GERMANY:ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN Berlin have uncovered evidence that the German capital is older than previously thought in one of the city's oldest graveyards, containing 2,300 skeletons.
Since March, archaeologists have been at work at Petriplatz, Peter's Square, which served in the Middle Ages as the central square of Cölln, Berlin's now vanished sister city.
The area was badly damaged during the second World War and bulldozed out of existence by East German city planners.
Today, motorists race along the busy Leipzigerstrasse, a six-lane east-west thoroughfare, oblivious of the archaeologists only metres away behind their hoarding.
In one corner of the site, octagonal stone steps are the only reminder of St Peter's Church which once stood here. Destroyed and rebuilt five times over 700 years, it stood as the heart of the settlement until it vanished for good in 1964.
It was in the ruins of the church that archaeologists found the first mention of Cölln and Berlin in a church document from 1237.
That find was used as the basis for Berlin's 750th celebrations in 1987 - separate events in the still-divided city.
But archaeologists have excavated a wooden beam from a cellar on the site which, from the rings of the wood, can be dated to 1192 - making Berlin at least 45 years older than previously thought.
"It really is tremendous luck," said Wilfried Menghin, a leading archaeologist in Berlin, "because today it's so hard to imagine that this is where Berlin started".
The team has turned up the foundations of a former school, fountains, a wooden plank dated 1212 as well as combs, pots, tools, coins and bottles.
The most spectacular find is in excess of 2,300 skeletons, including a large number of children, from the Petri church graveyard. They are being documented by age, sex and probable cause of death before being quietly reburied nearby.
The rich haul complicates matters for plans to redevelop Petriplatz as an inner-city square. Already plans are afoot to incorporate a museum on the redeveloped site, reintroducing Berliners to their city's origins.
"We've not just found the houses where some of the oldest Berliners lived, but the residents, too," said Ms Claudia Melisch, head of the dig. "We had hoped at the start of our dig to give Berliners back a bit of their history. But what we have found is the cradle of Berlin."