It's an 'Archaeological Sensation' in Switzerland

Some 2,000-year-old walls, thought to have once protected a Roman building complex with an epic view, have emerged in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. "The discovery is an archaeological sensation for the canton (state) of Zug and will provide important insights into the Romans in the pre-Alpine Central Switzerland," according to a translated statement from the Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archeology. It's the first time in almost a century that Roman buildings have been excavated in the area, per Live Science. The walls, with top bricks visible to the naked eye, were discovered during excavation of a grave pit in the city of Äbnetwald. But they weren't all that emerged.

Archaeologists also discovered pieces of a plaster wall, iron nails, bronze and copper coins, a silver denarius minted by Julius Caesar around the 1st century BCE, gold fragments possibly from jewelry, millstones, crockery, bowls, and ceramic jugs called amphorae. The amphorae, which typically held wine, olive oil, and fish sauce, suggest Romans in the region were trading with people in the Mediterranean, while elaborate glassware and imported Roman tableware known as terra sigillata ("sealed earth") indicate elite people inhabited the site, per Popular Science. It notes the site is prime real estate, with an "elevated position" and "an excellent overview of the surrounding landscape," with the Alps in the distance.

It's unclear how the site was used—further excavations will explore that question—but it may have been a villa with a view of a temple building, according to Christa Ebnöther, an expert in Roman archaeology at the University of Bern, who describes the preservation of the remains as "astounding." "Only a few structural relics of this kind from the Roman period are known in the pre-Alpine region," she adds. The walls surrounded an area of 5,300 square feet, with multiple rooms, according to the statement. It adds "large numbers of iron nails speak for a wooden construction on the existing wall foundation." The site will be open to the public during an excavation day on Saturday. (More discoveries stories.)