23 Aug 2026
SONDUR, FAROE ISLANDS—All That’s Interesting reports that a centuries-old runestone was unearthed from the ruins of a medieval prayer house at the site of Á Sondum on the island of Sandoy. Runic inscriptions are exceptionally rare in the Faroe Islands, with only a few other known examples. Experts from the National Museum have only partially translated the lettering, but believe that some of the legible characters appear to read “Her hvílur,” meaning “Here lies” or “Here rests” in Old Norse. The object was found embedded in the floor of the chapel-like structure and may have served as a burial marker for a notable individual. Other artifacts recovered at the site include fragments of a small sculpture depicting the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, as well as a kola, a type of small oil lamp. Dating to around a.d. 1000, the building and objects uncovered within it are providing scholars with important new insight into the early Christian period in the Faroe Islands, when Norse pagan traditions gradually merged with Christianity. To read more about the islands’ earliest era, go to “Letter from the Faroes: Lost History of the Sheep Islands.”
23 Aug 2026
Archaeologists discovered the roughly 2,500-year-old sculpture of a young man while conducting excavations at Sardis in western Turkey. The artwork reflects the different cultures that wielded control over the city in the first millennium B.C.E. Some 2,500 years ago, an artist in what is now western Turkey sculpted a larger-than-life statue of a young man holding a piece of fruit in his right hand, likely a quince slated to be offered to the gods. Hundreds of years later, after the region came under Roman rule in 133 B.C.E., the sculpture found a new lease on life as a paving stone. Workers broke the marble figure in two and placed its halves facedown, inadvertently preserving them for centuries. Archaeologists discovered the repurposed statue while excavating Sardis, the onetime capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the seven-foot-tall sculpture dates to between 470 and 450 B.C.E., about a century after the Achaemenid Persians wrested control of Sardis from the Lydians. At the time, Sardis served as the capital of an Achaemenid province, or satrapy. The young man’s appearance is unusual for the period, reflecting a blend of stylistic influences. “It’s a wonderful piece, and we’re still kind of astounded and a bit perplexed by it,” Nicholas Cahill, field director of the Sardis Expedition, tells the Art Newspaper’s Hadani Ditmars. Researchers plan to examine the sculpture’s surface for traces of paint. Researchers plan to examine the sculpture’s surface for traces of paint. Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism The sitter’s long hair and posture are reflective of older sculptural traditions from the sixth century B.C.E., but his facial features and hands are more in line with contemporary works from the first half of the fifth century B.C.E. His clothing, meanwhile, is distinctly Lydian, featuring a thick himation, or outer wrap, over a thin chiton shift, with a striped garment underneath.
Posted On 20 Sep 2025
