CARLISLE, ENGLAND—The Guardian reports that some 30 semiprecious stones dated to the late second and early third centuries A.D. have been found in northern England, in a drain at a bathhouse at the site of a Roman fort adjacent to Hadrian’s Wall. Archaeologist Frank Giecco of Wardell Armstrong Archaeology said that one amethyst depicts the goddess Venus holding either a flower or a mirror, while a red-brown jasper shows a satyr seated on rocks next to a sacred column. Other stones bear military symbols such as an image of the god Mars holding a spear, and fertility symbols including a mouse nibbling a branch. The finely carved stones are thought to have been lost from bathers’ rings as the vegetable glue that held them in place loosened in the steamy environment, Giecco explained. “They may not have even noticed until they got home because it’s the actual stone falling out of the rings—although we’ve also found one ring with a setting,” he said. More than 40 women’s hairpins and 35 glass beads were also found in the drain. To read about a popular Greek poem engraved on an ancient gemstone, go to "Poetic License."
