HANUKKAH MIRACLE

Archaeologists believe they have discovered a 2,000-year-old burial cave of the Maccabees, a clan of Jewish warriors who led a revolt against a Syrian king that is still celebrated today with the feast of Hanukkah. The find, first uncovered by a tractor breaking ground on a highway project 19 miles northwest of Jerusalem, appears to confirm ancient Jewish accounts of the clan, also known as the Hasmoneans, a spokeswoman for the Antiquities Authority said today. "It's a very important find," says TIME science writer Michael Lemonick. "Over and over in the last few years, archaeologists have stumbled onto evidence which shows that the stories in the Bible and the Talmud are not just myth, but are about real people. They have discovered a golden calf similar to the one Moses got angry about when he came down from the mountain with the ten commandments. They have found evidence that the walls of Jericho did indeed come tumbling down. They've found evidence of the existence of King David. This new find, of course, does not prove that the miracle which helped them defeat the Syrians happened, but it does prove that the people it supposedly happened to were real."