While procrastinating planning the next school year (okay, technically I'm taking a break ... first term is going to be scary to cover enough for report card purposes), I came across a few more photos from that Thracian Tomb find:

Here's the ring from the other day, in case you missed it:

Another news report suggests the ring depicts a javelin thrower (are they talking about this ring?) and that the tomb likely belonged to a king named Teres, who was father to Sitalkes, who lived in the middle of the 5th century B.C./B.C.E.. (mentioned in book IV of Herodotus).

ante diem x kalendas septembres

• Volcanalia -- a festival in honour of Vulcan, which included games in the Circus Maximus
• rites in honour of Maia and the Nymphs
• rites in honour of Ops Opifera and Hora Quirini
• 93 A.D. -- death of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law of the historian Tacitus, and subject of the latter's biography
• 303 A.D. -- martyrdom of Asterius and companions

From the Turkish Press:

A monumental fountain including a statue of Apollon was unearthed in the ancient city of Sagalassos near Aglasun town in southern province of Burdur.

Prof. Marc Waelkens from Belgium`s Leuven Catholic University who leads archaeological excavations in the ancient city, told the A.A correspondent on Sunday that they unearthed a monumental fountain which was 20 meters in height.

``The fountain was built by a rich merchant and dedicated to Roman Emperor Hadrianus. The fountain attracts attention with its rich ornaments. Bronze and marble statues were used to decorate the fountain,`` he said.

The ancient city of Sagalassos are situated 7 km from the town of Aglasun. Human settlement in the area goes back to 12.000 BC, and Sagalassos itself reveals traces of settlement going back to 3000 BC. Around 1600 it became part of Pisidia, but otherwise its history remains wreathed in mist until the arrival of Alexander the Great in 334 BC. Sagalassos was renowned for its courageous and warlike inhabitants, who put up a vigorous defense against Alexander`s army. The city was finally conquered after the loss of five hundred lives in a battle which took place on a hilltop facing the city. In 518 AD a violent earthquake struck. Although the city was subsequently rebuilt, another earthquake in the 7th century destroyed not only the city but its water sources. Lack of water and disease were compounded by the Arab incursions, and finally the city was abandoned altogether. Landslides from Mount Akdag gradually buried much of the city and, thus protected, Sagalassos lay concealed in hibernation for long centuries.

Hmmm ... I think this was actually found last year. Sagalassos is one of Archaeology Magazine's Interactive Digs ...

As rogueclassicism and/or Explorator readers are aware, over the past week a tomb in Thrace has yielded some spectacular finds. Here at rogueclassicism we concentrated on the gold ring which appeared to depict an Olympic rower, but the archaeologists also made note of a gold funerary mask -- obviously similar to the famous 'Mask of Agamemnon' Schliemann claimed to have found at Troy -- which had "no comparison" (the recently-discovered one weighed twice as much). Here's a photo:

Folks are probably very familiar with the mask from Mycenae, but they might not be aware that a pile of these masks do exist from Mycenae and they are clearly 'shoddier' in terms of quality compared to the example above (which is later in date). I can't help but wonder, though, whether this sort of thing is somehow connected to Schliemann ... back in 1999 Archaeology Magazine had an extensive section debating whether Schliemann actually did find his mask(s) or whether he 'seeded' the site. If masks like this (even in a different metal) had been found before, could they have inspired a forger?

6.00 p.m. |DCIVC| Life of a City - Rome
dna

DCIVC = Discovery Civilization