The largest underground temple on the Balkan peninsula, the Thracian Starosel Tomb, has been dated back to the 4th century BC.

In the summer of 2009, the archaeological team took samples from a stake in the middle of the tomb where gifts to the Greek goddess of the hearth Hestia were laid.

The radio carbon dating analysis carried out in Heidelberg, Germany, in the laboratory of Dr. Bernd Krommer, have shown that the stake was burned in the period after 358 BC, when the temple was constructed, and the earth was heaped on top of it to form a burial mound.

The analysis of the lab research and of the events which happened at that time have given archaeologist Ivan Hristov grounds to conclude that the temple in the village of Starosel, in the so called Chetinyova Mound, and the nearby Thracian ruler’s residence under Mount Kozi Gramadi were built during the reign of the Thracian King Amatokos II (359-351 BC), of the Thracian Odrysian state (5th-3rd century BC.

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A fourth gate has been found which leades to the tomb of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi.

The People’s Daily Online says the north gate is huge, some 93 metres (about 280 feet) tall by seven (21 ft) metres and was built in the north facing wall of the tomb’s outer city, and is more than 400 metres (about 1,200 feet) from the east and west walls.

A platform made of rammed earth has been found at both eastern and western sections of the northern wall, the western one being 4,4 metres long (13,5 ft). The gate itself, presumably made of wood, has collapsed and so far, the archaeologists have found only earth.

Until now, scholars were unsure whether the north gate really existed and the orientation of the tomb was not clear. The report speculated the first emperor’s tomb could run from south to north.

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To those who believe William Shakespeare did author his plays, Fulke Greville has always been a top choice for who truly did. It was rumoured that all the original manuscripts were buried with him. Now an endoscope will be used to probe the tomb and determine if this is true. Exciting!

A prominent 17th-century nobleman, Greville was a renowned scholar, soldier, statesman and spy.

Like his dearest friend Sir Philip Sidney, he was also an accomplished author.

So talented, indeed, that some believe he was the true author of several of Shakespeare’s works.

For years this has been little more than conjecture; fuel for the lively and often hostile debate between Anti-Stratfordians – those who deny that an ill- educated grain merchant and actor such as William Shakespeare could possibly have produced such a stunning oeuvre – and outraged traditionalists.

Now, however, the tantalising prospect of a definitive answer has been raised. More intriguingly still, the explanation, hidden in a series of clues scattered throughout his work and on the Warwick monument, is said to come from Fulke Greville himself.

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Heavy rains in Greece have unearthed eight tombs, only one of which was intact.

Eight tombs dating to the Hellenist Period were partially revealed recently in the region of Gonous, Larissa prefecture, after flooding caused by heavy rainfall swept away a rural dirt road.

The Archaeological Service subsequently conducted an excavation, which brought to light the tombs which, according to initial assessment, date back to between the end of the 4th century BC and the beginning of the 3rd century BC.

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A 2,000-year-old tomb found in eastern Mongolia contains the remains of a man of multi-ethnic heritage.

Dead men can indeed tell tales, but they speak in a whispered double helix.

Consider an older gentleman whose skeleton lay in one of more than 200 tombs recently excavated at a 2,000-year-old cemetery in eastern Mongolia, near China’s northern border. DNA extracted from this man’s bones pegs him as a descendant of Europeans or western Asians. Yet he still assumed a prominent position in ancient Mongolia’s Xiongnu Empire, say geneticist Kyung-Yong Kim of Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, and his colleagues.

On the basis of previous excavations and descriptions in ancient Chinese texts, researchers suspect that the Xiongnu Empire — which ruled a vast territory in and around Mongolia from 209 B.C. to A.D. 93 — included ethnically and linguistically diverse nomadic tribes. The Xiongnu Empire once ruled the major trading route known as the Asian Silk Road, opening it to both Western and Chinese influences.

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