Researchers in the UK have discovered that an ancient Greek marble slab is 2,000 years old. The stone has been found among many items collected by the National Museum of Scotland for more than 130 years, and has not been properly inspected.
“It’s one of three ancient Athenian inscriptions found in Edinburgh, Scotland. The find certainly moved us,” said Peter Liddell, a researcher at the University of Manchester. Liddell and other scholars, published the translation of the inscriptions on the board on May 31.
They referred to the words as a concise “class book,” listing the names of young men who had completed their civilian and military training that lasted about a year. The researchers mentioned 31 names, some of which are nicknames like Theoges, Lethogenes and Dionysas. “The use of abbreviated names was unusual,” the researchers said, and this apparently indicates that the writers had a sense of brotherhood.
They believe the 31 names are part of a group of about 100 men. At the end of the board, the words were translated into “of the emperor.” Given the period in which the words were written, it is likely that the writers referred to Emperor Claudius, the fourth ruler of the ancient Roman Empire, from 41 to 54 AD.
Liddell explained that exposing ancient Athenian inscriptions is not something that happens often. First, assume that this is a copy of an address that was previously located and displayed in Oxford, England. “When we looked a little closer at this address, we discovered that it was in fact a document we had not yet seen. Completely different from anything we had encountered before,” Liddle said.
The researcher added that the marble slab and other types of items from the museum are all part of the puzzle of ancient history. “We have no objective descriptions of history. All we have to do is connect the existing fragments and remnants, and that’s how we will know the past.”