Excavations at a Roman fort in England north of Hadrian's Wall have revealed a unique engraved gemstone depicting a grape-harvesting scene from Roman mythology — imagery that's rarely found in northern Europe.
The red stone was likely originally set in a signet ring and used by a Roman man as his personal correspondence stamp, Bob Jackson of the Redesdale Archaeology Group, who has overseen multiple digs at the site, said in a statement. The design is "thought to be unique in Britain and northern Europe," excavation director Richard Carlton, an archaeologist at Newcastle University, said in the statement.
