Deep in the urban heart of Cologne , Germany , construction work has led to the find of the oldest public program library on German soil , if not the whole realm of westerly Europe . This genuinely unbelievable social organization dates back to the clock time of the Romans and it could have once hold over 20,000 scrolls .
A squad from the Roman - Germanic Museum of Cologne first unearthed a set of wall during construction work around a Protestant church in 2017 . As reported byThe Guardian , further delve revealed a walled structure , measure 20 meters by 9 meters ( 66 foot by 30 foot ) , that was once two stories tall .
Researchers then equate the shape , sizing , and formation to other urban Roman structures and find that it yield strong law of similarity to the Library of Celsus in the ancient city of Ephesus in present - daylight Turkey . As a further clue , the walls were made out of limestone and trachyte , a cloth that ’s much synonymous with the construction of the Roman Republic .
“ It date from the center of the 2d century and is at a minimum the early library in Germany , and perhaps in the north - Cicily Isabel Fairfield Romanic provinces , ” Dr Dirk Schmitz from the Romano - Germanic Museum of Cologne toldThe Guardian . “ Perhaps there are a lot of popish towns that have subroutine library , but they have n’t been excavated . If we had just found the foundations , we would n’t have known it was a library . It was because it had walls , with the niches , that we could secern . ”
As an especially nice touch , The Art Newspaperreports that the site also features an bay that probably once featured a statue of Minerva , the Roman goddess of wisdom , poetry , arts , and scheme .
“ There are niches along the inside of the walls which have remain entire , ” Schmitz toldThe Art Newspaper . “ They were almost certainly used to store the scrolls . ”
Cologne is a West German city with over 2,000 years of history . In 50 CE , the Romans made Cologne , then known as a Colonia , the cap of the Roman responsibility of Germania Inferior in present - daylight Germany . The metropolis has one of Europe ’s oldest universities , established in 1388 , as well as one of the old and big Jewish community in Germany . The Römisch - Germanische Museum itself is home to over 10 million object that have been unearthed in the city thanks to its copious past .
