Thursday,
October 18
Sanctuary Found of
The
ANNOTICO Report
Numa Pompilius, a member of the Sabine
tribe, was elected at the age of forty to succeed
Numa Pompilius was also known to have
established religious practices and observance in the emergent city state,
instituting the office of priest or pontifex and
founding the cult of the Vestal Virgins. The temple or sanctuary lay between
the
Numa Pompilius is also credited with
dividing Rome into administrative districts, and according to Plutarch organised the city’s first occupational guilds, -forming companies of
musicians, goldsmiths, carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, skinners, braziers, and
potters.
The
unearthing of the temple proved there were still "remarkable
discoveries" to be made in the Forum and Palatine Hill areas.
Unearthing
Richard
Owen -
October
8, 2007
Italian
archeologists have uncovered the ruins of a 2,700 year old sanctuary which they
say provides the first physical evidence of
Numa Pompilius, a member of the Sabine
tribe, was elected at the age of forty to succeed
Clementina Panella, the
archeologist from Rome’s Sapienza University who is
leading the dig, said Numa Pompilius
was also known to have established religious practices and observance in the
emergent city
state, instituting the office of priest or pontifex
and founding the cult of the Vestal Virgins. She said the temple or sanctuary
her team had uncovered lay between the
The
dig began a year ago, with the help of 130 students and volunteers. The wall of
the temple was found seven metres below the surface,
together with a street and pavement and two wells, one round and one
rectangular. Both wells were “full of
thousands of votive offerings and cult objects”, including the bones of birds
and animals and ceramic bowls and cups.
Dr
Panella said there was no doubt that the objects
dated from the period of Numa Pompilius.
However there were no statues or figures because Numa
forbade images of the gods in his temples, arguing that it was “impious to represent things Divine by what is
perishable”.
Numa Pompilius is also credited with
dividing
Corriere della Sera said the
unearthing of the temple proved there were still “remarkable discoveries” to be made in the Forum and Palatine Hill
areas. Last year Andrea Carandini, Professor of
Archeology at La Sapienza, announced that he had
discovered the remains of a royal palace dating to the time of
He
said the palace, built around a courtyard, had a monumental entrance and ornate
furniture and tiles, and was ten times the size of ordinary homes of the
period.
Also
last year Dr Panella, who has been excavating in the
Forum for twenty years, discovered a sceptre which
belonged to Emperor Maxentius, who ruled for six
years until 312AD — towards the end of
the Roman state.
Maxentius drowned in the Tiber during the battle on the Milvian bridge against his
brother-in-law, Constantine, who attributed his victory over Maxentius to divine intervention and converted the
Maxentius’s supporters are thought to have hidden the sceptre after the defeat. It was found wrapped in silk and
linen in a wooden box together with battle standards and lance heads.
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