11 Octobre 2016 NEWS: Archeogenetique - Levington - Mer Noire - Man - Abrolhos - Yassıtepe - Aohan - Dhenuvakonda -
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
ONLINE COURSES / COURS A DISTANCE
FALL TERM : OCTOBER 2016
REGISTER NOW
ARCHEOGENETIQUE - A new research project, '1,000 Ancient Genomes', seeks to map the genetic variation among 1,000 prehistoric individuals who lived in Europe and Asia between 1,000 and 50,000 years ago. This data will help researchers give a complete picture of genetic variation among humans from different times and geographic areas. Fifty years ago, geneticists discovered that our DNA contains large amounts of information about an individual's evolutionary history. In a new research project, led by Professor of Genetics Mattias Jakobsson, researchers will use and further develop the latest methods to extract DNA from archaeological skeletal remains and sequence the complete genomes from 1,000 prehistoric individuals. These data will then be analysed using advanced statistical and population genetics methods. The new information is expected to provide entirely new insights about how mobility, migration and connections affected our prehistoric ancestors. Bioarchaeological analyses will be an important part of the project and stable isotopes will help the researchers understand the different individuals' life history, mobility and diet. Archaeological data and interpretations of cultural patterns, ways of life and artefacts as well as paleoclimate data combined with genetic data will provide a new and unique opportunity to cast light on human prehistory in Eurasia. One aim of the project is to create a unique and freely available database of genetic variants in Eurasia. Uppsala University
http://phys.org/news/2016-10-prehistoric-individuals-genetically.html
ROYAUME UNI – Levington - Foundations of an Iron Age round house have been discovered in Levington during a scheme to boost power supplies in south Suffolk and north Essex.
MER NOIRE - 
The first maritime archaeology expedition mapping ancient submerged landscapes to take place in the Black Sea has led to the discovery of more than 40 shipwrecks associated with the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires. Vivid descriptions of these ships can be found in historical records, but some of them had never been seen before. On board an offshore vessel called the Stril Explorer, the team is equipped with some of the most advanced technologies in the world for underwater archaeology. They are surveying the sea bed using two sophisticated Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) – one of which has set new records for both depth (1,800m) and sustained speed (over 6 knots). And what they have found has exceeded their expectations.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/more-40-mysterious-shipwrecks-discovered-depths-black-sea-1585626
ROYAUME UNI – 
Ile de Man - The island’s prehistoric ‘round mounds’, mounds of earth built over human burial sites, will be investigated to find out more about life in the Isle of Man in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Over 160 round mounds have been identified in the island, with four excavated between 30 and 60 years ago. No modern research using systematic survey and excavation has ever been carried out. The new research project will be undertaken by researchers from Newcastle and Leicester Universities, with support from Manx National Heritage and Culture Vannin.It aims to investigate what the sites and their associated burials, people and artefacts can tell us about life in the Isle of Man and also about interaction with other communities across Britain, Ireland and potentially beyond, in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/archaeological-project-to-unearth-prehistoric-sites-1-8170058
AUSTRALIE – 
Abrolhos Islands - Archaeologists are getting closer to the final resting place of a fifth Dutch treasure ship wrecked off the coast of Western Australia before European settlement began. A Western Australian Museum team will spend two weeks in November looking for the remains of the Aagtekerke, which was believed to have carried three tonnes of silver coin and ivory in the form of elephant tusks. The museum is working with wreck-hunter and author Hugh Edwards in the search for the Dutch East India Company ship, believed to have been lost at the Abrolhos Islands off the Mid West coast 300 years ago. Four Dutch East India Company ships have been found off Western Australia: the Batavia (wrecked in 1629), Zeewijk (wrecked in 1727), the Vergulde Draeck (wrecked in 1656), and Zuytdorp (wrecked in 1712). The ships carried trade goods, including large amounts of gold and silver, to buy spices from what is now Indonesia.
TURQUIE – 
Yassıtepe - Grape seeds dating back 5,000 years were the latest discovery of an archaeological research that has been carried out near an 8,500-year-old mound located in the western Izmir province. The seeds were uncovered in Yassıtepe Mound located in Bornova district, which is very close to the nearby 8,500-year-old Yeşilova Mound, the oldest settlement near Turkey's third largest city Izmir. The seeds are presumed to be that of the renowned Bornova Muscat grape. The head of the excavation team, Assoc. Prof. Zafer Derin said that the seeds, which were found in carbonized form at the bottoms of pottery, could be the oldest grape remains in the Izmir area. Derin added that the seeds could help reveal important details regarding life in Western Anatolia during antiquity. Anatolia is regarded as one first the regions were grapes are being cultivated in history, with western provinces of Izmir, Aydın and Manisa being the most prominent centers of grape production in Turkey.
CHINE - Aohan - Cultivation of millet in north China's Inner Mongolia has increased since archaeologists claimed the grain originated there. In the Aohan Banner of Chifeng city, 60,000 hectares are under millet, about four percent of the national crop, said Qiu Wenbo, Party chief of the banner. Carbonized millet grains were found in Aohan in the early 2000s, said Zhao Zhijun with the Institute of Archaeology in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The discovery suggested that millet had become staple food for people in Aohan about 8,000 years ago. According to Liu Guoxiang, an archaeologist with CASS and head of Aohan research base, millet then spread across north China, and westward, as far as Europe.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-10/09/c_135741017.htm
INDE - Dhenuvakonda - Megalithic burial sites dating to the 6th Century BC have been unearthed in and around Dhenuvakonda village in Addanki mandal of Prakasam district. The disturbed Megalithic cyst burials have come to the fore during levelling of roads close to the hillock in the village, according to State Archaeology and Museums Director G.V. Ramakrishna Rao. “This is indicative of a Megalithic culture in existence then when black and red ware potteries had been in use,” he told The Hindu . Similar megalithic burial sites were identified at Penumaka in Guntur district in 2006, he recalls. Cist is a small stone-built coffin-like box used to hold the mortal remains of perhaps deceased warriors, explains department Assistant Director T. John Kamalakar, who visited the site. People then had used a large stone in a more or less slab-like shape and placed cairn circles over it, he adds. The area is abound with about 40 megalithic monuments in Dhenuvakonda and its surroundings, says local historian Jyothi Chandramouli, suggestingfurther studies by the Archaeological Survey of India.