17 - 18 SEPTEMBRE 2011 NEWS : Bezverkhovo - Kodiak - Kuchchiveli - Neelagiri chetiya -

 - 17 - 18  SEPTEMBRE

 - INDI-UNI :ANTHROPOLOGIE - ARCHEOLOGIE

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 - RUSSIE –  Bezverkhovo - Les archéologues de l'Université fédérale d'Extrême-Orient ont découvert dans le sud du Primorie deux campements d'hommes du haut Age du fer, informe ITAR-TASS. La trouvaille est datée du premier millénaire avant notre ère. Les campements se trouvent sur le territoire du camping Sidimi, près du village de Bezverkhovo du district de Khassan. Les scientifiques ont découvert sur le chantier de fouilles des fragments de vaisselle, des outils de pierre et beaucoup de coquilles de crustacés." Selon toute évidence, les objets que nous avons trouvés, c'est un camp provisoire d'hommes qui venaient à la mer pour pêcher le poisson et les mollusques, pendant un ou quelques jours ", a raconté le directeur du muséum de l'université Alexandre Popov.

http://french.ruvr.ru/2011/09/17/56316530.html

 - USA – Kodiak - Going into the community archaeology dig this summer, Alutiiq Museum curator Patrick Saltonstall hoped to find one of the oldest inhabited sites on the Kodiak archipelago. What Saltonstall and a team of volunteers unearthed this year at the Amak site, near the Salonie Creek Rifle Range, was something different but no less important for understanding the people who lived on Kodiak Island thousands of years ago. While the ocean is about a mile away from the site today, 3,000 years ago Womens Bay extended farther inland. The Amak site would have been overlooking a beach area at the head of the bay. Saltonstall said instead of encountering a fishing camp or a winter site as he expected, the artifacts gathered at the site suggest a temporary hunting camp. It offers a glimpse into an aspect of the seasonal life of prehistoric Alutiiq people that has not been well understood or documented. "We found almost nothing but hunting tools — just big lances," Saltonstall said. "It looks like people were going there with finished tools and hunting something. They weren't living there, really, so it was a very distinctive site assemblage that says something. A very different assemblage than any of our other sites." Instead of finding flakes created in the production of hunting tools, the assemblage contained just completed blades, both broken and whole. The excavation uncovered a huge pile of rocks and noted that a large amount of dirt had been moved from part of the site and piled elsewhere. This represents a great deal of work in a time before shovels. The reason behind so much effort isn't completely clear. Another mystery came near the last day of the excavation as the community archaeology team discovered a structure that didn't match the rest of the hunting camp. However, without time to do a thorough excavation of that structure, it was reburied. And then there are signs that the hunting camp site is associated with older settlements from thousands of years earlier — but those signs have been obscured by later activity at the site. The Amak site will likely be the subject of a community archaeology program again next year to answer the remaining questions.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/306bd4bf47eb43258577282601fd21f2/AK--Archaeology-Project/

 - SRI LANKA – Kuchchiveli - A team of archaeologists from the Sorbonne University in France has found evidence of a well-developed human settlement in Kuchchiveli in Trincomalee that dates back to 1 and 2 BC during the on going excavations in the area. They have taken in hand the excavations under a joint programme with the Department of Archaeology.  They said it was the first time that any evidence of a human settlement in the Kuchchiveli area during the Anuradahapura period was found and that there had been no mention about human settlements in the area in the available records of history.  They said they discovered archaeological remains of a well developed commercial town with temples and cheithiyas. The head of the research team, Professor of Archaeology of the Sorbonne University, Oswald Bopearachchi said a very significant find was a pond with walls built with 34 lines of bricks reinforced with lime mortar.  “We found the pond after excavating to a depth of about three metres. The bricks found there were about 42 cm. in length and 20cm in width and similar to those of the Anuradhapura period. I am of the opinion that the row of steps leading to the bottom of the pond indicates that it had been used by monks. However, the Archaeological Department had not discovered it earlier. A host of ancient coins and clay pots were among other finds. The history of the Kuchchiveli settlement runs as far back as the 1st century BC. The statue of the Avalokeswara Bodhisathwa found during the excavations a little distance away from the pond was a clear indication that Kuchchiveli had been a commercial town with a sea port. Statues of Avalokeswara Bodhisathawa had been found during excavations in every ancient port in Sri Lanka. The sailors in the ancient times kept statues of Avalokeswara Bodhisathwa who, they believed, had a miraculous healing power. The archaeological remains of the ancient Kuchchiveli town were found about two metres underground,”  Professor Bopearachchi said.

http://print.dailymirror.lk/news/provincial-news/56466.html

 - SRI LANKA – Neelagiri chetiya - Archaeologists engaged in excavation work in the historic Neelagiri chetiya in Amapara have discovered a host of artefacts. One of the interesting find was a golden casket containing an unidentified object wrapped in a gold coloured fabric. Archaeologists who believed the contents might be sacred relics have not opened the wrapper. They decided to open it in the presence of the senior officials of the Department. They said the golden casket placed in a clay bowl was discovered during excavations in the south of the chethiya. Several marble caskets, beads, a granite replica of a chethiya and a inscription were among other findings.   The inscription discovered about 150 metres north of the chethiya indicated the donations made by a queen of King Bahatikabhaya to the Neelagiri temple. The project inaugurated in 1970 had been abandoned due to the military presence in the area.  The project was resumed recently by a team of archaeologists under the supervision of Officer-in-charge of the project, Sampath Gurusinghe and the Director of Archaeology (Excavations) Dr. Nimal Perera and on the instructions of the Director General of Archaeology Senerath Dissanayake.

http://print.dailymirror.lk/news/news/56498.html