Gaza: excavations begin at Roman cemetery
The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Gaza started an archaeological excavation project yesterday in a Roman cemetery in the north of the coastal enclave. The project is funded by the French School of Antiquities. The director-general of the ministry, Jamal Abu Rida, pointed out that details about funerals during the Roman era have been discovered through the initial excavations. He said that the way that the remains of the bodies are arranged suggests that the people buried in the cemetery were high-ranking Romans. Abu Rida explained previously that "several discoveries" have been made in the past, but this is the "most important" archaeological discovery in the past ten years. The work at the cemetery has been supervised by a team of French experts. It was discovered by a construction crew working on an Egyptian-funded housing project in February this year. The Hamas-run government in Gaza stopped the construction project immediately and closed...