Dating to around 250 B.C., and possibly earlier in some sections, the structure is believed to be one of the earliest known examples of large-scale Roman architecture outside of temples and defensive walls.

Mogetta, who chairs Mizzou’s Department of Classics, Archaeology and Religion, explained that monumental construction served purposes beyond practical use. He noted that it also functioned as a strong form of political messaging.

“This discovery gives us a rare look at how the early Romans experimented with city planning,” he said. “Its location — at the center of the city near the main crossroads — suggests it may have been a monumental pool that was part of the city’s forum, or the heart of public life in Roman towns. Since archaeologists still don’t fully know what the early Roman Forum truly looked like, Gabii provides an invaluable window into its development.”

Connections to Earlier Excavations and Greek Influence

This new basin builds on the team’s previous findings at Gabii. One earlier feature, known as the “Area F Building,” is a terraced complex carved into the slope of the ancient volcanic crater around which the settlement formed.

Taken together, these discoveries indicate that early Roman builders drew significant inspiration from Greek architectural traditions. Greek cities featured paved civic spaces, dramatic terraces and grand gathering areas that communicated both cultural prestige and political power. Early Romans appear to have adapted many of these ideas for their own urban centers.

Why Gabii Matters for Understanding Early Rome

Gabii occupies a unique place in the study of Roman history. Mogetta explained that “while Rome’s earliest layers were buried beneath centuries of later construction, Gabii — a once-powerful neighbor and rival of Rome, first settled in the Early Iron Age — was largely abandoned by 50 B.C. and later reoccupied on a much smaller scale.” Because of this, he said, the ancient city’s original layout and building foundations remain unusually intact, offering a clear view of early Roman urban life.

Italy’s Ministry of Culture has designated the area as an archaeological park, now managed as part of the Musei e Parchi Archeologici di Praeneste e Gabii. This status has allowed teams of researchers, including the international Gabii Project, to systematically excavate and study the site. Mogetta became the director of this research group last year.

Next Steps in Excavation and Investigation

Supported by the General Directorate of Museums in Italy, the Gabii Project plans to continue excavating the basin and the surrounding stone-paved zone next summer. Researchers also intend to study a nearby “anomaly” detected through thermal imaging. Early indications suggest it could be a temple or another large civic structure.

“If it’s a temple, it could help us explain some of the artifacts we’ve already found in the abandonment levels of the basin, such as intact vessels, lamps, perfume containers and cups inscribed with unusual markings,” Mogetta said. “Some of these objects may have been deliberately placed there as religious offerings or discarded in connection with the ritual closing of the pool around 50 C.E. — thus underscoring the crucial role played by water management in ancient cities.”

The continuation of the Gabii Project aims to protect the site’s heritage while allowing scholars and visitors to better understand its history.

Unanswered Questions About Early Roman Society

One major question researchers hope to address is whether civic areas were developed before religious buildings, or the other way around. The answer could shed light on whether political activities or spiritual practices held greater influence in shaping the earliest Roman monumental landscapes.

By gathering evidence from the basin and surrounding structures, Mogetta and his team aim to reconstruct the full story of Gabii, from its growth and height of power to its later decline. Their work also contributes to a broader understanding of early Roman architecture and how it helped shape the urban world that followed.

White dwarfs frequently exist in binary systems, where two stars orbit each other. Most of these pairs are extremely old on galactic timescales and have cooled to temperatures near 4,000 degrees Kelvin. Recent observations, however, have uncovered a group of short period binaries in which the stars complete an orbit in less than an hour. These fast moving pairs do not match established predictions, since many appear to be roughly twice the expected size and have temperatures between 10,000 and 30,000 degrees Kelvin.

Investigating the Role of Tidal Heating

This unexpected behavior led a research team headed by Lucy Olivia McNeill of Kyoto University to examine the influence of tidal forces in these systems. Tides frequently distort objects that share close orbits, affecting how those orbits evolve over time.

“Tidal heating has had some success in explaining temperatures of Hot Jupiters and their orbital properties with their host stars. So we wondered: to what extent can tidal heating explain the temperatures of white dwarfs in short period binaries?” asks McNeill.

To explore this question, the researchers developed a theoretical model designed to estimate how much white dwarfs heat up in short period binaries. The model was built to be widely applicable, making it possible to estimate both the temperature history and the future orbital changes of white dwarfs in these systems.

Tidal Forces Reshape White Dwarf Evolution

The team’s analysis showed that tidal interactions can play a major role in how these stars evolve. In particular, the gravitational pull from a smaller white dwarf can raise internal heat within a larger but less massive companion. This added heat causes the star to expand and pushes its surface temperature to at least 10,000 degrees Kelvin.

Because of this expansion, the researchers propose that white dwarfs are likely to be twice the size predicted by standard theory at the point where they begin exchanging material, a stage known as mass transfer. As a result, these short period pairs may start interacting at orbital periods that are three times longer than scientists previously believed.

“We expected tidal heating would increase the temperatures of these white dwarfs, but we were surprised to see how much the orbital period reduces for the oldest white dwarfs when their Roche lobes come into contact,” says McNeill.

Implications for Stellar Explosions and Future Research

White dwarfs in extremely tight orbits will eventually interact and emit gravitational radiation. Systems of this kind are considered possible origins of type Ia supernovae and cataclysmic variables, two dramatic and scientifically important cosmic events.

Looking ahead, the team aims to apply their model to binary systems made of carbon-oxygen white dwarfs. Their goal is to better understand the potential pathways leading to type Ia explosions, especially whether realistic temperature predictions support the double degenerate (merger) scenario.

The research team, led by Dr. Huang Huang of the Laoshan Laboratory in Qingdao and including geochemist Dr. Marcus Gutjahr from GEOMAR, set out to reconstruct how far Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) extended through the Southern Ocean over the past 32,000 years.

“We wanted to understand how the influence of Antarctic Bottom Water, the coldest and densest water mass in the global ocean, changed during the last deglaciation, and what role it played in the global carbon cycle,” says Huang, who completed his PhD at GEOMAR in 2019 and now works as a scientist in Qingdao, China.

Sediment cores and chemical fingerprints in the deep sea

To tackle this question, the scientists examined nine sediment cores collected from the Atlantic and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean. The cores came from water depths between about 2,200 and 5,000 meters and from locations spread widely across the region. By analyzing the isotopic composition of the trace metal neodymium preserved in the sediments, which reflects the chemistry of the surrounding seawater, they could reconstruct how Antarctic Bottom Water changed through time on the scale of tens of thousands of years.

“Dissolved neodymium and its isotopic fingerprint in seawater are excellent indicators of the origin of deep-water masses,” explains Dr. Marcus Gutjahr. “In earlier studies, we noticed that the neodymium signature in the deep South Atlantic only reached its modern composition around 12,000 years ago. However, sediments from the last Ice Age showed values that are not found anywhere in the Southern Ocean today. Initially, we thought the method was flawed or that there was something wrong with the sediment core. But the real question was: What could generate such a signal? Such an exotic isotopic signature can only develop when deep water remains almost motionless for extended periods. In such circumstances, benthic fluxes — chemical inputs from the seafloor — dominate the isotopic imprint in marine sediments.”

Stagnant deep waters, carbon storage and the last Ice Age

During the last Ice Age, the cold and very dense deep water that currently forms around Antarctica did not spread as widely as it does today. Instead, much of the deep Southern Ocean was filled with carbon-rich waters that originated in the Pacific, a glacial precursor to today’s Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). In the study, CDW is described as carbon-rich because it circulates in the deep ocean for long periods with limited contact with the surface. This isolation allowed large amounts of dissolved carbon to remain locked in the deep ocean, helping to keep atmospheric CO2 levels relatively low.

As Earth warmed and ice sheets retreated between roughly 18,000 and 10,000 years ago, the volume of Antarctic Bottom Water increased in two clear phases. These expansion phases occurred at the same time as known warming events in Antarctica. With more vertical mixing in the Southern Ocean, deep waters that had stored carbon for long periods were brought closer to the surface, allowing that carbon to escape into the atmosphere.

“The expansion of the AABW is linked to several processes,” explains Gutjahr. “Warming around Antarctica reduced sea-ice cover, resulting in more meltwater entering the Southern Ocean. The Antarctic Bottom Water formed during this transitional climate period had a lower density due to reduced salinity. This late-glacial AABW was able to spread further through the Southern Ocean, destabilizing the existing water-mass structure and enhancing exchanges between deep and surface waters.”

Previously, many scientists assumed that changes in the North Atlantic, particularly the formation of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), were the main drivers of shifts in deep-water circulation in the South Atlantic. The new results suggest that this northern influence was more restricted than earlier thought. Instead, the replacement of a glacial, carbon-rich deep-water mass by newly formed Antarctic Bottom Water appears to have been crucial for the rise in atmospheric CO2 toward the end of the last Ice Age.

Southern Ocean heat, Antarctic ice loss and today’s climate

“Comparisons with the past are always imperfect,” says Gutjahr, “but ultimately it comes down to how much energy is in the system. If we understand how the ocean responded to warming in the past, we can better grasp what is happening today as Antarctic ice shelves continue to melt.”

Because of its vast size and unique circulation, the Southern Ocean plays a major role in controlling the global climate. Over the past 50 years, waters deeper than about 1,000 meters around Antarctica have warmed significantly faster than much of the rest of the world’s oceans. To work out how this rapid deep-ocean warming affects the ability of the ocean to absorb and release carbon dioxide, scientists must track physical and biogeochemical changes over long timescales and incorporate them into climate models.

“I want to properly understand the modern ocean in order to interpret signals from the past,” Gutjahr says. “If we can trace how Antarctic Bottom Water has changed over the last few thousand years, we can assess more accurately how rapidly the Antarctic Ice Sheet may continue to lose mass in the future.”

Paleoclimate data obtained from sediment cores are indispensable for this, offering insights into past climates that were warmer than today and helping to improve projections of future climate change.