According to the Guardian, a new exhibition is set to examine Scotland during the Roman period, drawing on finds ranging from bathhouses and altars to Sol to leather shoes that have survived to the present day.
The Guardian reported that Inveresk, close to Edinburgh and overlooking the River Esk near the Firth of Forth, appears to be a later settlement of elegant 18th-century houses and a church built in 1805, with little visible sign of its Roman past.
That changed during rebuilding work on the village cricket pavilion in 2010, when two sandstone altars were uncovered.
The stones were found lying on their sides and appeared to have been intentionally buried during Roman times.
They were dedicated to Mithras and to Sol, the sun god.
The altars date to the 140s CE and formed part of a mithraeum, a temple for the worship of Mithras.
The Guardian described the cult as centred on secret rituals and elaborate initiation ceremonies and as popular with Roman soldiers.
Made from stone quarried locally, the altars were large and finely carved, but also extremely fragile.
Source: The Guardian.