ROME, ITALY—Wanted in Rome reports that traces of a garden thought to have belonged to the emperor Caligula, who ruled from A.D. 37 to 41, were uncovered in Rome’s Piazza Pia during a construction project. The traces include a travertine wall, the foundations of a colonnaded portico overlooking the right bank of the Tiber River, and a lead water pipe inscribed with the name of the emperor. Caligula’s garden was described by Philo of Alexandria, a first-century Jewish leader and philosopher who wrote of a meeting between Caligula and a legation of Alexandrian Jews in a garden with a monumental portico overlooking the Tiber River. Other inscribed lead pipes uncovered in the area suggest that the residence passed from Livia Drusilla, second wife of the emperor Augustus and grandmother of Germanicus

ATHENS, GREECE—ABC News reports that traces of a round building estimated to be 4,000 years old were discovered on a hilltop on the island of Crete during an investigation conducted ahead of the construction of a radar station to serve a new airport. No other Minoan structures like it have been found, according to archaeologist and Culture Minister Lina Mendoni. The entire structure covers about 19,000 square feet, and consists of eight stepped stone walls measuring up to more than five feet tall surrounding an inner circle split into smaller, interconnecting spaces. Researchers think that these rooms would have been covered by a conical roof, similar to early Minoan beehive tombs. Many animal bones were recovered inside, suggesting that the building may have been used for communal ceremonies and offerings involving the consumption of food and wine. Mendoni said that a new location for the radar station will be found.

KUTNÁ HORA, CZECH REPUBLIC—According to a Live Science report, a hiker has discovered a hoard of more than 2,150 silver coins in a field in the central Czech Republic. Researchers from the Czech Academy of Sciences identified the coins as medieval versions of the denarius, a standard silver coin minted by the Roman Empire. The coins had been stored in a pottery jar, but only the bottom of it has survived years of plowing. Examination of the coins has shown that they were minted in Prague in the eleventh century during the reigns of the Přemyslid kings Vratislav II, Břetislav II, and Bořivoj II. The coins are thought to have been buried in Bohemia sometime in the first quarter of the twelfth century. “At that time, there were disputes in the country between members of the Přemyslid dynasty over the princely throne in Prague,” said archaeologist Filip Velímský. The scientists plan to analyze the composition of the coins to try to determine the origin of the silver.

ROME, ITALY—According to a report in The Art Newspaper, well-preserved pottery, burned animal bones, a wooden chalice or funnel, peach pits, oil lamps, and marble fragments have been recovered from waterlogged soil in an ancient well at the Temple of Hercules in Ostia Antica, the site of ancient Rome’s port at the mouth of the Tiber River. The objects found in the 10-foot-deep shaft have been dated to the first and second centuries B.C. Burn marks on the bones suggest that the animals may have been sacrificed, cooked, and eaten during temple banquets. “These finds are a direct testament of the ritual activity that took place at the sanctuary,” said Alessandro D’Alessio of Ostia Antica Archaeological Park. He thinks that the carved wooden chalice or funnel may have been used as a pipe or musical instrument. “Refined objects like this are rare given that wood usually deteriorates,” D’Alessio explained. The objects will be restored and displayed at the site museum.

 

Plants are life – we depend on them for 80 percent of the food we eat and 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe. But international travel and trade have been associated with the introduction and spread of plant pests. Invasive pest species are one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and threaten the delicate web of life that sustains our planet. Pests and diseases have also been associated with rising temperatures which create new niches for pests to populate and spread. In response, the use of pesticides could increase, which harms pollinators, natural pest enemies and organisms crucial for a healthy environment. Protecting plant health is essential by promoting environmentally friendly practices such as integrated pest management. International standards for phytosanitary measures (ISPMs) in trade also help prevent the introduction and spread of plant pests across borders.  

International Day of Plant Health 2024: Plant health, safe trade and digital technology 

Each year, over 240 million containers move between countries, carrying goods including plant products, posing biosecurity risks. In addition, about 80 percent of international trade consignments include wood packaging material, providing a pathway for pest transmission. As a result, damages from invasive pest species incur global economic losses of approximately USD 220 billion annually. Protecting plant health across borders is essential by promoting global collaboration and international standards, such as the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs). Innovative solutions like electronic phytosanitary certification (ePhyto) streamline the process, making trade quicker and more secure. 

The International Day of Plant Health 2024 calls on everyone to raise awareness and take action to keep our plants healthy and ensure food safety and safe trade for sustainable economies and livelihoods.  

https://www.fao.org/plant-health-day/en

CÓRDOBA, SPAIN—According to a statement released by the University of Córdoba, recent analysis of three first-century A.D. lead ingots recovered from southern Spain’s site of Los Escoriales de Doña Rama in the twentieth century suggests that ancient Córdoba, the capital of the Roman region of Baetica, was a center for smelting lead. The Romans used the metal to make spoons, tiles, pipes, and other everyday objects. Each ingot is about 18 inches long, triangular in shape, and weighs more than 50 pounds. One of them is broken in half, and two of them still bear the identification mark, “S S,” for Societas Sisaponensis, a mining company. The mark and the shape of the ingots indicates that they had been intended for export, while chemical analysis of the ingots shows that they came from a mining area that includes the site where they were recovered. “This information demonstrates that, in antiquity, these northern regions of Córdoba boasted major metallurgical networks of great commercial and economic importance in the Mediterranean,” said Antonio Monterroso Checa of the University of Córdoba. He thinks Los Escoriales de Doña Rama may have been the site of a mining town with a foundry, a processing area, and maybe even a fortress. 

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA—According to an IFL Science report, researchers led by Eric Klingelhofer of the First Colony Foundation have uncovered evidence for a palisade and nine houses at the possible site of an Algonquian village within Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Explorers Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlow wrote of their visit to an Algonquian village in 1584, and described it as having “nine houses, built of cedar, and fortified round with sharp trees.” The possible village site was identified last year through Algonquian pottery dated to the sixteenth century, and a ring of copper wire thought to have been made in England that could indicate contact with the English, Klingelhofer explained. The researchers suggest that elite members of the Algonquian community lived within the palisaded walls, and ruled a territory that included present-day Dare County, Roanoke Island, and parts of mainland North Carolina. The rest of the Algonquian population lived outside the walls and raised crops, he concluded. Some scholars think the English colonists who went missing from their settlement at Roanoke may have integrated into this Algonquian community.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA—Nature News reports that hundreds of human and animal bones and more than 40 fragments of stone tools have been uncovered at the entrance to a lava tube cave in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The stone tools are thought to be as much as 10,000 years old, while the oldest human bone fragment has been dated to about 7,000 years ago. Zooarchaeologist Mathew Stewart of Griffith University and his colleagues said that the distribution of the artifacts indicates that the cave was occupied intermittently, for short periods. Nearby rock art depicting people with goats and sheep suggests that herders may have come to the cave for rest and shelter while traveling from oasis to oasis across the basalt plain of Harrat Khaybar, as they still do today. These routes have probably been used for thousands of years, explained Melissa Kennedy of the University of Sydney, since 4,500-year-old tombs have been found in the region. “People are very lazy,” she said. “You find the easiest route and you stick to it.” Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE.

Mother Earth is clearly urging a call to action. Nature is suffering. Oceans filling with plastic and turning more acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods, have affected millions of people.

Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can accelerate the speed of destruction of the planet.

This is the third Mother Earth Day celebrated within the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet – and its people. Restoring our damaged ecosystems will help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinction. But we will only succeed if everyone plays a part.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day