Across the landscapes of the eastern Mediterranean, traces of Roman life continue to surface in unexpected places. A fragment of wall, a forgotten road, a buried coin hoard- each discovery adds another small piece to a much larger story. Occasionally, though, archaeologists uncover objects that seem strangely out of place, raising questions about why they ended up where they did. That appears to be the case at a site near Israel, where two remarkably well-preserved marble busts were recovered from the bottom of an ancient pit associated with a winepress. Rather than lying in a grand public building or a wealthy residence, the sculptures had been hidden away, surviving centuries beneath the ground until recent excavations brought them back into view.
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