Who were these noble Romans, and why are they buried together, not cremated?

Archaeologists exploring one of Rome's oldest catacombs are baffled by neat piles of more than 1,000 skeletons dressed in elegant togas.

The macabre find emerged as teams of historians slowly picked their way through the complex network of underground burial chambers, which stretch for miles under the city.

They say the tomb, which has been dated to the first century AD, is the first known example of a "mass burial".

The archaeologists are unable to explain why so many apparently upper-class Romans - who would normally have been cremated - were buried in the same spot, apparently at the same time.

Forensic tests are being carried out to try to establish whether the Romans suffered violent deaths, or were victims of an undocumented epidemic or natural disaster.

There are dozens of catacombs beneath the ancient city, some dating back 2,000 years and many used as burial places by early Christians. Others were used as secret places of worship to avoid persecution.

The Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology is overseeing the dig. Its chief inspector of catacombs, Raffaella Giuliani, said: "This is the earliest example of such a mass burial. Usually two or three bodies at the most were put into holes dug out of the rock in the catacombs, but in these case we have several rooms filled with skeletons.

"They are placed one on top of the other and not in a disorderly fashion. They have been carefully buried, with dignity, but the puzzle is why so many at a time?"

The skeletons were dressed in fine robes, many containing gold thread, and wrapped in sheets covered with lime, as was common in early Christian burials.
The discovery was made at the Catacomb of SS Peter and Marcellinus on the ancient Via Labicana in south-east Rome.

Miss Giuliani said there was no obvious sign that violence was the cause. "We are trying to establish whether the skeletons were buried there following some form of epidemic or natural disaster.

It is possible they could have been persecuted and killed by the Romans and then buried there by fellow Christians - we just don't know."

The Vatican will officially present the discovery next month, along with officials from the University of Bordeaux who had been involved in the excavations.

The mysteries of history continue to be exposed and deciphered. I look forward to learning more in the months and years ahead.

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It is hard to argue against the premise that Thomas Jefferson was the greatest intellect to ever occupy the White House, as well as the author of one of the most important documents in world history. And it is equally beyond dispute that without John Adams, the need for that document would have been moot, for he was the firebrand that spurred his colleagues on to declare independence. As much as George Washington, they deserve recognition as fathers of our country. And if Adams is overshadowed by the great men whose presidencies surround his, one cannot argue that his was unimportant.

In less than a week, though, a record they set will be eclipsed by Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale – that for longevity by a president and vice president from the same administration.

On Thursday, May 23rd, President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale will become the longest-living, post-administration President and Vice President in U.S. history. On that day, they will surpass President John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams and Jefferson lived 25 years, 122 days after the end of their administration. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826.

On Thursday, President Carter and Vice President Mondale will have lived 25 years, 123 days after leaving office.

"While breaking the Adams and Jefferson record is certainly a milestone, the important thing is how President Carter and Vice President Mondale have used that time," Carter Presidential Library Director Jay Hakes said.

Sorry, Jake – I’d have to argue that the holders of the longevity title remain mediocre and insignificant, especially when compared to their esteemed predecessors. One is an apologist for terrorists and dictators, while the other is a non-entity. Compared to Adams and Jefferson, the best they can hope for is to continue to fade deeper into murky mists of insignificance.

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There isn't enough DNA in supposed Seville remains to do research, and the Dominicans refuse to grant access to alleged remains in the New World. That means that we may never be able to figure out conclusively where the bones of Christopher Columbus really rest today.

But more than that, will we ever figure out who the "discoverer of America" really was? What were his roots, which have been clouded in mystery for centuries?

He gave new meaning to the phrase "world-class celebrity," but like Garbo, Christopher Columbus had little interest in talking about himself and dismissed queries about his origins with a rhetorical shrug: " Vine de nada" -- "I came from nothing."

It was never enough. For centuries, scholars have wondered about this enigmatic mariner whose compulsion to travel east by traveling west altered the course of Western civilization and effectively ended the Middle Ages.

He may have been born in Genoa, but he wrote in indifferent Latin or in good Spanish -- never in Italian. He had French connections, married a Portuguese woman, may have been Jewish, may have lived in Catalonia and died May 20, 500 years ago this week, in the Spanish city of Valladolid.

To commemorate this event, researchers led by Spanish forensic pathologist Jos� Antonio Lorente Acosta are comparing the DNA of Columbus's illegitimate son, Fernando, with DNA from hundreds of possible Columbus descendants in at least three countries.

The goal is to determine once and for all whether Columbus, as traditionalists hold, was the son of Genoese wool weaver Domenico Colombo, or was instead a Spaniard named Colon; or a Catalan Colom, from Barcelona; or a French Coulom or Colomb; or perhaps Corsican or Mallorcan.

"We'll get something, but it will be complicated," Lorente said in a telephone interview from his University of Granada office. "The trick is to differentiate between the Columbuses from different places -- and there's no guarantee."

The likely result? That is a good question, as there are plausible narratives to explain any of the above -- or some combination.

Or perhaps we will have to live with the mystery.

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It might be a guy known as Donor 401 -- if you trace your ancestry back 50,000 years.

The Post has been diligently tracking the progeny of Donor 401, a man of German extraction who tans well and whose sperm is in great demand. The number of 401's children is at least 14, which would have been an impressive number to me had I not just completed Nicholas Wade's book "Before the Dawn" and learned that the late Genghis Khan had about 500 wives and concubines, producing enough children so that now, if you do the math, they have generated 16 million males alone -- or "about 0.5 percent of the world's total." Donor 401, you have a ways to go.

But on account of Wade's book, I strongly suspect that Donor 401 and Genghis Khan operated out of the same imperative -- to pass on their genes to the next generation. This, after all, is our genetic obligation, and in Wade's view -- or at least in his observation -- it is why some men go into politics. He quotes former French president Francois Mitterrand, who said, "I don't know of a single head of state who hasn't yielded to some kind of carnal temptation, small or large. That in itself is a reason to govern." Better than narrowing the deficit, I would volunteer.

In fact, from what Wade suggests, Donor 401 is a sly fellow, pulling off what in evolution is the ultimate triumph: getting others, particularly men, to raise his progeny. Those who have no biological children of their own are evolution's total losers. Their genes end with them and that, as we all know, is just a pity -- a fate truly worse than death: extinction.

For some time now, I have been excitedly inflicting this book on my friends. It is rich in scientific cynicism, the unsparing pragmatism of our cold and calculating genes. For instance, they have ensured that newborns in general are not only cute but look alike -- so the charmed but possibly cuckolded male will accept them as his own. It traces the history of mankind from the time, around 50,000 years ago, when human beings left Africa and started to spread throughout the world.

This is our prehistory. It lacks archeological or written records, but much of what happened can be discerned from our DNA. This is all relatively new to us, but by peering into our most basic living material, snoopy scientists are beginning to see how we evolved -- and why. For instance, the gene that permits us to digest lactose as adults is a relatively new development -- linked, no doubt, to the advent of agriculture. Genetically speaking, we are still on the move.

On some level, love and sex come down to a competition to spread our genes and become the dominant male. Seems to me that Donor 40was the big winner of his day.

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I guess they prefer an outhouse to the woods – and get cranky if the have to wait long.

Harold Cerda had just left an outhouse on a southern Colorado ranch when a bear swatted him to the ground and chased him to his car, where he discovered the animal had also eaten his lunch.

"He sent me a good 10 or 15 feet," Cerda told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday. "I'm used to hard falls because I used to ride bulls a lot. It's pretty much the hardest I've been hit."

He guessed the cinnamon-colored black bear was anywhere from 150 to 500 pounds and nearly 6½ feet tall when standing.

I'm betting it was the chicken salad sitting in the car -- that'll get you every time, hman or bear.

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