19 - 20 SEPTEMBRE 2010

 - 20 SEPTEMBRE :

 - ROYAUME-UNI :   Londres - En travaillant aux fondations d'une nouvelle école à Londres, des ouvriers ont découvert des restes d'enfants et d'animaux âgés de 2.000 ans. Les archéologues pensent qu'il s'agit là d'offrandes, enterrées lors de l'abandon d'un village à la fin de l'âge du fer. Des fosses profondes, certaines contenant les dépouilles de bébés mort-nés, d'autres les squelettes d'animaux domestiques démembrés. Des outils trouvés près des restes d'animaux - chevaux, moutons, cochons, chèvres, etc. - ont permis de dater le site à la fin de l'âge du fer, donc au début de l'occupation romaine. les archéologues penchent pour des fosses - peut-être d'anciens silos à grain - utilisées pour des pratiques rituelles, au cours desquelles du bétail était sacrifié - les enfants ayant visiblement succombé, eux, à des causes naturelles. Il s'agirait d'offrandes déposées là à l'occasion de l'abandon d'un hameau fermier, peut-être lié à l'invasion romaine par l'empereur Claudius, vers 40 après J.C.

         http://fr.news.yahoo.com/68/20100920/tsc-archologie-des-restes-sacrificiels-d-04aaa9b.html

 - ISRAËL :   Tel Dor - A rare bronze signet ring with the impression of the face of the Greek sun god, Apollo, has been discovered. The image is that of Apollo - one of the most important of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology, god of the sun, of light, music and song. The archaeological context and style of the signet ring date it back to the 4th or 3rd century B.C.E. This type of ring was used as a seal or was dedicated to the temple of the god imprinted on the ring. Since it was found in an urban context and at an orderly archaeological dig. The ring also testifies to the cosmopolitan character of this region as far back as 2,300 years ago. The town of Dor was an important port on the Mediterranean shore from 2000 B.C.E. until 250 C.E. Pieces of Greek-style art, such as signet rings and miniature gems, began to appear in the east at the time of the Persian Empire (6th-4th centuries B.C.E.) and became more common after Alexander the Great conquered the region, passing through Dor on his journey from Tyre to Egypt in 332 B.C.E. Subsequently, the town of Dor became one of the centers of Greek culture in the land of Israel, and that culture left its mark even after Dor was conquered by Alexander Jannaeus, King of Judea, around 100 B.C.E. and its impact is evident well into the Roman era.

         http://newmedia-eng.haifa.ac.il/?p=3608

 - TURQUIE : Yesilova Tumulus - Archaeologists have unearthed a seal believed to be 8,000 years old during excavations in the Yeşilova Tumulus, one of the oldest settlements in western Turkey. The seal is dated back to 6,200 B.C. It is evident that the seal belonged to an administrator. This bull-shaped seal is one of the oldest seals ever unearthed in Anatolia.

          http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=seal-of-8000-years-unearthed-in--2010-09-20

 - FRANCE :   Bourges - Avaricum. Plus de 10.000 mètres carrés à explorer, creuser, détailler, c'est l'une des plus grandes surfaces qu'une équipe archéologique, en milieu urbain, a jamais couvert en une seule fois. Lors de la première phase des fouilles, entre mai et octobre 2009, des thermes romains étaient mis au jour. Quelques questionnements restent en suspens encore à ce jour. Etaient-ce des thermes monuments ou un quartier d'habitation assez richement doté de pièces à fonction thermale ? Pour la seconde phase, qui s'achèvera autour du 30 septembre, c'est davantage sur les vestiges médiévaux que les archéologues ont porté leur attention. Les archéologues ont notamment repéré, entre le 4e et 10e siècle, une autre façon de gérer la ville. « On assiste au dépôt de terre très noire, très ingrate à lire » relève Mélanie, l'une des deux responsables de secteur du chantier. Des terres noires qui ne laissent aucun doute sur l'occupation du quartier. C'est là, justement dans ce dépôt de 50 centimètres de terre noire que l'équipe a découvert des sépultures, une douzaine. Dès le 11e siècle, les interprétations deviennent plus faciles « On a des indications intéressantes. On a aperçu un certain nombre d'installations ». La problématique qui se pose est alors celle de caractériser les occupations : cellules domestiques ou habitations domestiques. « On essaie de comprendre l'organisation. ».

         http://www.leberry.fr/editions_locales/bourges/bourges_douze_sepultures_decouvertes_sur_le_chantier_avaricum@CARGNjFdJSsGERgNBB8-.html

- BULGARIE :   Sostra - A team of archaeologists has uncovered a highway dating back to the zenith of the Roman Empire. The archaeologists  have been excavating the fortress of Sostra, an Ancient Roman horse-changing station along the highway in question. They have unearthed a section of the Roman road connecting Ulpia Oescus, a Roman town on the Danube near today's Bulgarian village of Gigen, with Philipopolis (today's Plovdiv), crossing the Balkan (Stara Planina) range. The Ancient Roman highway is seven meters wide, and is the best preserved Roman road ever found in Bulgaria; it is made of large stone slabs. In the 4th century the above-mentioned highway was crucial for the Roman Empire as it connected its Balkan lands with its territories north of the Danube. This is where Emperor Constantine I the Great built the largest river bridge in ancient times, Constantine's Bridge on the Danube, which was 2.5 km long, 6 meters wide, and existed in 328 AD - ca. 355 AD. Another crucial finding of the team is the uncovering of the earliest stone wall of the Sostra fortress constructed by the soldiers of the "Second Matiac Cohort", an Ancient Roman unit of 1000 soldiers, in the middle of the 2nd century. The wall was 2 meters thick, and secured an area of 19 decares. This first erection of Sostra was ordered by Emperor Antonius Pius in 147 AD, which is confirmed by a stone inscription found inside the fortress.In addition to the fortress wall, the archaeologists also found the fort's moat – which was 2 meters deep and 5 meters wide.

          http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=120339

 - IRAK : Bagdad - L'Irak a remis la main sur 638 pièces archéologiques dont la trace avait été perdue en 2008. Elles étaient en fait stockées depuis leur rapatriement des Etats-Unis avec des ustensiles de cuisine dans un entrepôt du gouvernement.  Ces objets - des statues, des fers de lances, des verres - sont une petite partie des milliers d'antiquités volées depuis des décennies sur les sites archéologiques irakiens, ou pillées en 2003 dans les collections du musée national à Bagdad lors du chaos qui avait suivi l'invasion du pays. Ces objets, qui datent pour certains du 3ème millénaire avant JC, avaient été restitués à l'ambassade d'Irak aux Etats-Unis, qui avait, selon le ministre, demandé à l'armée américaine d'assurer leur rapatriement en Irak. Faute d'un étiquetage approprié, les boîtes contenant les précieuses antiquités ont été remisées à l'automne 2008 dans un entrepôt contenant entre autres du matériel de cuisine.

          http://www.journaldujura.ch/Nouvelles_en_ligne/Culture/81948

 - 19 SEPTEMBRE :

 - PEROU : Cajamarca -  A team of Peruvian archaeologists have discovered two ceremonial temples more than 4,000 years old in Peru’s northern jungle, which makes them the most ancient in the country and identifies them with the Bracamoros culture. On both sites were found 14 burial vaults that typically contain the skeletons of newborns and adolescents placed there as offerings at different times in the course of the 800 years these buildings were in use. The Bracamoros culture occupied part of the current Ecuadorian province of Zamora Chinchipe and the Peruvian regions of Amazonas and Cajamarca, where the temples were found. Experts found large semicircular walls built with a mixture of mortar and stones weighing 200 kilos (440 pounds). The perfectly aligned walls were built in eight phases of construction and were decorated with an early fresco technique. Olivera told the newspaper that “we are standing before one of the first civilizations of Peru.”“If we keep digging, we could find vestiges preceding the Chavin (1,000 B.C.), Caral (3,000 B.C.) and Ventarron (4,000 B.C.) cultures, since neither in the Andes nor on the coast have temples been found that are this ancient or with these characteristics,” he said. The archaeologist said that the temples located in the areas of Montegrande and San Isidro are the first to be found in a region where jungle meets mountains.

          http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=367031&CategoryId=14095 

 - CHINE  : Shaanxi - Chinese archeologists have found new evidence of international cultural exchange on the ancient Silk Road. Four European-looking warriors and lion-like beasts are engraved on an empress's 1,200-year-old stone coffin that was unearthed in Shaanxi Province, in northwestern China. The warriors on the four reliefs had deep-set eyes, curly hair and over-sized noses -- physical characteristics Chinese typically associate with Europeans. The 27-tonne Tang Dynasty (618-907) sarcophagus contained empress Wu Huifei (699-737). The coffin was also engraved with deer, tigers and goats. The elements of Greek mythology on Empress Wu Huifei's coffin suggest cross-cultural exchange was common in Chang'an, capital of the Tang Dynasty, located in today's Xi'an. Wu Huifei was Emperor Xuanzong's favorite concubine and was posthumously known as Empress Zhenshun, meaning "the virtuous and serene empress."
Her sarcophagus - 4 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2 meters high - was stolen from her tomb in the southern suburbs of Xi'an in 2006.

          http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/90873/7140112.html

 - ROYAUME-UNI : Howick Burn - The remains of what could be a Roman dam at Howick Burn are proving something of a puzzle. Stephen Sinclair spotted the stonework on a recent trip to the burn and he is calling on historians or archaeologists to help explain the stones. The tide had moved the sand to reveal the stones. There is no reason for anything to be built there unless it was from the Roman era. The stones are located only 500 metres from the remains of a Roman encampment. He suggests that the way the stones are carefully designed to fit together could show that the burn was dammed, perhaps for the purposes of fishing or defence. Also in the same area, excavation work has been done on a Mesolithic settlement and a bronze age cemetery.

          http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/Shifting-sands-reveal-mysterious-stones.6535135.jp