As each week produces thousands of artifacts of all sorts, it is always difficult to select one as find of the week. Sometimes, one is moved to tears by the beauty of an object, a statue or part of a building. At the same time, more common things can also produce an enormous excitement and scientific satisfaction. This week, this certainly was the case with the pellets regurgitated by an eagle owl that had installed itself in the ruins of the Roman Baths after the seventh-century A.D. earthquake destruction and abandonment of the massive structure before its final collapse, thus proving that the huge complex may have gone down over centuries and not as the result of a single seismic event.

The neatly arranged remains of different species of wild animals found inside the pellets puked out by the eagle owl inside the ruins of the Roman Baths.

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© 2005 Archaeological Institute of America