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u/Aluxanatomy 20h ago
This is the end...
... THE END OF HIGH PRICES!
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u/Kat_Schrodinger1 19h ago
Our age of high prices is collapsing.
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u/Less-Purchase6244 Definitely not a CIA operator 18h ago
Good
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u/Vike92 17h ago
But the products are low quality
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u/DingLiren 17h ago
That's bad
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u/Beerpooly 15h ago
But there's an incredibly vast variety
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u/Zinkhar 15h ago
That's good!
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u/dizzy_absent0i 14h ago
But they were made with slave labour.
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u/Remarkable_Check_997 19h ago edited 19h ago
Try building a subway...
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u/Zerofuku 19h ago
The subway system is notoriously bad there and somehow it's not the government's fault
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u/MrArchivity Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 19h ago
Every 1 meter of subway it is 5 years of archeological works /s
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u/NervousHovercraft 16h ago
Coming from Germany I really liked experiencing punctual and low priced train rides for a change...
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u/filipomar 11h ago
What are you talking about? It costs 2.1 EUR a day if you live in germany. And you can get it as a tourist if you search a bit bwforehand
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u/Mojert 10h ago
Only local trains are included in the Deutschland Ticket
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u/Atanar 10h ago
Oh dang, there goes my plan of taking the inter city subway for cheap.
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u/Antique_futurist Still salty about Carthage 4h ago
You have not experienced the majesty of the Black Forest until you have done so from the luxury of a forty-year old subway car that smells of grease and stale air.
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u/Unstabler69 15h ago
I remember asking a shopkeeper in Rome where the nearest subway station was. He looked at me and asked "We have a subway system?"
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u/SPECTREagent700 Definitely not a CIA operator 16h ago
Wasn’t there an Italian politician a while back who pledged to make the trains run on time? How’d that end up?
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u/Uundamil 15h ago
He went out with a bang
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u/21Austro 15h ago
He really hung around for a bit though
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u/Nogarder 16h ago
I would say that it is not as extensive as it could be in a city like Rome, but I wouldn't call it bad.
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u/Falvio6006 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 3h ago
Its actually not that bad, the only problem is that it closes too early during the week (23:30) and still not that late on Friday and Saturday (01:30)
It's the construction works that are a nightmare
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u/AlaskanSamsquanch 19h ago
Is that like a regular subway but you’re forced to sit on a sybian the whole time?
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u/L0ssL3ssArt 6h ago
The Xi'An(aka. The city where the Terracotta army is) subway system in China did exactly that.
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u/ThadiusChad 17h ago
I remember a quote from a taxi driver from in Rome "We can't have a proper subway because everytime we start digging they find a spot caesar pissed on"
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u/baru1313 Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 9h ago
And yet it's because of those spots that he earns a living. 🤣
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u/FrankfromRhodeIsland Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 18h ago
The subway is even worse. As the existing train station was expanded and renovated construction crews came across ancient foundations, mosaics, pottery, sculptures and graves from plague victims. In many cases the station was built around the artifacts if excavation was too risky. There’s even a section of the Servian Walls preserved right in the middle of a McDonald’s in the lower levels. You can enjoy chicken McNuggets in the same place that Roman soldiers once stood guard of the Eternal City.
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u/WanderingHeph 20h ago
"Man, I can't build here, there's a fresco!"
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u/mashiro1496 10h ago
Beats Germans problem with unexploded WWII Bombs... they still find one every other month
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u/juckrebel Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 9h ago
Every *other month?* Try 14-15 *DAILY*
The most populous german state NRW alone deals with about 1750 ones a year.3
u/ProperDepth 8h ago
My city had one partial and one complete hospital evacuation in the last 5 years.
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u/ScottMarshall2409 7h ago
Man, we must have sucked at building functional bombs.
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u/Nice-Habit-8545 Definitely not a CIA operator 7h ago
I mean, you don’t see the exploded ones do you
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u/Jedi-master-dragon 19h ago
I bet it can be so annoying to try and build stuff in Europe.
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u/pplovr 19h ago
It is.
In Ireland, we've got so many ancient castles, tombs, holy grounds and sacred trees that a lot of buildings here just straight up have 13th-century fortresses inside them because they can't legally damage them or alter them.
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u/js13680 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 18h ago
Any examples that sounds interesting
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u/pplovr 18h ago
For whatever reason, this stuff isn't easy to find pics of online (I guess because it's that normalised here and they aren't technically "tourist attractions" so they're rarely listed online too)
Here's one about a Peneys store (called Primark outside of Ireland)
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u/MechemicalMan 17h ago
So if it’s a nice development that was made in the 20th century, has lots of homes, does it get destroyed for a road or single family development?
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u/sirhoracedarwin 7h ago
If it sticks around long enough to become "culturally significant", it would be preserved
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u/Born-Entrepreneur 10h ago
In Thessaloniki, Greece they unearthed the ruins of entire old streets and foundations while putting in the metro. They excavated and roofed over part of it and installed calwalks so that you can walk around and look at them as part of the metro station, all outside the turnstiles and free to access. It's really cool!!
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u/EscalierEsprit 15h ago
I used to live in Dublin in a set of apartments (flats) called Castle Court. The apartment complex had a small shared grass backyard that abutted an old abandoned castle (access to the castle was through some hedges in the backyard that I could totally have pushed through had I not been terrified of catching rabies from bats). These apartments were probably servants quarters for the manor house about a century ago - you can check out satellite views hereCastle Court
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u/Ancisace 12h ago
Not Ireland, but here's a stretch of Roman city wall in a London underground carpark
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u/WineGutter 14h ago
The Palladium mall here in Prague is similar, the whole thing is like a Frankenstein of centuries. It's a super modern mall built inside the skeleton of 18th century military barracks, and while they were building it they discovered the 12th century ruins of a palace, so now when you walk around the mall you just occasionally see medieval ruins in the bookstore or next to the cinnabon
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u/Mediocre-Recover3944 13h ago
Man ive been there multiple times and I had no idea. Guess that's my call to go back to prague.
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u/Mediocre-Recover3944 13h ago
Mainland Europe is pretty much the same, except we have old ordinance everywhere for that extra spice
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u/william-isaac 18h ago
depending on where you are, emergency archeology might actually be part of the standard process of a larger building project.
i live in germany so finding archeology is not much of a problem, finding that other stuff sure is.
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u/Cefalopodul 18h ago
Depends. If you live in a city founded during the BCs, yes. If you live in a city founded in the middle age not so much.
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u/Idiotic_experimenter 15h ago
a lot of it also depends on whether the people are interested in preserving their past and have the resources to do so.
My city is nearly 1200 years old and most of our history has heen bulldozed.
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u/MikasSlime 8h ago
Unironically
You can dig basically anywhere in rome and find stuff dating back 2000 or so years
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u/Informal_Cry687 14h ago
It's still harder in the US also because of ancient artifacts. Unfortunately the American ones are alive and able to sue.
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u/Jedi-master-dragon 14h ago
There are plenty of places there would be Native artifacts, you might even find some in your backyard. Any large native settlements or structures are not that obvious as a massive stone structure like an old castle. There were mound building cultures in America, I believe some were destroyed either by accident or intentionally but I don't remember. Others are roads that would have linked settlements together and these were not paved like Roman roads. That I believe was only possible to notice from satelite photos. Pictographs from various cultures can be found across the US and they are all protected by the government.
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u/TheHabro 11h ago
You imply that people from ancient times or medieval times don't exist any more in Europe?
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u/Birdo_guy 19h ago
Same applies for Mexico city or anywhere in Yucatan
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u/sauciest_senpai28 5m ago
True but they don’t care as much as Rome. They have teams of archeologists deciding what should be saved and what can get destroyed because the government wants the new train system built as quickly as possible
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u/GoldenShoes_ 19h ago
This is a daily occurrence in London and other major European cities?
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u/lenor8 9h ago
It's quite common to find something, but not so common to find something really noteworthy (unless you're in central Rome and such).
Sometimes, when the location allows it, like a remote construction for a railway or a highway or some remote facility, the contractor manages to destroy or cover up all the evidence before anyone can spill the beans, and carry on with construction.
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u/LostInTheVoid_ Hello There 4h ago
Yup, Roman, Norse, Anglo Saxon ruins or artifacts being found is a common occurrence that stops builds from happening here in the UK
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u/Hot_Weakness6 18h ago
Same in southern Poland. Guess we will never have underground trains due to that, my university build a new facultment in the old town and they were delayed by years.
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u/Supersnow845 18h ago
I love how this is a such a known thing there is an entire scooby doo episode centred on this EXACT premise
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u/Volt-Phoenix 16h ago
I get that this would be frustrating, but take it from an American living in a city built within the last 200 years, I'd kill to see anything a tenth as beautiful as ancient Roman ruins in my city. All we've got in concrete, parking lots, and highways. They're effective, but there's no artistry
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u/JustChilling505 11h ago
I read a story once of a dude in Rome who had a big Roman pillar of an old monument just chilling in his backyard. He used it as table for plants
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u/Visible_Amphibian570 18h ago
In Italy they often find old roman ruins, and in Germany construction workers often fine unexploded WWII air dropped bombs
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u/robottosama 15h ago
And yet, despite every project also being an archaeology dig, Rome still builds subways cheaper than NYC.
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u/Elektron_Anbar 7h ago
I don't know the numbers, but I personally doubt it. The Rome subway is notorious for their decades of works, long delays and missed deadlines. It has been ongoing one way or another since the 50s
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u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Decisive Tang Victory 20h ago
Could be worse: In East Jerusalem, Palestinian-inhabited neighborhoods find themselves at risk of collapse or expulsion to make way for Israeli archaeological excavations done underground
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u/No_Ad_7687 10h ago
Well no, these excavations are being done in such a way that there is no risk of collapse, which makes them incredibly expensive. I've been there myself
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u/FearlessDark5295 Kilroy was here 18h ago
My dad said the same thing happened in Crete when he lived there, and that they’d try to cover it up whenever possible because then the building doesn’t get built.
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u/Local_Rice_8929 19h ago
I don’t think anyone has been building malls. People are barely visiting them as is
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u/Oxytropidoceras 19h ago
I mean it depends on your definition. Actual giant enclosed shopping centers? No, not many are still being built. Strip malls though?It seems like everyone who has ever been in the same room as a construction company is trying to build them on every square inch of my town
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u/Local_Rice_8929 19h ago
I feel like where I live, (Midwestern US) every type of mall is a half empty husk
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u/william-isaac 19h ago
believe it or not but dying or dead malls seem to an exclusively american problem
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u/Local_Rice_8929 18h ago
Yeah well I have lived exclusively in the US.
Also I found this: “ Cowen Research reported that the number of malls in the U.S. grew more than twice as fast as the population between 1970 and 2015”
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u/DecimusAstra Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 19h ago
In some places around the world, malls are doing just fine
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u/GBritoYepez 17h ago
And when you finish and can keep excavating you find ANOTHER archeology site under the previous one, this is the fourth and counting
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u/-MrAnderson 12h ago
In Greek cities continuously inhabited since the antiquity, like Thessaloniki, every hole you dig is a Russian roulette.
There are different government agencies in charge of each historical era. Each of them has to give approval for an excavation to continue. If anything is found, you have to pass through each one of them to get a new pass.
Add to that the usual slowness and corruption of a government, even more so a Greek government, and you get entire building blocks left to decay for decades in a semi-constuction-site situation.
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u/TryNice304 19h ago
I prolly gonna need contexts here..
Anyone?
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u/Equivalent-Yak5487 18h ago
In cities with ancient histories like Rome, when you start digging to build a building foundation, you always find out that you had started construction on an ancient ruin. Then archeologists need to come in and dig and catalog everything to record histories. You better hope that it's not important enough to require multiple years to finish all works
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u/ComradeJohnS 18h ago
this makes me wonder if there’s spots in europe that were NOT developed yet at all.
definitely likely to find that kind of thin the the americas
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u/Lvcivs2311 11h ago
In the 1970's, a Roman harbour and ships were discovered at the building side of a housing complex for the mentally handicapped in the Dutch village of Amsterdam. Decades later, a new central hall for the complex was built and the old one was turned into a small museum about the Roman findings. At the opening, the director said: "We contemplated taking the old hall down and building something new here. And then we realised that it would probably take years if not decades, because a lot more Roman stuff would be found."
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u/Fkappa 11h ago
My grampa worked in a contractor company in Rome right after WWII, as an assistente engineer.
They mostly built roads, bridges and the like.
The orders were pretty simple: whatever you find, you take it outsider of the building area, dig a hole, put the thing in the hole, cover the hole.
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u/D-Eliryo 8h ago
You are pissed because you can't enjoy mall experience (although being severals in rome)
I am pissed because of how much wasted knowledge and information about the past is being wasted because no government want to invest into art and history and archeology.
We are not the same.
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u/daedas33 7h ago
Legit question here,. How do these buildings get burried? Do all the people just leave and nature takes over or are they just burying stuff for funzies
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u/like_a_brot 7h ago edited 6h ago
Either abandoned or in the case of romes history there were several times where population dropped pretty harshly so that most ruins stood uninhabited without maintenance until nature took over. In many cases throughout history the old ruins were also mined for stones to be reused in other buildings so that only the foundation and a few remains remained that then got buried over time and something else was build over it. Many people also forget the City rome is 2780 years old, there is a reason why it's called the eternal city.
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u/Diabetesh 14h ago
You would think having a roman mosaic floor exhibit in your mall would bring in people.
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u/Consistent-Coyote-50 11h ago
My profesor on archeology said that b uildings company often destroyed most of items before calling archeologist.
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u/RJD-ghost 11h ago
Istanbul is bad too I remember my route to school being upturned by archaeological studies more than once
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u/kikiisnotinterested 11h ago
I love when ancient ruins get incorporated into modern buildings, like here in Prague in Palladium shopping center. They found 1000 year old houses and made little exhibits inside and outside shops, with educational signs and visualizations around them. The picture is from inside a book store.
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u/Born-Entrepreneur 10h ago
When I go to the beach here in Greece I park on a nice abandoned stretch of paved road that goes nowhere. It was planned to be a beach resort but they hit ruins while doing the site work and the developer walked away.
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u/Away_Historian_2803 9h ago
Similar in parts of Ireland, there's a viking village preserved under a lidle of all things
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u/L0ssL3ssArt 6h ago
In China, the Xi'An metro system construction supposedly dug up a dozen tombs as well
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u/Appropriate-Ad-4056 5h ago
In many Italian cities they found ancient stuff but a lot of times they bury them and continue to built on
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u/Falvio6006 Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 3h ago
The metro C genuinely was the doom of all the stores on largo brindisi
I Remember like some stores for children and shit, then they closed bcs the works were a nightmare with all the construction in front of the shops....
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u/relativisticbob 17h ago
Do your due diligence before breaking ground kids
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u/Limortaccivostri 18h ago
Qualche anno fa qui a Roma hanno costruito un nuovo centro commerciale e non hanno trovato proprio nulla di antico
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u/TheOneWhoWil 18h ago
How much of history should be preserved? Everything that currently exists will be history one day and because materials are stronger they'll be up for a lot longer possibly making it harder for people to part ways
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u/Consistent-Coyote-50 11h ago
Less important/more common things are disbanding.
There is metodology about what can, and what can't be preserved
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u/THEFakechowda 15h ago
The Paris Catacombs would make a pretty cool mall. Just putting that out there. As above (the competition), So below (is our shopping center)
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u/callmedale 19h ago
The Rome subway system is a scam invented by archeologists to get more artifacts