TITANIC - CAMERON 'FINDS TOMB OF JESUS'

CAMERON 'FINDS TOMB OF JESUS'

Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron claims to have discovered the tomb of Jesus Christ which contains the remains of Mary Magdalene and possibly their son Judah.

The findings are the subject of a documentary to be shown on the Discovery channel called The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

Presenting the research team's discovery yesterday, Cameron, who directed the Oscar-winning film Titanic, said: "I've never doubted that there was a historical Jesus who walked the Earth 2,000 years ago, but the simple fact is there's never been a shred of physical, archaeological evidence to support that fact until right now."

This evidence is said to come from some of hundreds of first century limestone tombs – or ossuraries - that were discovered during building work in Jerusalem during the 1980s.

On top of six tombs were the names Mary, Matthew, Jesua son of Joseph, Joseph and Judah son of Jesua.

Jane Root, president of the Discovery channel, described the archaeological find as "maybe one of the most important" in human history.

"We believe that there is compelling data that these tombs may have contained the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and several members of his family," she said.

"This is what makes science so thrilling and important".

But some archaeologists have doubted the claims made in the Discovery documentary.

"I can say positively that I don't accept the identification [as] ... belonging to the family of Jesus in Jerusalem," archaeologist Amos Kloner told the Reuters news agency.

"I don't accept that the family of Miriam and Yosef [Mary and Joseph], the parents of Jesus, had a family tomb in Jerusalem."

And Professor L Michael White of the University of Texas added: "This is trying to sell documentaries. This is not archeologically sound, this is fanfare."