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The report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives. It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books. The study comes amid ongoing controversy over the role of women in all Christian denominations. Last month its governing body voted to allow women to become bishops for the first time, having admitted them to the...

This looks like a good resource: When the day's news is about "witches," many Americans reflexively conjure up images of ugly, wicked hags from stories like "Snow White" and "The Wizard of Oz" – or more recently, the smiling "good witches" of Harry Potter books and films. But none of these fictional fantasies has anything to do with the real thing. The real thing – that is, the stunning phenomenon of more and more American housewives, students, professors, and even soldiers self-identifying as "witches" – is the topic of the January edition of WND's elite monthly Whistleblower magazine. Titled "WITCHCRAFT...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A Wiccan pentacle has joined a controversial nativity scene at Green Bay's City Hall. The manger scene was put up by City Council President Chad Fradette, who wanted to defy an anti-religious group that was protesting another nativity scene in a nearby town. However, the Wiccans said that was an abuse of power and requested that the Wiccan symbol go up next to the nativity. "I want to see all those other faiths that we don't get an opportunity to see in Green Bay, Wis., because we are sometimes relegated to that," said Wiccan Kelly Winters....

A nationwide manhunt is under way for a missing employee of an armored-carrier facility and his girlfriend after thieves stole more than $7 million dollars from the Ohio company earlier this week. Roger Lee Dillon, 22, of Youngstown, Ohio, is wanted for questioning by the FBI after not showing up for work at the Liberty, Ohio, after the robbery was committed. On the morning of Nov. 27, employees discovered the safes — containing $7 million in cash and checks — empty. The burglars also deactivated the alarm system and disabled a surveillance tape during the robbery. Special agent Scott Wilson,...

Bonnie Thompson's Hicksville house is bedecked with all kinds of witch decorations. There are witch-on-broomstick weather vanes staked in her flower beds and witch chimes dangling below her mailbox. Sitting atop the sill of her bay window are small iron cauldrons and witch figurines. But none of these objects is there because Halloween is coming. Thompson is a real witch, or wiccan to be more exact, who follows the concepts and rituals taught by Richard and Gypsy Ravish. The Salem, Mass., couple are head priest and priestess of the Temple of Nine Wells and initiated Thompson into wicca. As the...

No statutory rape charges filed even though man admitted sexual affair with 16-year-old girlfriend COEUR d'ALENE -- The 20-year-old man who admitted torching the Lake City Junior Academy might not spend a day in prison, but his underage girlfriend could spend 20 years there thanks to his testimony. Jason Howry pleaded guilty to first-degree arson as a part of a plea deal. He'll be sentenced on Nov. 8 in 1st District Court. Howry's 16-year-old girlfriend, Jacqueline Smith, is being charged as an adult. She's facing conspiracy to commit arson and first-degree arson charges. Her attorney, Doug Phelps, said plea bargain...

A Spryfield witch says too much toil and trouble is forcing her out of town. For weeks, Shauna Cook, 37, said she's been targeted in her Spryfield home on Lavender Walk because she is a hedge-witch natural healer. Most recently, it was two of her pagan friends being attacked. Shortly after midnight on Friday, an 18-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy were leaving Cook's house to catch the bus when four males approached them and asked where they were going. After they told them they were going back home, the boy was attacked. Two more people jumped into the fight,...

Wicca and similar groups are flourishing in America. They're also violating the biblical commandment against idolatry.My kids’ favorite baby-sitter assures me that she’s not a practicing witch, “though,” she says, “I do hang out with a lot of Wiccans.” There was the time, for instance, out on the Kitsap Peninsula, near Seattle, when she joined a group of witches for a “sky-clad” (that is, naked) romp in the woods, a May Day ritual. Having tossed off their clothes, the pagans ran around a maypole chanting in Gaelic. “The pole is a phallic symbol,” thirty-two-year-old Jenny helpfully explains. “They’re white...

NOTTINGHAM, Md. - Elwood "Bunky" Bartlett says a New Age book store made it possible for him to become an overnight multimillionaire. He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki (RAY'kee) healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night's estimated $330 million jackpot. On Sunday, he said one ticket was a winner. "If it wasn't for this place I wouldn't have won the lottery," Bartlett said Sunday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop. Four winning tickets to the...

A Waukesha woman was arrested early Tuesday morning for disturbing neighbors by yelling witch chants around a bonfire she built 10-feet from her home, police Capt. Mike Babe said. Brenna K. Barney, 42, told police that they were infringing on her religious beliefs since she is a Wiccan and she was performing a ritual because of a new moon, Babe said. She said her name is Brenna Raven Moonfire. Criminal charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct were filed against Barney in Waukesha County Circuit Court. Police may also give Barney a ticket alleging negligent handling of burning materials, Babe...

KOLKATA: India has enlisted the follower of a global pagan witchcraft movement to help curb the country'' high female infanticide rate and end the neglect of the girl child, government said on Monday. Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, a Wiccan and a social activist, has been nominated by the Centre's National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) to head a panel entrusted with the responsibility to improve the status of young girls, they said. About 10 million girls have been killed by their parents over the past 20 years, said government officials as female infanticide and foeticide. “This is a triumph for...

Selena Fox, a Wiccan priestess and founder of Circle Sanctuary, arranges flowers May 20 in Barneveld around a new grave maker with the Wiccan pentacle for Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. A rather big deal has been made about the fact that on Memorial Day, the graves of military veterans who embraced Wicca, the nature-based religion founded on respect for the Earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons, were dedicated with government-issued markers etched with a symbol of their religion: the Wiccan pentacle. Certainly the Wiccans, whose legal fight finally forced...

Scotland's University of Edinburgh, after proposing a ban on Bibles and denying a Christian campus group the right to hold a conference on the immorality of homosexuality, has extended the welcome mat to the school's Pagan Society to hold its annual meeting on campus next month. The pagan conference will feature presentations on a variety of topics, including Magic and Witchcraft in the 21st Century, Pagan Parenting, Pagan Marriage, Pagan Symbolism and Practice and Ancient Greek magic. A workshop in tribal dance will be held at the university Student's Association. "It will be an opportunity for people to listen to...

The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday. A settlement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Wiccans adds the five-pointed star to the list of "emblems of belief" allowed on VA grave markers. Eleven families nationwide are waiting for grave markers with the pentacle, said Selena Fox, a Wiccan high priestess with Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wisconsin, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The settlement calls for the pentacle, whose five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit,...

Adherents to the neo-pagan cult Wicca soon will be permitted to place their symbol the pentacle -- a five-pointed star inscribed inside a circle -- on headstones in military cemeteries, US officials said Monday. After months of legal wrangling, the US Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to allow Wiccans to place the symbol on headstones, as do adherents to the Christian, Muslim and Jewish and other faiths. The policy change will go into effect in the next few months, officials said. "VA will be adding the pentacle to its list of approved emblems of belief that will be engraved on...

The Sacred Well Congregation, which has about 950 members across the country, prides itself on being an intellectual group. Ron Schaefer, a retired lieutenant colonel who flew F-4s and F-16s during a 26-year Air Force career, says Wicca "meshes perfectly with string theory." Dea Mikeworth, wife of an Army sergeant wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, says it reflects "archetypes in the collective unconscious." But Larsen is unabashed about the faith's central appeal. "You can't intellectually talk about witchcraft. You gotta show up," he says. "What Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and a lot of us universalists think is, people...

A year ago, he was a Pentecostal Christian minister at Camp Anaconda, the largest U.S. support base in Iraq. On July 6, he applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S. armed forces

CBS4) MIAMI -- Is there such a thing as a real witch? Witchcraft is actually a religion called Wicca and just how many believers are present in South Florida may surprise many. CBS4's Laurie Stein took an in-depth look into the world of witches and found that many search area cemeteries in search of ghosts. On one particularly cloudy and dark night, Stein followed some of these witches to a cemetery one evening and what she found may be shocking yet intriguing to some. "There was one mausoleum area that was all lit up at one point, I came with...

<p>Military veterans are entitled to have their headstones engraved by the government with a symbol of their religion. Families of the deceased may choose from emblems representing a variety of 18 Christian churches, a number of Buddhist sects, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and atheism (represented by an atom with an A inside) — 38 religious symbols in all.</p>

WHO-TV September 7th, 2006--A report released by the Polk County Medical Examiner says that 18-year-old Matthew Stegman died from multiple stab wounds. He also suffered blunt force trauma to the head, arms, and chest. Now police say his murder may be tied to some sort of devil worship. Des Moines Police Sergeant Todd Dykstra said, "What investigators believe or know is that some type of ritual was performed prior to the homicide." That ritual was possibly performed by the five people police arrested and charged with first degree murder. All five were arrested at the same Des Moines apartment building...

Reno -- The widow of a soldier killed in Afghanistan won state approval Wednesday to place a Wiccan religious symbol on his memorial plaque, something the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had refused. "I'm honored and ecstatic. I've been waiting a year for this," Roberta Stewart said from her home in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno. Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan last September when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his helicopter. Four others also died. Stewart was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. He was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the...

Wednesday, August 11, 2004 NPR: Human Plant Life Is Sacred Here's a fitting juxtaposition of two stories NPR has run (so far) this week on "Morning Edition". The first, which ran on Monday, about "stem cell research", trumpeted science the technology industry's latest triumph: feeding embryonic stem cells with human placenta cells (instead of the industry standard of mouse skin cells). From such grisly irony new lines of stem cells have been produced, but, alas, these new lines will never receive federal funding (until Kerry is elected) because Bush decided on his own that killing human beings for personal...

“Your son and daughter might be the next Hansel and Gretel,” should have been the warning label on the Guide to Paganism supplied to British prison governors by the Pagan Federation. Michael Spurr, director of operations of the Prison Service, approved the new norms, which allow pagan British inmates possession of incenses and an amulet, the services of pagan “chaplains,” and the practice of rites and chants in their cells, London’s Times reported on October 17th of last year.  Pretence of Antiquity Witchcraft and paganism have been growing worldwide, especially the practice of Wicca, for which courses one can now...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Witch of Pungo is no longer a witch. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine on Monday exonerated Grace Sherwood, who 300 years ago became Virginia's only woman convicted as a witch tried by water. "I am pleased to officially restore the good name of Grace Sherwood," Kaine wrote in a letter Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf read aloud before a re-enactment of Sherwood's being dropped into the river. "With 300 years of hindsight, we all certainly can agree that trial by water is an injustice," Kaine wrote. "We also can celebrate the fact that a woman's equality...

The Catholic chaplain of St Andrew's University in Scotland has defended the institution's decision to officially recognise Wiccans. St Andrews University, whose graduates include Prince William, has decided to allocate an area for followers of the alternative religion to hold festivals and rituals after university bosses feared they could be prosecuted under human rights legislation. Now pagan or wiccans as they prefer to be called, will be allowed to use campus buildings and outdoor space for festivals, providing they do not utter incantations or spells that might harm others. Nor may not raise spirits or to call up dark forces,...

Scout's admission of being Wiccan leads to turmoil http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006605090308 http://tinyurl.com/klgp8 Article published May 9, 2006 By Melanie Crownover Special to The Town Talk ANACOCO -- The camp is going well so far. Boy Scouts have gathered from around the area in khaki button-ups and red scarves, eager to earn their God and Country badge. The leader in a room of about 20 Scouts decides to break the ice by showing how religiously diverse the gathering is. By a showing of hands, he asks who belongs to the Baptist Church, the Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, continuing on until two boys...

A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest...Haney is now a practicing minister of the Sacred Birch Society, a Wiccan group that meets regularly in the Lapeer Michigan area. Claiming that he does not proselytize, Haney hopes nonetheless to be a resource for enquirers into his new found faith. Wiccans claim that their system of beliefs is compatible with other religions, even while they deny Christian teachings as to the identity of Jesus Christ.   According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, Haney says that it was...

Witches have returned to the German forests, dancing naked in groups under the full moon and calling to their gods. The covens vary in size and in how seriously they take their calling, but the numbers are rising, particularly amongst the young. Their religious ideas are described as "pagan" rather than Satanist, and many of the older practitioners have a history in the environmental movement, where they learnt a passionate love of nature. In some cases this has led on to a belief in the natural powers of the forests. The women are convinced they can work magic. "The witches'...

Tallahassee, FL – Liberty Counsel filed a brief with the Florida Supreme Court defending a state law that exempts Bibles, religious publications and ceremonial items from sales tax. The lawsuit was filed by The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida, Inc. (“Wiccan”) against the Department of Revenue. Wiccan says it paid sales tax on the purchase of the Satanic Bible and the Witch’s Bible Compleat. Instead of seeking a refund, Wiccan filed suit, claiming Florida Statute 212.06(9) violates the Establishment Clause. Florida law exempts from sales tax “the use, sale, or distribution of religious publications, Bibles, hymn books, prayer books, vestments,...

A convicted murderer who practices the Wiccan religion won the right Thursday to receive religious books and items while behind bars. The state Department of Corrections settled a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey on behalf of Patrick Pantusco, who was convicted of murder, aggravated assault and other offenses in Bergen County in 1998, and sent to East Jersey State Prison at Avenel. He began practicing Wicca in 2002, while serving a 30- to 50-year prison term. Wiccans say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons....

PALM COAST -- It was close to midnight on Sunday and Jill Pagan -- who practices paganism and calls herself a witch -- was getting settled into bed when she heard a crash. It sounded like something might have fallen. Upon investigation, Pagan discovered that her home's white aluminum door had a large gash in it. And just to the right, a large chunk of concrete was sitting in a flowerpot with a note attached to it by rubber bands. She immediately recognized a handwritten note in an ancient language called Theban, which she said is used almost exclusively by...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, NOV. 26, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Witchcraft is moving into the mainstream in the Netherlands. A Dutch court has ruled that the costs of witchcraft lessons can be tax-deductible, the Associated Press reported Oct. 31. The previous month, the Leeuwarden District Court confirmed the legal right to write off the costs of schooling -- including in witchcraft -- against tax bills. The costs can be substantial, according to one witch interviewed for the article. Margarita Rongen runs the "Witches Homestead" in a northern province. Her workshops cost more than $200 a weekend, or more than $2,600 for a full course....

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, NOV. 26, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Witchcraft is moving into the mainstream in the Netherlands. A Dutch court has ruled that the costs of witchcraft lessons can be tax-deductible, the Associated Press reported Oct. 31. The previous month, the Leeuwarden District Court confirmed the legal right to write off the costs of schooling -- including in witchcraft -- against tax bills. The costs can be substantial, according to one witch interviewed for the article. Margarita Rongen runs the "Witches Homestead" in a northern province. Her workshops cost more than $200 a weekend, or more than $2,600 for a full course....

Wiccan beliefs and sexual preferences will take center stage in the trial of a North Carolina man accused of killing his wife, unless the defendant has his way before the start of his trial on Halloween. ADVERTISEMENT Earlier this week, Robert James Petrick asked a Durham County Superior Court judge to keep all references to his neo-pagan religion and "sexual habits" out of his first-degree murder trial for the death of his wife, Janine Sutphen, a cellist with the Durham Symphony Orchestra, in January 2003. Judge Orlando Hudson is expected to rule on the motions before jury selection begins Monday...

Wal-Mart goes Wicca By Judi McLeod The five and dime department store of the past is where your mother treated you to balloons and lollipops. Now you can buy books at the five and dime that teach you how to cast a spell on mother. Wal-Mart, the company that put Dead Peasant Life Insurance on the map, is going Wicca. Dead Peasant Life Insurance is the loathsome practice of taking life insurance on people without their knowledge and callously cashing in on the policy at the time of their death. Wal-Mart was defendant in five putative class-action lawsuits because of...

GREAT FALLS, S.C. -- The town of Great Falls plans to comply with an order to pay the lawyer of a Wiccan priestess who successfully sued the town over mentioning Jesus Christ's name in council prayers. The town will not appeal a court order to pay Darla Wynne's lawyer, Herbert Buhl, about $53,000. But town attorney Michael Hemlepp said officials aren't sure where they'll get the money. Hemlepp said the town can't simply afford to write a check. The town's annual budget is $870,000. Buhl said he's given the town an extension to pay without a specific deadline. But he...

A practicing witch who sought to have her prayers heard at government meetings in a Richmond, Va., suburb had no magic before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices rejected an appeal by Cyndi Simpson, a Wiccan priestess and member of the Broom Riders Association, who wanted to offer a generalized prayer to the "creator of the universe" in Chesterfield County, Va. "I wasn't going to talk about the goddess," Simpson said previous to today's decision. "I was going to call the elements, maybe offer up an invocation to the highest being." Simpson had argued that Christians and members of other faiths...

Wicca, the pagan temptation for youth increases followers By ALAN BRANCH Baptist Press Published September 8, 2005 I recently had the opportunity to meet with several youth ministers from Southern Baptist churches here in Missouri. Each impressed me as having a deep commitment to biblical authority and personal passion for Jesus Christ. As we discussed the challenges facing current youth ministers, a concern all shared was the fact that many youth, including youth in evangelical churches, are dabbling in Wicca. So, what is Wicca? The word “wicca” was an old English word which meant “shaman.” The word was reintroduced into...

GREAT FALLS, S.C. — Jesus no longer has a place in prayers that open Town Council meetings here. The long-standing practice in this old mill town, about 35 miles north of Columbia, was struck down last year in response to a lawsuit filed by a follower of Wicca, a pagan religion characterized by witchcraft and attention to earthly seasons. A federal judge — and then a federal appeals court — found the Town Council's prayers invoking Christ's name unconstitutional on grounds that they advanced one religion over others. "I don't like it one bit," Councilman J.C. Broom, a retired furniture...

INDIANAPOLIS - A judge who ordered two Wicca believers to shield their son from their "non-mainstream" faith overstepped his authority, an appeals court said Wednesday in dismissing the order. The Indiana Court of Appeals said state law gave a custodial parent the authority to determine a child's upbringing, including religious training. A judge could find that certain limitations were needed to protect a child from physical or emotional harm. The parents' appeal, brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, claimed among other issues that the decree was unconstitutionally vague because it did not define mainstream religion. But the appeals court...

As well as being extraordinarily popular, the [Harry Potter] books have encouraged millions of children to start reading for the first time.... For those who have a problem with the idea of fantasy and alternative universes alongside ours, we need to recognize that almost all children play imaginative games in their minds starting at a very young age and have no difficulty whatsoever in distinguishing between fantasy and reality.... Additionally, the Harry Potter books send a strong message about moral order. There are beautiful and enjoyable human relationships among the characters, and there is a depth of commitment and service...

A remake of the old TV show "Bewitched" will be in theaters Friday, a Hollywood version of that lovable sitcom from the '60s and '70s, where Elizabeth Montgomery's Samantha cast spells and twitched her nose to get her husband, Darren, out of jams. Ever wonder if witches really exist? Ever wonder if one lives next door? Pearl Essence and Syren Star are two suburban witches who have come out of the broom closet. A year ago, the pair started Gypsy Wagon, a pagan-friendly online group. "We do not worship any sort of god or goddess, we focus on the elemental...

What is Religion? Mark RobertsA recent article in the local paper details an interview with several members of a pagan religion, Wicca. After the celebration of the Spring Solstice they were asked about the nature of their beliefs and faith. “Tell me if this is true,” said the interviewer. “You pick what you like from other religions and throw the pieces together. You might be absolutely wrong, and you know that. But this religion seems true to you, so you believe it is. Is that right?” To the amazement of the article’s author, “the pagans were delighted. They cheered and...

INDIANAPOLIS — A Wiccan activist and his ex-wife are challenging a court order that they must protect their 9-year-old son from what the divorce decree terms their "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." Thomas E. Jones and Tammy Bristol of Indianapolis are fighting a Marion Superior Court stipulation that they shelter the boy from their religion. The Indiana Civil Liberties Union has taken on the case, appealing the December decree to the Indiana Court of Appeals. Jones, a Wiccan activist who has coordinated Pagan Pride Day in Indianapolis for the past six years, said he and his ex-wife were stunned when...

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth. Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion. Bradford refused to remove the provision after the 9-year-old boy's outraged parents, Thomas E. Jones Jr. and his...

An Indiana appeals court must decide if a judge’s order prohibiting a nine-year-old from practicing his pagan beliefs will stand. A Marion County judge issued what some are calling an "unusual" order a year ago in a divorce court. It prohibits the boy from being exposed to "non-mainstream" religious beliefs. The ICLU took the case of Thomas Jones Jr. after a court divorce decree forbade him from exposing his son to his pagan beliefs. Jones says it's just not right for his boy not to be able to participate in his Wiccan practices and holidays. “I don't understand why the...

Marion County Superior Court Judge, Cale J. Bradford, put a provision in a couple's divorce decree that prohibits the couple from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals." Both parents practice Wicca, a pagan belief usually associated with witchcraft. The Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, which provides recommendations to the court on child custody and visitation rights, appears to have gotten the ball rolling on the religious interference by the State of Indiana. The child attends a parochial Catholic school. (It's not clear whether that school is Bishop Chatard, but the article mentions that the father had attended that...

Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture The realm of human imagination is a God-given gift, a faculty of the mind that is intended to expand our understanding by enabling us to visualize invisible truths. In the modern era this zone of man's interior life has moved to the forefront of his experience. With the advent of film, television, and now the near-virtual reality of special-effects videos and other electronic entertainment, the screen of the imagination is stimulated to a degree (both in quantity and in kind) more than at any other period in history. This has prompted a...

Witches have returned to the German forests, dancing naked in groups under the full moon and calling to their gods. The covens vary in size and in how seriously they take their calling, but the numbers are rising, particularly amongst the young. Their religious ideas are described as "pagan" rather than Satanist, and many of the older practitioners have a history in the environmental movement, where they learnt a passionate love of nature. In some cases this has led on to a belief in the natural powers of the forests. The women are convinced they can work magic. This is...

The scent of sage fills the air as a light breeze blows through the leaves of nearby palm trees. Somewhere in the distance, a tractor is plowing a field. The chirp of an occasional bird breaks the calm hush for a moment. A bag of instruments is passed around, and a shrine with Neolithic goddess figurines, babushkas, photographs of goddess statues, and a ceramic plate painted with a spiral design is quietly constructed. Thirteen Israeli men and women are seated in a circle around the artifacts. The earth below is the archeological site of a civilization over 8,000 years old....