Hiker Accidentally Discovers Ancient Roman Shrine To Mountain Gods In The Alps [View all]
DR. KATIE SPALDING
Freelance Writer
Published
March 17, 2023
The site of the finds, at the foot of the Ammertenhorn, at the end of summer 2022. © Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern, Regula Glatz
It must be frustrating, sometimes, to be a professional archaeologist. Here you are, slogging away on years-long excavations in the scorching desert or freezing English rain, just hoping to find a tiny clue about ancient burial rites or something – only for some rando to wander up a mountain one day and accidentally stumble upon a long-lost shrine to the Ancient Roman mountain gods.
“We do find single Roman coins occasionally in the Alps, but this site is unusual because of the amount of coins and the location,” Regula Gubler, scientific project manager on the archeological team that’s been investigating the site since 2022, told Newsweek.
“We are only at the beginning of the investigations, but we think it is a holy place,” she explained. “[P]eople went [there] to deposit votive offerings – mainly coins, but also other objects – asking the deities for things or thanking them […] I guess a kind of pilgrimage.”
The first sign that something interesting might have been going on in the area came back in 2020, when a stray hiker happened across a single ancient coin buried amongst the rubble.
More:
https://www.iflscience.com/hiker-accidentally-discovers-ancient-roman-shrine-to-mountain-gods-in-the-alps-68035
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