09 - 10 NOVEMBRE 2010
- 10 NOVEMBRE :
- U.S.A. : Chaco Canyon - A study in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that social hierarchies may have emerged within Southwestern Native American society as early as the 9th century. Stephen Plog and Carrie Heitman used unpublished archival information and modern radiocarbon dating, and performed an updated archeological analysis to examine Pueblo mortuary sites within the Chaco Canyon. Chaco has long been considered a remarkable example of multifaceted culture in the prehistoric New World, but researchers remain divided over whether Chaco gave rise to chiefly societies, or if the society and buildings were cooperatively constructed. Together with other data, patterns of human remains and artifacts within several great house mortuaries suggested to the authors that the long-observed disparity in burial numbers between small houses and great houses in the canyon may be due to the presence of social hierarchies. The authors suggest that only Chaco elites were buried in great houses, where their status was legitimized through ritual links to ancestors and cosmological forces.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-social-inequality-pueblo-indians.html
- EGYPTE : 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is voluntarily returning 19 artifacts to Egypt that had been in its collection for decades and that Met curators recently determined came from Tutankhamen’s tomb. Among the more significant are a tiny bronze dog, less than three-quarters of an inch tall, a small sphinx from a bracelet, nails ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/arts/design/10met.html?_r=1
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Peterborough - Hoards of Bronze Age weapons, pots still full of food and elaborate textiles have all been uncovered at an archaeological dig near Peterborough. The unusually well-preserved finds are due to a fierce fire in 500BC, which caused the artefacts to sink rapidly into the peaty fen waters. Archaeologist Tim Malim said: "The textile finds are unique within England," he continued. "We've never found anything from this date before." The archaeologists also quite literally walked in the steps of our Bronze Age ancestors - uncovering human and animal footprints in the mud. The settlement was unusual. Instead of being built on dry land, the buildings were attached to a large wooden platform balanced on thick, oak piles driven into the bed of the River Nene. This helped preserve the finds when a fire broke out sometime between 700BC and 500BC. As well as the textiles, rare pottery, wicker fishing traps, wooden walkways and bronze tools have been revealed. The archaeologists also discovered glass beads previously unknown to this late Bronze Age, so they could be imports from Europe. The contents of the 50 pots of food are awaiting analysis by experts. Rising sea levels gradually flooded this part of Cambridgeshire from the late Bronze Age, causing people to retreat to the higher, drier areas, with wooden walkways linking them above the bogs. Large-scale clay extraction in this area, known as the Flag Fen basin, has given archaeologists the chance to discover how the landscape developed and uncover the way people lived. Now the Cambridge Archaeological Unit has moved on to another part of the quarry where two burial mounds, or barrows, cobbled tracks and fishing traps have been uncovered.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/cambridgeshire/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9168000/9168497.stm
- MEXIQUE : Teotihuacan - The first robotic exploration of a pre-Hispanic ruin in Mexico has revealed that a 2,000-year-old tunnel under a temple at the famed Teotihuacan ruins has a perfectly carved arch roof and appears stable enough to enter. Archaeologists lowered the remote-controlled, camera-equipped vehicle into the 12-foot-wide (4-meter) corridor and sent wheeling through it to see if it was safe for researchers to enter. The one-foot (30-cm) wide robot was called "Tlaloque 1" after the Aztec rain god. The grainy footage shot by the robot was presented Wednesday by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. It shows a narrow, open space left after the tunnel was intentionally closed off between A.D. 200 and 250 and filled with debris nearly to the roof. Archaeologist Sergio Gomez says the footage showed the arched-roof tunnel was an example of sophisticated work by the ancient inhabitants of Teotihuacan, which is located just north of modern Mexico City. "All of the passage, more than 100 metres (yards) long was excavated in the rock perfectly, and in some places you can even see the marks of the tools the people of Teotihuacan used to make it," said Gomez. Well-worked blocks and a smoothly-arched ceiling showed the tunnel was not natural, but rather a man-made structure that researchers believe lead to possible burial chambers. Researchers hope to clear the debris blocking the tunnel's mouth and enter passageway by late November or early December. After excavating a vertical shaft that leads to the tunnel entrance, the mouth of the passageway was discovered in July. Ground-penetrating scanner images showed that the passageway lies 40 feet (12 metres) below the surface, and runs beneath the Temple of Quetzacoatl, in the central ceremonial area of the ruins. The scanner images appear to show chambers that branch off the tunnel and archaeologists think they may hold the tombs of some of the ancient city's early rulers. Experts say a tomb discovery would be significant because the social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site, which is best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun. No depiction of a ruler, or the tomb of a monarch, has ever been found, setting the metropolis apart from other pre-Hispanic cultures that deified their rulers.
- 09 NOVEMBRE :
- MARTINIQUE : Lancement d'une banque numérique. En un clic, Claude Lise, président du conseil général, a ouvert officiellement le premier portail d'accès aux ressources documentaires sur le patrimoine culturel et historique de la Martinique. Découvrez les cultures amérindiennes de la Martinique à travers une sélection de plus de 300 objets archéologiques du Musée d’archéologie et de préhistoire. Céramiques, pierres polies ou gravées, coquillages témoignent de la vie des premiers occupants de l’île. Bientôt, vous visiterez virtuellement les sites archéologiques et les autres collections conservées au Service régional d’archéologie.
http://www.patrimoines-martinique.org/?id=68