A routine pre-construction excavation on a former industrial site in the Dutch city of Nijmegen has turned into the most significant Roman archaeological find the Netherlands has seen in years. Archaeologists from firms RAAP and BAAC, working ahead of a planned housing development in the Waalfront district, have uncovered a Roman bathhouse complex covering at least 4,900 square metres, more than twice the size of any previously known bathhouse in the country. The structure formed part of Ulpia Noviomagus, the Roman city that flourished along the Waal River roughly 1,800 to 1,900 years ago on the site of present-day Nijmegen. Alongside the bathhouse, excavators found marble-lined walls, a working hypocaust heating system, a bronze bust of Bacchus, jewellery, coins, and hundreds of bone hairpins carved with cat images.
How archaeologists found the largest Roman bathhouse in the Netherlands
