CBS News : "Traces of a royal palace discovered in the Roman Forum have been dated to roughly the period of the eternal city's legendary foundation.
Andrea Carandini, a professor of archaeology at Rome's Sapienza University who has been conducting excavations at the Forum for more than 20 years, said he made the discovery over the past month at the spot where the Temple of Romulus stands today.
It is next to the Sanctuary of Vesta - the Roman goddess of the hearth - just outside the Palatine walls, site of the earliest traces of civilization in Rome.
Where previously archaeologists had only found huts dating to the 8th century B.C., Carandini and his team unearthed traces of regal splendor: A 3,700-square-foot palace, 1,130 square feet of which were covered and the rest courtyard. There was a monumental entrance, and elaborate furnishings and ceramics.
The walls were made of wood and clay, with a floor of wood shavings and pressed turf. It was tests on the clay that allowed the archaeologists to confirm the age of the find. "
