Tuesday, November 12, 2019

MUNICH, GERMANY—Archaeologists Paul Scheding and Francesca Diosono of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich announced that they have uncovered traces of a structure in southwestern Italy that may have been the first Hellenistic temple constructed in the region of Latium. Dated to the second century B.C., the small temple stood on the Monte Sant’Angelo, in a terraced sanctuary overlooking the Via Appia, the road to Rome. Scheding said on important feast days, processions traveled up the hill from the ancient city of Tarracina to the temple. Further excavations could reveal the god to whom the temple was dedicated, and the purpose of the multiple cisterns found at the site. To read about the search for a theater at a Greek sanctuary in the ancient city of Akragas, go to "Sicily's Lost Theater."