My favourite archaeological story over the last few months came from Iceland Review. For a start the deadpan headline - reproduced above - which borders on genius.
And then the story itself. Who isn't a sucker for Holy Grail stories? But the Holy Grail and Iceland together has shades of both Indiana Jones and Jules Verne:
Italian cryptographer Giancarlo Gianazza and a team of scientists and Holy Grail enthusiasts believed to have found clues that the Holy Grail and other treasures from Christian mythology were hidden in Iceland—but found nothing.
According to history magazine Sagan Öll, when Gianazza and his team searched for the Holy Grail in Skipholtskrókur in Iceland’s highlands near Kjolur mountain pass this summer they only found water and no evidence of a secret underground dome.
They scientists do however believe that during their Holy Grail expedition this year they were able to gather enough evidence to continue their quest in a larger area in Iceland’s highlands next year...
Full story here. The argument is based on Dante's Inferno, Botticelli's Spring and, inevitably, the Knights Templar. Best of all one of the arguments is that Da Vinci's Last Supper shows the coastline of Kjölur.
It's your very own Dan Brown in 200 words.
Indiana Jones, Jules Verne, and Monty Python.
Posted by: mike | October 05, 2008 at 04:09 AM
I should have thought of Monty Python!
Posted by: adrianmurdoch | October 05, 2008 at 05:45 AM