Italy unearths huge Roman barracks during Rome metro dig - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Excavation work for a new metro line in Rome has unearthed a huge Roman barracks from the 2nd Century AD when Emperor Hadrian was in power. The find is so impressive that Italy plans to create Rome's first "archaeological station" at Amba Aradam, on the city's third metro line. The new station is being built while archaeologists brush dirt away from artefacts and mosaics 9m (30ft) below street level. The ruins cover 900sq m (9,700sq ft). The site, thought to have housed Hadrian's Praetorian Guard, includes a 100m hallway with 39 rooms.[/QUOTE] [t]http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/24E1/production/_89714490_romanwalls16may16epa.jpg[/t] [url]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36311156[/url] [url]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ancient-roman-barracks-discovered-during-rome-metro-excavation-a7034236.html[/url]

Rome is such an awesome place for this reason alone, I just wish it was possible to keep most of these sites without building over them.

[QUOTE=ReligiousNutjob;50409204]Rome is such an awesome place for this reason alone, I just wish it was possible to keep most of these sites without building over them.[/QUOTE] apparently my house was built on top of some ruins from the roman empire (my area was a hot spot for them). hell, we even found stuff by digging in our garden (which we donated to the local museum) and they also found an old necropolis down the street. italy is FILLED with stuff like this. almost every single place, from large cities to small towns, has ruins beneath it. the roman empire was fucking massive

One of the thing that stuck out the most to me when I was in rome was the abundance of archeological sites literally everywhere. It was amazing. Hell some of the buildings are built upon foundations that date back to Roman times.

[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;50409245]apparently my house was built on top of some ruins from the roman empire (my area was a hot spot for them). hell, we even found stuff by digging in our garden (which we donated to the local museum) and they also found an old necropolis down the street. italy is FILLED with stuff like this. almost every single place, from large cities to small towns, has ruins beneath it. the roman empire was fucking massive[/QUOTE] The urban exploration community will have a field day once most people are living in artificial gravity cities in orbit

They're actually gonna incorporate the ruins into the actual tube station? Now that's a plan and a half if I ever saw one. Although I imagine that station might end up being a little crowded due to it also being kind of a tourist attraction.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;50409297]The urban exploration community will have a field day once most people are living in artificial gravity cities in orbit[/QUOTE] Man, posts like this are the weirdest on so many levels. I mean, I almost get what you're saying, but it's a huge leap of logic to go from 'roman barracks found under Rome' to earth's population living in orbital cities. Like, let's take a step back and look at orbital cities first of all. Why? Why would 'most people' ever want to live there? There's absolutely no real benefit to it. Travel is made harder, supply is a major problem, if something goes wrong everyone's screwed. Long story short, it's an absolute logistical nightmare which offers zero real benefit over living in a regular city on earth, and it's certainly not likely to be a preferable choice to anyone but few select enthusiasts, and cities like Rome that has been populated continuously by hundreds of thousands of people from the 21st of April 753 BC (Actual widely accepted founding date of Rome based on historical and archeological evidence) to now aren't just gonna be abandoned once people move to space for no real good reason. They'll stick around. And then UrbEx folk... What exact benefit do they get from undiscovered Roman ruins? That's generally the field of archeologists and disgruntled construction workers. Urban exploration is more like, breaking into abandoned 1970's shit, isn't it? They aren't gonna go out into a field with a bunch of shovels and brushes and go "Well, according to Pliny the Elder, there should be a town here, let's dig it up!" or "Aw shuck, we hit roman ruins. Construction's gonna be delayed three years, [I]again.[/I]" Roman ruins have very little relevance to what I understand as being urbex. Yeah, I'm sorry for way-off-topic, I'll take my ban or whatever. Posts like that just really blow my mind. And to get back on topic, as a historian with a fair bit of love for the roman empire (but no real market for research up here in Denmark in it), this is some rad shit. Nothing we haven't seen before, but more is always welcome!

I thought the only Praetorian Guard barracks in Rome were the Castra Praetoria?

[QUOTE=ironman17;50409312]They're actually gonna incorporate the ruins into the actual tube station? Now that's a plan and a half if I ever saw one. Although I imagine that station might end up being a little crowded due to it also being kind of a tourist attraction.[/QUOTE] Well to be fair it isnt the first time they've done something like it for instance it was done during the construction of Syntagma station in Athens [img]http://mic-ro.com/metro/athenssyntagma4400vb6.jpg[/img] and here's an example of a pyramid in Mexico city as part of the Pino Suarez station [img]http://mic-ro.com/metro/mexicocitypinosuarez28oy.jpg[/img] Unexpected discoveries can prove pretty expensive during metro digs, especially if plans have to be redone. To prevent this, they go as deep as possible so they dont affect historical layers, but it doesn't always work as expected.

[QUOTE=Riller;50409501]Man, posts like this are the weirdest on so many levels. I mean, I almost get what you're saying, but it's a huge leap of logic to go from 'roman barracks found under Rome' to earth's population living in orbital cities. Like, let's take a step back and look at orbital cities first of all. Why? Why would 'most people' ever want to live there? There's absolutely no real benefit to it. Travel is made harder, supply is a major problem, if something goes wrong everyone's screwed. Long story short, it's an absolute logistical nightmare which offers zero real benefit over living in a regular city on earth, and it's certainly not likely to be a preferable choice to anyone but few select enthusiasts, and cities like Rome that has been populated continuously by hundreds of thousands of people from the 21st of April 753 BC (Actual widely accepted founding date of Rome based on historical and archeological evidence) to now aren't just gonna be abandoned once people move to space for no real good reason. They'll stick around. And then UrbEx folk... What exact benefit do they get from undiscovered Roman ruins? That's generally the field of archeologists and disgruntled construction workers. Urban exploration is more like, breaking into abandoned 1970's shit, isn't it? They aren't gonna go out into a field with a bunch of shovels and brushes and go "Well, according to Pliny the Elder, there should be a town here, let's dig it up!" or "Aw shuck, we hit roman ruins. Construction's gonna be delayed three years, [I]again.[/I]" Roman ruins have very little relevance to what I understand as being urbex. Yeah, I'm sorry for way-off-topic, I'll take my ban or whatever. Posts like that just really blow my mind. And to get back on topic, as a historian with a fair bit of love for the roman empire (but no real market for research up here in Denmark in it), this is some rad shit. Nothing we haven't seen before, but more is always welcome![/QUOTE] It just sounds like a cool idea. Taking a space motorcycle from an orbital city into the atmosphere and exploring the urban decay of former Earth cities.

[QUOTE=TheDrunkenOne;50409245] italy is FILLED with stuff like this. almost every single place, from large cities to small towns, has ruins beneath it. the roman empire was fucking massive[/QUOTE] Not only Italy, but all the countries in the area conquered by the Roman Empire. Archeologists have found a shitload of villas in my town alone. If you have luck, you can dig anywhere and find roman sesterces buried into the ground. It's insane how an empire gone for 1,700 years has such a heavy influence on not only the environnement, but also on our lifestyle and culture. The gladiator fights of yesterday are basically the action movies of today.