Free Republic

Mosaics depicting prominent Bible scenes were uncovered during annual excavations of an ancient synagogue in Israel's Lower Galilee. During the excavation in June, archaeologists found two new panels of a mosaic floor in a Late Roman (fifth-century) synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village. One panel showed Noah's ark with pairs of animals, such as lions, leopards and bears. The other panel depicted soldiers being swallowed by large fish, surrounded by overturned chariots in the parting of the Red Sea. Such images are extremely rare for the time period, according to excavation director Jodi Magness, of the University of North...

WITI-TV, MADISON — Before protesters stormed the capitol, the mayor of the city of Madison tried to pull a fast one. The governor's budget repair bill was on the fast track, and Madison Mayor Dave Ciesliewicz was racing against the clock to pass new union contracts first. E-mails obtained by the FOX6 Investigators show that the mayor enlisted the help of State Senator Mark Miller. They both tried to convince the Secretary of State to hold up the bill by taking the maximum 10 days allowed by law before publishing the bill.

Not sure if this has been seen before. This is a video from the campaign. Vid at link.

Remember the secret plane spotted in Kandahar? The one that looked like a Nazi stealth plane? Well, it's been spotted again, but this time the picture is crystal clear, and it doesn't look like anything in the US arsenal. There's a possibility that it may have a canopy above the nose, which means it could be a very small manned plane instead of a UAV. On the other side, it could just be the air intake. Its buttocks look like those of the P175 Polecat, a design by Skunk Works—Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs. Whatever it is, I want...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) Exclusive; The Zodiac Killer attacked at least eight people, terrorizing the Bay Area and taunting police in the 60's and 70's. Thursday, the FBI confirmed to CBS13 they are now running laboratory tests on some items that may link a suspect to the killer. The evidence was given to the FBI by a Pollock Pines man who also claims he recently found the disguise worn by the Zodiac Killer during one of his attacks. "The identity of the Zodiac Killer is Jack Tarrance. He's my stepfather," says Dennis Kaufman. Eight years of Dennis Kaufman's life has been...

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River was "structurally deficient," yet they relied on patchwork repairs and stepped-up inspections that unraveled amid a thunderous plunge of concrete and automobiles. "We thought we had done all we could," state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan told reporters not far from the mangled remains of the span. "Obviously something went terribly wrong." Questions about the cause of the collapse and whether it could have been prevented arose Thursday as authorities shifted from rescue efforts to a grim recovery operation, searching for bodies...

Ancient Human Behavior Uncovered Article Date: 24 Jun 2007 - 4:00 PDT A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern" One index of 'behavioural modernity' is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as having symbolic rather than practical value. By displaying them on the body as necklaces, pendants or bracelets or attached to clothing this also greatly increased their visual impact. The appearance of ornaments may be linked to a growing sense of...

Mummified dogs uncovered in Peru By Dan Collins BBC News, Lima Archaeologists in Peru have uncovered the mummified remains of more than 40 dogs buried with blankets and food alongside their human masters. The discovery was made during the excavation of two of the ancient Chiribaya people who lived in southern Peru between 900 and 1350 AD. Experts say the dogs' treatment in death indicated the belief that the animals had an afterlife. Such a status for pets has only previously been seen in ancient Egypt. Hundreds of years before the European conquest of South America, the Chiribaya civilisation valued...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed Friday he had uncovered a plot to topple his government, blaming his political opponents and calling them "lackeys" of the United States. His mention of a coup plot prompted whistles and shouts from thousands of supporters who filled the streets to welcome him home Friday after a foreign tour in which China, Malaysia and Syria offered to support Venezuela's bid for a seat on the 15-member U.N. Security Council. He called opposition presidential candidates "lackeys of U.S. imperialism." "I have reports that the counter-revolutionary opposition has a plan to overthrow me in...

SAN DIEGO – U.S. authorities dug Monday into a crudely constructed cross-border tunnel that exits near a San Ysidro parking lot. Investigators could not say whether the tunnel had been completed. Drug cartels are suspected of building the cross border tunnels as a means of smuggling narcotics into the United States. The tunnel was found Friday, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but authorities disclosed little information on its discovery. “It was a result of an ongoing investigation,” Mack said Monday. “The investigation continued until agents opened it up at 6 a.m. this morning.” The...

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2006 – Coalition forces detained a dozen suspected terrorists today and yesterday, and uncovered large weapons caches around Baghdad, officials in Iraq reported today. Coalition soldiers detained three Iraqi men and an Iraqi woman today while conducting combat operations near Abu Ghraib. The woman was allegedly attempting to hide about 50 blasting caps under her clothing when detained. Coalition troops also confiscated several AK-47 assault rifles, a pistol and a sniper rifle. The incident remains under investigation. Yesterday, eight suspected terrorists were detained during a combat patrol south of Baghdad. Soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad's 2nd Battalion,...

An ancient colony of Andros uncoveredThe remains of buildings found in excellent condition at Argilos, an important commercial town, on the estuary of the Strymonas River Houses in the foothills of Argilos dating from the sixth and fifth centuries BC. The surviving walls are up to 4 meters high. They form part of Argilos’s residential quarter, which spreads out on either side of a paved road leading from the port to the acropolis. The shape of the houses, the roads to either side and the organization of the city reflect island architecture and planning notions that the colonists brought with...

CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday. The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis _ the center of pharaonic sun worship _ was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press. Among the artifacts was a pink granite statue weighing 4 to 5 tons whose features "resemble those of Ramses II," said Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities....

Trove of Teutonic weapons uncovered in Krusne Hory region [09-02-2006] By Jan Velinger, Martina Schneibergova Listen 16kb/s ~ 32kb/s It's not unusual in this country to come across weapons caches dating back to the Second World War. But, finding a pile of javelin tips, parts of shields and a sword dating back to the 2nd century A.D., doesn't happen every day.Lenka OnderkovaAccording to museum officials in the north Bohemian town of Chomutov it was a find that almost "never happened": a trove of twenty-two Teutonic items, weapons or parts of shields, dating back 1,800 years, that one finder almost failed...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2005 – A Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device today while on patrol in Baghdad, military officials reported. The soldier's name is being withheld pending notofication of next of kin. Officials provided no further details about the incident. Officials also reported today that multiple weapons caches have been discovered throughout Iraq recently. Iraqi troops from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, discovered a cache near a vehicle control point they were manning north of Karabilah on Dec. 21. It consisted of two 122 mm artillery rounds, a 100 mm...

WASHINGTON - Archaeologist William Saturno said Tuesday he was awe-struck when he uncovered a Maya mural not seen for nearly two millennia. Discovered at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala, the mural covers the west wall of a room attached to a pyramid, Saturno said at a briefing. In brilliant color, the mural tells the Maya story of creation, he said. It was painted about 100 B.C., but later covered when the room was filled in. "It could have been painted yesterday," Saturno said in a briefing organized by the National Geographic Society, which supported his work and will detail...

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Dec. 8, 2005) – Just a week after a huge cache of mortars was uncovered near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, another large terrorist cache was discovered Dec. 6 near the neighboring city of Tuz. Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, found two storage bunkers crammed with weapons near Forward Operating Base Bernstein, west of the city. More than 400 rockets of various types and 80 mortar rounds were discovered in the bunkers. Mortars and rockets, along with IEDs, are the preferred weapons of terrorists, officials said, because...

Ancient Roman brickworks uncoveredThe factory is so well preserved it could work again (ANSA) - Cesena, December 5 - An Ancient Roman brickworks in near perfect condition has been discovered in Emilia Romagna . The complex, the largest anywhere in the region and one of the biggest in Italy, was unearthed near a canal in the central Italian town of Ronta . "This is a truly extraordinary find," said a culture ministry spokesman. "It is so well preserved that with minimal restoration it would still work perfectly today." The site is of such importance that the consortium carrying out work...

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 29, 2005) -- Iraqi Army Soldiers and U.S. Marines, Soldiers and Sailors of the 2nd Marine Division, discovered 66 weapons caches during the past week in al Anbar province in western Iraq. Blocks of plastic explosives, sticks of TNT, artillery and mortar rounds used in vehicle and roadside bombs along with remote detonators were found by Iraqi and U.S. Forces. Machine guns, assault and sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions were also discovered. In Haqlaniyah, Sunday, Iraqi Soldiers and Marines excavated more than 8,800 heavy machine gun rounds along with 150 artillery,...

Remains of Roman rabbit uncovered The remains of a 2,000-year-old rabbit - found at an early Roman settlement at Lynford, Norfolk - may be the earliest example of rabbit remains in Britain. The bones - which show evidence the animal had been butchered and buried - are similar to those of a small Spanish rabbit, common in Roman times. It is thought rabbits were introduced to Britain following the Roman invasion in AD43.The remains will be officially dated at the Natural History Museum in London. The bones themselves had been butchered, possibly the rabbit was to be eaten by a...