The Roman Empire once stretched across swathes of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa to encircle the Mediterranean Sea. While the empire is long gone, remnants of its inhabitants’ lives remain scattered throughout the region, waiting to be rediscovered.

From the Netherlands to Morocco, archaeological findings in 2022 revealed the luxurious lifestyle of ancient Romans. Archaeologists in Novae, Bulgaria, were excavating a Roman military camp when they found an “ancient fridge,” a food storage unit made of ceramic plates. The fridge still had animal bones, dish fragments and traces of cooked meat inside.