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TURQUIE – 010 ancient anatolia kingdom 1 1024  Türkmen-Karahöyük - Last year, archaeologists were investigating an ancient mound site in central Turkey called Türkmen-Karahöyük. The greater region, the Konya Plain, abounds with lost metropolises, but even so, researchers couldn't have been prepared for what they were about to find. A local farmer told the group that a nearby canal, recently dredged, revealed the existence of a large strange stone, marked with some kind of unknown inscription.Right away it was clear it was ancient, and we recognised the script it was written in: Luwian, the language used in the Bronze and Iron ages in the area. With the aid of translators, the researchers found that the hieroglyphs on this ancient stone block – called a stele – boasted of a military victory. And not just any military victory, but the defeat of Phrygia, a kingdom of Anatolia that existed roughly 3,000 years ago. The royal house of Phrygia was ruled by a few different men called Midas, but dating of the stele, based on linguistic analysis, suggests the block's hieroglyphics could be referring to the King Midas – he of the famous 'golden touch' myth. The stone markings also contained a special hieroglyphic symbolising that the victory message came from another king, a man called Hartapu. The hieroglyphs suggest Midas was captured by Hartapu's forces. "The storm gods delivered the [opposing] kings to his majesty," the stone reads. What's significant about this is that almost nothing is known about King Hartapu, nor about the kingdom he ruled. Nonetheless, the stele suggests the giant mound of Türkmen-Karahöyük may have been Hartapu's capital city, spanning some 300 acres in its heyday, the heart of the ancient conquest of Midas and Phrygia. "We had no idea about this kingdom," Osborne says. "In a flash, we had profound new information on the Iron Age Middle East."

https://www.sciencealert.com/giant-mound-in-turkey-discovered-to-be-mysterious-ancient-kingdom-lost-in-history

TURQUIE – 5e53db7a18c7732a64010ecd  Başur Mound - Within the scope of Ilısu Dam rescue excavations, the missing pieces of a historical play set, which was found in 2012 in the southeastern province of Siirt’s Başur Mound, have been unearthed. Stating that during the excavations in 2012, they found play set pieces that were thought to have been played in a cemetery 5,000 years ago and they identified it as the world’s oldest figurative game set, Sağlamtimur said that they were delighted to find the missing stones of the game in recent excavations.A few parts of the game were missing, we unearthed them in the recent excavations, and we completed the set. This game set is very important, it is the earliest game set that can be dated in a wide region covering Mesopotamia and Anatolia. These are dated between 3,100 and 2,900 B.C. This is probably a grave gift. This game set does not seem to be played too much; there is no wear on it. Stating that the game set was defined as “the ancestor of chess” and similar games were also found in Egypt, Sağlamtimur explained, “Unfortunately, we could not find the board of this game set. It was probably inside the grave, but it decayed. If we found its board, we could understand how to play it. Games like this continue, they have similar ones in even in Egypt. The game set consists of colored stones, something must be related to the color in the game. The two main animal figures that gave the game its name are pigs and dogs. So, we named this game as ‘pigs and dogs’ because the games that were found later were named as such. When we consider the shapes and numbers of the stones, we estimate that the game is based on number four. 

https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/missing-pieces-of-ancient-game-set-found-152398

IRAN - Tom Gavan - “According to early reports, a very important building from the Achaemenid era (550-330 BC) has been discovered in a prehistorical Tepe (hill) situated near Tom Gavan village of Jiroft [county, Kerman province],” Jiroft governor said on Sunday, IRNA reported.“The hill itself dates back to [some] 6,500 years ago to the third millennium BC,” Abuzar Atapourvaziri stated. The official announced the launch of a research laboratory and archaeological site in Jiroft, adding, “It is constructed to keep data and artifacts [collected] from the [neighboring] archaeological sites for further investigation.” Senior Iranian archaeologist Nader Alidad-Soleymani and German Professor Peter Pfalzner co-led a newly-commenced comprehensive survey, which is aimed to record evidence about previously excavated sites in the counties of Jiroft, Kahnouj, Anbarabad, Faryab, Rudbar, Qalehganj and Manujan. Supervised by Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Research Center, the previous surveys adopted a methodology that involved field sampling methods, pottery documentation, setting up a database system and carbon dating. Jiroft is one of the richest historical areas inA the world, with ruins and artifacts dating back to the third millennium BC. Many Iranian and foreign experts see the findings in Jiroft as signs of a civilization as great as Sumer and ancient Mesopotamia.

https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/445719/Remnants-of-prehistorical-settlement-discovered-in-Iran-s-Jiroft

FRANCE – Image 1 13 Agde - Alors que la troisième semaine de fouilles est bien entamée, les archéologues et les plongeurs qui officient sur le site de la Motte, à quelques mètres de profondeur sous le fleuve Hérault, étoffent jour après jour leurs connaissances sur ce site daté de l'âge du Bronze (- 2900 ans av. J.-C. environ). Un village lacustre, situé en bordure du fleuve, qui livre peu à peu des informations sur la manière dont vivaient ces Agathois avant l'heure. De nombreux pieux en bois, qui servaient notamment à étayer les berges de l'Hérault, sont régulièrement remontés par les plongeurs et étudiés. La semaine dernière, deux hachettes en bronze avaient également été découvertes. Une troisième a été remontée ces derniers jours, ainsi qu'une longue aiguille. Des objets du quotidien qui permettent d'en apprendre un peu plus sur le quotidien de ces populations. 

https://www.midilibre.fr/2020/02/26/agde-de-nouveaux-objets-remontes-du-site-archeologique-de-la-motte,8757630.php

FRANCE – La souterraine La Souterraine - Les fouilles préventives réalisées à côté de la nationale 145, près de La Souterraine (Creuse) ont permis de trouver des trésors médiévaux.  Le site étudié, d'une superficie d'un hectare environ, date du 9e et 13e siècle. Les archéologues ont retrouvé une lampe à huile quasiment entière, des pierres à aiguiser, des outils pour le métier à tisser, des céramiques jusque-là inconnues dans le Limousin ainsi que de nombreux silos à grain, presque intacts. Des souterrains, dont la fonction reste encore mystérieuse, ont également été découverts. On sait juste que le nombre et la taille de silos retrouvés est très important, on peut penser que le peuplement était important, en tout cas le site abritait une activité agricole dense. On est en droit de se demander si ce n'était pas le village d'origine avant la création de La Souterraine par les moines au 11e siècle.

https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/societe/des-tresors-du-moyen-age-decouverts-pres-de-la-souterraine-en-creuse-1581617290

BELGIQUE – Gand - Dans la ville de Gand, des archéologues ont révélé neuf murs fait à partir d’os sous la cathédrale de Saint-Jean (aujourd’hui cathédrale de Saint-Bavon). Des os des membres inférieurs, de cuisses et de tibias d'adultes, avec des crânes pour séparer chaque paroi. Ces restes sont principalement ceux d’hommes et de femmes. Le lieu était autrefois un cimetière, fonctionnel entre le milieu du XIIe siècle et 1784. Les déblayages de ce type de lieu étaient réguliers, nécessaire pour accueillir d’autres corps. Les squelettes extraits étaient soigneusement entassés. La raison ? La croyance de résurrection du corps était très présente à l’époque. Une attention toute particulière était donc apportée aux os, la partie du corps considérée comme la plus importante. Mais la découverte d’un entassement d’os sous forme de murs est une première en Belgique, et plus généralement un fait rare. L’utilisation spécifique de certains os et la raison de telles formations restent pour le moment un mystère. Une première analyse date les os de la seconde moitié du XVe siècle. Les archéologues pensent que la construction des murs, quant à eux, daterait entre les débuts XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècle.

https://www.geo.fr/histoire/des-archeologues-decouvrent-des-murs-dos-sous-une-cathedrale-en-belgique-200043