Free Republic

A team of archaeologists from the University of Cádiz (UCA) unearthed an extraordinary 5,000-year-old dolmen at the La Lentejuela necropolis near Teba, Málaga, according to a report by SUR in English. Measuring more than 40 feet long, the massive tomb is constructed of large upright stone blocks and is one of the most monumental and well-preserved megalithic funerary structures ever uncovered in Andalusia. Within the chamber's interior, archaeologists identified several ossuaries containing human remains and a rich assemblage of grave goods, which are providing new insight into the lives and funerary practices of the community that inhabited the region several...

Some of the 11 Jewish ossuaries from Second Temple period still held bones, featured Hebrew script listing names of those interred. The Antiquities Authority and police cooperated last Friday to arrest suspects who allegedly stole ornate stone ossuary burial chests, which were used by Jews in Israel during the Second Temple period roughly 2,000 years ago. The suspects were caught while in possession of eleven ossuaries, some of them still containing skeletal remains. The suspected grave robbers, who were arrested and brought in for questioning, came from the Arab village of Abadiyah in Judea, located near Bethlehem, as well as...