Stockpile of 2,000-year-old gemstones found in Roman bathhouse drain


Feb 2, 2023

Archaeologists recently uncovered a stockpile of 2,000-year-old glittering gemstones clogging the drain of a Roman bathhouse near Hadrian’s Wall in Carlisle, England.

The 30 engraved, semi-precious stones — known as intaglios — likely dropped out of the ring settings worn by bathers who took to the waters sometime during the second and third centuries A.D., The Guardian reported.

“It’s incredible,” Frank Giecco, the archaeologist who led the excavation, told The Guardian. “It’s caught everyone’s imagination. They were just falling out of people’s rings who were using the baths. They were set with a vegetable glue and, in the hot and sweaty bathhouse, they fell out of the ring settings.”

https://www.livescience.com/roman-ba...stones-england