"Laodikea was a largely unknown archaeological site before 2003, but the city was brought to light after excavation works were initiated by the Denizli Museum. A team of Turkish archaeologists, led by Professor Celal Simsek from Pamukkale University, has been working in Laodikea continuously since 2003."
Note: Laodikea was built in 261-253 BC on the site of an older town called Diospolis ("City of Zeus"). Greek and then Roman, the city is of interest to Christians since it was later home to one of the seven churches of Asia mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
Selinunte, an ancient Greek city in Sicily. Video from 2018.
"Students and archaeologists from New York University (NYU) and the University of Milan (UniMi) brought to light new evidence of ancient life with four discoveries at Temple R in Selinunte." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"The mission led by professors Clemente Marconi, Rosalia Pumo and Andrew Ward brought the discovery of part of a monumental platform on two levels that was likely used to house the main altar of Temple R, the oldest in the city, dated archaeologically to 570 BC."
I have no idea how accurate this digital reconstruction is.
Note: "Selinunte was an ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy ... The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as 'Temple E', has been re-erected. At its peak before 409 BC the city may have contained up to 30,000 people, excluding slaves."
This 2020 video taken by a drone over Selinunte shows Temple E, the Temple of Hera, I think. This video has better views of the whole area. Mute the idiotic music.
"The Cromlech of the Almendres ... is a megalithic complex (commonly known as the Almendres Cromlech), located ... in the municipality of Évora, in the Portuguese Alentejo. The largest existing group of structured menhirs [standing stones] in the Iberian Peninsula (and one of the largest in Europe), this archaeological site consists of several megalithic structures: cromlechs and menhir stones, that belong to the so-called 'megalithic universe of Évora', with clear parallels to other cromlechs in Evora District, such as Portela Mogos and the Vale Maria do Meio Cromlech. [see below]" (Wikipedia)
Note: This site dates back to the 6th millennium BC.
Beautiful views of the cromlech. No English version available, unfortunately.
According to Visit Evora, "The Almendres Megalithic settlement (or cromlech) is the biggest megalithic monument in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in the world. Everybody has heard about the grand Stonehenge, in Britain… The Almendres monument is 2000 years older! It was built about 7000 years ago, when mankind in Western Europe was making the transition from hunter-gatherers to herders and farmers."
Next video shows the Vale Maria do Meio Cromlech, another megalithic stone circle located in the same area of Portugal. Thought to date back to the 5th millennium BC or earlier, "The Vale Maria do Meio cromlech is located in an area with a significant number of megalithic monuments. It is about one kilometer south of the Antas da Valeira, two neolithic dolmen or megalithic tombs, and 1.5km to the northeast of the Portela de Modos cromlech. The Almendres Cromlech, a major megalithic site, is about ten kilometers to the southwest." (Wikipedia)
The similarities with the Almendres Cromlech are obvious.
I hadn't realized that Portugal had so many megalithic sites. They seem to be concentrated in this one region, more or less, and show evidence of skilled stoneworking.
These megaliths are also surrounded by ancient legends:
According to Ancient Origins, "Prehistoric Europeans told legends about powerful, mysterious female makers of European stone tombs called dolmens and cromlechs. On the one hand, they were said to bestow riches and fertility on individuals, and fantastic gifts like brewing beer and farming; all they wanted in return was a little milk.
"On the other hand, they were described as angry snakes guarded by bulls, cursing people and hoarding the very gold of the sun. They were imagined as beautiful cloven-hoofed snake- or bull-women, who guarded the dolmens and could speak with the dead, spin the rays of the sun, and even create the world."
The similarity of the megaliths found all over Europe suggests that they were built by a single prehistoric culture with a religion centered around these mysterious stone circles. If the Almendres Cromlech really is older than Stonehenge, this could reflect the migratory history of these ancient people as they spread west into Europe and then north into the British Isles.
I've always thought that there was a widespread Eurasian culture of megalith-builders back in the Stone Age. There's some evidence for this. For instance, stone circles have been found as far away as Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and the Gobi Desert in China. This is all speculation, naturally, but the idea of a unified megalith culture fits in with the theory that Europeans originated somewhere in Asia around the Black Sea and then spread west into Europe and east into parts of Asia.
"A team of researchers from Poland and France has been studying the southern part of the Fabrika hill in the area of the ancient city of Nea Paphos since 2017. It was an area with a sacred character. The discovery of the site of ancient banquets in honour of the gods occurred right next to the highest point of the hill, where the remains of an ancient temple are located. These are simple outlines carved in the rock - its walls have not survived to our times. The square-shaped temple was preceded by a courtyard on a rock platform, in front of which, a few metres away, there was a monumental altar, also carved from the rock. The body of the building did not resemble typical Greek temples flanked by soaring columns." Source: Archaeology News Network.
According to its founding myth, Nea Paphos "was said to have been founded by Agapenor, chief of the Arcadians at the siege of Troy, who, after the capture of the city, was driven out by the storm that separated the Greek fleet onto the coast of Cyprus." Herodotus wrote that there was an Arcadian colony on Cypress.
"In reality, [the city] was probably founded by Nicocles (d. 306 BC), the last king of Palaepaphos [1], based on an inscription recording his founding of the temple of Artemis Agrotera at Nea Paphos. The inhabitants of Marion were probably also transferred to this new city after its destruction in 312 BC by Ptolemy."
[1] Palaepaphos, aka Old Paphos, now Koukila, "has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. It was a centre for Aphrodite's cult. Aphrodite's mythical birthplace was on the island. The founding myth [of Palaepaphos] is interwoven with the goddess such that Old Paphos became the most famous and important place for worshiping Aphrodite in the ancient world."
Video from 2015.
Four Roman villas have been discovered in the Paphos Archaeological Park. The video directly above shows the Paphos necropolis known as the Tombs of the Kings. According to Wikipedia, "The underground tombs, many of which date back to the 4th century BC, are carved out of solid rock, and are thought to have been the burial sites of Paphitic aristocrats and high officials up to the third century AD (the name comes from the magnificence of the tombs; no kings were in fact buried here)."
Paphos had several Greek or Archaic-Hellenistic temples to Aphrodite. Nothing remains of these structures, according to the Oxford Classical Dictionary, but a sanctuary complex was apparently built in 100 AD to replace one that was destroyed in an earthquake that occurred in 76-77 AD.
"Otto I, who lived from A.D. 912 to 973, consolidated and expanded the Holy Roman Empire [next video]. The empire, which was centered in Germany, controlled territory throughout central Europe. Historical records indicated that a palace and church were built near Helfta in Saxony for the Roman emperor; and archaeologists with the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt started searching for it in May, they said in a German language statement."
Note that the Holy Roman Empire lasted almost three times longer than the US has been in existence so far.
"The finding indicates that these long-headed brides, who lived in the sixth century A.D., likely traveled great distances from southeastern Europe — an area encompassing the region around modern-day Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia — to what is now the southern part of modern Germany." Source: Live Science (2018).
I'm not sure when these skulls were first unearthed. According to Live Science, "The discovery of the remains of these women perplexed archaeologists for decades. It's only possible to create pointy skulls, scientifically known as artificial cranial deformation (ACD), in early childhood, when the skull is soft and malleable. But archaeologists couldn't find any children with egg-shaped skulls in the cemetery. Moreover, the women were buried with local grave artifacts, rather than foreign ones, suggesting they had adapted to local culture.
"Egg-shaped skulls are perceived as the ideal of beauty in some cultures, and may be a sign of status or nobility, the researchers noted."
The Chi Rho symbol was engraved on the Visigoth sarcophagus discovered in Spain.
"The Visigoths, the so-called barbaric tribe that would ultimately defeat the Romans and bring down the Roman Empire, were an early Germanic warring people. The course of their wars would ultimately lead them to settle in southern Gaul and then Hispania, from the 5th to the 8th century AD. And now, a Visigoth sarcophagus with human remains, over 1,500 years old, has been discovered among the ruins of a Roman villa in southern Spain [next video], reports the Murcia Today news outlet." Source: Ancient Origins.
"...The coffin, two meters (3.2 feet) in length has been dated to the 6th or 7th century AD and was unearthed next to a Christian church built after the Romans abandoned the villa in the 5th century. The coffin was decorated with a swirling geometric pattern and renderings of ivy leaves, with a Chi Rho symbol on its top where the head of the corpse would have been."
Note: The Roman villa of Los Villaricos, where the sarcophagus was discovered, "is one of the most important villas of its kind in the Region of Murcia and is a substantial structure with evidence of several hundred years of occupation." (Murcia Today) "...Although it is an extensive site, there are still large areas of the villa remaining unexcavated to date."
Video from 2017. No English translation available, but good views of the site.<
Comment: I have a hard time believing that Germanic slingers, no matter how accurate, could hit a head-sized target at 200-300 meters away. That's a distance of approximately 656 - 984 feet, somewhere between two to three times as long as a football field. Check out this (totally unrelated) website for some pictures showing how large a man would appear at various distances up to a thousand feet. At 250 feet, the man's head is barely visible.
The distance here is around 60 feet.
The sling was a formidable weapon in the ancient world and it must have been reasonably accurate, at least at short ranges, but it couldn't have been as precise at long distances as described in the video. According to a now defunct article I found on Slinging.org a while ago, "[t]he Roman military historian Vegetius (ca 400 BC) recommends a practising range of 180 m for archers. This says something for the armourers of the day, considering that even a modern bow and arrow are not acceptably accurate beyond a range of about 200 m. Yet even in [the mythical King David's] time slingshots were accurate at ranges of 250 m. Xenophon reports a range of 400 m, but one must keep in mind that at that range a slinger probably aimed at a group of soldiers and the slingstone did little damage at impact."
The Arena of Verona (2015). Closed captions helpful.
"The remains of three skeletons dating back to the 12th century have been found in the Arena of Verona during restoration works carried out by the Verona, Vicenza and Rovigo Archaeology, Landscape and Fine Arts Department." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"... The discovery took place in Archway X of the inner ring of the Verona Amphitheatre where three individuals were found in a large pit: an adult male, a young woman and a young boy."
The way the bodies were positioned suggests that this was a carefully prepared burial space. The male body dates back to the early medieval period.
Note: The Verona arena was built around 30 AD. According to Wikipedia, "The ludi (shows and games) staged there were so famous that spectators came from many other places, often far away, to witness them. The amphitheatre could host more than 30,000 spectators in ancient times."