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A recent mission to Iraq headed by top archaeologists ... found that, contrary to received wisdom, southern Iraq's most important historic sites ... had neither been seriously damaged nor looted after the American invasion. This, according to a report by staff writer Martin Bailey in the July issue of the Art Newspaper. The article has caused confusion, not to say consternation, among archaeologists and has been largely ignored by the mainstream press. Not surprising perhaps, since reports by experts blaming the U.S. for the postinvasion destruction of Iraq's heritage have been regular fixtures of the news. Up to now ......

Pardubice, East Bohemia, July 11 (CTK) - Archaeologists have uncovered a 4000-year-old grave in Mikulovice, east Bohemia, with remains of what might have been considered a vampire at the time, Nova TV has reported. The experts made the terrifying find within their research of a burial site from the Early Bronze Age. One of the graves was situated somewhat aside. The skeleton in it bears traces of unusual treatment. When buried, the dead man was weighed down with two big stones, one on his chest and the other on his head. "Remains treated in this way are now considered as...

PERSEPOLIS, once the capital of the Persian empire, and the massive mud-brick Bam citadel are among the nine listed World Heritage Sites in Iran. Yet leading archaeologists are urging colleagues to refuse any military requests to draw up a list of Iranian sites that should be exempted from air strikes. "Such advice would provide cultural credibility and respectability to the military action," said a resolution agreed by the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, Ireland, last week. Instead, delegates were advised to emphasise the harm that any military action would do to Iran's people and heritage.

An unpublicized survey last month of eight of southern Iraq's most important archaeological sites by a team of international specialists found no evidence of looting since the invasion of the country in 2003 by the U.S. coalition, despite earlier, widespread claims of extensive damage. The 25-person mission, titled the Cultural Heritage Initiative, included four international archaeologists, three Iraqi archaeologists, a helicopter crew and military personnel for protection, reported the Art Newspaper. The group began their three-day survey on June 3 from Basra, staying overnight at another airbase 180 miles southeast of Baghdad. The helicopter and armed protection was provided by...

Texas Archaeological Dig Challenges Assumptions about First Americans Ancient stone artifacts reveal the day-to-day lives of Clovis people while offering tantalizing clues of an even earlier culture By Elizabeth Lunday Excavations at the Gault site in central Texas. FLORENCE, TEX.—"Look at that—isn't it gorgeous?" Sandy Peck asks as she rinses dirt from a flaked stone about the length and width of a pinky finger. Peck runs a hose over soil on a fine-mesh screen, prodding at stubborn clods of clay with a muddy glove. "Look, there's another one." Peck, sorting soil that had been disturbed by a recent thunderstorm, is...

Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research.....

Puerto Rico archeological find mired in politics Posted on Tue, Jul. 01 By FRANCES ROBLES U.S. archaeologist Nathan Mountjoy sits next to stones etched with ancient petroglyphs and graves that reveal unusual burial methods in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The archaeological find, one of the best-preserved pre-Columbian sites found in the Caribbean, form a large plaza measuring some 130 feet by 160 feet that could have been used for ball games or ceremonial rites, officials said. SAN JUAN -- The lady carved on the ancient rock is squatting, with frog-like legs sticking out to each side. Her decapitated head is dangling...

<p>June 25, 2008 -- The phrase "blame it on the weather" takes new meaning in light of research suggesting that regional climate may very well have been responsible for the evolution of lifestyle, culture and even religion in the Middle East.</p>

Iranian, foreign experts to excavate salt men’s necropolis TEHRAN, June 30 (MNA) -- A joint team of Iranian and foreign experts will collaborate on a project planned to excavate the Chehrabad Salt Mine, where all six of the “salt men” were discovered. Archaeologists and experts on other related fields from Germany, England, and Austria will participated in the project, which is expected to begin in spring 2009 in the salt mine located in the Hamzehlu region near Zanjan, northern Iran, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday. “The Chehrabad Salt Mine is one of important Iranian ancient sites, on...

Magnetic fields used to date Indian artifacts June 22, 2008 REPUBLIC COUNTY - You might be surprised what you can learn from a campfire. A campfire that has been cold for, say, 300 years. Stacey Lengyel hopes she can tell, within 30 years or so, when it was used. Lengyel, a research associate in anthropology at the Illinois State Museum, is the country's leading authority on archeomagnetic dating, a process built around two phenomena: when heated, magnetic particles reorient themselves to magnetic north; and over time, magnetic north is, literally, all over the map. "They call it a 'drunken wander,'...

Archaeology - Hidden City Provides Fascinating Insight into the Structures of Hellenistic SettlementsSix centuries of Hellenistic culture lay hidden under the sand. The site has provided a unique insight into the structures of settlements at that time. (Excavations as at 2007, © A. Schmidt-Colinet) The discovery of an ancient city buried beneath the sands of modern-day Syria has provided evidence for a Hellenistic settlement that existed for more than six centuries extending into the time of the Roman Empire. The site provides a unique insight into the structures of a pre-Roman Hellenistic settlement. The project, funded by the Austrian Science...

Ky. grand jury indicts Ohio man in rock dispute June 19, 2008 FRANKFORT, Ky.: An Ohio historian could face hard time, all because of a rock. A Kentucky grand jury indicted Steve Shaffer on Thursday for leading efforts to pull an 8-ton boulder known as Indian Head Rock from the Ohio River. The indictment accuses Shaffer of breaking Kentucky law by removing a protected archaeological object, a felony. He could face one to five years in prison if convicted. "I'm really surprised," Shaffer said. "It's not about historic preservation, we all know that. It's about revenge." The rock's removal triggered...

Two wine presses found in Egypt were likely part of the area's earliest winery, producing holy wine for export to Christians abroad, archaeologists say. Egyptian archaeologists discovered the two presses with large crosses carved across them near St. Catherine's Monastery, a sixth-century A.D. complex near Mount Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula. (See a map of the area.) More presses are likely to be found in the area, which was probably an ancient wine-industry hub, according to Tarek El-Naggar, director for southern Sinai at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Weeks after discovering the first wine press, excavators unearthed a nearly identical...

AMMAN (AFP) — Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed what they claim is the world's first church, dating back almost 2,000 years, The Jordan Times reported on Tuesday. "We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD," the head of Jordan's Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan, said. He said it was uncovered under Saint Georgeous Church, which itself dates back to 230 AD, in Rihab in northern Jordan near the Syrian border. "We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians -- the 70...

SAQQARA, Egypt - Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the "missing pyramid" of a pharaoh and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls, Egypt's antiquities chief said Thursday. Zahi Hawass said the pyramid — of which only the base remains — is believed to be that of King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years more than 4,000 years ago. In 1842, German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius mentioned Menkauhor's pyramid among his finds at Saqqara, calling it the "Headless Pyramid" because its top was missing, Hawass said. But the desert sands covered Lepsius'...

Living in the 'bowels of the earth' In caves all over Greece, archaeologists reveal the secrets of the past HEINRICH HALL * The mythical birthplace of Zeus: the Idaean Cave, central Crete AT SOME point between AD575 and 600, at least 33 men, women and children entered a cave near modern Andritsa, southwest of Argolid, in the eastern Peloponnese. They carried a Christian cross, some money and food supplies, perhaps intending to hide from some temporary threat. They were never to see the light of day again. One by one, they died from starvation, unable or unwilling to escape the...

Archaeologists at the University of Sheffield have revealed new radiocarbon dates of human cremation burials at Stonehenge, which indicate that the monument was used as a cemetery from its inception just after 3000 B.C. until well after the large stones went up around 2500 B.C. The Sheffield archaeologists, Professor Mike Parker-Pearson and Professor Andrew Chamberlain, believe that the cremation burials could represent the natural deaths of a single elite family and its descendants, perhaps a ruling dynasty. One clue to this is the small number of burials in Stonehenge´s earliest phase, a number that grows larger in subsequent centuries, as...

Jon Erlandson shakes out what appears to be a miniature evergreen from a clear ziplock bag and holds it out for me to examine. As one of the world’s leading authorities on ancient seafaring, he has devoted much of his career to hunting down hard evidence of ancient human migrations, searching for something most archaeologists long thought a figment: Ice Age mariners. On this drizzly late-fall afternoon in a lab at the University of Oregon in Eugene, the 53-year-old Erlandson looks as pleased as the father of a newborn—and perhaps just as anxious —as he shows me one of his...

VATICAN CITY, May 27, 2008(AP) The Vatican unveiled the largest and most luxurious of the pagan tombs in the necropolis under St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday after nearly a year of restoration work. A family of former slaves built the Valeri Mausoleum during the second half of the second century, when Emperor Marcus Aurelius ruled. It is one of 22 pagan tombs in the grottoes under the basilica. The newly restored tomb was shown to media Tuesday. Visitors can have a guided tour of the grottoes by appointment. Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, had the pagan burial grounds covered up...

Posted as a discussion thread for the topic of caucus thread at: This FR location Many readers have read about the finding of ancient votive altars in Yemen that appear to bear the Book of Mormon place-name Nahom. This significant find has been noted in the Ensign magazine,[1] in the April 2001 general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,[2] and in a recently published volume by Terryl Givens in which he refers to these altars as "the first actual archaeological evidence for the historicity of the Book of Mormon" and "the most impressive find to date...

Hamburg - Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday. Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months. The Ethiopian queen was the bride of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century before the Christian era. The royal match is among the memorable events in the Bible. Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone...

Tse-whit-zen artifacts languish in storage By Jonathan MartinSeattle Times staff reporter An arrowhead created by a Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member. One of the Pacific Northwest's most astonishing archaeological finds in a generation has languished for more than a year, lingering on metal shelves in a Seattle warehouse, unseen by the public and unexamined by scientists. No one questions the discoveries — artifacts from a 2,700-year-old Native American village excavated from the Port Angeles waterfront amid great public interest — should be exhibited, analyzed and celebrated. But the 900 boxes of artifacts — such things as spindle whorls carved from...

Japanese Royal Tomb Opened to Scholars for First TimeTony McNicol in Tokyo for National Geographic NewsApril 28, 2008 A rare visit by archaeologists to a fifth-century imperial tomb offers hope that other closely guarded graves in Japan might soon be open to independent study. This month a group of 16 experts led by the Japanese Archaeological Association released results from their February visit inside Gosashi tomb. The event marked the first time that scholars had been allowed inside a royal tomb outside of an official excavation led by Japan's Imperial Household Agency. Archaeologists have been requesting access to Gosashi tomb...

Turkish site a Neolithic 'supernova' By Nicholas Birch April 21, 2008 Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was among the first to realize the significance of the Gobekli Tepe site, which is 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. URFA, Turkey - As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, as a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on...

Archaeology: Bones, isles and videotapeOld human remains found on the Pacific islands of Palau are caught in the crossfire between entertainment and science. Rex Dalton reports. The Palauan caves lie in the 'rock islands' of the archipelago.R. DALTONCircled by a protective coral reef, the 300-island archipelago of Palau is one of the Pacific Ocean's most biodiverse ecosystems. The first intrepid voyagers who arrived here, more than 3,000 years ago, would have found lush plants and waters teeming with fish and crustaceans. By 2,500 years ago the Palauans were even practising sophisticated agriculture, creating terraces on the archipelago's largest island on...

Is Stonehenge Roman? Geoffrey Wainwright, the co-Director of the excavations. Geoffrey's friends will be glad to note that he has now recovered from his hip replacement, though he can still not get down the deep holes After a gap of some forty four years, Stonehenge is once again being excavated. Admittedly, this time it is only a very small hole, and is only being dug for a fortnight, but it is a very important hole, and on April the 9th, we were invited down to Stonehenge to inspect it. It was a wonderful trip, not least because the weather was...

Franco 'collaborated with Nazis' to prove Canary Islands were home to Aryan race By Fiona Govan in Madrid Last Updated: 7:12pm BST 11/04/2008 Spanish archaeologists collaborated with the Nazis in their attempts to prove the theory of Aryan supremacy and justify their claims of racial superiority over the Jews, according to a new book. Spain wanted to promote the idea that the Aryan race could be traced to the Canary Islands, amid claims they were all that remained of the lost continent of Atlantis. Archaeologists appointed by Franco were asked to look into claims the Canary Islands were the remains...

Bejeweled Anglo-Saxon Burial Suggests Cult Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News April 11, 2008 -- In seventh century England, a woman's jewelry-draped body was laid out on a specially constructed bed and buried in a grave that formed the center of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, according to British archaeologists who recently excavated the site in Yorkshire. Her jewelry, which included a large shield-shaped pendant, the layout and location of the cemetery as well as excavated weaponry, such as knives and a fine langseax (a single-edged Anglo-Saxon sword), lead the scientists to believe she might have been a member of royalty who led a...

Almost a year ago, a buried church was unearthed in Ethiopia.The church has invaluable historical and cultural value. Striking is that the unearthing is initiated by a man with a dream, as Africanews reporter Tedla Desta found out. However, he had to persue his mission and walk from the upper to the lower official’s chest of drawers but to no avail until finally he went to journalists (the 4th estate). It was then that he realized that media has actually the power to bring about change. From this time onwards the ears and eyes of the executives, congregates and the...

The Tassili n’Ajjer of Southern Algiers is described as the “largest storehouse of rock paintings in the world”. But could it also be the origins of the ancient Egypt culture ? In January 2003, I made enquiries to visit the Hoggar Mountains and the Tassili n’Ajjer, one of the most enchanting mountain ranges on this planet. The two geographically close but nevertheless quite separate landscapes are located in the Sahara desert in southeast Algeria. I was told that if I could pack my bags immediately (literally), I could join the three weeks’ trip. Unfortunately, I could not, but planned to...

Easter Island statue 'vandalized' SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island. Chilean Investigative Police released this photo showing the damage to the right earlobe. Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in prison and a fine of $19,100 if convicted of stealing pieces of the right earlobe from a Moai, one of numerous statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors. A native Rapanui woman told authorities she witnessed the theft Sunday at...

Neanderthals wore make-up and liked to chat 09:24 27 March 2008 NewScientist.com news service Dan Jones Could Neanderthals speak? The answer may depend on whether they used make-up. Francesco d'Errico, an archaeologist from the University of Bordeaux, France, has found crafted lumps of pigment – essentially crayons – left behind by Neanderthals across Europe. He says that Neanderthals, who most likely had pale skin, used these dark pigments to mark their own as well as animal skins. And, since body art is a form of communication, this implies that the Neanderthals could speak, d'Errico says. Working with Marie Soressi of...

Largest ancient tombs in China New Delhi, March 25: Archaeologists have unearthed 604 tombs belonging to Qin Dynasty in Qujia Village, near Xi’an in China, which are believed to be the largest discovered in the country till date. Excavations were undertaken ahead of a railway improvement project in Shaanxi Province. "I was astounded by the sheer number of tombs," said Sun Weigang, a researcher with the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeological Research. "We know Shaanxi is rich in cultural relics, with over a thousand tombs unearthed every year. But we have never found so many in such a small area," he...

From The TimesNorman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent March 24, 2008 The lowly sweet potato may unlock America’s past How the root vegetable found it's way across the Pacific One of the enduring mysteries of world history is whether the Americas had any contact with the Old World before Columbus, apart from the brief Viking settlement in Newfoundland. Many aspects of higher civilisation in the New World, from the invention of pottery to the building of pyramids, have been ascribed to European, Asian or African voyagers, but none has stood up to scrutiny. The one convincing piece of evidence for pre-Hispanic contact...

He's tall, well-preserved, and enjoys archery and gritty food. And despite his bad teeth, a slight stoop and an unfortunate growth on his face, he may be looking for a (very) mature woman. If this description sounds all too familiar, then you may have found a direct descendant of Thanet’s Bronze Age man. Experts examining a skeleton found on the Isle last week have painted a vivid picture of how the 4,000-year-old stranger might have looked – and he definitely wasn’t pretty. The beautifully preserved remains were found during a routine archaeological dig on development site near Monkton on which...

Russian archaeologists find 15th century griffin jug piece Irish Sun Wednesday 19th March, 2008 Moscow, March 19 (RIA Novosti) Archaeologists near the city of Veliky Novgorod in northwest Russia have discovered part of a centuries-old ceramic jug decorated with a mysterious griffin symbol. 'On the fragment of ceramic, most likely part of a broken jug, we saw an image of an animal with open jaws and wings, like a griffin,' the head of the archaeology team, Oleg Oleynikov, said. The griffin, portrayed as a gigantic bird with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, first appeared...

Is jawbone the ancient souvenir ancestor of the humble snow globe? Mar 19 2008 by Sally Williams, Western Mail IT is the 14,000-year-old version of a snow dome. Travellers during the late Ice Age would pick up an etched horse jawbone as a souvenir of their time in Europe. Arriving in Wales they would then display the trinket in their cave as a memento of their time abroad. And now experts believe this 11,500BC example is the “oldest ever piece of Welsh artwork”. With an intricate zig-zag pattern the keepsake could also signal an important evolutionary step in communication, they...

Out of Africa, Not Once But Twice Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Out of Africa March 14, 2008 -- Modern humans are known to have left Africa in a wave of migration around 50,000 years ago, but another, smaller group -- possibly a different subspecies -- left the continent 50,000 years earlier, suggests a new study. While all humans today are related to the second "out of Africa" group, it's likely that some populations native to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia retain genetic vestiges of the earlier migrants, according to the paper's author, Michael Schillaci. Schillaci, an...

Beetles, Lentils and Anchovies No, not some new dieting fad - what beetles, lentils and anchovies have in common is their value as indicators of ancient climate change. In a special issue of the journal Fisheries Research (Volume 87, November 2007), an international group of ecologists and historians have drawn upon archaeological material, tax accounts, church registers and monastic account books to present a picture of marine life in the North Sea from 7000 BC to the present. They found that warm-water species, including anchovy and black sea bream, once thrived around Britain’s shores – notably during the warm Atlantic...

Medieval belt buckle discovered The medieval belt buckle Archaeologists unearthed a medieval belt buckle in Perth following work to repair a collapsed sewer. The group were allowed to examine the area in the Kirkgate as Scottish Water repaired the network. The copper alloy buckle is believed to date back to the 12th Century and was found along with animal bones, shells and pottery. A panel of experts will decide where the buckle should be housed, but it is hoped it will end up in Perth Museum. Catherine Smith from SUAT archaeological consultants told the BBC Scotland news website how they...

Roman shops unearthed under Corn Hall By Andy Woolfoot Workers unearthed the remains during renovation work THE remains of an ancient Roman shopping parade, hidden for centuries under the floorboards of Cirencester's historic Corn Hall have been unearthed this week. Workers came across the remains of what archaeologists claim is the most significant Roman discovery in the town in the last 50 years while carrying out refurbishment work. A series of walls were discovered 10 feet below the level of the floorboards in the main room of the 19th Century building along with evidence the site used to house shops...

Stone structures in Peru recently suggested to be the ruins of an ancient "lost city" were actually shaped by natural forces, not Inca stone workers, officials say. The announcement comes from archaeologists with Peru's culture ministry, clouding the prospects of one local politician to turn the site into a tourist attraction. On January 10, Peruvian state media reported that a stone fortress had been discovered on the heavily forested eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains (see map). . The story quoted the local mayor as saying the structures were discovered under heavy vegetation by villagers, who dubbed the site Manco...

A circular plaza found under an existing archaeological site in Peru could be the oldest known human-made complex in the New World, experts report. Initial analysis dates the ceremonial structure to around 3500 B.C.—500 years older than the current record holder, an ancient city named Caral, also in Peru. Although the age has yet to be confirmed, reports of the newfound plaza surfaced in Peruvian media on Sunday. Peter R. Fuchs, a German archaeologist who worked at the site, told the Peruvian newspaper El Commercial that the excavation contained "construction from 5,500 years ago." Cesar Perez, an archaeologist at Peru's...

Archaeological treasures found in Roscrea Friday February 22 2008 By Peter Gleeson A 'beautiful' Bronze Age axe and a number of ancient burial grounds have been unearthed near Roscrea during the construction of the new Dublin-Limerick motorway in the area. The bronze axe was found in Camblin, south of Roscrea. Archaeologists say the find dates to the later Bronze Age and appears to have been hidden in a shallow pit and never recovered by the person who concealed it. On a second site in Camblin a medieval iron 'bearded' axe was discovered while two Bronze Age enclosed settlements with two...

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An intrepid archaeologist is well on her way to dislodging the prevailing assumptions of scholars about the people who built and used Maya temples. From the grueling work of analyzing the “attributes,” the nitty-gritty physical details of six temples in Yalbac, a Maya center in the jungle of central Belize – and a popular target for antiquities looters – primary investigator Lisa Lucero is building her own theories about the politics of temple construction that began nearly two millennia ago. Her findings from the fill, the mortar and other remnants of jungle-wrapped structures lead her to believe...

Antarctic may hold the future of archaeology Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent It is a truism that archaeology begins yesterday, and now with only the archaeology of the future to plan for, the discipline has been expanding into areas of the globe where material culture has hitherto played little part. Antarctica is one of these new areas: more than two centuries of human occupation have left plentiful traces. At least five successive and partly overlapping phases of activity can be defined: sealing, whaling, polar exploration, scientific investigation and tourism. Sealing began in the late 18th century, when Captain James Cook’s account...

UNSEEN WORLD By RACHAEL TOLLIVER Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:58 PM CST JILL PICKETT/The News-Enterprise George Crothers, director of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and Office of State Archaeology, finishes collecting ash from torch remains for radiocarbon dating during a February trip into the cave in Hardin County. Local cave enthusiasts chart discovery of pristine formations, prehistoric Indians HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY — Mankind has always dreamed of discovering the unknown — being the first to do something or arrive somewhere — and from those quests leave a legacy that those who follow will envy. Such finds are rare....

Pre-Mauryan lion head discovered 19 Feb 2008, 0441 hrs IST,Pranava K Chaudhary,TNN PATNA: Archaeologists are baffled by the discovery of a pre-Mauryan period lion head made of stone from the dry bed of the Ganga at Collectorate Ghat here on Monday evening. This was made possible as the river has changed its course in recent years exposing its dry bed. According to an expert, the one-and-half-foot stone artefact is similar to those of Greek sculpture. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) superintending archaeologist (Patna Circle) P K Mishra admitted that the lion head, in all likelihood, could symbolize the Mauryan royal...

<p>JERUSALEM - Underneath the homes and ragged streets of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan lie the remnants of a glorious Jewish past: coins, seals, a water tunnel hewn by a Judean king 2,700 years ago, a road that led to a biblical Temple.</p>

Druid Grave Unearthed in U.K.? Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Digging for History Feb. 11, 2008 -- Historical records tell of a mystical, priestly and learned class of elite individuals called Druids among Celtic societies in Britain, but there has been no archaeological evidence of their existence. Until, perhaps, now. A series of graves found in a gravel quarry at Stanway near Colchester, Essex, have been dated to 40-60 A.D. At least one of the burials, it appears, may have been that of a Druid, according to a report published in British Archaeology. Mike Pitts, the journal's editor and an archaeologist,...