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Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

80 points by thunderbong 5 days ago | 26 comments

Did the ruins come alive at night with like Roman soldiers and stuff running around, etc?

DougN7 28 minutes ago

As an American, where we have comparatively little history (we’re celebrating 250 years - some folks in Europe live in houses older than that!) visiting Rome is almost mind blowing to see SO MUCH ancient history right there, and almost everywhere. So cool!

stephenhuey 11 minutes ago

Comparatively few historical ruins built out of materials that would have lasted this long, but a long history, actually, and some you can still see...

Mexico City is a quick plane ride from the USA, and while some of their ruins are buried, you can hop a short bus ride outside the city to walk among standing ruins of Teotihuacan, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere at the time Jesus walked on the Earth. It was 20 square kilometers whereas Rome at the height of the empire had only 14 square kilometers within the Aurelian Walls.

I've been on the Great Wall of China and all over the world and Teotihuacan was fascinating for me to see. Even more intriguing, no one knows who built it. Aztecs discovered it many centuries after it was abandoned and forever wondered about its origin.

cableshaft 14 minutes ago

There are older structures and artifacts than 250 years, they're just not European in origin. Like Cahokia Mounds in Illinois: https://cahokiamounds.org/

Arrowheads are an example of something that's not too difficult to find in the wild if you know where to look.

stephenhuey 9 minutes ago

I've been to Cahokia, and look forward to revisiting it in future decades since only 10% has been excavated so far!

derdi 14 minutes ago

250 years is longer than the existence of a country called Italy, let alone the Italian Republic. Just like in Italy, the history of people in your area did not start with the founding of your country.

napolux 2 hours ago

In Italy, almost anywhere you can find roman artifacts. They're just in the layer underneath the WW2 bombs.

karmakurtisaani 36 minutes ago

It's truly amazing. In Rome, you can find ruins of all historical periods, all the way up to early 2020s!

fredley 2 hours ago

> To William’s complete lack of surprise, the little cellar under the shed was much better built than the shed itself. But then, practically everywhere in Ankh-Morpork had cellars that were once the first or even second or third floors of ancient buildings, built at the time of one of the city’s empires when men thought that the future was going to last for ever. And then the river had flooded and brought mud with it, and walls had gone higher and, now, what Ankh-Morpork was built on was mostly Ankh-Morpork. People said that anyone with a good sense of direction and a pickaxe could cross the city underground by simply knocking holes in walls.

Cthulhu_ 2 hours ago

For a modern example, see the Raising of Chicago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago. I think I've seen an image of what the old ground level looks like now, and / or that you can take tours there. There's probably loads of stuff buried there now.

Edit: Actually it was Seattle, you can still visit its old ground level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground

spwa4 2 hours ago

https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Old_New_York

cdjk 18 minutes ago

... was once New Amsterdam

Dependance 3 hours ago

There must be a metaphor somewhere in this, when somehow it is the angry youth that discovers something of value hidden in plain view that no one bothered to look at before !

al_borland 2 hours ago

I visited Rome last year. There was a lot of talk about how long it was taking to build a new subway line, because they kept running into ancient artifacts. It was also commonly said that the city was like a lasagna, with layers upon layers of history under everything. Building that were originally built elevated are now at street level.

It almost seems hard not to find ancient ruins. It then becomes a question of priorities and resource allocation.

RetroTechie 57 minutes ago

If they're so common, why not incorporate into the construction project?

Walk through a modern subway, see bits & pieces of ancient history all over the place. Buy icecream, sit on a bench that labourers hacked out of stone 2ky ago.

incanus77 46 minutes ago

I visited Athens in 2006 shortly after the Olympics were held there and the city had been refreshed. The Syntagma Square subway station did exactly this, with layers of archaeology revealed behind glass as you descended the stairs. It was magnificent!

SiempreViernes 42 minutes ago

They do do that? https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260408-a-150-metro-tick...

jldugger 25 minutes ago

I mean, it's the rest of the subway line thats the problem -- how many ancient sites do you tunnel through to reach the next stop?

sidewndr46 2 hours ago

I thought the buildings getting lower was just the ground compressing. The foundation is solid, but the ground underneath still compresses. There are circumstances like Seattle where they literally built up the city, but those are less common

vanattab 2 hours ago

No. The ground does not usually significantly compress under those loads. Remember for much of human history buildings are build with wood and non vitrified bricks that readily break back-down into mud/gravel/organic matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tell_(archaeology)

hvb2 2 hours ago

There was graffiti as well so others had already found it

amarcheschi 2 hours ago

In my tuscanian city the university is building a new building for the engineering department. While digging they randomly found an ancient etruscan well. In this case everything went smoothly and timely and it will be preserved, an underground parking near the center had ww2 remains and deeper than that, archeological ones that slowed down the whole thing

MrBuddyCasino 34 minutes ago

Whose first instinct is it, when finding an ancient roman villa hidden underneath your school, to smear graffiti on the walls. I cannot relate.

jrjrjrkrfkfkkr 2 hours ago

[flagged]

glouwbug 59 minutes ago

Are you okay? They were teenagers. We were all there and we all tried. The logistics of having 7 billion people quarantine while international flights and asymptomatic carriers carried on made it _impossible_ to not play out like it did

ufurrurjj 39 minutes ago

Perhaps they killed his grandma? It is not like they were protesting for valid reasons! It was anti lockdown protest, not BLM riot!!!!

I do not understand why people like that are celebrated now!

And why are u even defending people like that?!

mothballed 7 minutes ago

~5 years above two comments would have had totally flipped karma/flagging