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According to a SWI report, researchers have discovered the remnants of Roman walls in the foothills of the Alps while excavating a gravel pit in present-day Cham, a municipality in central Switzerland's canton Zug. Constructed some 2,000 years ago, the walls once surrounded a series of Roman buildings. The excavation also unearthed fragments from a plaster wall; iron nails; gold fragments of what may have been jewelry; and everyday items including bowls, millstones, glassware, crockery, and amphoras. The rare find, which the Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeology called “sensational,” is the first in the area for nearly a century. The purpose of the building complex, which likely spanned more than 5,000 square feet, remains unknown. Further research will aim to ascertain its role in Roman society, whether a villa, an inn, a temple, or another type of building.

What ancient site features the earliest city gate? In Israel, at least, that would be the Early Bronze Age site of Tel Erani. During a salvage excavation of the site by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), archaeologists discovered the impressive stone gateway built into the city’s mudbrick fortification wall. Dating to around 3300 BCE, Tel Erani’s city gate is now the oldest ever found in Israel, making it several hundred years older than the gate from Tel Arad, another Early Bronze Age city. But why did Erani’s residents need the gate in the first place?

AGRIGENTUM, SICILY—According to a statement released by the Sicilian Region Institutional Portal, an excavation led by archaeologist Maria Concetta Parello at House VII b in Sicily’s Valley of the Temples has uncovered a votive deposit containing at least 60 terracotta figurines, oil lamps, small vases, bronze fragments, and bones. The deposit was found above a destruction layer attributed to the burning of the Greek city in 406 B.C. by the Carthaginians. Parello and her colleagues will try to determine if the objects were left by residents who returned to their ruined city.

TOKTAMYS, KAZAKHSTAN—The Miami Herald reports that a 4,000-year-old stone structure has been unearthed in northern Kazakhstan’s Kyrykungir monumental complex. “The steppe pyramid is built with great precision,” said Ulan Umitkaliyev of Eurasian National University. “It is a very sophisticated complex structure with several circles in the middle.” A large black stone with a flattened side sits at the end of each exterior wall, he added, while the walls are decorated with images of horses and other animals. Horse bones have also been found nearby, suggesting that the building may have been linked to a horse cult, Umitkaliyev explained. Pottery, gold earrings, and other jewelry have also been uncovered at the site.

As a new pipeline cuts its way through the Balkans, archaeologists in Albania are grabbing every opportunity to expose the country’s history—from the Neolithic to the present.

Archeologists and palaeontologists say legislation needed to protect major finds championed by David Attenborough

Anything new happening? Everyone doing alright? Also, have a random picture of Bender.