Wednesday, January 18, 2006

More children than you can shake a stick at

Two ancient history items to mention today. First, it seems that 4th century king Niall of the Nine Hostages is not just a myth. Not only did he apparently exist, but he has as many as 3 million descendants world-wide, according to a report from a Trinity College genetics team.

The other item is the recently reported find of two bodies dating back 2300 years. Both of the men had been murdered and were found in bogs. One man was wearing hair gel - "a little dab will do ya" must be an old Irish expression - and the other had manicured finger nails. The 'new man' ain't so new after all.

I love this bit about one of the two murder victims, "Oldcroghan man was preserved so perfectly that his discovery sparked a police murder investigation before archaeologists were called in". I can't help wondering how many of the "usual suspects" were shaken down before the Guards realized that the 'stiff' was over 2000 years waiting for justice to come calling.