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LONDON – A treasure hunter has found about 52,500 Roman coins, one of the largest such discoveries ever in Britain, officials said Thursday. The hoard, which was valued at 3.3 million pounds ($5 million), includes hundreds of coins bearing the image of Marcus Aurelius Carausius, who seized power in Britain and northern France in the late third century and proclaimed himself emperor.

Dave Crisp found treasure on a soggy ridge outside the Somerset town of Frome last April, and helped rewrite history. On a bitter winter afternoon, as he walks the frosty field again, he recalls one of the most heart-stoppingly exciting moments of his life. The 63-year-old ex-army man had discovered a scattering of Roman silver coins in the field. He came back a few days later with his detector, bought secondhand on eBay, to round up any remaining broken pieces. The signals were faint and confusing.

Considering how thrilled I was just to find this story, I can only imagine the delirious, all-consuming excitement felt by Dave Crisp, a British hospital chef, when his metal detector uncovered this pot of 52,000 Roman coins.Crisp was lolling with his detector in a field in southwestern England when he made the discovery, eventually unearthing some 50,000 silver and bronze coins dating from 253 to 293 AD. Over 700 of them bear the face of Marcus Aurelius Carausius, a Roman general who ruled Britain and was the first to make coins in the region.Crisp, a self-described "metal detectorist," explained that...

One of the largest ever finds of Roman coins in Britain has been made by a man using a metal detector. The hoard of more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd Century AD was found buried in a field near Frome in Somerset. The coins were found in a huge jar just over a foot (30cm) below the surface by Dave Crisp, from Devizes in Wiltshire. "I have made many finds over the years, but this is my first major coin hoard," he said. After his metal detector gave a "funny signal", Mr Crisp says he dug down 14in...

AVONDALE, La. — The USS Somerset — the last of three Navy ships named for 9/11 attack sites — was christened Saturday in honor of the passengers and crew of the plane that crashed before terrorists could reach their intended target. Passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 stormed the cockpit and thwarted an attack on Washington, but the plane crashed in Somerset County, Pa., killing all 40 passengers and crew members. “The men and women of Flight 93 ... thought they were going to San Francisco to work, to play, to learn; to live their lives in peace while others...

Abstract Background The use of human braincases as drinking cups and containers has extensive historic and ethnographic documentation, but archaeological examples are extremely rare. In the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe, cut-marked and broken human bones are widespread in the Magdalenian (~15 to 12,000 years BP) and skull-cup preparation is an element of this tradition. Principal Findings Here we describe the post-mortem processing of human heads at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Gough's Cave (Somerset, England) and identify a range of modifications associated with the production of skull-cups. New analyses of human remains from Gough's Cave demonstrate the skilled post-mortem...

Ancient Britons were not averse to using human skulls as drinking cups, skeletal remains unearthed in southwest England suggest. The braincases from three individuals were fashioned in such a meticulous way that their use as bowls to hold liquid seems the only reasonable explanation. The 14,700-year-old objects were discovered in Gough's Cave, Somerset. Scientists from London's Natural History Museum say the skull-cups were probably used in some kind of ritual. "If you look around the world there are examples of skull-cups in more recent times - in Tibetan culture, in Fiji in Oceania, and in India," said Dr Silvia Bello,...

Would you buy your organic yoghurt from one of these hunky Somerset farmers?

A Virginia man who once spent eight years on the run from naval investigators was arrested in Somerset County early today with a trove of high-powered weapons, including a grenade-launcher and two assault rifles, along with maps of a U.S. military base and a civilian neighborhood, authorities said. The federal government’s Joint Terrorism Task Force quickly joined the investigation into Lloyd R. Woodson, 43, who had been staying at a Branchburg motel since last week. Woodson, whose last known address was in Reston, Va., was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying one of the assault rifles — customized to shoot...

<p>AVONDALE, La. (AP) - A ceremony steeped in shipbuilding tradition kicked off major construction Friday on a U.S. Navy assault vessel named in honor of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.</p> <p>It is the second of three new Navy ships named for the sites of the Sept. 11 attacks. The USS New York entered service last month and the Arlington, memorializing the strike on the Pentagon, is under construction.</p>

This news breaks too late to make much of a difference, but it simply confirms what many have long suspected: that the Democrats have so much of a vested interest in independent Christopher Daggett splitting the anti-incumbent vote that they are putting resources into promoting him. The Democratic State Committee now admits paying for a robocall to Somerset County voters that slams Republican Chris Christie and promotes independent gubernatorial candidate Christopher Daggett. A Democratic spokeswoman says the party’s chairman, Joe Cryan, was not aware of the robocalls when he denied that the state committee had anything to do with them...

On Friday, the day Congress passed the stimulus bill, more than 250 people arrived at the Holiday Inn in Somerset for a careers fair. There are scenes like this all over the country. In San Fransisco last week, queues for a similar fair went out of the door and around the block. In Miami last month, a thousand people waited in line, some overnight, for just 35 firefighter jobs. But New Jersey has not quite suffered like the rest of the country, and in Somerset the line of hopefuls is long but moves reasonably fast. For the most part, they...

SAN ANTONIO — A 27-year-old woman has been arrested on charges of distributing harmful material to a minor after a 14-year-old's parents found a topless photo of her on his cell phone. Victoria Ann Chacon, a former middle school teacher, allegedly met the boy at their church, where she was a Sunday school teacher. Authorities at Somerset Independent School District said they found no evidence of any inappropriate relationships with students; the 14-year-old attended school elsewhere.

9/11 steel poured for USS SomersetBy KIRK SWAUGER Published: August 06, 2008 11:35 pm SOMERSET — The old draglines that towered above the reclaimed strip mine where Flight 93 crashed near Shanks-ville almost seven years ago are gone. But their symbolic significance to the day average Americans fought back against terror will not be lost. Twenty-two tons of steel from one of the large cranes was melted and poured Wednesday for the stemhold of the USS Somerset, a Navy vessel being constructed in honor of Flight 93’s passengers and crew. “We’re going to be cutting the water for that ship...

Archaeologists working on the Quantock Hills in Somerset have uncovered evidence of a substantial Roman villa with a mosaic floor in the main room. The findings are part of a six-year study carried out on six separate sites around the area. The dig team said the villa at Yarford is one of the most westerly villas with mosaic floors found in Roman Britain. It was subjected to three seasons of excavation but has since been buried again to protect it for the future. "If there is one villa, then the chances are that others will be found in due course."...

WESTWOOD ONE LAUNCHES THE MONICA CROWLEY SHOW --New Program to Air Saturdays, Noon - 3 p.m. ET-- Beginning Saturday, April 1, 2006 New York, NY Monday, Mar 20, 2006 - Westwood One (NYSE: WON) is proud to announce the national launch of The Monica Crowley Show, the three-hour talk program hosted by author and news personality Monica Crowley. The show begins Saturday, April 1, 2006, and will air from noon to 3 p.m. ET. The Monica Crowley Show will debut on major market stations across the country including: WABC-AM New York, WTKK-FM Boston and WTNT-AM Washington DC. The show will...

Ice Age engravings found in Somerset Press Association Thursday August 18, 2005 The Guardian (UK) A series of rare engravings, believed to date from the Mesolithic period, 10,000 years ago, have been discovered in a cave in Somerset. The three abstract squares, thought to have been made with stone tools, were found in Long Hole cave in Cheddar by the University of Bristol Speleological Society. The find follows the discover of ancient inscribed crosses at nearby Aveline's Hole cave in February this year. Experts have not been able to determine the meaning of the engravings yet, but say they are...

SOMERSET – A benefit auction will be held today, the third anniversary of the Quecreek mine accident in which nine miners became trapped and emerged some 77 hours later after a dramatic rescue that captured the world's attention. The auction will raise money to relocate the 126-year old Sipesville fire hall, which served as a refuge for the miners' families, to the site of the rescue. A $2.3 million, five-acre memorial is planned at the site, Bill and Lori Arnold's Dormel Farms. The Quecreek Mine Rescue Memorial is being billed by organizers as the largest permanent tribute to America's rescue...

Ancient engravings found in Somerset cave [07 February 2005] Two members of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society have discovered an engraving in a cave in the Mendip Hills, Somerset, which may be at least 10,000 years old. Graham Mullan and Linda Wilson, who have spent much of the last ten years studying Palaeolithic cave art, recently began a systematic search of caves in southern Britain in the belief that such works in this country would not simply be confined to those found at Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire. The first results of this study are a series of inscribed crosses found...

The hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93 tried repeatedly to fend off passengers storming the cockpit in the final minutes before one of the hijackers, Ziad Jarrah, shouted “Allah is the greatest” and nosed the plane into a field in Somerset County, according to the final report of the September 11 commission. The report includes a transcript of conversation captured by the cockpit voice recorder on the hijacked jetliner that shows the uprising started at 9:57 a.m. Sept. 11 after passengers onboard learned through cell phone conversations with family members that three other hijacked planes had been flown into buildings...