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I found the following story on the Washington Times today:http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/16/construction-workers-find-roman-city-of-the-dea-1/It is fascinating that they are still discovering so much stuff on the Palatine given that tourists walk over the hill almost every day of the year and it has been so extensively studied. When I was in Rome a few years ago my wife and I stumbled on church in the southern part of the city that was built on the foundations of a temple to Venus. We got to go under the church and view the excavations which I thought was pretty impressive. The church foundations rest on the columns of the original temple and the floor is supported by a series of arches. It was pretty cool and I had the sense that I was getting a glimpse back in time. I walked around the frum with my jaw dropped and I kept thinking that i was wealking over the same ground as Caesar, the Gracchi, and Marcus Aurelius among others.
Havent heard about that one. In fact, I just stumbled on this article wjile researching something entirely different for school. I thought it was cool so I figured I would throw it out for everybody else.
What amazes me is that they're able to build much of anything on a grand scale there. It's funny how the seven hills of Rome aren't really there anymore, or least visibly. It's my understanding that Rome kept building on top of itself, so that these kinds of hills sort of disappeared. That's why you can have churches like San Clemente in Rome which is a church on top of a church on top of a church. Or the church that scout mentioned (Santa Maria della Minerva?).I had also heard that when construction workers make minor finds (pottery shards, etc) they will just throw these things into the concrete for the new building. Obviously this isn't the case when large finds are discovered. But I am amazed that large scale projects (like the underground metro) are completed in cities like Rome. We take if for granted in the U.S. that when someone wants to build a shopping mall or something that they can; in cities where ancient civilizations emerge, they have to hope they don't come across any major archaeological sites.
I dont think that was the church we saw. The church we found was a basilica but I dont think ti was that one, basilicas are a dime a dozen in Rome.. I dont exactly remember the name. It was down near the Tiber not far from Castel Sant Angelo but on the opposite side of the river. It is actually quite small and run-down looking on the outside but the facade was darker than that of Santa Maria della Minerva that I saw when I looked for a picture of it. It was also right next to an archeoligical site. I will try to locate it on a map…. I think it is this: one Basilica di San Clemente at least the description and pictures look familiar but it was four years ago and that is a lot of beer down the hatch. http://www.basilicasanclemente.com/
