13 - 14 AOÛT 2010
- 14 AOÛT :
- FRANCE : 
Vauville - Il a été entrepris l'étude des tumulus dans La Hague. Après une campagne de prospection, une trentaine de monuments ont été cartographiés. Il a alors été décidé d'ouvrir un échantillon de ces structures pour les dater et comprendre l'organisation des sites funéraires. L'ensemble de tumulus de Vauville a particulièrement retenu l'attention de part leur proximité et la présence d'une fortification protohistorique sur la commune. Il s'agit de masses de terre érigées au-dessus de sépultures mettant en valeur la supériorité d'individus importants de la société de l'époque. Le tumulus a été ouvert à la pelle mécanique puis à fait l'objet d'une fouille minutieuse à la main pour laisser apparaître un ensemble de trois sépultures d'inhumation datant du début de l'âge du bronze c'est-à-dire il y a de ça près de 4000 ans. Habituellement, le sol acide de la région dissout les matières organiques et il ne reste que peu de traces du défunt. Les premières interprétations laissent penser que le défunt était accompagné d'un arc, de haches, d'un poignard et d'autres objets encore indéterminés mais que les analyses aideront à déterminer. De plus, seule une dent donnera une datation précise et sûrement bien d'autres informations.
- FRANCE : 
Gréez-sur-Roc - Ce qui fait la particularité de ce chantier de fouilles, c'est avant tout sa superficie de plusieurs hectares, dans un état de conservation peu ordinaire. « En effet, les traces du néolithique ne manquent pas d'une manière générale, mais les sites sont en général très petits et très abîmés, précise Simon Goudissard, ingénieur d'études. C'est surtout la dimension de ce chantier qui le rend passionnant. » Si rapidement les traces d'une première maison ont été retrouvées, c'est quasiment un village qui est désormais reconstitué. Grâce à l'étude des pierres qui ont servi à l'implantation des poteaux et qui ont été travaillées pour recevoir un plancher, on a désormais une belle vision de ce village.
- INDE : 
Bharot Caves - Time and neglect have left the ancient caves in a dangerous state of disrepair that now threaten them as a place of pilgrimage for India’s fire-worshipping Parsi community. In the 14th century, their ancestors fled to the caves with the sacred fire of their Zoroastrian religion, to escape a Mughal invasion. According to legend, the “Iranshah” – the first fire to be consecrated in India – remained alight throughout the 12 long years they were there.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=118200#axzz0wb8Glldb
- 13 AOÛT :
- ITALIE : 
Gela - The wooden wreck, thought to be an Ancient Greek trading vessel, was brought to the surface in a complex operation. The vessel, located around 2 kilometres away from the southern Sicilian town of Gela and 150 metres from shore, was the latest in a series of underwater finds in this area over recent weeks. A four-metre wooden girder was brought to the surface a few days ago, probably once part of the ship's keel. A month ago, the same spot yielded up around a dozen amphorae and pieces of pottery, which were probably on board when the boat sank. The vessel has been taken to shore and placed in a massive desalination tank. Archaeologists believe the ship sank in a storm some 800 metres off the coast while transporting goods from Gela back to Greece in around 500 BC. Gela was founded by settlers from Rhodes and Crete in the late 7th century BC and reached its pinnacle under the tyrants Hippocrates and Gelon, who also conquered neighbouring Syracuse.
http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2010/08/13/visualizza_new.html_1880781996.html
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Melksham- Archaeologists in Melksham have uncovered evidence of medieval iron working believed to date from the 13th-14th century. A team from Cotswold Archaeology has been excavating before new housing is built at Clackers Brook on the east of Melksham. Archaeologists have uncovered a rectangular pit measuring 1m wide, 2m in length and 0.5m deep which bears some very unusual scorch marks, indicating that the pit was heated to a very high temperature. The iron made on site would most likely have been used for agricultural and domestic implements. Shards of medieval pottery and quantities of iron working waste have also been discovered at the site.
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/8330542.Medieval_pit_revealed_in_Melksham/
- INDE : Nagpur - Using remote sensing imagery in a unique way, a scientist at the Maharashtra Remote Sensing and Applications Centre (MRSAC) has located two burial sites of about 3000-3500 years back. One of these megaliths (large stones), Junapani, found near just 9 km from the city on Katol road, is now part of the acquired area of the proposed Gorewada Zoo project. Though the site is known to the archeologists, it has last been mentioned in the Nagpur Gazetteer in 1930. Spread in an area of about 6-7 km, the megaliths can be of much historical importance and have potential of being converted into a heritage site. The megaliths were located using "quick bird" remote sensing satellite launched in 2007. MRSAC directorVinod Bothale tells that the satellite has a resolution of 60 cm and hence gives good imageries. The megaliths of Junapani like all burial sites in Nagpur and adjoining districts of Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Bhandara districts in Vidarbha are made of basalt rocks. Basalt being black the megaliths appears as small black rings on the satellite image. The Junapani burial site has about 100-125 megaliths.
- TURQUIE : 
Istanbul - The only surviving Byzantine monastic complex from 9th-century Constantinople has been uncovered in the Küçükyalı Arkeopark, located on the Anatolian side of Istanbul.The rich monastic complex, built between 867 and 877, encompasses the church and burial place of Patriarch Ignatios, a prominent figure in Byzantine history who is depicted in the mosaics inside Hagia Sophia. Archaeologists found beautifully decorated marble floors, golden mosaics, wonderful coins and beautiful art objects. The French author Pargoire wrote a study on monasteries on the Marmara seashore that identified the ruins in the area as part of the Satyros Monastery.
- CANADA : Rivière des Outaouais - Le courant de la rivière, l'important réseau de communication et de transport créé par les embouchures avec les rivières Gatineau et Rideau, les chutes de la Chaudière ; clairement c'est ici l'endroit idéal pour s'arrêter, camper, faire un portage, enterrer ses ancêtres et échanger avec d'autres groupes. Les premières découvertes archéologiques répertoriées dans la région sont survenues lors des 19e et 20e siècles. Il y a ensuite eu des époques plus intenses que d'autres, mais les fouilles n'ont jamais cessé. C'est ainsi qu'en 1960, des fouilles ont propulsé l'Île aux allumettes et l'Île Morrison comme deux des plus importants sites de l'époque Archaïque en Amérique du Nord. Les trouvailles qui y ont été faites ont permis de remonter jusqu'à 6000 ans en arrière. Ces deux îles situées dans le Pontiac étaient hautement stratégiques dans le réseau d'échange qui était en place à l'époque. Dès lors, l'Outaouais était considérée comme un endroit de premier ordre pour bien comprendre la préhistoire de l'est de l'Amérique du Nord. Les recherches de Marcel Laliberté lancées au début des années 1990 ont permis de mettre au jour un véritable complexe de 16 sites archéologiques. Une quantité impressionnante de poteries et d'outils a été trouvée.
- EGYPTE : 
Oxford - The huge archive of material relating to the discovery of King Tutankhamun has been put online for the first time. The comprehensive notes and photos recording the find by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, were donated to Oxford University’s first Professor of Egyptology, Frank Griffith, by the Carter family. In turn, this archive became the Griffith Institute, attached to Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, and it is the institute’s Keeper of the Archives Dr Jaromir Malek, along with his assistant Elizabeth Fleming, who have diligently been loading the mass of information on to the Internet in their spare time.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8329326.Tutankhamun_excavation_archive_goes_online/
- ITALIE : 
Iles Pontine - A team of marine archeologists using sonar scanners has discovered new underwater treasures in the Italian seas. Trading vessels dating from the first century BC to the 5th through 7th centuries AD were found in the waters of the Pontine Islands. Their cargoes were found to be intact. In their wealth of amphorae, the vessels carried goods from North Africa, Italy and Spain. These included wine, olive oil, fruit and garum, a pungent fish sauce used in Roman cooking.
- GROENLAND : A British anthropologist is setting out on a year-long stay with a small community in Greenland in an ambitious attempt to document its dying language and traditions. Stephen Pax Leonard will live with the Inughuit in north-west Greenland, the world's most northernmost people, and record their conversations and story-telling traditions to try and preserve their language.
- TURQUIE : 
Milas - Police have raided a house used by people suspected of digging illegally for antiquities and discovered two tunnels leading to an underground tomb that housed an ancient marble coffin and frescoes. The 2,800-year-old carved coffin, decorated with reliefs of a bearded reclining man, probably belonged to Hecatomnus, who ruled over Milas. Several treasures that would have been placed in the underground tomb were most likely looted by the treasure hunters and sold in the illegal antiquities trade.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gW3NXMpqaEDIu9Hu5YaCREYuwxeAD9HIK7V00
- INDE : Sengalur - Hundreds of Iron Age megalithic burial sites of different types and habitational deposits of the contemporary period have been discovered by Archeological Survey of India (ASI) at Sengalur village in the Pudukottai District of Tamil Nadu. More than 500 megalithic structures believed to be dating back to about 500–300 BC have been found during excavations carried out in an area of about 25 hectares at the village near Tiruchirappalli. The findings include stone circles of laterite or granite boulders and made with cairn packing, cist burial of different types, pit burial and urn burial with or without capstones. A special feature was the rectangular shaped structure of Iron Age sepulchral monument. It was unique and not found anywhere in South India except a solitary finding at Sittannavasal in the same district. The excavations also yielded habitational objects like potteries of different shapes and sizes including bi-coloured (red and black) pots besides iron objects at Melappatti.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Iron-Age-burial-sites-found-in-Tamil-Nadu/Article1-586067.aspx
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Edinburgh - The scene where the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots was murdered in one of history's most notorious unsolved crimes is to be unearthed for the first time in centuries. Archaeologists carrying out excavations on the 16th century site in Edinburgh where Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was killed. The house where Darnley had been lodging, about half a mile from his wife at Holyrood Palace, was associated with the Collegiate Church of St Mary - commonly known as the Kirk O' Field. The remains of the buildings have been buried beneath Old College, part of Edinburgh University, for more than 200 years. But now, ahead of refurbishment work on the Old College quadrangle, archaeologists have been given a rare opportunity to excavate the site. Key finds associated with the Kirk O' Field site, including several bodies which had been interred in the graveyard, have already been uncovered. Other discoveries include the remains of Hamilton House, a mansion built in 1552 for the Duke of Chatelherault, remnants of the first University library, dating from 1617, and parts of the early college courtyards.
http://news.scotsman.com/news/Historic-crime-scene-laid-bare.6473103.jp?articlepage=1