Discovery in Basque Country

On his weblog The Way of the Fathers, Mike Aquilina describes the discovery in Basque country of third century Christian inscriptions and the earlist image of the Crucifixion known. I hadn't heard anything about this anywhere else, so on the assumption most of you haven't either, let me recommend you go here, here, and here. The first item begins:

Talk about paydirt. Archeologists in the Basque Country announced this week that they have have discovered 270 third-century Roman inscriptions, many of them Christian in character. This epigraphic set is “among the most important of the Roman world” and includes an image of Calvary — “the most ancient known up to this moment.”

The site seems to represent a transitional phase, when Christianity was emerging in a pagan religious landscape that included cults of Egyptian deities as well as the more familiar local gods.

the rest