18 MARS 2011 NEWS - Guerrero - Georgetown - Herm - Great Pee Dee - Phanigiri -
- 18 MARS
- MEXIQUE – 
Guerrero - La dispersion d’une importante collection d’art précolombien ce mois-ci à Drouot révèle des trésors méconnus de l’État mexicain du Guerrero. Notamment les mystérieuses figures hiératiques et les petits temples de pierre caractéristiques de la civilisation mezcala. À la différence des cultures olmèque, maya ou aztèque, aujourd'hui bien documentées, certaines civilisations du Mexique gardent encore jalousement leurs secrets. Ainsi des Chontal, et surtout des Mezcala, dont les objets retrouvés au début du XXe siècle dans l'État du Guerrero ont jusqu'ici livré peu d'informations sur leur histoire. Aucun temple n'a été construit sur ces terres situées à l'ouest du Mexique, entre Mexico et Acapulco, ce qui explique sans doute que les archéologues s'y soient si peu intéressés, se concentrant plutôt sur Teotihuacán et Palenque. Le nom de Mezcala-un petit village sur la rive gauche du rio Balsas-a été utilisé pour la première fois en 1945 par l'archéologue mexicain Miguel Covarrubias pour désigner un ensemble de figures humaines et d'objets architecturaux en pierre. Il faudra ensuite attendre les études de Carlo Gay (1913-1998) pour en savoir davantage sur ces objets principalement exhumés près des villages de Mezcala, Mazapa, Xochipala ou Tenantla, à l'exception de certaines pièces retrouvées sur le site du Templo Mayor aztèque. Les oeuvres mezcala ont toutes été produites au cours du préclassique récent (300-100 av. J.-C.). Aucune céramique n'ayant été découverte à leurs côtés, il est impossible de les dater plus précisément. «Ce qui me plaît, c'est justement le mystère qui entoure les oeuvres », confie le Suisse H. Law, qui a décidé de se séparer de l'ensemble de ses objets en vente publique, après trente ans d'une collection débutée dans les années 1980, au hasard d'une petite foire à Annecy.
- EGYPTE - Suite au colloque sur le trafic illicite des biens culturels qui s’est tenu à Paris les 15 et 16 mars, l’agence de l’Organisation des Nations Unies a officiellement appelé à une « mobilisation internationale ». ». Irina Bokova, directrice générale de l'Unesco, a fait part « d'informations alarmantes » concernant les pillages des sites archéologiques et des musées, indiquait le journal Le Monde. Elle a encouragé les autorités à « prendre des mesures concrètes afin de protéger les sites ». Guillemette Andreu-Lanoë, directrice du département des antiquités égyptiennes du Louvre, souligne de son coté que « les pillards vont dans les endroits reculés, comme les sites sauvages des pyramides de Dahshur, Abousir et Saqqarah [...] où il n'y a personne ». D'où la difficulté d'intercepter les voleurs. Au musée du Caire, la liste des objets volés est passée de 18 à 54 pièces en un mois. « Nous avons besoin d'une intervention d'urgence pour protéger le patrimoine, un peu comme cela s'est fait dans les années 1960 au moment de la construction du barrage d'Assouan », explique Gihane Zaki, archéologue égyptienne. Selon elle, « il faut sensibiliser les gens et les former, notamment les gardiens ». Une mission de l'Unesco va se rendre sur place pour « travailler avec les Egyptiens, leur donner plus de moyens, et mettre sur liste rouge les objets volés-"
- USA – 
Georgetown - On P street between 35th and 36th street on a bright Thursday morning, a bit of history unfolds. As the backhoe digs a clean-sided trench to lay the water pipes, layers of strata appear. The first thing that is noticed is a dark line several inches thick about two and a half feet below the road surface that runs parallel to today’s road surface. “That black line is a buried road surface,” Aaron Levinthal, the archeologist on the job tells me. “It is comprised of coal fragments, coal clinkers (the burned up residue from coal stoves), and coal ash. ” The buried road surface was laid sometime in the late 19th century or early 20th century. “Originally, the road was dirt. It was probably very rutted, and when it rained, was most likely impassable. ” He pointed to the area below the black line. “This area, as you can see, was filled over the years with broken bricks, river cobblestones, broken ceramic pottery - anything that residents could throw in the streets to stabilize the road surface. ” The artifacts from the cobbles and broken fragments post date the Civil War, he said. The coal surface was laid over the fill that had been added to the original dirt road. In the years following the construction of the coal road surface in the late 19th Century, more layers were added in the process of road development and formalization, including gutters. One of the houses has a plaque that dates the building to 1826. “The original road surface was actually level with that house at the time it was built,” he said. “Now you walk down the steps to the front door. ”
http://www.thegeorgetowndish.com/thedish/o-and-p-streets-become-archeological-dig
- ROYAUME-UNI – 
Herm - Archaeologists have now found the bodies of up to 24 people at a dig in Herm. Builders working on St Tugual's Chapel unearthed the skeletons of an adult and child as well as some other bones last month. At around the time these people died, Herm was a community of monks. Legend tells of 40 monks being massacred at this very spot and speculation has ensued that these bodies could be linked to this theory. However, the bodies appear to have been buried in an orderly fashion, with careful attention paid to avoid overlapping previous burials when new bodies are interred - which could disprove the murdered monks idea. There is also evidence to suggest conventional burial because the bodies are lying in an east-west orientation as would be expected of a Christian burial. The arms are crossed across the chest and they appear to have been buried only in shrouds rather than in coffins. Answering the question of how the people died may be difficult. If they died violently or from certain long-term diseases which would leave an impact on their skeletons then this should be detectable. The archaeological team are now set to do more research.
http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_guernseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=493473
- USA – Great Pee Dee - For the last 16 years, archaeologists have been digging up the past at the Great Pee Dee Heritage Preserve in Darlington County. Excavations of the 2,725-acre site, owned and managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, have produced American Indian artifacts dating back 12,000 years. Evolution of the Annual Johannes Kolb Archaeology and Education Project gives the public and students the opportunity to see what makes the Great Pee Dee site so unique. "We dig small holes and that gives us basic information about the site. Where are the artifacts? Not only horizontally, but vertically. How deep are things buried? Our shovel testing after 200 or 300 holes all produced artifacts which is incredibly rare for an archaeology site," Sean Taylor, an Archaeologist with DNR, said. Very discreet clusters of Early Archaic, 8,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C., and Paleoindian artifacts, from between 13,000 B.C.and 7,900 B.C., have been found since the excavation expanded to four meter square blocks. "We can take those and we are very careful to map and coordinate items so we can see where certain activities are, just like in your kitchen or perhaps your workshop today. We organize ourselves so we can function and do certain tasks and the same is true for people in the past," Taylor said.
http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=594130
- INDE – Phanigiri - A gold coin said to be belonging to the Roman era and issued by the VIIth Roman emperor, Nero Caesar, was retrieved by the state archaeology department during their recent excavations at the Buddhist site in Phanigiri, Nalgonda district. The coin, weighing about 7.3 grams, was unearthed along with a handful of teracotta figurines, stucco images, beads made of conches and some precious stones. "It is for the first time that a Roman gold coin has been recovered from a Buddhist site in Andhra Pradesh," said P Chenna Reddy, director, department of archaeology and museums, in a press release issued on Thursday. Reddy stated that in the past too several antiques have been retrieved from Phanigiri, which includes stupas, coins and silver artefacts. The current excavation drive will go on till the end of this month.