Tuesday, July 15, 2008

"An Archeological Sensation"

In Athens, an ancient racing course, the hippodrome, where the emperor Nero competed for Olympian laurels some 1,600 years ago, was discovered by a research team from Germany.

"This discovery is an archaeological sensation," said Norbert Muller of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Using geomagnetic and georadar techniques, the archaeologists discovered conspicuous, rectilinear structures stretching almost 1,200 meters. The researchers believe that this could be the racecourse, which ran parallel to the stadium.

"The project could become a new attraction for the sports world, similar to the excavation of the ancient Olympic stadium 50 years ago," Muller said.

[Rufus: I'm not a sports fan, but I think this is cool.]

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