ROME, Sept. 29, 2009
Archaeologists Find Nero's Dining Room
Circular Room, Believed to Rotate, Found in Ruins of 1st Century Emperor's Golden Palace
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Superintendent Maria Antonietta Tomei speaks to reporters in a recently unearthed brick structure, incorporating a 13-foot diameter pillar (left) discovered during maintenance works in the Roman Forum, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009. Archaeologists believe the structure supported a rotating dining room imitating the Earth's movement and used by Roman Emperor Nero to impress his guests at his Golden Palace. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu says her team discovered part of a circular room, which experts believe rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and impress guests.
Villedieu told journalists Tuesday that the room on the ancient Palatine Hill was supported by a pillar with a diameter of 4 meters (more than 13 feet).
She says only the foundation of the room was recovered during the four-month excavation.
The Golden Palace, also known by its Latin name Domus Aurea, rose over the ruins of a fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 A.D. and was completed in 68 A.D.
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- Not unlike the rotating restaurants of today.
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- How the hell did finding Nero's dining room get turned into a political blog about Liberals & Conservatives?
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- Remember...What happens in Rome stays in Rome.
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- What was the motive power for this rotating room? Animals, people??
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- Are they going to resurrect it in the White House? Seems fitting, since Obama out fiddling around in Copenhagen while the country suffers.
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- I think he's working on boosting the economy by bringing the Olympics to the US. But apparently you think we'll be better off with them in Japan.
- Maybe he isn't going there of the Olympics but the red light district, Thought of that?
BTW why don't you tell us all just how much the olympics brings in for us average joes who don't live in Chicago?
He dosen't know how much ACORN is stealing, how he's going to pay for his health bill, put millions back to work, but has time to have a beer with a black professor and lollygag to Europe at the whim of Chicago. So when's he going for Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Boston....... for site specific cup in hand begging for a few crumbs.
