We’ve all heard of underground societies, but rarely is the term used in such a literal manner as these amazing underground cities featured on Dornob.

Cities, empires and religions have risen and fallen around these unique underground havens once used by early Christians to hide from Roman armies, yet they remains occupied to this day – 100 square miles with 200+ underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages, secret rooms and ancient temples and a remarkably storied history of each new civilization building on the work of the last.

Read more about these amazing homes and enjoy the stunning pictures at the link.

Link

In order to keep their catch alive (and fresh) until they return to shore, fishermen have traditionally used “stringers” to suspend the catch over the side of the boat.  What was thought to be a more modern invention was the “livewell,” a container on board supplied with circulating water.  Now archaeologists have discovered evidence that livewell technology was used by the Romans in the second century.

Consisting of a pumping system designed to suck the sea water into a fish tank, the apparatus has been reconstructed by a team of Italian researchers who analyzed a unique feature of the wreck: a lead pipe inserted in the hull near the keel… Indeed, a number of historical accounts have suggested that the Romans might have transported live fish by sea. For example, the scientist and historian Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 A.D.), wrote that live parrotfish were shipped from the Black Sea to the Neapolitan coast in order to introduce the species into the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Measuring 51 inches in length and featuring a diameter of at least 2.7 inches, the unique lead pipe was located in a sort of “small bilge-well” and would have been connected to a hand operated piston pump (which had not been found within the wreck).

Additional details are at Discovery News.  Schematic diagram by Simone  Parizzi.

A lead sarcophagus was not per se unusual in Roman times; several hundred examples have been found, but none have been configured like the one in the photo above.

The discovery of the 1,700-year-old body was made in the ancient city of Gabii, 20 kilometres from Rome, by a team of researchers including McMaster University visiting professor Jeffrey Becker.

“Instead of being in a box, the lead is more of a wrapping,” Becker says.  “The person was wrapped inside sheets of lead folded around the body, crimped at the end and kind of folded into a seal.”

Researchers would like to study the contents of the container without unfolding or otherwise damaging it, but they realize that xray and CT scans will not be possible.

Link, via Explorator.

When they were not too busy conquering distant lands, the Romans liked to dig. German hydromechanics professor Mathias Döring discovered that Roman engineers spent a century digging a 66-miles long underground aqueduct to bring water to modern day Syria:

The soldiers chiseled over 600,000 cubic meters of stone from the ground — or the equivalent of one-quarter of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

“Over the first 60 kilometers, the tunnel has a gradient of 0.3 per thousand,” explains the project director. That works out to 30 centimeters per kilometer — an astonishingly shallow angle of descent.

Link – via britannica

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Minnesotastan.