It has usually been mentioned that one man’s trash is one other man’s treasure. A group of archaeologists in France just lately supplied definitive proof of this outdated aphorism, after they found a  remarkable cache of 1,800-year-old Gallo-Roman artifacts  buried in an outdated Roman shale quarry that had been repurposed as a trash pit many centuries in the past.

The shale quarry turned archaeological gold mine was present in northwestern France within the metropolis of  Rennes, a settlement recognized to have been based by the Romans round 100 AD.

Most notable among the many discarded objects unearthed have been two small statues of the Roman goddess  Venus, which have been discovered combined in with extra mundane objects like cash, clothes pins and items of pottery.

What the Historic Romans Left Behind at Rennes

When it was first constructed,  Rennes was recognized by the Romans as Condate Riedonum. The homes, public constructions and metropolis partitions at this new, second-century settlement have been all constructed from stone, and consequently it was essential to open a rock quarry close by.

Whereas nobody was precisely certain the place this  quarry might need been positioned, it was the announcement of a growth venture within the space that gave archaeologists from the French Nationwide Institute for Preventative Archaeological Analysis (Inrap) the chance they’d been searching for to seek for it. Earlier this month, Inrap introduced that their exploratory excavations had certainly revealed the placement of the quarry in Rennes, which it turned out had way back been repurposed for the disposal of garbage.

View of the excavation of the shale quarry in Rennes. (© Nicolas Ménez/  Inrap)

The traditional quarry was discovered simply outdoors the northern boundary of Rennes, at a web site recognized as rue d’Antrain. Working inside an excavation space measuring roughly 35,000 sq. ft (3,250 sq. meters), the archaeologists uncovered a rock elimination web site that was roughly 6.5 ft (two meters) deep. Slabs of stone had been reduce or chipped out in successive phases, till the perfect rock for development had apparently all been extracted.

The Romans’ rock of selection from this web site was  schist, a kind of stone that has been hardened by publicity to excessive stress and warmth. Schist was ceaselessly utilized in constructing development in historic instances, and it performed a serious function within the constructing of the settlement that in the end grew to become town of Rennes.

Interested in what sort of artifacts they could discover, the archaeologists started digging extra deeply into the collected piles of trash, which dated way back to the second century AD. A lot to their delight, they unearthed a digital treasure trove of artifacts left behind by the Romans within the second and third centuries AD. This included the 2 discarded Venus statues, made in honor of a goddess who represented love and sweetness, but additionally stood as a logo of Roman imperial energy.

“The Romans are well-known for growing quarries everywhere in the Mediterranean,” Jason Farr, a Roman archaeologist from Saint Mary’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, instructed  Live Science . Farr was not concerned within the excavations at Rennes, however is an professional on historic quarries.

“Most quarries within the Roman world would have been native affairs, centered on supplying constructing stone in bulk to close by cities and farms,” he defined. “The  concrete partitions favored by the Romans required a substantial amount of stone.”

Ultimately all of the usable stone was harvested from the quarry at Rennes. It was then that folks first started dumping outdated and disposable objects there.

“As a result of they have been so near cities, quarries have been ceaselessly reused,” Farr famous. “Open pit quarries made for best trash dumps.”

Whereas the deserted and discarded objects discovered on the Rennes quarry might need outlived their usefulness from the  Roman perspective, for the Inrap archaeologists these 1,800-year-old artifacts represented a recent and thrilling discover.

The gathering included the same old assortment of ceramic fragments from damaged pots and plates, together with a couple of historic cash, some clothes pins and several other terracotta statuettes within the four-inch (10-centimeter) tall vary. The latter included the 2  Venus statues , which depicted the goddess in numerous roles.

The fragment of the second Venus, a Venus genetrix statue, that was discovered at Rennes. ( © Emmanuelle Collado/ INRAP)

One of many small statues was of a kind often called  Venus genetrix  or mother-goddess. Made between the primary and second century AD, it reveals the goddess’s torso draped in cloth. She is depicted holding her hair in place, though it’s already supported by a big headdress. The second statue, often called  Venus anadyomene , reveals a nude Venus rising from the ocean and wringing the water out of her hair.

An archaeologist excavates a 1st century potters kiln on the Rennes web site. ( © Emmanuelle Collado/ INRAP)

Secrets and techniques of Roman Quarrying Practices Uncovered

The deserted quarry wasn’t destined for use as a dump ceaselessly. By the 14th century it was crammed in and had been apparently redeveloped as some kind of business zone. The Inrap archaeologists unearthed the stays of ovens, wells and picket constructions that recommend the realm was used as a web site for craft manufacturing beginning someday within the  medieval interval. Additionally they dug up the remnants of an underground plumbing pipe from the seventeenth century, which was used to provide town of Rennes with water at the moment.

Whereas the Inrap excavations have turned up a formidable assortment of historic Roman artifacts, what researchers study from finding out Roman quarrying strategies can be simply as useful. By a cautious evaluation of the exercise that occurred on the web site when Rennes was being constructed, they are going to have the ability to uncover extra about  Roman tools , extraction strategies and logistical operations.

“Comparatively few Roman-period quarries for ‘mundane’ constructing stone have been excavated,” Farr mentioned, including that the quarry at Rennes “is all of the extra thrilling due to its reuse as a trash dump, which is a veritable gold mine of knowledge on historic life. There actually is rather a lot we will study right here.”

Prime picture: Venus statues discovered at Roman quarry in Rennes. Supply: © Emmanuelle Collado/ INRAP

By Nathan Falde