Most Recent Visit: June 2022 The area that the Romans would eventually settle as Colonia Ulpia Traiana, near the confluence of the Rhenus (modern Rhine) and Lupia (modern Lippe) rivers, was sparsely inhabited by local groups for at least the preceding two millennia. There does not seem to have been any large settlements identified in…
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Continued From Agrigentum, Sicilia Part IV At the very west end of the archaeological park, near the Temple of the Dioscouri, is the entrance to the Giardino della Kolymbethra, a valley located along the north side of the archaeological area. I didn’t visit this on the 2017 trip because I thought having a separate additional…
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Continued From Agrigentum, Sicilia Part III The next few points for the Agrigentum addendum are within the main Parco Valle dei Templi archaeological area or very closely associated with it. The main entrance is conveniently just half a kilometer south down the Strada Provinciale 4 from the Casa San Filippo parking lot. The park is…
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Continued From Agrigentum, Sicilia Part II The first time I visited Agrigento in June 2017, I was just a few months on from officially starting this project. It was one of the first sites I visited after I had actually started working this. Though I had gone into summer 2016 travels with the idea, I…
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Most Recent Visit: May 2024 Though the area was inhabited since prehistoric times, the ancient city of Edessa seems to have been continuously occupied by the late 8th or early 7th century BCE. It is thought that the earliest inhabitants were the Bryges, a Thracian people from which the Phrygians seem to have originated. The…
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Continued From Juliobriga Part I There are a number of interesting and relevant smaller, ancillary sites to visit within about an hour of Juliobriga. I managed to see all of them along with Juliobriga in the same day (with the main archaeological site sandwiched right in the middle), so it makes for a nice full…
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Most Recent Visit: July 2022 In 29 BCE, Augustus began a campaign in the northwestern part of Hispania to attempt to pacify the last remaining populations not more or less submitting to Roman hegemony on the peninsula; the Cantabri and the Astures. The bloody ten year long conflict saw the Romans not taking prisoners and…
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Continued From Beneventum, Samnium – Part II Just to the west of the cathedral, a little ways down Via Carlo Torre, is the Area Archeologica Arco del Sacramento. The archaeological remains in this park are those of a bathing complex, located in the vicinity of the forum of ancient Beneventum. Though impressive looking, the archaeological…
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Continued From Beneventum, Samnium – Part I From the Arch of Trajan, one of the streets leading due east out of the intersection in front of the arch is Viale dei Rettori (a slight uphill). About 300 meters along this street, it intersects with Via Sandro Pertini and curves to the south. On the southwest…
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Most Recent Visit: July 2023 Beneventum was located at the confluence of the Calor (modern Irpino Calore) and Sabatus (modern Sabato) rivers, now the location of the modern city of Benevento, which clearly derives its modern name from the ancient. Prior to the arrival of Roman hegemony, the name of the settlement here seems to…
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