Berkeley Castle: newly discovered skeletons

The biggest news of the year, as reported by BBC News:

About 30 skeletons dating back 500 years have been found during an archaeological dig at a castle in Gloucestershire. 


The skeletons were discovered near an old churchyard during excavation work looking for Anglo-Saxon remains at Berkeley Castle.
They will now be taken for reburial at a nearby churchyard.
In 2005, archaeologists uncovered the remains of an Iron Age settlement in the grounds the Grade-I listed castle.
But only last year, a £5m appeal was launched to save the structure from falling into ruin.
A survey by English Heritage had uncovered a list of structural and cosmetic problems needing attention.
The Plantaganet king, Edward II was murdered at the Gloucestershire castle in 1327.

First Icons of St Peter and Paul - discovered using lasers

ROME — Twenty-first century laser technology has opened a window into the early days of the Catholic Church, guiding researchers through the dank, musty catacombs beneath Rome to a startling find: the first known icons of the apostles Peter and Paul.

Vatican officials unveiled the paintings Tuesday, discovered along with the earliest known images of the apostles John and Andrew in an underground burial chamber beneath an office building on a busy street in a working-class Rome neighborhood.

The images, which date from the second half of the 4th century, were uncovered using a new laser technique that allows restorers to burn off centuries of thick white calcium carbonate deposits without damaging the brilliant dark colors of the paintings underneath.

The technique could revolutionize the way restoration work is carried out in the miles (kilometers) of catacombs that burrow under the Eternal City where early Christians buried their dead.

The icons were discovered on the ceiling of a tomb of an aristocratic Roman woman at the Santa Tecla catacomb, near where the remains of the apostle Paul are said to be buried.

(Story Source)