In the late 1700s, Juan Vegazo, a farmer and amateur historian in Ubrique, in the southern Spanish province of Cadiz, had a grand theory: buried within the rock and dirt of a nearby hill lay the remains of an ancient Roman forum.
News from the excavations at Pompeii was reviving interest in Roman culture across Europe and inspired Vegazo to buy up the limestone hills and begin excavating. He uncovered inscriptions related to second century emperors, a name for the city, Ocuri, and laid the foundations for future archaeologists to uncover defensive walls, baths, and a mausoleum.
The best of Artnet News in your inbox.
Still, Vegazo’s vision of the past remained incomplete. Until now. More than 300 years on, Vegazo has been vindicated by a team of archaeologists from the University of Granada. In coordination with the town of Ubrique, researchers have uncovered architectural elements in Ocuri that point to a large, public forum that would have served as place of gathering, socializing, and speechmaking. The finding infers that Ocuri was larger and more significant than previously believed.
The archaeological site in Ubrique. Photo courtesy of University of Granada.
Key to the discovery is a 50-foot-long wall that is believed to have enclosed the Roman forum as well as architectural elements of large and public buildings. Among these buildings is a large ceremonial site, as offered by the discovery of a monumental altar, column shafts and bases, and statue pedestals. Researchers believe the site supported religious practices related to water that mixed Roman and local customs.
“The excavations outline a space that is crucial for understanding the arrival and consolidation of the Romans in the southern Iberian Peninsula, as well as their hybridization with the communities that had already settled in the area,” the University of Granada’s Department of Prehistory and Archaeology said in a statement.
Roman archaeological ruins in Ubrique, Cadiz. Photo: Cristina Candel / Cover / Getty Images.
With its strategic hilltop position, it’s long been believed that a settlement pre-dated the Romans with researchers suggesting the absorption was both physical and cultural. Researchers now believe the site was inhabited until the end of the 4th century C.E. based on coins that were discovered—in particular, one marked with a Christogram, which is among the earliest forms of Christian iconography and was deployed by Constantine I in 312 C.E.
This continued presence in the southern reaches ofHispania, as the territory was known following its annexation in 19 C.E., was partly due to the trade advantages it offered, as it connected the coast to the interior parts of the province. Along with showing Ocuri’s size, the discovery of North African goods, including ceramics, suggests a strong and enduring (through the late 3rd century at least) economic links across the peninsula.
Aside from Roman discoveries, researchers also found evidence of medieval defensive structures.
Between the 12th and 13th centuries, just over 900 years ago, Bologna in northern Italy was a city full of towers, earning it the nickname of the "Manhattan of the Middle Ages".
Almost all were tall, defensive stone towers, the highest being 97 metres.
The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is that the richest families used them for offensive or defensive purposes during the period of the Investiture Controversy - a conflict between church and state over the ability to choose and install clergy of monasteries and the pope himself.
In the 13th century, many of the towers were taken down or demolished and others simply collapsed.
The two most prominent ones remaining, known as the Two Towers (the Asinelli Tower, 97 metres, and the Garisenda Tower, 48 metres) are a landmark of the city.
Building a typical tower with a height of 60 metres in the Middle Ages was no easy task: it would have required between three and 10 years of work.
Each tower had a square cross-section with foundations between five and ten metres deep, reinforced by poles hammered into the ground and covered with pebbles and lime. The tower's base was made of big blocks of selenite stone. The remaining walls became successively thinner and lighter the higher the structure was raised, and were realised in so-called "a sacco" masonry: with a thick inner wall and a thinner outer wall, with the gap being filled with stones and mortar.
Besides the towers, there are still some fortified gateways ("torresotti") that correspond to the gates of the 12th-century city wall, which itself has almost been completely destroyed.
Many towers have subsequently been utilised in one way or another: as prison, city tower, shop or residential building.
Nevertheless, the towers remained a famous sight of Bologna throughout the centuries. Even Dante, the renowned Italian poet, writer and philosopher, mentioned some of the towers in his narrative poem Inferno, the first part of The Divine Comedy.
The last demolitions took place during the 20th century, according to an ambitious, but retrospectively unfortunate, restructuring plan for the city. The Artenisi Tower and the Riccadonna Tower at the Mercato di mezzo were demolished in 1917.
Among the towers still standing are the Azzoguidi Tower, also called Altabella (with a height of 61 metres), the Prendiparte Tower, called Coronata (60 metres) and the Scappi Tower (39 metres).
The first historian to study the towers of Bologna in a systematic way was Count Giovanni Gozzadini, a senator of the Italian kingdom in the 19th century, who looked at the city's history intensively. His research suggested that there were as many as 180 towers, an enormous amount considering the size of resources of medieval Bologna.
However, more recent estimates reduced the number to between 80 and 100, and not all towers existed at the same time.
Nevertheless, this is still an impressive figure for the time. For context, New York City is now home to over 7,000 high-rise buildings that are at least 35 metres tall. The city's first skyscraper was the Tower Building, which was built in 1889. The Empire State Building was completed in 1931.
Today, Bologna's metropolitan area is home to more than one million people. It is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region, the centre for automobile production including Ferrari and Maserati.
It is also famous for being the home to the oldest university in continuous operation, the University of Bologna, established in 1088 AD. In 2021, UNESCO recognised the lengthy porticoes - a porch leading to the entrance of a building - of the city as a World Heritage Site. They represent a symbol of the city together with the towers.
The Atacama Desert in Chile is a harsh environment. Yet, once upon a time, humans were traipsing across the landscape committing enormous drawings to the earth – drawings that would endure for thousands of years.
Today we know them as geoglyphs, and while they’re found in various sites across the globe, Atacama is home to the largest discovered to date that depicts a human-like figure. The Atacama Giant looks a bit like Weird Barbie when @-19.94903289,-69.63376558,1237.70279176a,317.09243553d,35y,3.31824981h,20.62707421t,360r/data=ChYaEAoKL20vMDJwdG40MhgBIAFCAggBOgMKATBKDQj___________8BEAA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">viewed from above, with stick limbs and a pointy headpiece, and sits on the slopes of Cerro Unitá, looking north-east.
In A Human Environment, published in 2020, Karsen Lambers of Leiden University’s faculty of archaeology states that the geoglyph "is the biggest human figure known to have been produced in prehistory.” It stretches for 119 meters (390) feet across the hillside, according to Chile's Ministry of National Assets, which declared it a Protected National Asset in 2020. The Atacama Giant is just one of over 5,000 in the region that range between 1,200 to 500 years old, and countless more across the world.
The majority of geoglyphs are created using the “extractive” technique by scraping the oxidized surface layer away, resulting in a lighter design that contrasts against the darker surrounding material. Others are created using an “additive” technique that combines things like stones to create a sort of mosaic that’s darker than the surrounding material, and some geoglyphs combine both approaches.
Some of the geoglyphs in the Atacama Desert are more abstract in shape.
Image credit: Jeremy Richards / Shutterstock.com
Humans at the time of the creation of the geoglyphs in northern Chile didn’t have an easy life, and had to find creative solutions for surviving in such a harsh environment. They needed llamas to help them get around, working out where life-saving water sources were as they traveled.
As they traversed the landscape they pieced together a complex network of paths, and – incredibly – still found the time to commit enormous geoglyphs to the ground. It’s expected they held great cultural and religious significance, but exactly the purpose and meaning of the Atacama Giant isn’t currently known.
“Some say that the ‘Atacama Giant’ contains possible alignment to solar eclipses and lunar phases,” explained Marika Labas of the University of New Hampshire in a 2012 article. “Supposedly, each of the four spikes protruding from the giant’s head will align with the sun or the moon during specific times of year. Others have even suggested that they were created by other-worldly visitors.”
When you step back, you get a better idea of the sheer size of the Atacama Giant.
Labas turned to local residents to gain further context, and was told by one person:
“Considering the existing limitations at the time it was built, the ‘Giant of Atacama’ has succeeded to stand strong for centuries, which makes me think the message it contains was a very relevant one for the former inhabitants of the Atacama Desert, and surely there is still something valuable for the coming generations to decipher.”
As the largest geoglyph in the world that depicts a human-like figure, the Atacama Giant has certainly turned heads, but year after year we’re getting more geoglyph material to work with. A giant 2,000-year-old cat among the Nazca lines was discovered in Peru back in 2020, and in 2023, the largest known cat geoglyph in Chile was identified as the endangered Andean cat.
Who knows what the desert winds will turn up next?
Halloween is one of the most beloved celebrations of the year. Many spooky stories that play a role in Halloween celebrations may stem fromAncient Greekbeliefs. Credit: Paul Hermans/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
It is fairly common knowledge that the customs involved in Halloween originated with the Ancient Celtic festival ofSamhain(despite some modern attempts to show otherwise). This might seem to prove that Halloween has nothing to do with Ancient Greek beliefs and customs. However, could it be that Samhain itself originated from AncientGreece?
The influence of Ancient Greece in Celtic religion
Scholars have done much research into the connections between the Celts and the Ancient Greeks. There is a lot of evidence that many of their religious beliefs and customs ultimately originated from Greece. For example, there is evidence that some of the main gods of the Celts (such as Belenus) weredirect evolutions of Ancient Greek gods, such as Apollo.
Some of thebeliefs and myths of the Celtsalso display clear similarities to those of the Ancient Greeks. Examples include the story ofMidasand his donkey ears, as well as the myth of theIsles of the Blessed.How exactly this influence came to be is up for debate. However, it likely has something to do with the Greek colony ofMassaliain southern Gaul in c. 600 BCE. From this point on, the Greeks traded extensively with the Celts. From about 500 BCE, there is evidence of even moreextensive Etruscan influence among the Celts, and theEtruscansthemselves were heavily influenced by Greek culture and religion.
The Ancient Greek version of Halloween
However it may have happened, there is a distinct possibility that the Celtic festival of Samhain stemmed from Ancient Greek customs. In turn, this would then mean that the roots of Halloween may also be from Ancient Greece.Indeed, there was an Ancient Greek festival that was quite similar to Halloween and its Celtic predecessor, Samhain. This festival was known asAnthesteria. It was a celebration that occurred in winter, usually towards the end of January or the beginning of February.
Anthesteria was dedicated to the godDionysus. It lasted for three days. During this time, the Greeks believed that the connection to the Underworld was at its strongest. Spirits of the dead roamed the earth and even entered people’s homes. The festival also involved feasting, dressing up, and decorating one’s house. It many ways, this Ancient Greek festival was just like modern-day Halloween.
The connections between Samhain and Anthesteria
Of course, it would not make sense to argue for a connection between the Ancient Greek festival of Anthesteria and Halloween on the basis of customs that did not exist in Samhain, the direct predecessor of Halloween. Hence, what are some of the specific similarities between Anthesteria and Samhain?One similarity is that they were not just generic festivals of the dead. Both festivals specifically involved the belief that the boundary between the world of the living and the Underworld was at its weakest at this time. It was for this reason that the spirits would come up and roam the earth.
It was believed that the souls of the dead would visit the homes of their families to receive hospitality. In both festivals, food was prepared for the visitors. In the case of Anthesteria, this happened on the third day.
Additionally, during Samhain, people would smear the threshold of their front door with the blood of a slaughtered animal. Presumably, this was done to protect their household from evil. Similarly, during Anthesteria, people would smear tar on their front door to protect themselves from evil.
Ancient Greek vessel given as a gift during Anthesteria, depicting a child dressed up as the god Eros. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Dressing up in costumes
What about dressing up in costumes? Does this famous part of Halloween have a potential origin in Ancient Greek customs through the Celtic Samhain? The practice of dressing up during Samhain is well known. Scholars believe that the purpose of this was both to disguise oneself from the wandering spirits as well as imitate them.
While dressed up, people would go from house to house requesting offerings. Essentially, they were imitating the spirits of the dead, who were believed to visit homes to receive food. This is the origin of the custom of trick-or-treating at Halloween.
Does this Halloween custom have any possible predecessor in the Ancient Greek festival of Anthesteria? Interestingly, the second day of Anthesteria involved dressing up. Some people would dress up in fancy clothing, while others would specifically dress as the companions of the god Dionysus.
Furthermore, while dressed up, these people would then go and visit the houses of various friends. This is clearly similar to the concept of dressing up and going door to door as was common in Samhain.
The date of this Ancient Greek festival and Halloween
One issue that might be brought up with trying to associate Samhain, the predecessor of Halloween, with this Ancient Greek festival is that they did not occur at the same time of year. Samhain occurred on October 31st, whereas Anthesteria occurred around the end of January or the beginning of February. However, does that mean that they cannot be connected?
The short answer is no, it does not mean that. It is not uncommon for festivals to change date, especially after they are borrowed by a different culture. For example,the Roman predecessor to Christmas, called Saturnalia, was celebrated in the second half of December. Yet, it came directly fromKronia, a Greek festival that was celebrated in the summer.
Additionally, there is evidence that Anthesteria may well have a connection to the traditional date of Halloween. One part of the festival seems to be in honor ofTheseusyielding Ariadne to Dionysus after leaving Crete.With this in mind, it is interesting that there was another festival which also had a connection to Theseus. This was Pyanopsia. The purpose of this festival was to remember Theseus offering a gift to the god Apollo while he was in Crete. This festival occurred on the seventh day of the month Pyanepsion, which would generally correspond to nearly the end of October.
Although just speculation, perhaps the reason that the customs of Anthesteria were moved to October by the Celts is because ofthe association with this other festival involving Theseus and his offer to the gods.
Share This Article
3 Comments
