Ancient Discoveries

3,000-Year-Old Sundial Found in Ukraine ROSTOV OBLAST, RUSSIA—A carved slab discovered in a Bronze Age burial mound in the Ukraine is said to be  the oldest sundial of its kind  ever found. Larisa Vodolazhskaya of Russia’s Southern Federal University analyzed markings on both sides of the stone and found that the elliptical pattern on one side is consistent with an analemmatic sundial that could keep time in half-hour increments. “The [markings] are made for the geographic latitude at which the sundials were found,” she said. The 3,000-year-old sundial would have been adjusted to the changing position of the sun every day, requiring a sophisticated understanding of geometry by the people of the Srubnaya culture. The other side of the stone is carved with two sundials, one of which would not have kept time. Experts Discover the Mother of Roman Perfumes On the Mediterranean Coast Oct. 9, 2013  — Researchers at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville have describe...

Ancient Roman coins depict sundry sexual acts, but what were they for? The Romans  loved sex . The wrote  graphic poetry  about it, and  scrawled x-rated graffiti  on their city walls. They even emblazoned currency with depictions of sexual acts. But what purpose did this coinage serve?  Fair warning:  numismatic pornography after the jump – potentially NSFW. RELATED The Lost City of Pompeii: Pictures of an Alien World, Frozen in Time In the year 79 AD, Italy's Mt. Vesuvius erupted with superheated ash that rained fiery death on several Roman cities nearby. But none was hit… Read… The graffiti of Pompeii was downright raunchy, and absolutely hilarious Before being entombed with ash by Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii was a thriving city. There was government, there was infrastructure — and yes, there was…  Read… The racy coins in question are known as "spintriae." A single spintria is typically a little smaller than a m...

Here's what third-century China thought about the Roman Empire Third-century China got around the ancient world. They even made it to the Roman Empire, and wrote down their thoughts on these strange foreigners in the  Weilüe ,  a third-century C.E. account of the interactions between the two nations. Here's what China had to say about their imperial neighbors! From a translation by  the University of Washington’s John E. Hill : This country (the Roman Empire) has more than four hundred smaller cities and towns. It extends several thousand  li  in all directions. The king has his capital (that is, the city of Rome) close to the mouth of a river (the Tiber). The outer walls of the city are made of stone. This region has pine trees, cypress, sophora, catalpa, bamboo, reeds, poplars, willows, parasol trees, and all sorts of plants. The people cultivate the five grains [traditionally: rice, glutinous and non-glutinous millet, wheat and beans], and t...