Ancient Romans Loved Fossils Just as Much as We Do, Even Though They May Not Have Fully Understood What They Were
The newly discovered trilobite may be hundreds of millions of years old, but its use 2,000 years ago as an amulet is the focus of a new archaeological finding
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Writing about 100 years after the death of the Roman emperor Augustus, the historian Suetonius noted the leader’s fascination with fossils. Ruling from 63 B.C.E. to 14 C.E. the emperor prominently displayed prehistoric items in his Capri villa, claiming they heralded from “ancient ‘giants’ and ‘monsters.’”
New research suggests that, absent the knowledge of modern science, ancient Romans, from the emperor on down, held special meaning for fossils, including as jewelry with supernatural powers.
That finding comes from an archaeological discovery at a first-to-third-century C.E. Roman settlement in northwestern Spain: a trilobite fossil dating to more than 400 million years old.
In a journal article published this July in Archaeology and Anthropological Sciences, researchers note the finding of what they call the first-confirmed trilobite fossil from ancient Rome at the site of A Cibdá de Armea. The fossil itself bears seven artificial marks on its back, indicating to archaeologists that it was likely used as a pendant or bracelet with an amulet-like significance. Dating to the Middle Ordovician period, roughly 463 million years ago, the fossil also traveled more than 250 miles from southern Spain to its final destination. This would indicate that it was a special enough item to merit being carried along a known trade route.
“The trilobite discovered at the Armea Roman settlement is a paradigmatic example of how a single artifact recovered in an archaeological context can significantly advance our knowledge of various aspects of antiquity,” write the article’s authors, led by Adolfo Fernández-Fernández, a historian at the University of Vigo in Spain, in the journal. “...The trilobite reveals that Romans already recognized the existence of ancestral animals in the subsoil, and these objects, understood in this way, were highly valued as ‘sacred’ with strong protective qualities.”
Trilobites are an extinct marine creature that first came into being around 521 million years ago, but by the end of the Permian period, roughly 250 million years ago, they would be extinct, like 90 percent of all species on Earth at that time after the mass extinction event known as the “Great Dying.”
Did you know? What are trilobites?
Named after the three segments of its skeleton—the head, the thorax and its tail, the trilobite lived in the seas for over hundreds of millions of years. Scientists have identified more than 20,000 species of trilobites. Some were predators, others scavengers and still others fed on plankton.Their finding that the trilobite was altered, in a manner that suggests the fossil was worn on the body, represents an even greater discovery, Fernández-Fernández told National Geographic’s Mohana Ravindranath. Archaeologists posit in the paper that the “thoracic appearance of trilobites may have inspired an entire series of protective and healing objects.”
“If the trilobite had appeared unmodified, it would have had significant value, but its transformation to be set in jewelry gives it much greater scientific value,” he told the outlet. “This gives us an idea of the importance of the fossil as a ‘magical’ stone.”
The fossil would have been set in metal or leather in a small piece of jewelry, writes Tim Newcomb for Popular Mechanics.
The trilobite was discovered in what amounted to an ancient waste pile in an area of the settlement that may have been used to keep livestock. Roughly 4,000 objects were retrieved in the layer, including ceramic remains, like pots, casseroles, dishes and flat-bottomed amphorae.
Trilobite fossils themselves are considered to be a unique find within the realm of archaeology. The recent discovery is only the “11th known trilobite found in an archaeological context,” according to the article’s authors.
Not far from where the trilobite was found, archaeologists also discovered an inscription, reading “MAXSIMVS.” To academics, this lends credence to the idea that the fossil may have even been used as a votive offering in the family’s household shrine, a small token from the past to ensure protection in their future.
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