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Mrunlikable t1_j66m30d wrote

Reply to comment by Rob-Study-8562 in Ancient statue of Hercules emerges from Rome sewerage repairs by Rob-Study-8562

I feel like Rome is one of the few places in the world where you can be working a regular trade job and not be surprised when you accidentally unearth an ancient puzzle box or secret tunnel.

"Oh, another Pandora's box thing? Good, good. I'll put this next to the others in the office."

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Edythir t1_j66xp0p wrote

I think it was Athens that tried to build a subway system but it ended up taking twice as long as planned because they stumbled into historic archeological sites every two kilometers

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Nonskew2 t1_j66yu36 wrote

Not surprising considering its age and that cities were built on cities

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Sepelrastas t1_j67mpnk wrote

Meanwhile in Finland rock was too hard and planners didn't know how to plan. If only we could have unearthed historical treasures, that would have been actually interesting.

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seaworthy-sieve t1_j68c35f wrote

Meanwhile in Ottawa we forgot that we're built on a rat warren of tunnels and sewers, so we caused a sinkhole and now one of our stations always smells like poo.

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Swiss_cake_raul t1_j68tni1 wrote

Meanwhile in Boston we filled in a shallow bay with garbage until it was just barely solid enough to build high rises on, and then decided to tunnel underneath the whole thing like a hundred years later. Actually it went pretty well all things considered.

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Basedrum777 t1_j688z8u wrote

We wanted to dig but earth was in the way I guess!?

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pasxalis777 t1_j67rh4g wrote

Same thing is happening with the subway in Thessaloniki (second biggest city in Greece)

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Derpikae t1_j67styi wrote

Why were so many sites found underground? Just structures buried with the passage of time and dirt? Stupid question but yea

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YsoL8 t1_j68006s wrote

4000 or so years of city being continually build on city will do it.

The ground major modern European cities is built on is largely the ruins of old versions of the city.

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Nunya13 t1_j695tzh wrote

I always have trouble wrapping my brain around building cities on top of cities.

When we visited Seattle and took a tour, we went underground and saw all the structures that used to be above ground and were even still used when they rebuilt on top of it all. They even installed lights and glass in the walkways above so daylight would shine through.

It still trips me out to think about how people decide to just build on top of everything.

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YsoL8 t1_j67zwxm wrote

Some day future city planners are going to find themselves breaking into entire unknown tunnel networks.

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SaiyaJedi t1_j68jh94 wrote

Ditto for Kyoto. It even happened when they were building directly underneath an existing line, which you would think had already disturbed whatever might have been there.

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SuddenlyElga t1_j66tr3d wrote

And Bob, please don’t open this one. We are still finding gargoyles in the closets from the last time.

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ArmyofAnts t1_j67a6m0 wrote

This happens in Spain a lot too. It took them forever to try to get the subway through Triana for this very reason. (Maybe a tram. I forget)

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300andWhat t1_j67qo07 wrote

Just don't solve the puzzle, or you might hear "we are the cinobites"

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Traciatim t1_j68d5te wrote

The cinobites are my favorite item at cinobun though.

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ehren88 t1_j67ku4m wrote

Mexico City is another good example.

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Roundaboutsix t1_j68sxxs wrote

I think it happens throughout the Roman Empire. I was in Germany last fall along the Rhine and their are towns there built over ancient Roman outposts where city utilities crews and new construction sites routinely uncover evidence of Roman villas, roads, city walls and fortifications. (It’s like uncovering ancient treasures because preservation of these sites bring in an influx of tourist dollars.)

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Wea_boo_Jones t1_j68cgmv wrote

I was in Rome last year and they were building a new subway station, they have to get archeologists in to sift through all the piles of ancient stuff they find before they could actually start building anything.

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