The Mystery of Rome's X Tomb

This looks really interesting

Im a sucker for a hidden tomb marked with an 'X' lol

Historian Dr Michael Scott unlocks the secrets of a mysterious tomb recently discovered in one of Rome's famous catacombs. Found by accident following a roof collapse, the tombs contained over 2,000 skeletons piled on top of each other. This was quite unlike any other underground tomb seen in Rome. They are located in an area of the catacombs marked as 'X' in the Vatican's underground mapping system - hence the name The X Tombs.
Carbon dating the bodies suggest they died from the late 1st century AD to the early 3rd century AD, which would mean these people lived and died during Rome's golden age. The remains of an early Medieval fresco were found on the wall sealing the tomb suggesting this could be the last resting place of a group of unknown Christian martyrs. But the bones don't show the signs of physical trauma you would expect after a violent death.

The team find cultural connections with Northern Africa which means this may have been a wealthy immigrant community or maybe even a select group of Ancient Rome's elite. DNA experts will also determine what type of disease may have been the cause of death.

Here is the full bbc documentary, ive only watched the first few minutes as I am saving the rest to watch later, -



If like me you havent time to watch the full documentary now then there is a 2 minute clip on the website here

enjoy ;-)

Got it on my BBC fav's for watching in a bit, looks like its gonna be quite interesting

in the period mentioned.... romes empire was vast

out of everyone.... i think north africans would be the least likely...unless it was roman/greek gypsies

if they were indeed foreign then more likely it was macedonians/greeks, persians/bab or most likely
...
...

the covenance


peace

Is it a hooked X?

Good Gravy, probably Knights Templar then.

en.wikipedia.org...

Looks like another possible episode of America Unearthed coming up!

**SPOILER ALERT**

If you havent watched the documentary yet and want to find out for yourself then dont read this,

Well unless your not bothered either way, then in that case carry on :-)


So due to a number of factors such as DNA, material ( gold threads ).age, location, timing, importance ( crushed amber ), the experts are 'guessing' that it may be the resting place of the elite 'Equites singulares Augusti' ("personal cavalry of the emperor" i.e. imperial horseguards ) and their wifes. They can not yet determine what disease killed the people in the tombs, the pathogen test results could take months or even years to come back so the cause of death remains speculation in the meantime.

it was a good documentary