Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 264, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1912 — UNCOVER ANCIENT CEMETERY [ARTICLE]

UNCOVER ANCIENT CEMETERY

Excavating for a Wine Cellars Italian Makes a Discovery of Hiatorical Value. Rome.—An ancient Christian cemetery has accidentally been discovered in the neighborhood of the remains of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Spoleto, In the province of Perugia. The church, one of the first Christian temples erected In that part of Italy contained the bones of many who suffered martyrdom under the Flavian emperors, but had not been used as a place of burial for more than 15 centuries. Since modern times, having been little more than a ruin, it passed as private property into the family of the Sinibaldi, of whom the present head, the Italian deputy of that name, decided to enlarge the extensive basement for use as a cellar for storing wine, he being a wine grower on a large scale. Excavations had hardly begun a few days ago, when one of the workmen struck a solid block of stone about three feet below the Burface, and this proved to be the cover of an ancient sarcophagus of unusual size. Twenty-one sarcophagi with massive covers in monolith were unearthed, all belonging to the third or fourth qentury, A. D. They were opened in the presence of a group of public officials and archaeologists from different parts of .Italy, and each was found to contain a skeleton in a perfect state of preservation.