broken and cut apart, either at death or just after, and stone tools were most likely used to achieve the breaks that have been observed. The study concludes that Herxheim was most likely a ritual mortuary center, otherwise known as a necropolis, where the remains of the dead were destroyed, for reasons as of yet unknown.

A study in 2009 confirmed many of the 2006 findings, as one pit that had been discovered contained 1906 bones and bone fragments that belonged to 10 individuals, ranging in age from infants to the elderly. It was soon obvious that many of the bones had been singled out for their marrow content, and this suggests that a form of cannibalism was practiced there.

Due to the presence of marks and damage to the bones from impact, it is believed that the bodies were defleshed before the bones were shattered and broken.

The skulls were treated in a similar manner, with many of them struck in a way that caused them to fracture into symmetrical shapes. On many, the vault of the skull was preserved. It is not known at this point why these people used such a ritualistic method of burial. Many theories are being shared about why this site exists, including ritual sacrifice or religious use, but it is still very unclear at present.

Herxheim, an archaeological site in southwest Germany, was a ritual center and mass grave from the Neolithic Era

New light shed on Royal sex scandal as ancient Roman remains unearthed

Scattered across the site and buried in a series of pits, the archaeologists have found large quantities of high-status Roman products

A remarkable archaeological investigation is shedding new light on the Roman conquest of Britain – and on the geopolitical background to one of the murkiest royal sex scandals of British history.

Excavations in Yorkshire have unearthed the first ever archaeological evidence of high-status Roman influence in northern Britain.

It appears to confirm ancient historical accounts of a political and military alliance between the Roman Empire and northern Britain’s largest native kingdom.

Archaeologists, working in conjunction with Historic England and funded by Highways England, have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown, yet high status, small town consisting of a mixture of Roman and native buildings, potentially associated in some way with Iron Age Britain’s most controversial ruler – Queen Cartimandua of The Iron Age Kingdom of Brigantia (modern Yorkshire and northern England).

In the settlement – located at Scotch Corner, 40 miles north of York – the archaeological excavations have unearthed what may well be the first archaeological evidence of Cartimandua’s deep collaboration with the Romans and her betrayal of native Britain.

Scattered across the site and buried in a series of pits, the archaeologists have found large quantities of high-status Roman products which had almost certainly been given or sold to the Brigantes.

Among the valuable artefacts unearthed so far are fine imported Roman glassware, beautiful glazed Roman tableware, imported drinking flagons, glass gaming counters, part of a fine Roman copper mirror and part of a rare and beautiful Italian-made amber statue.

It’s known from historical sources that the Romans gave Cartimandua and her rival supporters large amounts of wealth to reward her for betraying Britain’s resistance to Rome.

The political reality of the situation was that Britain was a patchwork quilt of independent tribal states – some of which were pro-Roman while others were anti-Roman. 

To complicate things further, some of these native kingdoms and tribal confederations included within them both pro-and anti-Roman rival elements.

Indeed, that was the decidedly volatile situation in Brigantia itself. Queen Cartimandua (literally, in Celtic, ‘the Pony-Chaser’) was Queen of Brigantia in her own right – and seems to have been very pro-Roman. But her husband became decidedly anti-Roman and even eventually clashed militarily with them.

Cartimandua’s story is one of collaboration, marital strife and probable infidelity and ruthless treachery.

One of the leading anti-Roman British rebels, Caratacus (sometimes known today as Caractacus) sought sanctuary in Brigantia – but it’s ruler, Cartimandua, arrested him, put him in chains and handed him over to the Romans who gratefully rewarded her handsomely.

She then appears to have divorced her probably less pro-Roman husband (Venutius) almost certainly after having developed a relationship with his armour bearer, who she subsequently married. The royal love feud between the Queen and her ex-husband led to Venutius mounting two invasions of Brigantia. On both occasions, Roman occupation forces in southern Britain sent military help – but in the end, Venutius succeeded in defeating and removing his ex-wife from power.

The findings at the newly discovered small town at Scotch Corner were high-status goods probably supplied to Cartimandua and/or her pro-Roman Brigantian aristocratic supporters – precisely during this period of Roman collaboration and internal Brigantian civil conflict.

A key discovery at the site is a large collection of late Iron Age metal pellet moulds, thought to have been used for native coin manufacture. Research at the University of Liverpool has revealed that they were probably used to produce gold/silver/copper alloy native British coins – perhaps needed for massively increased levels of trade with newly arrived Roman merchants. The alloys detected in them are consistent with native British coin production. Their discovery may well be the first archaeological evidence of Brigantian coin production – because so far no coins of that particularly important British tribal kingdom have ever been found.

Significantly, fragments of up to 50 ceramic metal pellet mould trays have been discovered in the native British area of the Scotch Corner settlement. There were two types of tray – ones for producing 100 metal pellets each and others for producing just 50 slightly larger pellets – arguably to make larger coins.

In total, the trays, unearthed by the archaeologists, would have been capable of producing over 3000 metal pellets which would have been turned, with the help of a hammer and die, into coins. It is the most northerly archaeological evidence for Iron Age coin manufacturers in Europe.

The settlement itself appears to have been divided into two distinctly different areas – Roman and native. Facing onto the main London to Brigantia road were up to 40 Roman-style rectangular buildings – probably a mixture of domestic and industrial premises. Of those, around a dozen have been excavated by the archaeologists.

Some way behind them, and therefore set back from the road, were a probably similar number of Iron Age native British roundhouses. Some 14 of those have been excavated.

In a third and fourth area – to the north and south – archaeologists found a series of pits which had been used for the potentially ritual votive deposition of high value and sometimes probably deliberately broken high-status Roman artefacts. Iron Age religious tradition often involved the deliberate breaking of valuable objects to be buried as votive offerings to the gods.

The newly discovered Scotch Corner Roman artefacts represent the earliest known major archaeological evidence of Roman influence in northern Britain. For the first time, archaeology appears to confirm some crucial aspects of what Roman historians claimed was happening in Brigantia in the period immediately before the north of England was fully incorporated into the Empire.

It may also push back by up to a decade and a half, the probable date for the initial laying out of the northern section of the London-Brigantia Road (what is today the Yorkshire part of the A1 ). The road (probably originally, at least in part, a native trackway) was very slightly diverted to deliberately pass through the newly discovered Scotch Corner small town.

As the Roman buildings, potentially built in the mid-to late 50s AD, faced onto that road, the Roman highway may have been initially conceived in that decade, rather than the early 70s AD as had previously been thought.

As the route was without doubt used by the Roman military, it helps to illustrate archaeologically the substantial extent of a Roman military presence well before northern England was incorporated into the Empire. There is also an enigmatic as yet unexcavated rectangular feature at the Scotch Corner site which may turn out to have been a very early Roman fort.

“The discoveries illuminate a crucial period in the history of Britain – the very early presence of Roman wealth, power and influence in northern Britain,” said Neil Redfern, Historic England’s principal inspector of ancient monuments.

“The excavations at Scotch Corner are redefining our understanding of how the region was incorporated into the Roman Empire,” he said.

The newly discovered hybrid Roman and native small town is just eight miles from the probable Brigantian capital, now known as Stanwick, to which it was connected by an Iron Age road.

The finds were discovered through the £380m Highways England Leeming to Barton road scheme to upgrade the existing dual carriageway with a new three lane motorway. The extensive excavations have been carried out by Northern Archaeological Associates – and managed by Dr Jonathan Shipley and Helen MacLean from the archaeological section of the US engineering consultancy, AECOM, with support from Historic England.

New light shed on Royal sex scandal as ancient Roman remains unearthed

Stunning mosaics shed light on enigmatic past of Roman city in southern France

Archaeologists have unearthed part of an ancient Roman city in southern France, known as Ucetia. To date, the settlement had only be known by name, and this is the first time that some of its impressive features have come to light.

The excavations began in October 2016 at the request of the French state, after local authorities bought land near the modern-day city of Uzes (near Nimes) to build a boarding school and a canteen. A team led by Philippe Cayn from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) excavated the 4,000m sq site, to make sure construction works wouldn't destroy any major artefacts. In the process, the researchers shed a light on the mysterious past of the Roman city of Ucetia.

"Prior to our work, we knew that there had been a Roman city called Ucetia only because its name was mentioned on stela in Nimes, alongside 11 other names of Roman towns in the area. It was probably a secondary town, under the authority of Nimes. No artefacts had been recovered except for a few isolated fragments of mosaic", Cayn told IBTimes UK.

The archaeologists found that the site had been occupied from the 1st century BC to the late Antiquity (7th century AD), with an interruption in the 3rd and 4th century, which they haven't been able to explain. They also identified building remains from the Middle Ages, although these were more rare.

The team discovered a large wall and many structures dating to just before the Roman conquest. This includes a room where a bread oven was set up, and later replaced with a dolium – an enormous ceramic container.

These structures would have stood inside the walls the ancient city of Utecia. The complex network of communication routes and the organisation of the buildings suggest this was the centre of the Roman town and not another, separate site.

Unique mosaic

However, the most stunning find to date is that of a complex mosaic pavement, on the floor of a room, inside a large 250m sq building with a colonnade. It dates back to the early stages of the area's urbanisation – the building is thought to have been used until the end of the 1st century AD.

The archaeologists have identified two large mosaics decorated with traditional geometric motifs framing two central medallions composed of crowns, rays and chevrons. One of the medallions is surrounded by polychrome animals – an owl, a duck, an eagle and a fawn.

"This mosaic is very impressive because of its large size, its good state of conservation and the motifs which combine classical geometric shapes and with animals. This kind of elaborate mosaic pavement is often found in the Roman world in the 1st and 2nd centuries, but this one dates back to about 200 years before that, so this is surprising", Cayn pointed out.

What kind of building the mosaics were found in is still unclear. The colonnade points to the fact it was probably a public building. However, the archaeologists have not yet discarded the hypothesis that the mosaic pavement formed part of a private home. "True, not that many people would have been able to live in such a large building. But it's possible that the owner of these mosaics was quite rich. He probably would have had them placed in a reception room, to impress visitors and show the extent of his wealth", Cayn added.

The excavations will continue at the site until August 2017.

Stunning mosaics shed light on enigmatic past of Roman city in southern France