Antiquities Exhibits

Roman remains of Aosta (also spelled Aoste) in the Gallo-Roman Museum of Aosta, France. The geographical position of Aosta's road and river junction favored the development of crafts and commerce. Archaeological excavations have yielded a wealth of ceramic dishes including fine dishes, jugs and amphorae. Aosta's potters were especially renowned for their mortars which were exported as far as the British Isles and throughout th e Roman empire. An intact pottery oven was uncovered nearby in 1983. Aosta's glassmakers were also talented and the museum presents a number of decorated and stylized pieces. The museum's collections also include a slave sarcophagus, inscriptions, cinerary urns, and funerary jugs, vials, ceramics, and glass. Objects from daily life are also displayed including bronze tableware, children's games, and writing utensils.  An intact Gallo-Roman potter's oven uncovered in 1983, a short walk from the museum.

Celtic World of the Iron Age at The Oppidum d'Ensérune near the village of Nissan-lez-Ensérune, France.  The Oppidum d'Ensérune archaeological site consists of the remains of an Iron Age hill fort founded in the 6th century BCE.  Although initially, the settlement included only modest huts made from cob and covered with branches, it evolved into architecture of stone with rock cut silos that were eventually replaced with dolia.  Around 450 BCE trade intensified with Greek, Punic, and Iberian traders.  From the late 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the town was extended outward to the flanks of the hill and the largest houses adopted Roman architecture with rooms arranged around a courtyard, columns with capitals, mosaics, and decorative paintwork. A villa built on the site in 1915 displays a wealth of artifacts found during excavations there including black and red-figured Attic vases, Celtic swords, helmets and belt buckles, and finely decorated razors, com...

Loupian Roman villa n the village of Loupian in the Hérault départment of France, between Montpellier and Béziers, the heart of Gallia Narbonensis. Excavations on a three-hectare site south of the village have revealed remains of a Roman farm villa with extensive 2nd-century CE Gallo-Roman mosaics. The site was occupied for more than 600 years. Originally a modest farmstead built a few kilometres south of the Via Domitia, on the hillside overlooking the Bassin de Thau, it rapidly prospered and grew. During the early Empire, in the 1st and 2nd centuries, the villa was a large patrician residence with thermal springs. The main agricultural activity was viticulture, for which a storehouse capable of holding 1,500 hl of wine was constructed. This period also saw the building of a small port on the northern shore of the Bassin de Thau, as well as pottery workshops producing amphorae for the transportation of wine.  In the 5th century, the villa was completely rebuilt and the owner's ...

Gallo-Roman archaeology. Ongoing at Musée Rolin in Autun in central France. The museum's collections include a large number of figurines, small bronzes and statuettes, including a group of two gladiators in the round. There are also ornaments (jewelry, brooches, pins), tools ( 1st to 4th century), jars and pottery. Most of these works and everyday objects date back to the city's founding in the 1st century by the Roman Emperor Augustus . A room is dedicated to funeral steles decorated with bas-reliefs bearing the image of the deceased. Mosaics complete the collection. Among items of arms and armor is this beautiful ceremonial helmet of hammered bronze. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Roman antiquities. Ongoing at the Musée Départemental de l'Arles Antique in Arles, France. Exhibited in a 2,800 square-meter / 30,000 square-foot permanent exhibition space, the vast collection of the Archeological museum of Arles comprises, along with scale models and reconstructions, artifacts dating from Prehistory to the late Roman Empire, including vases, mosaics, sarcophagi, sculptures, and a series of remarkable marble bu sts including a head thought to be a middle-aged Julius Caesar dredged from the nearby Rhone River. bronze sculpture of a captive Gaul, last quater of the 1st century BCE dredged from the Rhone River. photographed by Carole Raddato in 2014 and provided by Wikimedia Commons with a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license. Head of a middle-aged Roman thought to be possibly Gaius Julius Caesar  photographed by Mary Harrsch in 2013.