Five graveyards, which date back to the 3rd and 4th century AD, have been unearthed in old Darya City new Damascus.

The discovered graveyards, mostly dating back to the roman and byzantine era, contain tens of skulls, Mahmoud Hamoud, Damascus Countryside archaeology director told local news and media.

Hamoud disclosed that some other findings were also found as part of burial materials, including clay and glass tools, bracelets, rings, ring-bells, beads, eardrops, made of bronze, iron, glass, wood, and precious stones, as well as eardrops made of gold.

Earlier, Damascus Countryside Archaeology Directorate announced the finding of a basalt-built mass graveyard in ‘Ashrafiat Sihnaya’, dating back to same period, with several skulls and other burial materials, made of glass, wood, and metal.

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Aided by wartime photos, the Austrian government has identified at least two mass graves of Nazi victims.

The mass graves are located underneath an army sports field in the southern city of Graz. Government officials say they contain about 70 bodies.

The victims were concentration camp inmates and others, all killed by the SS to eliminate witnesses to Nazi atrocities shortly before Soviet troops arrived.

The graves were identified from wartime photos, made from U.S. bombers, showing open graves and bodies.

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Flowers which date back 4,000 years have been found in a Bronze Age grave in Scotland.

Proof that pre-historic people placed bunches of flowers in the grave when they buried their dead has been found for the first time, experts have said.

Archaeologists have discovered a bunch of meadowsweet blossoms in a Bronze Age grave at Forteviot, south of Perth.

The find is reported in the journal “British Archaeology”, out this week.

Pollen found in earlier digs had been thought to have come from honey, or the alcoholic drink mead but this find may finally rule that theory out.

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A fire which destroyed a church 12 years ago exposed 100 medieval tombstones which were hidden in the walls.

The grave covers known as cross slabs are decorated with swords, crosses and emblems including a pair of shears to signify a housewife, and are related to figures in the history of the village.

Many had been hidden high above ground near the church roof and a popular theory is that a former Bishop of Durham, John Cosin, had secreted them there 450 years ago.

Jim Merrington, of the Brancepeth History and Archive Group, explained: “After the roof burned off we discovered a ring of cross slabs high up around the perimeter of the clerestory which was built in 1638 by Rector John Cosin, who later became Bishop of Durham. All were neatly placed facing skywards. It is possible that Cosin had them gathered up from the churchyard and secreted them away on the very top course of the building safe from vandals and reformists. It was obviously quite a task to get them up there for no real structural purpose.”

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Archaeologists have uncovered a Pre-Columbian cemetery dating back between 300 and 800A.D.

According to Corrales, the cemetery was built by an indigenous group of the Huetares who inhabited the area between 300 and 800 AD. “During this phase, known as La Selva, these groups existed within a complex social organization that centered around a chief and then everything else structured into sectors,” he said. “The burial system we see here reveals the high level of development of those communities.”

A few mysteries surround the archaeologists’ discoveries. The two excavations carried out so far revealed two very different mound configurations that intrigue anthropologists. “The first sector does not have a definite form, it is like a messy blob, whereas the second is shapped like an oblong mound. The structure features two interlocking semicircles that fail to close. This design is not very common,” said Corrales.

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