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I was flipping through the file box (metaphorically speaking, of course) and discovered we haven’t visited the one labeled Archeology/Anthropology in a long time. Our first story is about something everybody loves: lawyers. Well, not really, but did you ever wonder what forms the basis of our legal system here on Guam? Certainly it’s modeled after the legal system of the United States, but did you ever wonder where that one came from? Britain? Well, it turns out it’s a lot older than that.

Part of an ancient Roman law code thought to have been lost forever has been discovered by British researchers. They made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 parchment fragments and discovering the text belonged to the Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code, a collection of laws made by Roman emperors from Hadrian (AD 117-138) to Diocletian (AD 284-305).

Little was known about the codex's original form and there were, until now, no known copies in existence. The fragments are written in Latin in a clear calligraphic script and they probably date from AD 400. They contain abbreviations normally found in Roman legal texts and since there’s writing on both sides of the paper, it’s probably from a book rather than a scroll or a lawyer's loose-leaf notes.

The fragments contain responses by several Roman emperors to legal questions submitted by members of the public. They’re arranged chronologically and grouped into chapters with highlighted headings. There are also corrections and annotations written between the original lines. The content is consistent with what was already known about the Gregorian Code from quotations of it in other documents, but the fragments also contain new material not seen in modern times.

These fragments are the first direct evidence of the original version of the Gregorian Code. The researchers say this document is the pioneer of a long tradition that extends to the modern era and it is ultimately from the title of this work, and its companion volume the Codex Hermogenianus, that we derive the term 'code' in the sense of 'legal rulings.'

And there’s also news from Spanish researchers. They’ve discovered Egyptian blue on the altarpiece of a church built in the 1100’s in Barcelona, Spain. What’s Egyptian blue? It’s a paint pigment made of copper silicate and calcium and it was used from the days of ancient Egypt until the end of the Roman Empire to decorate objects and murals. However, it was not made after Rome fell and there’s no evidence that people in medieval times knew how to make it. So how did it turn up in a 12th century church?

The church was built over ancient Iberian and Roman settlements and the scientists think the builders may have discovered some of the ground-up pigment when they were doing the excavations for the church. Egyptian blue is stable (unlike some other blue pigments) and a container of it could have remained hidden underground for many centuries.

The most likely hypothesis is that the builders of the church happened upon a 'ball' of Egyptian blue from the Roman period and decided to use it in the paintings on the stone altarpiece. But they only used a little because it couldn't be replaced. Once the ball was used up, the blue was gone.

Cruise on over to The Deep to learn more about laws and pigments and many other topics. Enjoy!