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1,900-Year-Old Roman Employment Contracts Reveal Life in an Ancient Gold Mine
Two Roman employment contracts written nearly 1,900 years ago offer an unusually detailed look at wages, working conditions and legal agreements in one of the Roman Empire’s major gold-mining districts. The contracts were inscribed on wax-coated wooden tablets discovered at Alburnus Maior, the Roman settlement beneath present-day Roșia Montană in western Romania. Two of the…
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Mass Grave of 20 Children Discovered in Roman Cemetery in Dacia Reveals Possible Ancient Epidemic
A quiet construction project in western Romania has unexpectedly exposed a deeply human story from the Roman world—one marked not only by daily life and ritual, but also by loss. At Cristești, in Mureș County, archaeologists have uncovered a 2nd–3rd century AD Roman cemetery, where a mass grave containing the remains of around 20 children…