A geography teacher in Coventry, England, found an ancient stone while weeding his garden in 2020, but the digging didn’t stop from there. The finding of the stone led the teacher and researchers down a path of discovery, seeking the true value of the find.

Graham Senior found a sandstone measuring 4 inches long in his garden while weeding in 2020. The sandstone featured deeply carved parallel lines on its surface. 

“It caught my eye as I was clearing an overgrown part of the garden,” Senior said in a statement per Live Science. “At first, I thought it was some kind of calendar.” 

MOM, SON DIG UP ANCIENT OBJECT OFTEN FOUND NEAR BURIAL GROUNDS WHILE GARDENING

As it turns out, the parallel lines carved into its surface was ogham, an ancient written language native to Ireland. 

“Finding out later it was an ogham stone and over 1,600 years old was incredible,” Senior said, per the source. 

Senior first reached out to the Portable Antiquities Scheme to report what he had found. 

“This is an amazing find. The beauty of the Portable Antiquities Scheme is that people are finding stuff that keeps rewriting our history,” said Teresa Gilmore, archaeologist and finds liaison officer for Staffordshire and West Midlands based at Birmingham Museums, per the Irish Times.

A geography teacher found the ancient stone while weeding his garden in Coventry. (David Goddard/Getty Images)

12-YEAR-OLD BOY STUMBLES UPON STUNNING ANCIENT FIND WHILE WALKING DOG IN ENGLAND: ‘RELATIVELY RARE’

“This particular find has given us a new insight into early medieval activity in Coventry, which we still need to make sense of. Each find like this helps in filling in our jigsaw puzzle and gives us a bit more information,” she continued. 

Archaeologists are still unsure about how the stone got to the garden in Coventry. 

“There’s a lot of possibilities as to why it came over,” Gilmore said, per Live Science. “This is one of the things about some of the amazing finds that turn up; they often create more questions than answers.”

The stone was later brought to Katherine Forsyth, from the University of Glasgow in early 2024, who translated part of the script. 

The ancient find is on display at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. (English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

She translated the script into the name: “Mael Dumcail.” 

Senior has donated the stone to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry. The artifact will be part of the Collecting Coventry exhibition until April 2025. 

“We might never know how Mael lost the stone and how it ended up in a garden in Coventry, but I hope future research will reveal more,” Herbert museum curator Ali Wells said in a statement, per Live Science. 

Tropical Storm Francine will likely become a Category 1 hurricane before reaching Louisiana coast on Wednesday.

A tropical storm moving over the Gulf of Mexico is expected to grow into a hurricane, threatening the southern United States, including the coastlines of Texas and Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Tropical Storm Francine is expected to travel over warm water that will serve as fuel to strengthen it before it makes landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Wednesday with winds of 90mph (145km/h).

The storm is expected to stay just offshore of the coast of northeastern Mexico on Tuesday as it moves northeast towards the US.

Coastal residents are being warned of life-threatening storm surge of up to 10 feet (three metres) in places, as well as potential tornadoes and dangerous winds, forecasters said. Residents were encouraged to evacuate some low-lying areas.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Tropical Storm Francine was about 380 miles (610km) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, about 85 miles (136km) west of New Orleans. With maximum sustained wind speeds of 65mph (105km/h), it is 9mph (14.5 km/h) short of hurricane status.

7am CDT Sep 10th Update on Tropical Storm #Francine.

Coastal Hurricane Warnings have been extended eastward to Grand Isle, LA. A Tropical Storm Warning is now in effect to the mouth of the Pearl River, including metropolitan New Orleans.

Latest update: https://t.co/31xmuEYovB pic.twitter.com/JCoUgQ3U3o

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 10, 2024

Schools closed

The governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, urged residents “not to panic, but be prepared” and heed evacuation warnings. Some schools and colleges in the state closed on Tuesday through Wednesday as a precaution.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana’s capital, long lines began forming as people filled petrol tanks and stocked up on groceries.

The Louisiana coast is still recovering from a battering in 2020 from hurricanes Laura and Delta, followed a year later by Hurricane Ida. The state recently marked the 19th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a major Category 5 storm that caused 1,392 deaths and damages estimated at almost $200bn.

US oil and gas producers on the Gulf of Mexico, including Exxon Mobil and Shell, had evacuated staff and in some cases paused drilling in preparation for the storm.

Warmer seas

Francine is the sixth storm to be named in 2024. Its arrival comes as meteorologists have been scratching their heads over a quiet August and early September, normally the peak of the annual hurricane season, which typically lasts from June until November.

Experts had predicted a more active than usual season this year due to a confluence of factors, including warmer than usual seas.

Water temperatures are about 31 degrees Celsius (87 degrees Fahrenheit) where Francine is located, said Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

“The ocean heat content averaged over the entire Gulf is the highest it’s been on record for the date,” McNoldy wrote on his blog.

Forecasters are also monitoring two other weather systems in the mid-Atlantic that have the potential to grow into larger storms.