Bronze objects were usually melted down for later reuse, so it is rare for one of this size to survive. It is the largest bronze artifact from Roman Salzburg found since 1943. The object was unearthed last year during excavations of the Neue Residenz in the historic site, the site of the new Salzburg branch of the Vienna Belvedere Museum.
The remains of a wooden bridge built over 2,000 years ago have been discovered in Aegerten, Switzerland. More than 300 oak piles from the bridge spans over the Zihl river were unearthed, preserved in the waterlogged soil of the silted-over riverbed. Archaeologists had found remains of Roman military structures on both banks of the Zihl 40 years ago, so when construction was planned in the same area, a team from the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern excavated the site.
Built around 50 AD, with an internal diameter of 15 m [50 feet], it had to be more than 6 m [20 feet] high to be visible to all those passing through or arriving in the Roman colony of Vienne, particularly from the Rhone River. This shows the importance of the person whose burial place it was, who, even in death, must still have been present in the world of the living.