Just a foot beneath the soil, clear evidence of ancient civilization

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I strive in my writing to present a lively world of contemporary fantasy that is intelligent, fast-paced, seasoned by historical references and plot points and thought provoking about issues involving religion and society. Except for the occasional wormhole or reference to time travel, the stories are realistic and plausible.

That's why I find it thrilling that nearly every week we see in the news features about discoveries about past civilizations discovered right below our feet. The BBC carries a story about the remains of a Roman village, the main Roman road out of Londinium and still earlier Neolithic artifacts being unearthed as crews prepared ground for a new luxury hotel in west London near Syon Park.  Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11773202

We call the fiction genre "fantasy" and "science fiction" and "speculative fiction" but the news shows us each day that the world beneath our feet is often richer and more interesting than many of our fantasies.

If you like to sample a chapter or two of my newest action-adventure-fantasy novel, Gettysburg Passage, simple go to Amazon.com and search by book title. There you will find the book, $2.99, reviews, my blog, a biography, and sample chapters of Gettysburg Passage. Enjoy!

Related articles

• Roman settlement unearthed in Syon park on new luxury hotel site in London (dailymail.co.uk)
• Archaeologists find Roman settlement in west London (guardian.co.uk)
• Roman settlement found on historic estate (independent.co.uk)
• Roman settlement unearthed in west London park's new Waldorf Astoria hotel site (dailymail.co.uk)
• Roman village unearthed on London building site (bbc.co.uk)
• Ancient Roman landscape unearthed near London (cnn.com)
• Roman Town Found in London (newser.com)
• Ancient Roman village discovered in parkland around stately home (guardian.co.uk)
• Roman village discovered in London suburb (gadling.com)
• Hilton Worldwide Announces London Syon Park, a Waldorf Astoria Hotel (eon.businesswire.com)
• What's standing between us and time travel? [Ask A Physicist] (io9.com)
• "Archaeologists unearth Neolithic henge at Stonehenge" and related posts (xenophilius.wordpress.com)
• Stone Age DIY: Cavemen decorated home with homemade paint (dailymail.co.uk)
• DNA reveals Neolithic farmers' near Eastern affinities (physorg.com)
• Everything You Need to Know About Time Travel (and why it makes no sense) (travelinsurance.org)
• Review: The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism [Greg Laden's Blog] (scienceblogs.com)
• A Post-Religious Society? (thechapel.wordpress.com)
• Google Sky Map Enables 'Time Travel' (informationweek.com)

Huge hoard of Roman coins found on Somerset, UK farm

As you may have seen recently on several news portals, a hobbyist in England found a huge cache of ancient Roman coins buried in a farmer's field. The find is valued at a $1 million and probably represented the life savings of an entire Roman-era town. Why was the treasure buried? Scientists really don't know. Recent engineering studies have shown that most evidence of our current civilization would almost completely disappear within a few centuries if we faced some sort of catastrophic societal failure. Yet as we dig, we continue to find tantalizing, surprising and amazing clues of how people lived long, long ago. Could there be lost, yet advanced civilizations from our past that are yet to be discovered? Why not? As time goes on, we learn more and more about our amazing ancestors and how they surmounted incredible obstacles to advance their way of life. A link to the news story about the coin find follows, from the Guardian, UK. The image is from Freefoto.com.

This is John Callahan, and many of these issues are addressed in my new novel, Gettysburg Passage, soon to be published by Amazon. A brief summary of this modern, action and adventure book can be found further down on this blog. I invite your interest and dialog.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/08/hoard-roman-coins-somerset

Ten Thousand Coins, Seventeen Hundred Years

Roman coins were recently found in England after being buried for more than 1,700 years. More than 10,000 of them. I wonder else is buried, waiting to be dug up or exposed by flood or the random landslide. http://www.stropshirestar.com/. From June 23, 2010 edition.