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Roman battlefield burial uncovered
A mass grave was discovered in autumn last year during construction work being carried out in Simmering, a district of Vienna, Austria. The subsequent excavation of the site uncovered around 150 individuals buried within a 5m by 4.5m (16.4ft by 14.8ft) pit. The buried individuals were all men aged 20-30, and many had injuries that probably occurred at or around the time of death – pointing to this being a battlefield burial site.
Some of the bones were radiocarbon dated to AD 80-230, and artefacts found within the grave, including scale armour and a Roman helmet cheek piece, suggest that the grave contains Roman soldiers who died c.AD 100. This is around the time of Domitian’s wars against the Germanic tribes on the Danube, which occurred at the end of the 1st century AD. This could be the first physical evidence from this fighting.
Teotihuacán influences at Tikal
A painted altar has been discovered at the Maya site of Tikal in Guatemala, with the full report recently published in Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.3).
A talud–tablero, or ‘slope-and-panel’, construction, it depicts a figure in an elaborate feathered headdress, possibly representing one of the deities known from the Maya city of Teotihuacán, located more than 1,000km (620 miles) from Tikal in central Mexico. Both the style and production technique were very similar to finds from Teotihuacán, and it is thought that it must have been made either by craftspeople who were extremely familiar with this non-local style, or they were trained in Teotihuacán itself. This is the latest in a series of discoveries at the site that shows how tightly linked the two cities became after Teotihuacán conquered Tikal c.AD 378.
Polynesian vessel revealed in the Chatham Islands
The remains of a waka – a traditional Polynesian boat – have been found in a creek at Rēkohu (also known as Wharekauri or Chatham Island), the largest of the Chatham Islands archipelago, 800km (500 miles) east of New Zealand.
Working closely with local indigenous communities and New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Sunrise Archaeology have carefully excavated the exposed part of the boat. While they were unable to excavate the parts of the boat still buried within the creek bed, and hence do not know the size of the vessel in question, archaeologists were still able to recover a substantial number of objects, including large sections of the hull and small wooden pegs. There were also fragments of wood intricately carved and inset with obsidian and iridescent pāua (abalone) shells, as well as braided fibres that may have come from the sail and/or rope, caulking, or other textiles.
Text: Rebecca Preedy / Images: orthomosaic photo by H Hurst, A Bass, L Paiz, and E Román (top); illustration by H Hurst (bottom)
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