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Archaeologists excavating north of Jerusalem have found a piece of a sarcofagus - a stone coffin - belonging to a son of a High Priest. The visible inscription reads, "the son of the High Priest" - but the words before it are broken off. It thus cannot be ascertained which High Priest is referred to, nor the name or age of the deceased. Many other findings in the excavation are from the late Second Temple period, and archaeologists assume that the High Priest in question lived between 30 and 70 C.E. Yoli Shwartz, Spokesperson for the Israel Antiquities Authority, notes...

Land soon to become a new housing estate has yielded an unexpected treasure – a 2,000- year-old skeleton, believed to be that of a prince, a warrior or a priest. Planning permission has been granted for more than 600 houses in open fields at North Bersted near Bognor. But before the work could go ahead, an archaeological survey had to be carried out on the site to check if there was anything of historical interest under the topsoil. What the team from the Thames Valley Archaeological Services found was beyond their wildest dreams. After digging tirelessly for several months they...

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...

A party is being held at the grave of a 7/7 bomber in what is being described as an insult to the 52 London commuters murdered three years ago today. The family of Shehzad Tanweer and 400 guests will "celebrate his life" and "remember him as a martyr" at a village in Pakistan today. Tanweer, 22, Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Hasib Hussain, 18, and 19-year-old Jermaine Lindsay also died when they detonated rucksack bombs on three crowded Tube trains and a No30 bus. Tanweer's uncle, 42-year-old property developer Tahir Pervez, is organising the celebration in which verses of the Koran...

Gold cup find led to graves discovery by Nick Evans AN important archaeological find by Broadstairs man Cliff Bradshaw prompted further excavations which uncovered centuries- old Anglo-Saxon graves. These later finds, thought to be the graves of women from the fifth and sixth centuries, were the subject of an inquest held last week by coroner Rebecca Cobb to decide if the finds should be declared treasure. She heard the excavations followed the discovery in 2001 by Cliff Bradshaw of what has since become known as the Ringlemere Cup, which was later declared a national treasure and is on show in...

Ancient grave markers found at the cathedral Archaeologist Dr Jackie Hall with a rare find of Anglo-Saxon grave markers discovered during repairs to a wall in the cathedral precincts.(8PF0228118) Picture: PAUL FRANKS EIGHT Anglo-Saxon grave markers belonging to ordinary folk have been uncovered in Peterborough Cathedral's grounds during restoration work. Workers at the site, who are repairing ancient stone walls in the precincts, alerted the cathedral's archaeologist to the find, which was discovered in the same wall as a medieval fireplace. Archaeologist Dr Jackie Hall analysed the pieces, and discovered they were 11th century grave markings which are believed to...

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,...

"The family of a fallen Marine is dealing with another shock -- their son's new grave was vandalized. Lance Cpl. Jeremy Burris, 22, of Liberty, died in Iraq and was buried at Cook Memorial Cemetery earlier this week. The cemetery has a locked gate at the front and a fence around the perimeter, but vandals managed to get in sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, less than two days after the Liberty marine was buried, officials said. " "Tom Smathers, a Liberty resident said, "It's terrible. You can't believe someone would do something like that.""

Viking graves to be re-openedA worker welded together the aluminium casket in which the Vikings' remains were re-buried in 1948. The Viking graves that contained the famous ships Oseberg and Gokstad will be re-opened in September, in an effort to gain new knowledge from the remains of the two women and one man buried in them.Grave robbers plundered the Viking mounds centuries ago. This photo was taken in 1904. These leather shoes were found in the Oseberg ship and probably belonged to the older of the two women buried with the ship. The burial mound containing the famed Oseberg ship...

The 'grave slab code' baffles expertsApr 12 2007 By Tony Henderson Environment Editor, The Journal What could be a 900-year-old code is baffling archaeologist Peter Ryder. Over the last 30 years Northumberland-based Peter has recorded 700 ancient grave slab covers in the county, plus another 500 each in County Durham and Cumbria. But the carvings found on one 12th-Century slab, which had been recycled and used 300 years later in a church tower, have set Peter a puzzle. Three 12th-Century grave slabs were incorporated into the tower of St Michael and All Angels Church in Newburn, Newcastle. They have been...

Researchers Find Ancient Couple in Single Grave The remains of two people were discovered in a grave from the Neolithic age in the Yeosoo area of South Cheolla Province. It is the first time that bones from two people have been unearthed from the same Neolithic grave. Gwangju National Museum chief Cho Hyun-jong who led the excavation of the shell mound grave said that the taller of the two skeletons, at 158 cm, had a shell bracelet on the right arm and belonged to a woman. The gender of the other person who was 165 cm has not yet been...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of Iraqis flocked to Saddam Hussein's hometown of Ouja on Sunday, where the deposed leader was buried in a religious compound 24 hours after his execution. Dozens of relatives and other mourners, some of them crying and moaning, attended the interment shortly before dawn near Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. A few knelt before his flag-draped grave. A large framed photograph of Saddam was propped up on a chair nearby. "I condemn the way he was executed and I consider it a crime," said 45-year-old Salam Hassan al-Nasseri, one of Saddam's clansmen who attended...

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1986597.html Gravedigger buried himself A Dutch gravedigger had a lucky escape after he accidentally buried himself. The 62-year-old man, from Nieuwleusen, was digging a grave in Zwolle cemetery when it happened, reports Gva.be. A trailer containing the earth he had removed tipped over and fell into the grave, knocking over the man and covering him completely. Luckily, a workmate was able to move the trailer and uncover the gravedigger's face to let him breathe. He called the fire brigade who managed to free the man after an hour. He was unhurt apart from a bump on the head.

The men face charges of attempted misdemeanor theft and attempted third degree sexual assault. Investigators say the three men went to this cemetery in Cassville Saturday night to dig up the grave of Laura Tennessen. The nursing assistant died in a motorcycle accident in Cassville, not far from where's she's buried. A criminal complaint against the men says an officer responded to the intersection of Wall and East Bluff Streets to investigate a suspicious vehicle. The officer then questioned Alex Grunke, who was walking toward the vehicle, dressed in black and sweating, according to the complaint. Police say they learned...

Forensic experts have excavated over 1,000 bodies from a mass grave in the village of Kamenica in eastern Bosnia.

'Darwin's tortoise' takes her secrets to the grave at the age of 176 By Mark Chipperfield in Sydney (Filed: 24/06/2006) Harriet, a 23st Galapagos tortoise, has died in a Queensland wildlife park at the age of 176, carrying to her grave the mystery of her origins. John Hangar, a senior veterinarian at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast, said the reptile suffered a heart attack on Thursday. "Harriet sadly died last night after, thankfully, a very short illness," he said. "She had a heart attack and passed away quietly overnight." Harriet made it into the Guinness Book of World...

Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says M. ALEXANDER OTTO; The News Tribune Published: April 15th, 2006 01:00 AM Federal health officials at a meeting Friday in Tacoma downplayed the risk bird flu poses to humans, contrasting earlier warnings from the federal government. “There is no evidence it will be the next pandemic,” Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said of avian flu. There is “no evidence it is evolving in a direction that is becoming more transmissible to people.” Gerberding spoke at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center...

Mother Sheehan has been too busy these last two years to put a headstone on Casey's grave! As LT. Smash pointed out, Cindy was given a $250,000 payout when Casey died. But it's not about cost, anyway... What makes this even more outrageous is that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides tombstones or markers for free to eligible veterans: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) furnishes upon request, at no charge to the applicant, a government headstone or marker for the grave of any deceased eligible veteran in any cemetery around the world. For all deaths occurring before September 11,...

What secrets did Japan's ancient emperors take to the grave? And will we ever know? 01/05/2006 By HIROSHI MATSUBARA, Staff Writer This is the fourth in a series on issues and topics facing Japan's imperial family. A new challenge is being mounted that may eventually put the Imperial Household Agency in something of a tight corner. Academics have long called on the agency to open imperial tombs to full inspection to resolve riddles of Japan's ancient past and put to rest lingering doubts about the authenticity of some of the final resting places of emperors. All this time, the agency,...

Department of Veterans Affairs News Release The burial locations of more than 5 million veterans for whom the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has provided grave markers are now available on the Internet, as well as the information inscribed on the markers. Online since April 2004, the nationwide gravesite locator ( http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov ) helps veterans' families, former comrades-in-arms and others find the graves of veterans. VA recently added 1.9 million records for veterans buried primarily in private cemeteries to its database. The gravesite locator previously carried records on 3 million veterans buried in VA national cemeteries since the Civil War,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Municipal workers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala found remains believed to be from a mass grave dating to 1991, when Saddam Hussein's regime put down a Shiite uprising in the south. Also, more than 10,000 people marched through Baghdad in support of a national unity government of Sunnis and Shiites, while insurgent attacks killed six Iraqi policemen and two civilians in a fresh surge of violence. The remains were discovered Monday and were sent for testing Tuesday in an effort to identify the bodies, said Rahman Mashawy, a Karbala police spokesman. He did not say...

Mass grave yields Mayan secrets By Neil Arun BBC News A grisly discovery deep in the Guatemalan jungle may cast new light on one of the ancient world's most beguiling mysteries - the collapse of the Mayan civilisation. Images from the Mayan massacre site. A grave containing some 50 bodies, buried in royal finery and bearing the marks of a vicious death, has been perplexing experts since it was unearthed earlier this year. These are not the victims of "random violence", says Arthur A Demarest, the US archaeologist who has spent the best part of a decade fending off drug...

WASHINGTON - Dozens of political donors are reaching beyond the grave to support candidates and parties, setting up their estates to continue giving campaign money long after their deaths, a study released Friday found. Presidential and congressional candidates and political parties have collected just over $1.3 million from at least 100 deceased donors since 1991, according to the Halloween-themed "From Coffins to Coffers" report by the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. Political parties are the biggest recipients. National Democratic Party committees have received at least $644,000, while Republican Party committees have taken in roughly $588,000, the nonpartisan watchdog group's...

Eastern Zhou grave pit unearthed in Luoyang www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-26 13:51:52Two worker clear up the relics in the newly unearthed pit. [newsphoto] The horse-and-vehicle pit excavated in this cultural relics discovery [newsphoto] Archaeologists and workers excavate cultural relics from an Eastern Zhou Dynasty grave that was found in Luoyang of Central China's Henan Province on October 25, 2005. Bronzeware, jade, and horse pit unearthed from the burial site are in good shape, which is peculiar in this ancient city of Luoyang, as usually 90 percent of the graves are empty upon discovery. [newsphoto]According to the experts, it is a a scholar-bureaucrat's...

Iran: Female Gambler Skeleton Comes out of Grave Tehran, 4 October 2005 (CHN) – Archaeologists excavating the ancient cemetery of Gohar Tepe of Mazandaran, north of Iran, discovered some 600 pieces of bone used in a gambling game inside the tomb of a woman. Gohar Tepe is one of the key archaeological sites of Mazandaran province, providing experts with surprising ancient evidence in the last four seasons of work there. People resided in the region since 5000 years ago to the first millennium BC, enjoying a civilization and urban life characteristics. The game pieces found in the tomb belong to...

Reuters - Fri Sep 23,11:08 AM ET A more than 27,000 year-old grave with the bodies of two babies is pictured near Krems in Lower Austria September 23, 2005. Archaeologists of the Prehistoric Commission of the Austrian Academy of Scienses (OeAW) excavated the bodies which were covered with an omoplate of a mammoth. This is the oldest grave ever found in Austria. REUTERS/HO/OeAW Praehistorische Kommission

08/09/2005 | 13:05 Grave of Egil Skalla-Grímsson found? Icelandic State Radio reports that the possible grave site of Egil Skalla-Grímsson, one of Iceland's most famous vikings, has been found under the altar of a church from the settlement period. No bones were found at the burial site. Jessie Byock, archeology professor at the University of California in Los Angeles who is in charge of the excavation, emphasizes that the work being done in Mosfellsdal is not directed at finding the grave site of Egil Skalla-Grímsson. The excavation has taken many years and the church at Hrísbrú is the seventh dig...

Folks, Mr. Benito Rivacoba, a friend of my friend Jorge Franchi, visited Rome recently and went to St. Peter's Basilica, where he had the blessing of visiting the final resting place of the Servant of God, Pope John Paul the Great. He took the picture to the right which I now I am sharing with all of you. The tomb is a white slab of marble with gray streaks, tucked into an arched alcove, a leafy potted lily at the top and a small red candle burning at the bottom. A marble relief of the Madonna and Child hangs on...

Editorial 07/26: That elusive common ground July 26, 2005 Extreme points of view tend to get most of the ink, but those who seek the middle ground should not be discouraged. Such is the case in the dispute over the recommendation by the Center City Commission and Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey to rename Memphis parks whose names suggest continued allegiance to the Confederacy... [snip] Memphis attorney Karl Schledwitz, perhaps best known for leading the campaign to bring pandas to the Memphis Zoo, is the architect of this very different sort of move. Schledwitz said he had the necessary parties...

A massive grave site thousands of years old was discovered at the Monastery of St. Barnabas in the occupied areas of Cyprus Turkish Cypriot daily CYPRUS TIMES newspaper (24.07.05) reports that a major archaeological discovery was made recently at the Monastery of St. Barnabas, after the wheel of a tourist bus disappeared into a hole revealing an underground chamber. The so-called authorities of the Antiquities and Museums Department at occupied Famagusta, headed by Mr Hasan Tekel, were informed and a subsequent investigation, in the form of a dig has uncovered a massive grave site thousands of years old covering Classical,...

April 21, 2005 Clue to earliest American may lie in Suffolk grave By David Sanderson A SAMPLE from the bones of a Suffolk woman buried 400 years ago is to be exhumed by scientists seeking to discover more about an English explorer who is the unsung founding father of America. Archaeologists are to crosscheck DNA from remains they believe belong to the explorer Bartholomew Gosnold with samples from his sister, who was thought to have been buried in a Suffolk churchyard in the 1600s. Church officials have given their backing to the project, which is thought to be the first...

People who feel the need to talk to their near and dear even after they have passed away can now do so quite literally, thanks to a special mobile phone invented by a German who wanted to keep in touch with his late mother. The system, patented by Juergen Broether and on sale since last December, consists of a one-way phone and loudspeaker device that can be buried close to the person's coffin, and will transmit a voice message into the tomb for a period of up to one year. Broether's said that his "telephonic angel" as he has dubbed...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Mass grave of women and children uncovered in Iraq Forensic experts hope evidence will help convict Saddam Hussein By Agence France Presse (AFP) Thursday, October 14, 2004 HATRA, Iraq: Forensic experts digging for evidence against ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have carried out their first full exhumation of a mass grave filled with the skeletons of scores of women and children, many shot in the back of the head. "This is all women and children. We have taken in excess of 120 bodies out of there," said U.S. investigator Greg Kehoe as he stood over one of nine trenches piled...

Kerry's speech tells half of story By Jerry Zremski News Washington correspondent Jerry Zremski analyzes and fact-checks what was said during Thursday's prime-time television coverage of the Democratic National Convention. By CONVENTION WATCH 7/31/2004 WASHINGTON - In accepting the Democratic nomination for president, Sen. John F. Kerry was eloquent, passionate and presidential - and guilty of grave sins of omission. He didn't explain his position on Iraq. He vowed to cut the deficit without explaining how. And Kerry's 5,310-word speech included only 73 words about his 19-year Senate career. That's what pundits noted Friday when asked to square Kerry's speech...

On the hunt for grave sites By TRACY MOSS © 2004 THE NEWS-GAZETTE Published Online July 12, 2004 CLICK TO SEE PHOTO CATLIN – Stan Pentecost doesn't believe in ghosts, or UFOs, because he's the kind of guy who needs to see something to believe it. So, when he read that dowsing – using two rods to find underground water – could also be used to locate graves as well as determine the size and gender of the deceased, he had to try it. "I still can't explain it, but it works," said Pentecost, a member of the Illiana Genealogical...

MADRID - The burial chamber where Francisco Javier Torronteras, the agent of the Special Group of Operaciones (GEO), was buried, has been found desecrated this morning in Madrid's South cemetery. Mr. Torronteras was killed in the Leganés explosion, by suicidal Islamic terrorists. The marble covering was set aside, and the body was removed. The covering was then replaced, apparently to escape detection. The investigators think that a dumbbell was used and that they had to be more than the two attackers, to be able to lower to the coffin from the second floor - where the chamber was located. Later,...

Graf Spee emerges from its River Plate grave By Seamus Mirodan in Buenos Aires (Filed: 27/02/2004) More than 64 years after the Graf Spee's captain scuttled his pocket battleship off Uruguay to stop it falling into British hands, divers have raised part of the vessel. A part of the Graf Spee is raised After weeks of failed attempts a 27-ton section of the command tower, including the first embryonic radar antenna installed on a warship, was brought to the surface of the River Plate estuary using a floating crane. Germany's Graf Spee, equipped with 11-inch guns and a prototype diesel...

Anybody see that total idiot Al Franken spewing his foul-mouth garbage before the DEAN campaign fund raiser as shown on O'Reilly? I'm keeping a list of the times Howard "The Little Corporal" Dean is sticking his foot in his mouth. When the number of retractions equals the number of people who would actually vote for him...he loses!

She may have been a neatnik in life, but the government thinks Moira Thoms has grown quite sloppy since her death. Although she succumbed to cancer three years ago, the Leeds City Council in Britain mailed Thoms a letter demanding she clean up her gravesite at Lawnswood Cemetery. She has exactly 14 days to remove two vases containing single white roses, reports the BBC. According to the strongly worded letter, the vases placed next to the memorial plaque constituted an "illegal memorial." "If they are not removed within this time we shall arrange for members of staff to remove them...

'King's grave' rebuilt by Thijs Westerbeek of our Science Unit, 11 August 2003 For many centuries the King's Grave, an ancient burial hill near the southern Dutch city of Oss, has been an eery kind of place. The local population had all kinds of ghost stories about it and preferred not to go there at night. But now it looks brand new, in fact it is brand new. A low sandy hill, shaped a bit like a thick pancake, lies directly beside a highway. Roaring traffic thunders by and all thought of anything sacred or spooky quickly disapears. The ceremonial...

The graves tell the story of the fall of the house of Hussein. Just off Tikrit's main street, Saddam built a gaudy mausoleum in dictator kitsch style, to give the appearance of a bond with the father who abandoned him as a child. And at the cemetery in nearby Owja, the Hussein family's tribal homeland, the impoverished mother who raised Saddam is remembered in a building whose functional architecture would suit the laundry block at an Australian country hospital. But when the Al Bunaser tribe gathered on Saturday for the burial of Saddam's sons, killed in a gun battle with...

Two dogs digging for a buried bone in their owner's backyard in Chile found a 2,500-year-old mummy. Ivan Paredes, who lives in Arica, could not believe his eyes when his dogs dug up the ancient body. He told La Cuarta online: "The dogs were trying to find bones buried in the backyard as usual, but they started to bark very loud and I came to check what was going on and found the mummy of child." Archaeologists believe it is the remains of a boy buried by his parents who would probably have been farmers. The mummy, said to be...

Home   Mexico City dig reveals diversity of pre-Columbian people     Mexico City, Jan 29, 2003 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Recent archaeological excavations in Greater Mexico City suggest the Aztecs, far from being a homogeneous people, were an aggregate of diverse groups who conquered their enemies without wiping out their languages and traditions.    Source:  Agencia EFE Date:  01/29/2003 15:58 Price:  Free Document Size:  Very Short (less than 1 page) Document ID:  FE20030129590000063 Subject(s):  Efe; Expansion; Explosion; Mexico; Population; Regulations; Utilities; Water; Yield Mexico City dig reveals diversity of pre-Columbian people Story Filed: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 3:58 PM EST Mexico...

Mystery wreck discovered in the Baltic Sea UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 10/8/2002 3:06 PM STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Royal Swedish Navy said Tuesday it has discovered an underwater mystery shipwreck with skulls littering its centuries-old wooden decks. The sailing ship, which marine archaeologists think is more than 200 years old, was found standing upright on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The reason for why it sank is so far an enigma, because its hull and masts remain perfectly intact. "We don't have any clues whatsoever right now on what made...

Mon, Sep 16 2002 12:39 AM AEST Ancient warrior grave unearthed in Lebanese port Archaeologists have unearthed several Bronze Age graves, including that of an ancient warrior interred with his axe, in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon. Excavation team director Claude Doumet Serhal said the excavations are "among the most important archaeological projects in Lebanon as they are taking place in the centre of the city of modern Sidon." He also said the warrior's grave dated back to the Middle Bronze Age, around the second millennium BC, and included an unusually well preserved bronze duck-bill axe with a...

Man's Visit to His Future Grave Kills Him Wed Sep 4, 9:16 AM ET LASCARI, Sicily (Reuters) - Giovanni Greco sent himself, literally, to an early grave. Greco, 63, was so keen that his future mausoleum would be a perfect fit that he liked to visit it ensure the builders were making it just right. But his latest visit proved to be his last. According to local media reports, Greco was making his regular trip to the construction site in the small cemetery in his hometown of Lascari at the weekend. He climbed a ladder to get a better view...

After 190 years the bones of Boney's army are unearthed in a mass grave in Lithuania Ian Traynor Tuesday September 3, 2002 The Guardian Thousands of corpses of the footsoldiers who perished in Napoleon's disastrous 1812 retreat from Moscow have been discovered in a mass grave in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, offering a rich insight into the conditions and circumstances of history's most tragic military march. Lithuanian archaeologists and French experts in forensic exhumation are poring over the remains of 2,000 young men of the imperial Grand Army who died of cold, hunger, disease and Russian retribution following the collapse...

<p>Perhaps. The Hatfields and McCoys are ready to have at each other again, but with barristers, not double barrels.</p> <p>It was a melancholy Ron McCoy who filed suit last Friday against one John Vance — a Hatfield — down in Pikeville, Ky. Mr. McCoy would like access to the small McCoy family cemetery that abuts Mr. Vance's property.</p>