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Richly-decorated Roman mosaic uncovered during Swiss building works

Pipe laying works in the Swiss town of Avenches have led to the discovery of a highly detailed Roman mosaic.

Richly-decorated Roman mosaic uncovered during Swiss building works
A detail of the mosaic. Photo: L. Francey/O. Heubi, Site et Musée romains d’Avenches

The mosaic features a border of yellow stone tiles known as tesserae while the central section shows a 'cantharus' drinking vessel upon which two birds are perched.

Measuring 1.55 metres squared, the mosaic will be cleaned on site before being moved to the Roman Museum in Avenches.

Read also: Ancient Roman fridge discovered near Basel keeps beer cool for months

The floor tiling was found in a little-explored section on the outer edges of the Roman settlement of Aventicum, the canton of Vaud said in a statement.

The amphitheatre of Avenches is still used for concerts today. Photo: Swiss Tourism

Founded around 15BC, Aventicum became the capital of the Roman Switzerland after the conquest of territory previously held by the tribe known as the Helvetii.

Remains of the colony's amphitheatre, which could hold up to 16,000 people, a theatre and the so-called Cigognier, or stork, temple can still be visited today.

The Roman museum is housed in a five-story medieval tower and displays Roman objects from Aventicum.

This bust of emperor Marcus Aurelius was discovered in Avenches. Photo: Swiss Tourism

Perhaps the most famous of those finds is a gold bust the emperor Marcus Aurelius which was found at some point during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Unfortunately, only a copy is on display in the Avenches museum as the original is considered too valuable to be housed there.

Read also: Archaeologists find 7,000-year-old human remains in Swiss city

TODAY IN FRANCE

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

France has paved the way towards paying reparations to more relatives of Algerians who sided with France in their country's independence war but were then interned in French camps.

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

More than 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the war that pitted Algerian independence fighters against their French colonial masters from 1954 to 1962.

At the end of the war, the French government left the loyalist fighters known as Harkis to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that an AFP investigation recently found led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies.

READ ALSO Who are the Harkis and why are they still a sore subject in France?

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after independence.

The following year, a law was passed to recognise the state’s responsibility for the “indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory”, which caused “exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma”, and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites – including military camps, slums and shacks – were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

Now “up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures,” it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of state Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to “make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised”.

Macron has spoken out on a number of France’s unresolved colonial legacies, including nuclear testing in Polynesia, its role in the Rwandan genocide and war crimes in Algeria.

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