RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK -- IN IRELAND. Here's an interesting archaeology-related story:

Ireland Divided Over Hill of Tara Plan


Wednesday May 11, 2005 8:01 PM

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK

Associated Press Writer

HILL OF TARA, Ireland (AP) - This grassy, windswept hill outside Dublin was long the spiritual and political center of Ireland, an earthen fort where Celtic chieftains jockeyed for power and legend says St. Patrick confronted paganism.

Today, the Hill of Tara is at the center of another showdown - over whether Ireland, a rapidly expanding country where construction often uncovers the past, can reconcile its rich heritage with the demands of modern life.

Capping two years of arguments, the government on Wednesday authorized archaeologists to begin excavating 38 sites along the proposed route of a new highway past the hill. Environment Minister Dick Roche and some state archaeologists say the road project will uncover historical material that otherwise would remain buried.

But an alliance of environmentalists, archaeologists and other academics warn that the road will scar Ireland's most significant landscape.

What does this have to do with the Lost Ark? Read on:

Infamously, a crowd of British zealots tore up the site in 1901-02 in a vain quest for the Ark of the Covenant, causing untold damage that is hidden today by the grass.

More on those British Zealots in this International Herald Tribune piece ("Will Ireland slice up its most mythical site?"), which also has lots of information on the current controversy:

Emigrants from Ireland, like the O'Hara family in "Gone With the Wind," could conjure up the old country by naming their estate after its most sacred place. Indeed, so sacred became its reputation at the end of the 19th century, and so much mystery surrounded what was buried beneath, that a sect called the British Israelites began to dig there in search for the Ark of the Covenant. They were greeted with indignation by Irish nationalists like Yeats, who believed that the Hill of Tara, where the remains of 30 or so prehistoric monuments are somewhat visible to this day, must have its mystery unraveled by the slow and painstaking work of archaeologists.

Quite right.