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Ancient 'Power' Palazzo on Rome's Palatine Hill Reopens to Tourists

Visitors admire the newly restored domus Tiberiana, one of the main imperial palaces, during the press preview on Rome's Palatine Hill, in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Visitors admire the newly restored domus Tiberiana, one of the main imperial palaces, during the press preview on Rome's Palatine Hill, in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Ancient 'Power' Palazzo on Rome's Palatine Hill Reopens to Tourists

Visitors admire the newly restored domus Tiberiana, one of the main imperial palaces, during the press preview on Rome's Palatine Hill, in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Visitors admire the newly restored domus Tiberiana, one of the main imperial palaces, during the press preview on Rome's Palatine Hill, in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

An ancient Roman imperial palazzo atop the city's Palatine Hill was reopened to tourists on Thursday, nearly 50 years after its closure for restoration.

The nearly 2,000-year-old Domus Tiberiana was home to rulers in the ancient city’s Imperial period. The sprawling palace allows for sweeping views of the Roman Forum below.

The public is now able to tour it, following decades of structural restoration work to shore the palace up for safety reasons. Excavations uncovered artifacts from centuries of Roman life following the decline of the empire.

The director of the Colosseum Archeological Park, which includes the Palatine Hill, in a written description of the restored palazzo, dubbed it “the power palace par excellence.”
On the eve of the reopening, the official, Alfonsina Russo, quoted a first-century Roman poet as saying the sprawling palace seemed “infinite” and that "its grandiosity was just like the grandiosity of the sky.”

Although the domus, or residence, is named after Tiberius, who ruled the empire after the death of Augustus, archaeological studies indicated that the palace's foundations date from the era of Nero, shortly after the fire of 64 A.D that devastated much of the city.

After the demise of the Roman Empire, the residence suffered centuries of abandonment, until when, in the 1500s, the Farnese noble family developed an extensive garden around the ruins.

Thanks to the palazzo's reopening to the public, visitors today can get a better idea of the path ancient emperors and their courts enjoyed en route to the domus.

The English word “palatial” is inspired by the sumptuous imperial residence atop the Palatine, one of ancient Rome's seven hills, The Associated Press reported.

The domus, built on the northwest slope of the hill, is considered to be the first true imperial palace. Besides the emperor's residence, the complex included gardens, places of worship, quarters for the Praetorian Guard that protected the ruler and a service district for workers that overlooked the Roman Forum.

Excavation and restoration work, carried out also during the coronavirus pandemic when for months tourism was at a minimum, helped archeologists piece together what Russo calls centuries of history in a place that “somehow went forgotten.”

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Ancient DNA Shows Genetic Link Between Egypt and Mesopotamia

This photo provided by researchers shows rock-cut tombs in Nuwayrat, Egypt where a pottery vessel in which the remains of a man, radiocarbon dated to around 2855–2570 cal BCE, was discovered. (John Garstang, Mahmoud Abd El Gelel/Garstang Museum of Archaeology/University of Liverpool via AP)
This photo provided by researchers shows rock-cut tombs in Nuwayrat, Egypt where a pottery vessel in which the remains of a man, radiocarbon dated to around 2855–2570 cal BCE, was discovered. (John Garstang, Mahmoud Abd El Gelel/Garstang Museum of Archaeology/University of Liverpool via AP)
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Ancient DNA Shows Genetic Link Between Egypt and Mesopotamia

This photo provided by researchers shows rock-cut tombs in Nuwayrat, Egypt where a pottery vessel in which the remains of a man, radiocarbon dated to around 2855–2570 cal BCE, was discovered. (John Garstang, Mahmoud Abd El Gelel/Garstang Museum of Archaeology/University of Liverpool via AP)
This photo provided by researchers shows rock-cut tombs in Nuwayrat, Egypt where a pottery vessel in which the remains of a man, radiocarbon dated to around 2855–2570 cal BCE, was discovered. (John Garstang, Mahmoud Abd El Gelel/Garstang Museum of Archaeology/University of Liverpool via AP)

Ancient DNA has revealed a genetic link between the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Researchers sequenced whole genomes from the teeth of a remarkably well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site dating to between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago.

Four-fifths of the genome showed links to North Africa and the region around Egypt. But a fifth of the genome showed links to the area in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, known as the Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian civilization flourished.

"The finding is highly significant" because it "is the first direct evidence of what has been hinted at" in prior work," said Daniel Antoine, curator of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.

Earlier archeological evidence has shown trade links between Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as similarities in pottery-making techniques and pictorial writing systems. While resemblances in dental structures suggested possible ancestral links, the new study clarifies the genetic ties.

The Nile River is "likely to have acted as an ancient superhighway, facilitating the movement of not only cultures and ideas, but people," said Antoine, who was not involved in the study.

The skeleton was found in an Egyptian tomb complex at the archaeological site of Nuwayrat, inside a chamber carved out from a rocky hillside. An analysis of wear and tear on the skeleton - and the presence of arthritis in specific joints - indicates the man was likely in his 60s and may have worked as a potter, said co-author and bioarchaeologist Joel Irish of Liverpool John Moores University.

The man lived just before or near the start of ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified as one state, leading to a period of relative political stability and cultural innovation, including the construction of the Giza pyramids.

"This is the time that centralized power allowed the formation of ancient Egypt as we know it," said co-author Linus Girdland-Flink, a paleogeneticist at the University of Aberdeen.

At approximately the same time, Sumerian city-states took root in Mesopotamia and cuneiform emerged as a writing system.

Researchers said analysis of other ancient DNA samples is needed to obtain a clearer picture of the extent and timing of movements between the two cultural centers.