Richard III archeologists strike again with Roman mosaic
CTV
A team of archeologists from the University of Leicester in central England certainly appear to have the golden touch.
Nearly a decade on from uncovering the remains of King Richard III under a car park near Leicester Cathedral, the university's archeological team have unearthed a Roman mosaic featuring the great Greek hero of Achilles in battle with brave Hector during the Trojan War -- this time in a farmer's field about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of London.
The mosaic is the first depiction ever found in the U.K. of events from Homer's classic 'The Iliad.'"
John Thomas, deputy director of University of Leicester Archeological Services and project manager on the excavations, said the mosaic says a lot about the person who commissioned it in the late Roman period, between the 3rd and 4th century.
"This is someone with a knowledge of the classics, who had the money to commission a piece of such detail, and it's the very first depiction of these stories that we've ever found in Britain," he said. "This is certainly the most exciting Roman mosaic discovery in the U.K. in the last century."
