Of course this sort of news is often corrected later, but they think they've finally found it.

Be patient, lots of geeks like me looking at the site now, so the page may be slow to load:

Biblical Archaeology Society - Herod's Tomb

He has only be searching since 1972. How did they make a pic of the coffin out of 4 pieces and how do they know where those pieces fit? Makes me think of the last scene in Raiders Of the Lost Arc, there is a big warehouse somewhere.

I did not see a pic of the coffin. Is that at one of the links within the article?

Historians and Archaeologists have long known that his tomb was likely somewhere at the Herodium, but that mountain (man-made) is so huge, it's just taken a long time to find it.

Pics were in the Chicago Tribune on Wed. Just four fragments about the size of your head. They had to totally guess where these pieces fit into the coffin, I would think.

A little guessing and a lot of knowledge of how tombs and "coffins" of that period were is how they do that. It's like "Lucy"s" skull that is so famous... reconstructed from only a few fragments:
Lucy Skull and Skeleton Recronstruction

When you see the pics you'll understand my skepticism. If you cut a 2x4 into 20 pieces and throw out 15 pieces how would you put the remaining pieces in order? Lucy was a piece of cake compared to the coffin. Check this out Baptist Press - Herod the Great's tomb reportedly found - News with a Christian Perspective says there were hundreds of pieces but the pics I saw only showed 4 pieces. Guees the others are in the big warehouse like the ark.

I think I found it. Check out the #5 picture at this link:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...mepagenews-utl

Is that the one you saw?

Good man, that's the pic (5 pieces not 4). Just how many ways can you move those 5 pieces and still fall into the pattern of the coffin? Knowledge, experience, hard work and some guessing!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ballengerb1

Knowledge, experience, hard work and some guessing!

---

I think you hit the nail on the head. It would not surprise me if they find lots more pieces and end up seeing that this initial "guestimate" is very very close to what it looked like.

If the subject of Biblical Archaeology interests you, you can subscribe to the Biblical Archaeological Society newsletter (it's free) here:
Biblical Archaeology Society Newsletter

Great stuff!