21 - 22 AOÛT 2010
- 22 AOÛT :
- CANADA : 
Saint-Barnabé - Des fouilles archéologiques réalisées sur l'île Saint-Barnabé, entre le 19 juillet et le 13 août, confirment que l'endroit a déjà été occupé par des Amérindiens. Les chercheurs ont découvert des outils en pierre taillée dont se servaient les Amérindiens. Les archéologues sont également parvenus à définir les limites de l'occupation française et, fort probablement, l'endroit où a vécu l'ermite Toussaint Cartier. De nombreux morceaux de terre cuite à glaçure verte ont été trouvés sur le terrain, ce qui prouverait l'occupation par le régime français. Voir reportage de radio Canada :
- CAMBODGE : Angkor - A team of specialists led by the president of Tokyo's Sophia University has excavated the severed upper halves of six Buddhist statues from a circular moat at the ruins of Banteay Kdei temple. About 60 centimeters tall, the statues are believed to have been produced in the late 12th or early 13th century. They also excavated Buddhist statues there in 2001, a discovery that brought certain historical events to light, including the fact that Buddhism was suppressed across Cambodia after the death in 1219 of Jayavarman VII, the king who constructed the temple. The latest excavation found the pieces neatly lined up in the circular moat, which a team member said was "evidence that the people of those days did not lose faith [in Buddhism] despite the oppression."
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/T100821001814.htm
- CHINE : 
Beijing - Almost 150 years after British and French troops looted and destroyed the Old Summer Palace, Chinese archaeologists are painstakingly patching together treasured historical artefacts excavated from the ruins. Archaeology students are piecing together thousands of fragments of Qing Dynasty porcelain that have been excavated over the past 30 years from what is known in China as the “Gardens of Perfect Brightness”. The team has been working on pieces of vases, bowls and plates depicting twirling dragons and weeping willows. These represent only a small portion of the 30,000 recovered pieces.
- JORDANIE : 
Siq al-Barid - Exquisite artworks hidden under 2,000 years of soot and grime in a Jordanian cave have been restored by experts from the Courtauld Institute in London. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti. Experts from the Courtauld Institute in London have now removed the black grime, uncovering paintings whose "exceptional" artistic quality and sheer beauty are said to be superior even to some of the better Roman paintings at Herculaneum that were inspired by Hellenistic art. Virtually no Hellenistic paintings survive today, and fragments only hint at antiquity's lost masterpieces, while revealing little about their colours and composition, so the revelation of these wall paintings in Jordan is all the more significant. They were created by the Nabataeans, who traded extensively with the Greek, Roman and Egyptian empires and whose dominion once stretched from Damascus to the Red Sea, and from Sinai to the Arabian desert. Three different vines, grape, ivy and bindweed – all associated with Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine – have been identified, while the birds include a demoiselle crane and a Palestine sunbird with luscious colours. The scenes are populated by putti-like figures, one winged child playing a flute while seated in a vine-scroll, others picking fruit and fighting off birds pecking at the grapes. The paintings are exceptional in their sophistication, extensive palette and luxurious materials, including gold leaf. The paintings are not at the main site, but at the less well known canyon of Siq al-Barid in Beidha – nicknamed "Little Petra" – about 5km away. They are located within the "biclinium" (dining area), a principal chamber and a recess, where ritual dining is thought to have taken place. The most outstanding painting covers the vault and the walls of the recess.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/aug/22/hellenistic-wall-paintings-petra
- U.S.A. : Marcus Hook - "We're aware of only three of those plates in existence," said Joseph Blondino, a Ph.D. student studying archaeology at Temple University. "One in Philadelphia, one in Williamsburg, and one here."The plate was found behind the circa-1790s home of Manerchia, who lives along the Delaware River near Market Square Memorial Park. And now, it's joined many other artifacts — an amazing 30,000 in all — found within the tiny borough's 1.6 square miles. Once a thriving Lenape Indian settlement, Marcus Hook became a New Sweden trading post in the 1640s. After it was conquered by Dutch explorers in 1655, the area was renamed "Marrites Hoeck."
http://pottsmerc.com/articles/2010/08/22/news/srv0000009160200.txt
- 21 AOÛT :
- TURQUIE : 
Altinkum - German archaeologists are looking at a new find which could suggest a second temple close to the Temple of Apollo. They have extended their excavations away from Apollon and have discovered a wall which they consider to be part of another temple – maybe that the Temple is for Artemis – the twin of Apollon. The excavations team is searching this year to see if there is more to the wall and if it belongs to a structure. Its size and location suggests a building to the south of this wall. Didyma means twin; Apollon was the twin brother of Goddess Artemis. This wall might belong to an Artemis Temple.
http://www.voicesnewspaper.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4289
- U.S.A. : Jamestown - Archaeologists at Historic Jamestowne believe they’ve made a major new discovery: the remains of the original 1608 church at James Fort. Among other events, the church was likely the site of the 1613 wedding of Pocahontas, daughter of Virginia Indian Chief Powhatan, and John Rolfe, the Virginia colony’s first successful tobacco planter.The Zuniga map, so-called because it was presented to King Philip III of Spain by his ambassador to England, Don Pedro de Zuniga, in 1608, was believed to be a tracing of an earlier map by Capt. John Smith.The Zuniga map has an “x,” or perhaps a cross, drawn inside the triangular diagram of the fort.People had speculated that it marked the church. And that’s right about where it is. Evidence for the church so far consists of six enormous postholes, each containing the remains of a one-foot-thick upright support timber. The timbers are 12 feet apart, which matches a 1610 description of the 24x60 foot “pretty chapel” at Jamestown. Archaeologists believe that the rest of the postholes, which could be used to determined the length of the church, likely lie to the west of the current excavation area.Excavation will continue through the summer and into late fall in an effort to trace all the posts and uncover the building’s interior.
The 1608 church was the structure where Virginia’s first resident governor, Sir Thomas West, Lord De La Warre, addressed colonists on June 12, 1610, when his timely arrival saved the colony from abandonment.This church was gone by 1617.
http://www.vagazette.com/articles/2010/08/21/news/doc4c6efa773adc3130253669.txt
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Braning - Team has unearthed, over the past two weeks, numerous pottery remains, ranging from pieces of amphorae to a tray for sifting sea water to extract salt. The discovery of a second century BC saucepan became the earliest evidence of occupation on the site, pushing its history back as much as two centuries. Examples of early jewellery were also found, which included an example of a small mid-first century AD brooch inlaid with enamel. A butt beaker, a type of Gaulish pre-Roman period drinking vessel, bronze tweezers, a flagon and a cremation jar were also discovered. During the first week of the dig, Sir Barry’s team unearthed a rare cooking pot and a copper coin bearing the image of a goddess. There is strong evidence the villa was a high-status farmstead in the late Iron Age, trading with the Romans before the AD43 invasion of Britain.
http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/news/dig-unearths-insight-into-life-before-the-romans-34385.aspx
- TURQUIE : 
Nysa - Archaeologists have begun excavations at the ancient Greek city of Nysa, in western Turkey, where they hope to find new artifacts around the theater, agora and gymnasium. Nysa is located in the Sultanhisar district of Aydın province, 50 kilometers east of the Ionian city of Ephesus. There are important ruins on the site from the Hellenistic period, the Roman period and the Byzantine era. Much of the open-air Greek theater and its walled entrances are still intact. The library currently has three walls. There are remnants of a gymnasium, a Roman bath and a bouleuterion. The 100-meter Nysa Bridge, a tunnel-like substructure, was the second largest of its kind in antiquity.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=0817153303202-2010-08-18
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Whittlesey - A skeleton discovered at a building site could be Whittlesey’s earliest known resident. Archaeologists dug up the site of Eastrea’s proposed village hall and found ancient bones amongst the rubble. It is thought the skeleton dates back more than 2,000 years to a time when Whittlesey was a settlement during the Roman Empire. Excited villagers have called their new-found oldest neighbour Maximus – the same name as the Russell Crowe character in the blockbuster film Gladiator.
http://www.cambstimes.co.uk/home/could_this_be_whittlesey_s_earliest_known_resident_1_596148
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Alderney - Archaeologists are hoping to prove the Romans made it to Alderney. For the third time in three years, Guernsey Museum’s Jason Monaghan will direct a dig at the Nunnery, in the Longis area of the island. He said: "If the folk story is true and this is a Roman fort then it is very important. It's long been suspected of being a Roman fort but it's never really been proved.However, if Alderney did host the Romans it's extremely important because there aren't many Roman structures in the Channel Islands. There are a couple of sites in Guernsey, which have been heavily chopped and one in Jersey but in Alderney you can see all the different occupations, which show how much activity has taken place here."
http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_guernseynews/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=490496
- TURQUIE : Rhodiapolis - Prof. İsa Kızgut from Akdeniz University, who heads the excavations, told the Anatolia news agency on Friday that they found the gate in the western wing of the ancient city. Located near the village of Sarıcasu, Rhodiapolis received its name from the Rhodians, who colonized the city. The ancient city was discovered after a forest fire in 2000. Excavations in Rhodiapolis began in 2006. The best known figure from the city was Opramoas, who lived in the period of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161). He was the richest man in Lycia and a renowned philanthropist. His best known work was his own monumental tomb.Most of the visible ruins in the ancient city dated from the Roman and Byzantine periods. The remains include a theater, bathhouse, agora/stoa, temples, church, cisterns, cenotaph, necropolises and houses. More than 60 coins were also unearthed during the excavations.