02 MAI 2023 NEWS
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MAROC – 
Tamanart - Deep in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco’s Sahara desert, an abandoned mud-brick synagogue was in the process of slowly crumbling, its roof caving and columns teetering, when, in 2020, it was rediscovered by a group of Israeli and Moroccan researchers. Antiquities thieves had already ransacked the former house of prayer, searching for anything of value and scattering sacred Jewish texts that had been buried in the geniza, a repository for old or unusable holy texts. To salvage and study what remained, the group of researchers started the process of obtaining permits to start an archaeological dig at the synagogue. The Israeli researchers — as usual — played down affiliations with their home universities.
ITALIE – Livourne - Archaeologists in Livorno, Italy, are putting together the pieces of a great mystery that began with a stunning find. While hiking in a cleared area of a Tuscan forest northeast of Livorno, a member of the Livorno Paleontological Archaeological Group spotted a few glimmering coins in the dirt in November 2021. Upon closer inspection and excavation, researchers determined that the find included 175 silver Roman denarii coins. Nearly all were in good condition, making this one of the few hoards of ancient coins found intact, according to the group. But the discovery prompted a number of questions: Whose treasure was it? Who were they hiding it from? And why didn't they come back for it? The archaeological group, along with the archaeologist official for the provinces of Pisa and Livorno, Dr. Lorella Alderighi, has spent more than a year measuring, weighing and documenting the coins, according to a news release posted on its Facebook page. Now, the researchers think they have some answers.;"This treasure is about a person's life, the savings of a soldier's life and his hopes for building his farm," Alderighi said via email. "However, it also tells a sad story: (T)he owner of the coins died before he could make his dreams come true using his savings. The coins tell his story." It's impossible to know exactly who buried the coins, Alderighi said, but the coins would most likely have been the treasure of a former soldier who served during Rome's Social War from 91 to 88 BC and during the civil war between Sulla and the Marians from 83 to 82 BC.The owner of the hoard buried it in a terra-cotta pot, which served as a sort of piggy bank. The earliest coins in the stash dated to 157 or 156 BC, and the latest up to 83 or 82 BC, according to the archaeological group's release. During that time, 175 denarii would have been a soldier's salary for about a year and a half, Alderighi said.
https://www.wral.com/buried-treasure-including-nearly-200-roman-coins-found-in-italy/20837163/
ITALIE – 
Rome - Archaeologists have unearthed 500-year-old 'urine flasks' at a medical dump within Caesar's forum in Rome. A Renaissance-era trash dump discovered inside the Forum of Caesar in Rome is brimming with old medical supplies, including 500-year-old medicine bottles and urine flasks — containers used to collect patients' pee for medical analysis, a new study finds. Initially excavated in 2021, the 16th-century medical waste dump was found in the area of Caesar's Forum, which was completed in 46 B.C. and dedicated to Julius Caesar. But a millennium and a half later, a guild of bakers used the exact same space to build the Ospedale dei Fornari (Bakers' Hospital). The hospital's workers then created the dump, according to the study, published April 11 of the journal Antiquity. During their work, archaeologists with the international collaboration Caesar's Forum Excavation Project discovered a Renaissance-era cistern full of ceramic vessels, rosary beads, broken glass jars and personal items like coins and a ceramic camel figurine. Many of the objects, they suggest, were related to routine patient care at the Ospedale dei Fornari, with each person admitted to the hospital given their own "welcome basket" with a jug, drinking glass, bowl and plate as a hygienic measure.
EGYPTE – 
- According to a new peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, anemia was relatively common amongst children mummified during ancient Egyptian times. Researchers were able to identify anemia in one-third of child mummies through CT scans, as well as cases of thalassemia. Researchers from Germany, Italy, and the US found that anemia was most likely common amongst children in ancient Egypt due to malnutrition, parasitic infections, and genetic disorders, all of which are prevalent in causing anemia today. It is even believed that Tutankhamun, or King Tut, may have died of sickle cell disease, a cause of anemia. However, the researchers of this recent study believe that "the direct evidence of anemia in human remains from ancient Egypt is rare." Anemia is a condition where the body lacks enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the body's tissues. Researchers compared child mummies with adults and found that the remains exhibited more signs of anemia, possibly causing their early death. It is still unclear, however, if it was the cause of death for the majority of the child mummies. The CT scans were unable to determine just how much anemia played a role in all of their scans, and they looked for signs of diseases that may have led to anemia.
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-741729
PORTO RICO – 
Ortiz - Thirty years ago, a private contractor unearthed a collection of human remains, along with tens of thousands of other artifacts, from the Ortiz site, what would prove to be the island of Puerto Rico’s oldest burial location. The artifacts from the site wouldn’t be analyzed until recently when that 35-box collection landed in the possession of University of Miami bioarcheologist William Pestle, associate professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences. Pestle, who specializes in the study of human skeletons from archaeological sites, has spent the past four years delicately investigating the bones, some dating back nearly 4,000 years, using a fine-grained approach. A considerable addition to what was previously known about the earliest people of Puerto Rico has been revealed according to Pestle’s peer-reviewed study recently published in the PLOS ONE journal, entitled “Reconsidering the lives of the earliest Puerto Ricans: Mortuary Archeology and bioarcheology of the Ortiz.” Though the remains were poorly preserved, Pestle was able to reframe and uncover a deep past of some of the earliest people from southwestern Puerto Rico, a region known today as Cabo Rojo. The study provided critical insights into burial practices, which suggest multiple generations were buried in a single area and that they ate a diet consisting of plants and fish. Despite more than a century of archeological research on the early inhabitants of Puerto Rico, there are still large gaps in the knowledge of the island’s Indigenous peoples. While the first inhabitants are believed to have come from South and Central America to Puerto Rico as early as 4300 B.C.E., there are few well-studied early sites. In their new research, Pestle and Perez were able to date the remains from the Ortiz site to be as early as 1880 B.C.E., making them the earliest directly dated burials from the island and contributing significantly to the accurate understanding of the island’s first inhabitants.
HONGRIE – 
Jászberén - In an extremely rare finding, the ELTE Faculty of Humanities and the Eötvös Loránd Research Network announced the unearthing of a Roman doctor and his tools in a press release. Researchers at the ELTE University, in collaboration with the Jász Museum, discovered the tomb of the doctor using a preliminary magnetometer field survey about 49 miles (80km) from Budapest, near the city of Jászberény. These field surveys involve the use of a magnetometer which measures the strength and direction of the Earth’s magnetic field. A magnetic map created of the area by recording measurements at regular intervals is then used to identify buried objects. On excavating the area identified through preliminary surveys, the team uncovered the tomb—seemingly untouched for 2000 years—and found two wooden chests along with the physician’s remains, skull, and leg bones intact. These chests contained high-quality medical tools, including forceps, tweezers, and scalpels which suggests the doctor was a surgeon. These copper-made scalpels bore ornate designs of silver and had replaceable steel blades. Until now, a complete medical set of similar designs had only been discovered in Pompeii. The team also found a grinding stone placed by the doctor’s knee that might have served to mix herbs and other medicinal plants
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/first-century-roman-doctor-found-in-hungary
CANADA –
Carbonear. - Keith Thomas went down to the site of the big dig in Carbonear hoping to see something interesting, but was blown away when he saw what lay beneath the town's main street. There were stones stacked on top of each other, forming an entrance door about eight feet below the street. The man-made structure piqued his curiosity, and has been the talk of the town since Thursday Could it be one of the secret tunnels that have long been part of the town's lore? Or is it just a sewer from some point in the town's nearly 400-year-old history? Thomas, who heads up the Carbonear Heritage Society, enlisted the help of provincial archeologist, Jamie Brake, and is hoping to find a definitive answer. "It could have been there just for the storage of potatoes, but in bad times it could have been a shelter as well," Thomas told the CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show on Monday. He pointed to the town's violen beginnings, when Newfoundland was often used as a battlefield in the colonial wars between England and France. Thomas said the town was burned down at least three times in the first century after it was settled and there's always been talk that the English settlers built tunnels in the woods to bury their belongings. "After the third burning, maybe somebody said we need to get some place to hide our stuff," he said.What was a wooded area in the 1700s could very likely be the town's main road today. While such possibilities are fascinating, the structure could also be a root cellar or part of a sewer system. Thomas said there was another structure — a room — next to it that was destroyed during the dig.
GRECE – 
Crète - Ongoing construction work on a new highway on the island of Crete revealed parts of an ancient water transport pipeline built during the period of Roman rule on the island.The archaeological discovery reportedly consists of a water transport pipe that was part of the Roman aqueduct of Hersonissos. Aqueducts were an essential element of Roman infrastructure across the empire, including in ancient Greece. They ensured the availability of fresh water in densely populated urban areas where demand was high. The pipeline carried water from Kalo Chorio and Krasi to the Peninsula. It consists of two parts, an open (groove) width of approx. 40cm and a clay (closed) one with a diameter of approx. 25cm. The aqueduct of Hersonissos was a great work of the Roman era. The Romans were leaders in similar projects. Because the morphology of the land consists of ups and downs, they made the necessary works with the water bridges so that the water flows smoothly in the groove above the bridges. In many places, this groove was supported by wall construction“Its length was 14km, it took the water from two sources located at a great distance from each other,” the author continued. “The first source was located at the “Leontari” location in Krasi, while the second one was 3 meters south of the tap of the community reservoir of Kalos Horiou Pediados.”“Then the two pipelines joined into one that ended in the Peninsula. The transport capacity of the pipeline was twice that of Lyktos. The pipeline passed through gullies, ravines and steep (inclined) slopes), through the uneven surfaces of the mountains and ended at the Peninsula.”“The water of the pipeline was collected in a very large tank located on a hill south of the Port of Hersonissos at the “Palatia” location. This covered vaulted tank was 58m long, 22m wide, and 5.5m deep. The 4.5m underground section was carved out of natural rock. The thickness of the western walls was 1.60m.”The Romans ruled Crete from 67 BC and they developed infrastructure such as aqueducts in and around the island’s pre-existing ancient Greek cities.
https://greekreporter.com/2023/05/01/crete-ancient-roman-pipeline/
EGYPTE – 
- Il a été le premier à percer le secret des hiéroglyphes, en 1822, à force de patience. Deux siècles après la découverte de Jean-François Champollion, la technologie s'emploie encore à révéler les mystères de l'Egypte ancienne. Grâce à son rayon X ultra puissant, L'European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) basé à Grenoble (Isère), a permis récemment de nouvelles découvertes sur les papyrus conservés depuis 2017 à la maison Champollion. C'est une civilisation née il y a plus de 5 000 ans. Et pourtant, aujourd'hui encore pharaons et déesses continuent d'attiser la curiosité des scientifiques. C'est le cas de Pierre-Olivier Autran, un jeune chercheur en physique, auteur d'un article paru récemment dans la très sérieuse revue Scientific Reports. Il a étudié la structure des papyrus. Grâce au rayon X du synchrotron, qui possède un accélérateur de particules dix fois plus puissants que les rayons X habituels, il a pu en déchiffrer les mystères, sans abimer les fragments conservés par le musée Champollion. "On arrive à retrouver la recette qui était utilisée à l'époque, la composition de ces pigments, il y a plusieurs couleurs de la palette égyptienne", explique le chercheur. Sa thèse publiée récemment, met aussi en lumière la fabrication de ces papyrus. Ils seraient composés de trois couches, avec probablement, le travail de plusieurs scribes. "On observe la superposition successive d'un dessin préparatoire, puis de différentes couleurs et à la fin d'un trait au noir de carbone qui permet de souligner la beauté de ces fragments", détaille encore Pierre-Olivier Autran. Plus de 2000 ans après, on en sait donc un peu plus sur ces papyrus ramenés par Champollion lors de son unique campagne de recherche sur le terrain, campagne qui lui fut d'une aide précieuse dans le déchiffrement de l'écriture des hiéroglyphes. "Avec cette étude on a l'impression de revivre la fabrication des papyrus et d'en apprendre davantage sur le travail de Jean-François Champollion. C'est un ensemble de données qui permet aujourd'hui de restituer au public ce fonds", se réjouit Caroline Dugand, conservatrice du musée Champollion. Ces papyrus, qui datent de l'époque ptolémaïque (de 323 à 30 avant notre ère), proviennent de la maison Champollion, à Vif en Isère. Le musée, installé dans la propriété familiale des Champollion, présente des espaces reconstitués, des objets personnels et notes de travail qui plongent le visiteur dans l’effervescence intellectuelle du début du XIXe siècle.