EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Unique 2,000-Year-Old Decorated Roman Sandal Lost By Well-Cleaner Found In Spain

Unique 2,000-Year-Old Decorated Roman Sandal Lost By Well-Cleaner Found In Spain

About 2,000 years ago, a Roman man tried to clean a well and lost a sandal.

The well-preserved ancient shoe was discovered during archaeological excavations at Lucus Asturum (modern-day Lugo de Llanera in Asturias, northern Spain).

Mentioned by astronomer, mathematician, and geographer Ptolemy in his work Geography Lucus Asturum was a Roman settlement that served as an administrative center and communications hub in the north of the Iberian Peninsula between the first and fourth centuries A.D. between the first and fourth centuries A.D.

Unique 2,000-Year-Old Decorated Roman Sandal Lost By Well-Cleaner Found In Spain
The Roman sandal discovered in Lugo de Llanera, Asturias. Credit: Esperanza Martín

Over the years, archaeologists have unearthed Roman thermal baths, buildings, and intriguing artifacts at the site.

Two years ago, in 2021, “a team led by archaeologist Esperanza Martín located a large house with a central courtyard and a well. This summer, excavations at the site were resumed and the archaeologists decided to descend, using a system of pulleys to avoid damaging the remains, to the bottom of the well.

Inside, among many other Roman pieces, they found a sandal lost by a man who tried to clean the well 2,000 years ago. Despite the humbleness of the object, it is a unicum — an archaeological object without equal — because it is decorated with circles, ovals, and falciform figures.

There are no more than 20 Roman sandals preserved in Hispania and this is the only one that is decorated. It is in a good state of preservation, as the silt at the bottom of the well generated an anaerobic system that prevented the reproduction of microorganisms,” El Pais reports.

“The remains we found, due to the anoxia generated by the high water table in the area, are in an exceptional state,” says Martín.

Archeologist Esperanza Martín descends into the well discovered in Lugo de Llanera. Credit: Esperanza Martín

“The silts have created an anaerobic environment thanks to the plasticity of the clays that compose them, so the organic materials have been perfectly preserved.”

At a depth of about three meters, the specialists extracted part of the wooden cover of the well, a tiled floor for the decantation of silts, several jars, seeds, chestnuts, pine nuts, mollusks, the remains of domestic and wild fauna, an acetre, or bronze, cauldron, a small metal ring and the sandal, among other objects.

A house was uncovered during excavations at Lucus Asturum. Credit: Esperanza Martín

“It is almost complete and retains the cutting notches to hold it in the upper leg area. It is more than likely that it was lost by someone who came in to clean [the well] when it got caught in the silt. It is a unique object as it is decorated.”

The ancient sandal lost by the Roman well-cleaner “is currently refrigerated to avoid degradation until it can be restored and exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Asturias,” El Pais reports.

Romans produced excellent shoes that were meant to last. A similar find was made in the small village of Thérouanne, France, where archaeologists discovered 1,700-year-old Roman shoes and an exceptional glass workshop.

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

In 1850, a farmer found a Secret door in the sand. What Did He See On The Other Side? Fascinating!

In 1850, a farmer found a Secret door in the sand. What Did He See On The Other Side? Fascinating!

A well-maintained secret is hidden among the green hills in a small bay in Scotland. For a century, no one knew that this place ever existed. It was hidden under the sand by time and weather, but when a terrible storm passed over the Orkney Islands in 1850, an amazing secret was revealed.

In 1850, a farmer found a Secret door in the sand. What Did He See On The Other Side? Fascinating!

A perfectly preserved prehistoric village of Skara Brae lies within this rolling hillside.

It may not look particularly impressive at first glance, but step inside and you’ll be amazed at what you see. It was a bustling community thousands of years ago.

The settlement has eight stone houses and was settled between approximately 3180 and 2500 B.C., making Skara Brae one of the UK’s oldest farming villages.

Skara Brae has been called the “Scottish Pompeii” because the ancient monument is so well preserved.

Archaeologists estimate that 50–100 people lived in the village. When the settlement was built, the houses were 1,500 meters from the sea.

Now, the sea has dug closer to the village and the view from the settlement has changed from pastures to the sea.

The houses were connected to each other by tunnels. Each house could be closed off with a stone door.

In every room, there’s always one bed bigger than the other, but no one knows why. Each room also contains cabinets, dressers, seats, and boxes for storage. These boxes were waterproof, suggesting that they might have stored live seafood for later consumption.

One house, however, didn’t have any beds or other furniture. The house is believed to have functioned as a workshop.

The village also had a sewage system, and each house had its own toilet.

Skara Brae was a society that centered around families. The dwellings are all quite similar, which led archaeologists to conclude that this society was a fairly equal one, without any authoritative leadership.

Some believe that the villagers were Picts, a people of unknown origin who settled in eastern and northern Scotland near the end of the British Iron Age. However archaeological findings have shown that the people who lived here could have lived much earlier than that.

A number of mysterious discoveries have been made ​​at the site, including this carved stone ball, though no one really knows what it was used for.

And no one knows why the village was abandoned. But around 2500 B.C., ​​the Orkney Islands became cooler and wetter. Many theories speculate about how the people of Skara Brae met their fate; the most popular ones involve a violent storm.

What does the future look like for Skara Brae? Although the settlement was built nearly two kilometers from the beach, in recent centuries it has been increasingly threatened by the sea. Since 1926, the houses have been protected from the approaching sea and harsh autumn winds by a concrete wall.

There has been talk about building an artificial beach with boulders and a breakwater to preserve Skara Brae and several other ancient monuments at risk of being destroyed. But nothing has happened yet. Until further notice, tourists continue to visit this fascinating place, but the question is for how long?

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

‘The day the dinosaurs died’: Fossilized snapshot of mass death found on North Dakota ranch

‘The day the dinosaurs died’: Fossilized snapshot of mass death found on North Dakota ranch

A fossilised snapshot of the day about 66 million years ago when an asteroid hit Earth, fire rained from the sky and the ground shook far worse than any current earthquake, is captured in new studies. It was the day that almost all life on Earth, including dinosaurs, went extinct.

The fossil discoveries add weight to the theories that a swathe of lifeforms on Earth were wiped out after an asteroid hit.

Fossil evidence discovered in Tanis, North Dakota, was revealed by the researchers, which they said dated back to the day the fatal asteroid hit, including fish with hot glass beads clogged in their gills from flaming debris that showered back on Earth.

According to a paper published by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the fossilised fish graveyard reveals the sea creatures died within the first minutes or hours after the impact of the asteroid.

The researchers also reported the discovery of charred trees, evidence of an inland tsunami and melted amber.

The main author of the article, Robert DePalma, is curator of palaeontology at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History in Florida and a doctoral student at the University of Kansas.

He told the University of Berkeley that the killing field he examined was the result of the meteor impact, which marked the end of the Cretaceous Period, also known as the KT boundary, and ended much of life on Earth.

A private fossil collector alerted Mr DePalma to the Hell Creek site in 2012.

“This is the first mass death assemblage of large organisms anyone has found associated with the KT boundary,” Mr DePalma said. Mr DePalma was first alerted to the site by a private collector in 2012.

Purdue University geophysicist and impact expert Jay Melosh, who wasn’t part of the research but edited the paper released on Friday, called it the field’s “discovery of the century”. “This is the death blow preserved at one particular site. This is just spectacular,” he said

Separately, University of Amsterdam’s Jan Smit disclosed that he and his colleagues even found dinosaur footsteps from just before their demise.

Dr Smit said the footprints — one from a plant-eating hadrosaur and the other of a meat eater, maybe a small Tyrannosaurus Rex — is “definite proof that the dinosaurs were alive and kicking at the time of impact … They were running around, chasing each other” when they were swamped.

But other experts said that while some of Mr DePalma’s work is fascinating, they have some serious concerns about the research, including the lack of access to this specific Hell Creek Formation fossil site for outside scientists.

Hell Creek — which spans Montana, both Dakotas and Wyoming — is a fossil treasure trove that includes numerous types of dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles and fish trapped in clay and stone from 65 to 70 million years ago.

Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who also has studied the Hell Creek area for 38 years, said that the work on the fish, the glass and trees “demonstrates some of the details of what happened on the day”.

‘The day the dinosaurs died’: Fossilized snapshot of mass death found on North Dakota ranch
Fish form some of the different types of life that the Hell’s Creek fossil site preserved.

“That’s all quite interesting and very valid stuff,” he said. But Dr Johnson said that because there is restricted access to the site, other scientists can’t confirm the research. Dr Smit said the restrictions were to protect the site from poachers.

Dr Johnson also raised concerns about claims made by the main author, Mr DePalma, that appeared in a New Yorker magazine article published on Friday but not in the scientific paper.

However, when asked about concerns over site access, Mr DePalma told the ABC that “other researchers not on the original author list” had already been granted access to the site on multiple occasions.

“It is a fabulous and important opportunity for such collaborations, and it is essentially no different than any other major site under the custodianship of institutions other than ours,” he said.

For decades, the massive asteroid crash that caused the Chicxulub crater in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula has been considered the likely cause of the mass extinction. But some scientists have insisted that massive volcanic activity played a role.

Dr Johnson and Dr Melosh said this helps prove the asteroid crash case. There were only a few dinosaur fossils from that time, but the footsteps are most convincing, Dr Smit said. There was more than dinosaurs, he said.

The site includes ant nests, wasp nests, fragile preserved leaves and fish that were caught in the act of dying. He said that soon after fish die they get swollen bellies and these fossils did not show swelling.

Researchers said that the confluence of tree trunk and fish fossils point to one major extinction event.

The researchers said the inland tsunami points to a massive earthquake generated by the asteroid crash, somewhere between a magnitude 10 and 11 — stronger than the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake, found to be a magnitude 9.0 earthquake.

Purdue’s Dr Melosh said as he read the study, he kept saying “wow, wow, what a discovery”. The details coming out of this are “mind-blowing,” he said.

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Skin Impression Discovered In Spain

66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Skin Impression Discovered In Spain

In Spain, detailed skin impressions of a giant dinosaur discovered 66 million years ago in a muddy riverbank have been discovered. The fossil was created over centuries by sand petrifying into sedimentary rock, and it clearly shows the pattern of massive scales that once lined the creature’s hide.

66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Skin Impression Discovered In Spain
Detailed skin impressions of a massive dinosaur that rested in a muddy river bank some 66 million years ago have been uncovered in Spain. The fossil was formed by sand petrifying into sedimentary rock over millennia and distinctively shows the pattern of large scales that once lined the creatures hide

The prints are thought to have been left by a titanosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period, just before dinosaurs went extinct.

‘This is the only registry of dinosaur skin from this period in all of Europe, and it corresponds to one of the most recent specimens, closer to the extinction event, in all of the world,’ said lead researcher Victor Fodevilla, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

‘There are very few samples of fossilized skin registered, and the only sites with similar characteristics can be found in the United States and Asia.’

Instead, the team envisions the creature that made the impressions with a huge four-footed sauropod, possibly a titanosaurus – one of the biggest animals ever to walk the Earth.

And researchers found footprints near the site that support the titanosaur theory.

‘The fossil probably belongs to a large herbivore sauropod, maybe a titanosaur, since we discovered footprints from the same species very close to the rock with the skin fossil,’ said Fodevilla.

A titanosaur, a silhouette representing the size of a hatchling titanosaur, relationship to a human at birth, tiny titanosaur babies weigh about as much as average human babies, 6 to 8 pounds. But in just a few weeks, they’re shedding the tiny descriptor and are at least the size of golden retrievers, weighing 70 pounds, knee-high to a person. And by age 20 or so, they’re bigger than school buses

The discovery was made in the village of Vallcebre, near Barcelona, in an area that was once the bank of an ancient river. It is thought the dinosaur left an imprint of its scales when it laid down in the mud to rest. Over time, the region where the animal left its prints was eventually covered with sand.

And over the course of thousands of years, the area petrified to form sandstone, preserving the astonishing impressions recently discovered by the researchers. 

Since the sand acted as a mold, what is seen on the rock is a relief of the animal’s original skin. 

How the process happened is unique, as the Late Cretaceous period corresponds to the moment shortly before dinosaurs became extinct, there are few places on Earth containing sandstone from this period.

Characterizing these dinosaurs is very important in order to understand how and why they disappeared. 

Two skin impressions were found, one about 20 centimeters across and the other five centimeters, separated by a distance of 1.5 meters.

And experts believe they were made by the same animal.

The ‘rose’ pattern of the scales is characteristic of certain dinosaurs, said the researchers, who describe their find in the journal Geological Magazine.  

‘The fact that they are impression fossils is evidence that the animal is from the sedimentary rock period, one of the last dinosaurs to live on the planet,’ said Fondevilla.

‘When bones are discovered, dating is more complicated because they could have moved from the original sediment during all these millions of years.’ 

This discovery also verifies the excellent fossil registry of the Pyrenees in terms of dinosaurs living in Europe shortly before they became extinct. 

‘The sites in Berguedà, Pallars Jussà, Alt Urgell and La Noguera, in Catalonia, have provided proof of five different groups of: titanosaurs, ankylosaurids, theropods, hadrosaurs and rhabdodontids,’ said Àngel Galobart, head of the Mesozoic research group at the ICP and director of the Museum of Conca Dellà in Isona. 

‘The sites in the Pyrenees are very relevant from a scientific point of view, since they allow us to study the cause of their extinction in a geographic point far away from the impact of the meteorite.’ 

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

2,000-Year-Old Celtic Dice Discovered In Poland

2,000-Year-Old Celtic Dice Discovered In Poland

Archaeologists have been excavating at the Celtic settlement in Samborowice (Silesia) for a significant number of years. This year, a number of intriguing finds were made, and one of the most special ones is a 2,000-year-old dice that is the oldest one found so far in Poland.

2,000-Year-Old Celtic Dice Discovered In Poland
2,000-year-old Celtic dice unearthed in Poland. Dice.

The artifact is a cuboid made of bone or antler. According to Jacek Soida, archaeologist and curator of the Archaeology Department of the Silesian Museum, due to the low probability of rolling the dice so that it lands on either of its two smaller sides, the longer sides were usually marked with higher values (3, 5, 4 and 6).

‘However, there were exceptions to this rule, and in the case of the Samborowice dice, these sides were marked only with the two highest values: 5 and 6. We are not sure whether it was a forgery or the item was used for a game unknown to us today,’ he says.

Similar dice are known primarily from the so-called central settlements in Lower Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia.

“In smaller settlements, like the one in Samborowice, they are rarely discovered. But it is not the first example of a gaming item found in this settlement. A few years ago, we discovered ceramic tokens that were probably used for playing games,” Soida told PAP.

Celts once lived in a few regions of today’s southern Poland, including the Glubczyce plateau near Racibórz (in the southwestern part of the Silesian Voivodeship). They were present there from the turn of the 4th century to the end of the 2nd century BCE.

Soida points out that the work in the Celtic settlement in Samborowice is the only research of this type regularly conducted. ‘

“That is why every year it attracts numerous volunteers from all over Poland and often from other countries such as Czechia, the United States, and the Netherlands.

Celtic culture enthusiasts, who are not always archaeologists but also include lawyers, geologists, artists or employees of large corporations, are not afraid of hard work, and they help explore the settlement with great commitment. And this year, the weather conditions – drought and over thirty-degree heat – were very demanding,” the researcher says.

Another discovery made at the site is a well-preserved iron fibula, a type of decorative clasp for fastening robes. ‘

“Fragments of brooches are often discovered in settlements, but very rarely in such good condition, which makes this find unique. Iron objects that rest on the ground undergo significant destruction over the years due to corrosion. In this case, the brooch fell into the fire in the past, where, as a result of the high temperature, a layer of scale was formed on its surface, protecting the object against harmful corrosion.

Of course, we still need to remove layers of mineral sinters in several places, but there is certainly intact metal underneath”, the archaeologist says.

Field work in Samborowice (Silesia).

Moreover, during this year’s fieldwork, archaeologists discovered two more relics of buildings that were originally dug into the ground (so-called semi-dugouts).

“In such buildings, the Celts conducted various types of craft work, such as weaving, iron and non-ferrous metallurgy, horn-making, and pottery. Discoveries from previous years prove this”, recalls Soida.

Every year, discoveries bring archaeologists more and more answers about the life of the Celts in the area. In recent years, archaeologists found a weaving workshop and relics of a pottery kiln.

“Every discovery, even the smallest animal bone remains or ceramic jewelry fragments, is important to us because collecting all the details allows us to create a complete picture of this community. We hope for further discoveries in the coming years, including relics of further farm buildings,” Soida says.

Archaeologists examine the collected artifacts, and their work is summarized in publications in scientific journals. In the future, the researchers would also like to organize an exhibition.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Remarkably Well-Preserved 2,000-Year-Old ‘Tomb Of Cerberus’ With Amazing Frescoes Discovered In Italy

Remarkably Well-Preserved 2,000-Year-Old ‘Tomb Of Cerberus’ With Amazing Frescoes Discovered In Italy

Archaeologists in Italy could hardly believe their eyes when they opened a mysterious ancient chamber tomb in the municipality of Giugliano in Campania, near Naples.

Remarkably Well-Preserved 2,000-Year-Old ‘Tomb Of Cerberus’ With Amazing Frescoes Discovered In Italy
An exterior shot of the recently-discovered chamber tomb near Naples.

The tomb was sealed with a tuff slab, a light, porous rock created out of volcanic ash and other sediments.

Scientists say the chamber, dating back approximately 2,000 years to the Republican and Imperial Roman ages, was discovered after archaeologists spotted a wall that had been built using an ancient Roman construction technique known as opus incertum.

Inside the remarkably well-preserved chamber tomb, scientists marveled at the amazing frescoes adorning its walls.

“The tomb has frescoed ceilings and walls in perfect condition, with mythological scenes that go all around the room and figurative representations among which, a three-headed dog stands out,” said Mariano Nuzzo, the superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Naples metropolitan area.

Among the most notable mythological figures depicted are ichthyocentaurs – a centaurine-type sea god with the upper body of a human and the lower anterior half and fore-legs of a horse and the tail of a fish. Credit: Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape

“Three painted klìnai , an altar with vessels for libations, the deceased still placed on the funeral beds with rich objects – complete the picture of a discovery which, in this area, is unprecedented.”

The frescoes depicted Cerberus, a famous monster in Greek mythology. Often described as a  giant three-headed dog, Cerberus guards the gates of the Greek underworld, ensuring that no one escapes from the realm of Hades, the god of the dead and the king of the underworld.

The tomb has led to it being aptly dubbed the “Tomb of Cerberus.”

A recently-discovered frescoe depicting the ancient Greek creature Cerberus.

“The depicted scene portrays the culmination of Heracles’ twelve labours, during which he successfully captured Cerberus.

The tomb also contains depictions of mythological scenes featuring ichthyocentaurs, beings with the upper bodies of humans, the forelegs and lower anterior halves of horses, and fish-like tails,” Euro News reports.

“The excitement was enormous—the screams, the hugs, us, the workers—finding something like this doesn’t happen every day,” archaeologist Valentina Russo, who was present during the discovery, said.

“The emotion aroused by the privilege of such a discovery is indescribable.

The territory of Giugliano, after years of oblivion, is finally returning significant vestiges of its glorious past to be preserved and protected, thanks to a common effort,” Nuzzo added.

Full excavation of the chamber tomb is currently in progress, and archaeologists intend to explore the broader necropolis surrounding the tomb, too.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Extremely Rare Medieval Folding Chair Reveals Its Secrets

Extremely Rare Medieval Folding Chair Reveals Its Secrets

In 2022, archaeologists made a very unusual find. A medieval folding chair was discovered in a woman’s grave in Steinsfeld, in Central Franconia, in the Ansbach district of Germany.

Examinations of the woman’s skeleton showed she was around 40 to 50 when she died. The dead woman had a necklace of colored glass beads around her neck.

A rarity: this iron folding chair was found during an excavation in Steinsfeld, Bavaria.
Extremely Rare Medieval Folding Chair Reveals Its Secrets

At the time of the discovery, the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments was only the second to discover an iron folding chair from the early Middle Ages in Germany.

Across Europe, 29 sites of early medieval graves with folding chairs have been handed down, only six of which are made of iron.

According to the state office, it dates from around 600 AD, i.e., from the early Middle Ages. When folded, the chair, which was about 70 by 45 centimeters in size, had been placed at the feet of the dead.

In a recent press statement, scientists announced the remarkable 1,400-year-old folding chair’s secrets would be revealed to the public.

Experts have worked for almost a year with the medieval chair. In the summer of 2023, scientists decided to excavate the medieval chair and restore and preserve it for future generations.

It was a delicate and time-consuming task. The results of these efforts are a success and give the public an excellent opportunity to investigate this unusual medieval object in more detail.

One computer tomographic examination quickly made it clear that the folding chair was almost completely preserved and was even decorated with inlays—in this case, brass non-ferrous metal inlays.

According to scientists, the folding chair is made up of two frames connected with an axle pin. There are two narrow slots in the horizontal struts. These were used to attach the seat, which was probably made of animal fur, as indicated by mineralized organic remains. The decorative motifs range from spirals to diamond herringbone patterns.

“The extremely rare find of an early Medieval iron folding chair in August 2022 was already a sensation, but after remaining in the ground for over 1,400 years, receiving such a density of details was a surprise even for the BLfD experts.

Using the latest technology and highly experienced scientific support, the spectacular, internationally acclaimed find of the century could literally be done again be put on its feet, “Professor Mathias Pfeil, head of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, said.

“This find, which at first glance seems so modern, is an absolute rarity and of the greatest cultural-historical interest because it gives an insight into the burial equipment of prominent sections of the population and into the early use of furniture,” Professor Pfeil added.

People have been making iron and bronze folding chairs since ancient times. They were considered essential official signs and symbolized power, authority, and dignity.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Traces of Colorful Paint Detected on Parthenon Sculptures

Traces of Colorful Paint Detected on Parthenon Sculptures

This section from the Parthenon Marbles is now white, but it was painted when it was first crafted in the fifth century B.C.

The Parthenon Sculptures, also called the Elgin Marbles, were crafted by ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago to decorate the outside of the Parthenon temple in Athens. Now housed at the British Museum in London, they, like many old sculptures, are a muted mix of white, gray, and beige. 

But a new study reveals that the famous sculptures’ hues weren’t always so drab — in fact, they were once painted with vibrantly colored and intricate patterns.

Bright Egyptian blues, whites and purples once covered the statues depicting deities and mythical creatures guarding the fifth-century-B.C. temple.

The colors were used to represent the water that some figures rose from, the snakeskin of a mysterious sea serpent, the empty space and air in the background behind the statues, and figurative patterns on the robes of the gods, the researchers wrote in the study, which was published Wednesday (Oct. 11) in the journal Antiquity. 

“The Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum are considered one of the pinnacles of ancient art and have been studied for centuries now by a variety of scholars,” study lead author Giovanni Verri, a conservation scientist at the Art Institute of Chicago, said in a statement. “Despite this, no traces of colour have ever been found and little is known about how they were carved.”

As paint often doesn’t last long on marble and the sculptures’ surfaces weren’t prepared to enable adhesion from substances like paint, archaeologists long assumed that ancient Greek artists intentionally left the statues white. This even led historical restorations to remove past traces of paint found on the sculptures, the researchers said.

To investigate the statues’ past, archaeologists used luminescent imaging, a technique that causes trace chemical elements from hidden paint on the sculptures’ surfaces to glow. The team quickly discovered hidden patterns emerging on the statues’ surfaces, revealing floral designs and smudged figurative depictions.

Four pigments were primarily found: a blue that was first created by the Egyptians and was the main color used by ancient Greeks and Romans, a purple tint made according to an unknown recipe (most purple was made with shellfish from the ancient Mediterranean, but this one wasn’t), and two whites likely derived from the mineral gypsum and bone white, a pigment made from bone ash.

It’s likely that these colors were “as visually important as the carving,” the researchers wrote in the study, as “it was what the viewer saw.”

“The elegant and elaborate garments were possibly intended to represent the power and might of the Olympian gods, as well as the wealth and reach of Athens and the Athenians, who commissioned the temple,” Verri said.

The researchers found traces of paint on the backs of the sculptures, meaning they were “certainly contemporary to the building” and likely were painted first and then placed on the temple.

The 17 sculptures, once part of a 525-foot-long (160 meters) marble frieze depicting classical Greek myths, were brought to the U.K. in the 19th century after being ripped from the walls of the Parthenon by Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin and Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. His involvement initially gave the sculptures their “Elgin Marbles” nickname.

Bruce sold the statues, which constituted roughly half of the surviving sculptures, to the British government in 1816. Now kept in the British Museum, the sculptures have been the subject of a formal repatriation controversy between the U.K. and Greece since 1983.

As the marbles are primarily fragments, the story they tell isn’t completely clear. But they include sculptures of gods reacting to the birth of Athena, who is said to have burst from Zeus’ swollen head after a mighty blow from the axe of Hephaestus, the Greek god of blacksmiths.

All In One Magazine