24 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Found in Spain a poem by Virgil engraved in a Roman amphora

Archaeologists have deciphered a verse by Virgil, the greatest poet of Rome’s Golden Age, carved into the clay of a small piece of a Roman jar. Experts call the discovery “exceptional” because it is the first time verses from the poet with whom children learned to read have been discovered in a commercial container.

The fragment was discovered by members of OLEASTRO, a collaboration between the Universities of Cordoba, Seville, and Montpellier while prospecting in the municipality of Hornachuelos (Córdoba). It is a fragment of an oil amphora from the Roman province of Betica that was made around 1,800 years ago and has a written text on it.

While the ceramic vessels were routinely engraved with information relating to producers, quantities and taxes, the 6cm by 8cm shard appeared to contain an unusual amount of text.

It was hardly shocking to find a piece of an amphora in an area like the plain of the Guadalquivir River, considered one of the nerve centers of olive oil production and trade throughout the Empire.

In the surroundings of Corduba, modern-day Cordoba, a good part of the olive oil consumed by Rome was produced and packaged, as evidenced, for example, by the remnants of amphorae with “Betica” seals preserved on Mount Testaccio.

The fragment of pottery with the Virgil quote overlaid. Photo: Iván González Tobar/Labex Archimède; University of Córdoba
The fragment of pottery with the Virgil quote overlaid. Photo: Iván González Tobar/Labex Archimède; University of Córdoba

The epigraphic richness of the oleary amphorae of Baetica is well known since ancient times since it is known that Roman potters engraved their seals on them or wrote labels (tituli picti) with names of people, dates, or places, but never poems.

As a result, the fragment of an amphora with text on it appeared to be just another piece with no special significance at first. However, everything changed when the epigraph was deciphered, revealing the following words: S vais avoniam glandemm arestapoqv tisaqv it

Through overlaying, the researchers were able to infer that the text corresponds to the seventh and eighth verses of the first book of The Georgics, a poem by Virgil dedicated to agriculture and life in the countryside, written in 29 BC, which say,

Auoniam[pingui]glandem m[utauit]aresta, poq[ulaque][inuen]tisAqu[eloia][miscu]it [uuis]C[ambió] la bellota aonia por la espiga [fértil] [y mezcl]óel ag[ua] [con la uva descubierta]

Photo: Iván González Tobar/Labex Archimède; University of Córdoba

The researchers’ key theory, as published in the Journal of Roman Archeology, is that the verses, written on the lower part of the amphora, were never really intended to be seen.

They believe the author may have been a skilled labourer or perhaps even a child worker at the factory where the amphora was manufactured. In any case, the lines make it clear that whoever scratched the letters into the clay was more educated than such workers are traditionally supposed to have been.

The greatest poet of the Golden Age of Rome, Publius Virgilius Maro—Virgil—was born in 70 B.C. and died in 19 B.C. Virgil is one of the true immortals, a poet who was read in antiquity and has been read ever since. He is best known for his great epic the Aeneid, the story of Aeneas, the founder of Rome.

Virgil’s texts were used for children to learn to read in schools.”

Virgil was the most popular poet of his time. The Aeneid was taught in schools and its verses were a pedagogical exercise for many generations. Therefore, it is common to find them in remains of ceramic construction materials, which has led many authors to relate them to educational functions (Roman schoolchildren wrote Virgil on their blackboards). But why in an amphora? And why The Georgics and not The Aeneid?

In any case, the verses on the amphora from Hornachuelos/Fuente Palmera make it a unique piece posing many more questions in need of answers.

Experts believe that the author was doing a memory exercise or wanted to teach a child to read.

Related Articles

A unique golden sun bowl was discovered during an archaeological survey in Ebreichsdorf, Austria

3 October 2021

3 October 2021

A golden sun bowl and several hundred bronze objects were discovered during archaeological excavations in a prehistoric settlement in today’s...

Deer stone discovered in Kyrgyzstan

10 April 2023

10 April 2023

A deer stone was found in the Tarmal-Sai settlement in the Kochkor district of the Naryn region in eastern Kyrgyzstan....

A Medieval Necropolis Discovered During Excavations at the site of the Future Bus Station in Sozopol, Bulgaria

4 April 2024

4 April 2024

A medieval necropolis was discovered during excavations at the construction site of a bus station in the old seaside town...

A Monument complex and inscription belonging to Ilteris Kutlug Kagan, the founder of the Eastern Göktürk Khanate, were found

24 August 2022

24 August 2022

A Turkish inscription of İlteriş Kutlug Kağan was found during the joint scientific archaeological expedition of the International Turkic Academy...

An extraordinary medieval belt loop found near Kamień Pomorski in Poland

18 March 2024

18 March 2024

A late medieval belt loop for hanging keys or a bag was found near the town of Kamień Pomorski in...

Archaeologists in the Tangier Peninsula Discovered Three Ancient Cemeteries, Including a Stone Burial Dating to Around 4,000 Years Ago

17 May 2025

17 May 2025

A significant archaeological discovery in northern Morocco’s Tangier Peninsula, situated just south of the Strait of Gibraltar, has led to...

Remains of a 12-year-old boy wearing a bronze warrior belt found in Pontecagnano

6 July 2021

6 July 2021

The remains of a 12-year-old boy wearing a bronze warrior belt were found at Pontecagnano, an outpost of the pre-Roman...

The Temple of Persian Water Goddess Anahita Discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan

8 March 2024

8 March 2024

Archaeologists excavating the Rabana-Merquly mountain fortress in what is present-day Iraqi Kurdistan suggest that it may also have served as...

Jordan Valley Reveals Earliest Cotton Use in the Ancient Near East

18 December 2022

18 December 2022

During excavations at Tel Tsaf, a 7,000-year-old town in the Jordan Valley, Israeli archaeologists discovered the earliest evidence of cotton...

Largest ever Roman silver hoard in Germany found in Augsburg

12 November 2021

12 November 2021

Archaeologists in Augsburg, Germany, revealed unearthed a historical hoard including 15 kg of silver coins from the Roman Empire’s era....

The Mystery of the Hekatompedon: An Ancient Shepherd’s Graffiti Sheds New Light on the Mystery of the Acropolis’ Lost Temple

13 June 2024

13 June 2024

The Acropolis of Athens and its monuments, the greatest architectural and artistic complex bequeathed to the world by ancient Greece,...

Roman-era Mixers and Millstones Made with Geology in Mind

22 September 2021

22 September 2021

A study on stone tools from an outpost of the Roman Empire has found that for ancient bakers and millers,...

Human remains found at prison sewer site are 4,500 years old in East Yorkshire

26 March 2024

26 March 2024

Archaeologists investigating the site of a new sewer to serve a jail being built at Full Sutton in East Yorkshire,...

Venice of the Pacific: The mysterious Micronesian ruins of Nan Madol

12 July 2022

12 July 2022

Sometimes art and architecture challenge our perceptions of what was formerly thought to be feasible and what our forefathers were...

Manuscript Portal Brings Medieval Manuscripts from Greifswald Online

24 April 2024

24 April 2024

Greifswald’s oldest books can be accessed digitally via another new portal. The Manuscript Portal (HSP) is the central online portal...