Photo: ULAS Facebook page Bronze handle suggests ‘lions used’ in Roman Britain executions
An unearthed bronze key handle suggests lions were used in executions in Roman Britain, archaeologists have said.
The handle, which shows a “Barbarian” grappling with a lion, was excavated from under a Roman town house, off Great Central Street in Leicester.
It also shows figures of four boys cowering in terror.
Excavation leader Dr Gavin Speed, from the University of Leicester said nothing quite like it had been found “anywhere in the Roman Empire before”.
“When first found, it appeared as an indistinguishable bronze object, but after we carefully cleaned off the soil remarkably we revealed several small faces looking back at us, it was absolutely astounding,” Dr Speed said.
The object was found by the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) in 2017, then studied at King’s College London and the findings have now been published in the journal Britannia.
Co-author Dr John Pearce, from King’s College, said: “This unique object gives us our most detailed representation of this form of execution found in Roman Britain.
TikTok named as the most downloaded app of 2020
TikTok was the world’s most downloaded app in 2020 as it took the top spot from Facebook Messenger, according to digital analytics company App Annie.
The Chinese video-sharing platform is the only app not owned by Facebook to make the global top five of downloads.
In its home country, TikTok’s owner ByteDance also holds the top spot with the Chinese language video app Douyin.
TikTok’s continued popularity emerged even after former US President Donald Trump tried to ban it in America.
Facebook-owned apps have held the top spot since the survey started in 2018 and the company still dominated the chart.
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant accounted for the rest of the top five with Facebook’s flagship app as well as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger all making an appearance.
Australian Olympians face 28-day quarantine
Rules meaning some Australian Olympians are having to quarantine for 28 days after returning to their country from Tokyo have been described as “cruel”, the BBC has reported.
Athletes returning via Sydney to the state of South Australia are facing an extra two-week quarantine.
That is on top of the two weeks already required for all overseas arrivals.
The AOC said: “While other countries are celebrating the return of their athletes, we are subjecting ours to the most cruel and uncaring treatment.”
They added: “They are being punished for proudly representing their country with distinction at the Olympic Games.”
16 members of the Australian Olympic team are already quarantining in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales.
The government of South Australia said “the high risk of the Delta strain of Covid-19 in NSW” is the reason for the additional requirements, for which the AOC has had an exemption request turned down.