M.J. Rose

“With its subway lines traveling at nearly 100 feet below ground, Line C has given archaeologists access to artifacts dating as far back as the Paleolithic era.”

From the New York Times,

Unearthed in Rome’s New Subway: Extinct Elephants and Persian Peach Pits

By Elisabetta Povoledo

“ROME — The ancient Romans were celebrated for their engineering feats: roads that helped expand an empire; aqueducts that quenched throngs and supplied lavish fountains; monumental bridges, some of which are still in use today.

So it seems apt that a modern engineering achievement — the construction of a new subway line in the city — has given archaeologists a unique opportunity to study this ancient world in extraordinary detail.

“This subway has provided a wealth of knowledge about the city that no other operation could have duplicated,” said Rossella Rea, the archaeologist who has overseen the project since planning for the subway line began in the 1990s.

The new route, Line C, will link the city center to an area to the east of Rome, beyond the city limits, connecting a series of fairly recently developed and heavily populated suburbs. The hope is that the line, whose first 13 stations were opened in 2014, will alleviate some of Rome’s famously chronic traffic chaos.

In living cities, archaeologists typically get to muck around underground during the construction of parking lots, with digs up to 26 feet below ground. With its subway lines traveling at nearly 100 feet below ground, Line C has given archaeologists access to artifacts dating as far back as the Paleolithic era.

“We haven’t done anything so extensive or gone so deeply” for years, Ms. Rea said.

As tens of thousands of cubic meters of earth has been moved during the line’s decade-long construction, each unearthed artifact — marble capitals and mosaics, and even remains of long-ago leftover meals and the ruins of 19th-century villas — has been painstakingly documented, cataloged and extracted. Some will go on show once a proper exhibition space is found. Some more monumental finds will be recomposed to be admired in situ…”

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Treasure can be found in unlikely places…

From The Guardian,

Westminster Abbey’s attics yield a treasure trove of stained glass
Archaeologists clearing attics to create new museum space find 30,000 stained glass shards, some dating back to 13th century

“When the archaeologist Warwick Rodwell scooped up a handful of dust from the attics of Westminster Abbey and saw dozens of tiny fragments of glass glittering in the grime, he realised they were dealing with excavation, not house clearance.

The salvaged glass – some dating back to the 13th century, including stars, flowers and sun rays, fierce little mythical animals and beautiful medieval faces – is being recycled into dazzling new windows being made for the abbey at the stained glass studio at Canterbury Cathedral, where some of the original medieval glass artists may have worked.

The Westminster attics, the triforium, were being cleared out to create a museum space opening next year. It will be the first time the general public has been admitted to the spectacular space.

Until the new tower, which will be lit by the new windows, was built outside the walls of Poets’ Corner, the only access was by a perilous, narrow spiral staircase used by centuries of workmen, and occasionally guests, and in the 20th century journalists, for great state occasions including coronations, royal weddings and funerals.

Rodwell said: “Once I saw the glass, the penny dropped. I realised this was treasure, not rubbish, and we would have to go through every inch of it. The workmen thought I was mad.”

The attics became one of the most unusual excavations anywhere: the diggers were working in pits up to 1.5 metres (5ft) deep, heavily masked to protect them from asbestos and lead dust, almost 30 metres above the floor of the abbey…”

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There are some really interesting past life stories here that we haven’t encountered before, such as “Midwestern Toddler Recalls Writing Gone With The Wind”…

From Ranker,

People With REALLY Believable Evidence For Their Claim They’re Reincarnated  

by Erin Wisti

“The afterlife will always be a subject of human fascination. We all wonder what happens when we die. Stories of reincarnation give believers hope that their consciousness continues after death, but sometimes leave skeptics rolling their eyes. Some reincarnation stories, however, are not so easy to dismiss. When past-life memories come with unnerving precision, even the most hardened skeptics may become believers.

In these potentially true reincarnation tales, individuals are able to recall intricate, eerie memories of lives they never lived. Their stories are rich with details that seem too exact to be drawn from imagination alone. People who have been reincarnated may remember information that is later verified, such as former addresses, old family members, and deadly accidents.

While some past life recollections can be easily dismissed, these stories are rich with haunting details that defy logical explanations. Such chronicles will leave even staunch skeptics wondering, “Is reincarnation real?”…”

For the rest, click here.