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Druids belong to the realm of myth -
archaeologists have never been able to prove their existence. But now
researchers in England have uncovered the grave of a powerful, ancient
healer. Was he a druid?
There's a joke among archaeologists: Two of their kind, in the
future, find a present-day public toilet. "We've discovered a holy
site!" cries one. "Look, it has two separate entrances," says the
other. "This here," he says, pointing to the door with a pictogram of a
woman, "was for priests. This is evident by the figure wearing a long
garment."
The joke rests on a perennial sore point for archaeologists: There are
things they simply can't prove. The list includes love, hate, fear,
desire and, well, faith. Which hasn't stopped many reports from being
written about who loved or hated whom in ancient cultures - who was
threatened by what, who tried to win something else.
Philip Crummy is an archaeologist who tries not to pass off ancient
toilets for holy sites but, lately, the director of the Colchester
Archaeological Trust has been pulling a number of artifacts from the
ground near the site of an ancient city, Camulodunum, that would tempt
any archaeologist to speculate, at least a little. Crummy has stumbled
upon a small cemetery about 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) southwest of
present-day Colchester. The dead were all buried between the years 40
and 60 A.D. For a cemetery that's a short lifespan; but in Britain it's
an important period, because in the year 43 A.D. the island became a
Roman colony.
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