Excavations in a historic square in Cologne, Germany, threw up a surprise when staff by chance stumbled upon Roman-era finds. It includes the stays of an ancient Roman staircase which dates back to the late 1st century, making it around 2,000 years old. The finds were buried underneath the LVR Jewish Museum within the Archaeological Quarter of the town, and the preserved stretch of stairs shows how movement through a Roman palace adapted to the terrain, being so near the Rhine river. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
The excavation work focused on an underground visitor passage beneath Rathausplatz, in the guts of Cologne’s city centre. The staircase discovered once led from a big palace called the praetorium, which was typically used as a residence for Roman commanding officers or governors. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
The staircase led from the Praetorium right down to the Rhine river, though no one knows exactly where the staircase ended or began. Archaeologists say that sometimes staircases like this usually are not so well-preserved but later Roman constructing work covered a part of the steps, which actually helped to guard them for hundreds of years. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
The location also revealed the foundations to what would have been a 4th century Roman basilica, or church, and a small private household altar from the 2nd century, BBC reports. This type of altar known as a lararium, which can be built right into a wall. Small figurines would then be placed inside in addition to food offerings for his or her household gods. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
The lararium present in Cologne revealed traces of painted plaster and nail holes above and beside the opening ,which can be where garlands of ribbons were once hung during rituals. Town says these discoveries are just like those found from Pompeii – one among the more famous Roman sites on this planet. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
This is definitely the primary lararium discovered north of the Alps, and is comparable in style to those from key Vesuvian cities, like Pompeii. Experts suggest that this altar being inside a Praetorium suggests the prominence of cult worship inside official Roman dwellings, while evaluation of the masonry shows a distinct method, not standard Roman concrete, was utilized in constructing. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
These discoveries are useful in expanding our knowledge of every day life in Roman Cologne, with these architectural elements rarely preserved in such an urban context. The finds will form a part of a future exhibition, which is able to offer visitors a probability to see these structures that lay deep beneath the fashionable city for hundreds of years. (Picture: City of Cologne/Roman-Germanic M)
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