After Digging The Ground For 13 Years, Scientists Uncover Lost City Occupied By Over 2000 People

• Researchers working in Italy have discovered an ancient city that existed alongside the Roman Empire centuries ago
• The ancient city known as Interamna Lirenas was discovered after 13 years of digging by archaeologists
• According to the researchers, Interamna Lirenas thrived around the third century, and it was home to 2000 people

Scientists working in Italy have discovered a lost city known as Interamna Lirenas.

According to the archaeologists who carried out a major excavation to uncover the ancient city, it existed around the third century.

The findings of the research work were published in the edited volume Roman Urbanism in Italy in 2023.

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The study was led by Alessandro Launaro, who said the researchers found a town that thrived and overcame challenges for 900 years.

Before now, Interamna Lirenas was written off as a city which was in decline, but the new research suggests it thrived even though the Roman Empire had crumbled.

According to the lead researcher, Alessandro, no one had ever tried to excavate the site in the past.

He said:

"We started with a site so unpromising that no one had ever tried to excavate it — that's very rare in Italy. There was nothing on the surface, no visible evidence of buildings, just bits of broken pottery. But what we discovered wasn't a backwater, far from it. We found a thriving town adapting to every challenge thrown at it for 900 years.'

They conducted a magnetic and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the site and used a series of targeted excavations to do the work.

They discovered a large warehouse, a temple and a bath complex, which served a port on the River Liri.

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The researchers also found evidence of a roofed theatre which was capable of sitting about 1500 people.

Alessandro said the city was not in decline based on the new evidence available through their work.

He said, as quoted by the Daily Mail UK:

"The fact that this town went for a roofed theatre, such a refined building, does not fit with a backwater in decline. This theatre was a major status symbol. It displayed the town's wealth, power and ambition. We think many other average Roman towns in Italy were just as resilient. It's just that archaeologists have only recently begun to apply the right techniques and approaches to see this."

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Proofreading by Nkem Ikeke, copy editor at Legit.ng.