Oldest Known Ancient Roman Fort Discovered!

Plan of a typical Roman fort.

Place: Italy (First Roman military camp discovered in Italy. This is excluding Castra Albana and Castra Nova.)

Year: Built 178 B.C.E

Latin: Castra (or singular castrum) are buildings or plots of land reserved for or constructed for use as a military defense position. Castellum was  term for smaller forts. Praesidium means guard post or garrison.

Purpose: It was created (probably) during the Roman wars against the people known as the Histri, who controlled the nearby Istrian Peninsula.

Objective: It as to protect the neighboring city of Aquileia from incursion of the Istrian peoples.  The city of Aquileia had a port which was an important emporium for the trade of wine, olive oil and slaves. Aquileia would later become one of the capitals of the Roman Empire.

How was it discovered: LiDar ( this same technology which was used to discover ancient hidden settlements in Central America) uses lasers to scan the ground for features obscured over time.  Co-author of the study, Tuniz, stated “With LiDAR, we discovered in a few months more prehistoric archaeological structures than those discovered during one century of work with conventional archaeological methods.”

Features and Characteristics: With using the LiDar, the scientist were able to discern “the characteristic hobnails used to make the military shoes of Roman soldiers and fragments of Roman amphorae, widely used to store oil, wine and other food products.”

The full article may be read here!

The official study and report can be found here!