Word: guarducci
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...original basilica, built by the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century and unearthed during excavations beneath St. Peter's begun in 1939. The results of the excavations led Pope Pius XII to announce in 1950 that the tomb of Peter had been discovered. Three years later, Professor Margherita Guarducci, who teaches Greek epigraphy and antiquities at the University of Rome, began studying the inscriptions on a red plaster wall inside which the skeletal remains had been found. "As soon as I saw the cloth remnants," says Dr. Guarducci, who is not a professional archaeologist, "I knew that these bones...
...Circus. In 1962, Italian Anthropologist Venerando Correnti identified the bones-which consist of approximately half a skeleton-as those of a robustly built man about 5 ft. 4 in. in height and between 65 and 72 years of age. An analysis of the dirt found with the bones, Dr. Guarducci claimed, showed that it had come from the area near the circus of Nero, where Peter was crucified...
...Guarducci first published her thesis that the bones were those of Peter in 1965-and was strongly attacked by other scholars. If Pope Paul had any fresh evidence to bolster her thesis, he did not cite it, and his announcement acknowledged that controversy over the claim is likely to continue. For one thing, the tomb itself dates from the 4th century. For another, many scientists would contend that it is impossible to establish the identity of the remains without some clue to Peter's physique, such as a bone deformation. Finally, while the bones unquestionably have a personal significance...
Buried Here. In one place, on the so-called "Red Wall" running north and south in the excavations and dating to about 160 A.D., Dr. Guarducci sees something still more significant. Under the Greek letters for P, E, T and R are some letters that could be an abbreviation of the Greek word enesti. Taken together, the letters would mean "Peter is buried here...
Last week Dr. Guarducci presented the weighty, three-volume record of her findings to Pope John as a name-day present on the feast of St. Joseph (the Pope's baptismal name). Said she: "He thanked me and promised he would read it carefully...