Ancient ‘fridge’ — with meat still inside — found at Roman military camp, experts say
Archaeologists unearthed an unusual discovery at an ancient Roman military camp in Bulgaria: a fridge.
Excavations at Novae uncovered the “ancient fridge,” a food storage unit made of ceramic plates, according to an Oct 7 news release from the Science in Poland publication. The fridge still had animal bones, fragments of dishes, and traces of cooked meat, archaeologists said.
The fridge also contained parts of a small bone that researchers speculated worked as a “censor” for insect repellent, experts said.
“The discovery of such ‘refrigerators’ are rare, because they rarely survive reconstructions of buildings,” the lead archaeologist said in the release.
Novae was built for Roman troops in the first century CE as a permanent base on the lower Danube River, experts said. The camp housed Italian military recruits until the middle of the fifth century. The exact age of the fridge and its contents have not yet been determined.
Excavations at Novae also revealed the remains of walls, a collection of coins, lead and ceramic pipes, and a house with fishing weights, spindles and weaving, archaeologists said.
Novae is in the northern Bulgarian city of Svishtov, about 155 miles northeast of Sofia.
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Ancient ‘fridge’ — with meat still inside — found at Roman military camp, experts say."
