Archaeologists on a Greek island have discovered a large Roman-era tomb containing gold jewelry, pottery and bronze offerings, officials said Wednesday. The building, near the village of Fiscardo on Kefalonia, contained five burials including a large vaulted grave and a stone coffin, prompting a quick and angry rebuke by the Iranian Government.

Even though the dig was no where near the fabled lands that made up ancient Sparta, uncovered artifacts dated hundreds of years after the battle of Thermopylae, and offered no insight or speculation on the Persian Empire, Iran is furious.

“Once again our great and proud ancestry has been shamed,” shouted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “by horrible and racist depictions of the Persian Empire by these alleged scientists who promote nothing but hatred in their uncovering of small stone coffins unrelated to our people in every way.”

Ahmadinejad was equally outraged that archaeologists also located traces of what may have been a small theater with intact stone seating in a nearby plot that also reflected no relation whatsoever to the Persian Empire or the Ancient Iranian peoples.

“This is Blasphemy!”, Ahmadinejad exclaimed in a recent press conference, dressed in lavish Persian robes and distinct facial piercings. “This is Madness!”