29 - 31 OCTOBRE 2010
- 31 OCTOBRE :
- PAKISTAN : 
Lahore - The US embassy, in collaboration with the Federal Archaeology Department, is all set to restore the neglected Sheikhupura Fort, a national monument. It seeks support for a three-year initiative to restore, conserve and protect the historical garrison. The official said the fort is unique as it is a symbol of both the Mughul and Sikh culture. Its construction and early use began under the Mughul era, which is reflected in the fort’s architecture and external design. Cultural elements of the Sikh era are also present in the artwork and internal design of the buildings, which had been constructed during the period. It is pertinent to mention here that the historical significance of the fort is its merging of the cultures of the Mughal and Sikh eras, as well as the historical role it played in the region beginning in the 17th century. The fort was built by Mughul Emperor Jahangir. The remains of the early fort consist of a fortress wall with several bastions and a main gateway. The end of the Mughul era century ushered in a number of Sikh clans who sought control of the region. Located in the heart of Sikh insurgency, the fort changed hands between rival Sikh clans. It was occupied and captured by several Sikh leaders before consolidation of Sikh power under Ranjit Singh in the early 18th century.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\01\story_1-11-2010_pg13_6
- 30 OCTOBRE :
- FRANCE : Fouquereuil - À côté de la résidence de la Peupleraie, des fouilles préventives ont mis au jour des vestiges datant du second âge de fer (Ve siècle avant notre ère), ainsi qu'une nécropole du IIIe siècle de notre ère. Cette dernière découverte offre l'opportunité d'approfondir les connaissances sur le rite funéraire de la crémation à l'époque gallo-romaine. Des fosses quadrangulaires destinées à recevoir des bûchers ont été mises au jour. Au fond de ces fosses, des esquisses osseuses en bon état de conservation des bûches consommées ainsi que des céramiques ont été découvertes. On peut notamment savoir comment étaient réalisés les bûchers (une vingtaine ont été découverts à Fouquereuil).
- SYRIE : 
Tell Siano - New discoveries were unearthed at Tel Siano site in Jableh, Lattakia, adding up to its historical, archaeological and tourist value. The new discoveries encompass architectural units, animal, clay and earthenware toys and flint stony spindle heads. Director of Jableh's Archaeology and Museums Department Ibrahim Kheirbek said the excavations dug up a set of finds dating back to the Iron Age. He added that the outcome of excavations proved the importance of settlement at the site during the ancient Bronze Age, adding that its gigantic architectural system started in mid-3rd millennium B.C. It is one of most prominent sites of Jableh plain whose location has made it a strategic point controlling the plain and the agricultural lands surrounding it.
- CHINE : Xi'an - Ancient Chinese emperors in inland China may have dined on seafood that came from the eastern China coast more than one thousand miles away, archaeologists said Friday, after investigating an imperial mausoleum that dates back 2,000 years. Archaeologists discovered the remains of sea snails and clams among the animal bone fossils in a burial pit. Since the burial pit appears to be that of the official in charge of the emperor's diet, archaeologists conclude that seafood must have been part of the imperial menu. The discovery was made in the Hanyang Mausoleum. The monument is the joint tomb of Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-8 AD) Emperor Jing and his empress. Of the 43 animal fossils discovered in the pit, archaeologists found more than 18 kinds of animals, including three kinds of sea snails and one kind of clam. Many royal tombs were designed and constructed like the imperial palace. The burial pits usually represented different departments of the imperial court. The discovery of animal fossils in this particular pit may shed light on what the emperor ate everyday. The seafood may have been tribute offered to the emperor by imperial family relatives living on the Chinese coast. It may also have been businessmen that brought them inland to the capital city. Xi'an is more than one thousand miles away from the Chinese coast, so how could it have arrived in the capital without first spoiling? During the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), Chinese people used vehicles with refrigeration. It is thought they may have put ice in the vehicles to preserve perishable cargo. The seafood may also have been dried before it was transported. Alongside the fossilized seafood shells, fossils of various other kinds of animals -- rabbit, fox, leopard, sheep, deer, cat and dog -- were also discovered. The cat was kept in the imperial kitchen to catch rats, and so the other animals were all part of the imperial diet. Ancient Chinese people valued diversity in their diet. The imperial diet would have include multiple nutrients, multiple flavors and a vast number of dishes.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-10/30/c_13583099.htm
- ROYAUME-UNI : Orkney - A new research has revealed that our ancestors from 5,000 years ago painted their homes to brighten up their places too. They used red, yellow and orange pigments from ground-up minerals and bound it with animal fat and eggs to make their paint, the new study from a Stone Age settlement on the island of Orkney revealed. Several stones used to form the buildings painted and decorated by the locals in about 3,000 BC, most probably to to enhance important buildings and may have been found in entranceways or areas of the building, which had particular significance. Archaeologists have found seven stones in this ritual centre. Some of them were covered in paint and others appear to have had designs such as chevrons and zig zags painted on. Paint pots have been found at various other sites before but archaeologists assumed this was for personal adornment. But we now know they used it to paint their walls. The study also found that humans used earthy colours like oranges, yellows and reddish-browns pigments probably derived from various minerals that had been crushed up and then mixed with animal fat or eggs.
http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-73755.html
- ISRAËL : Jérusalem - Ehud Netzer, one of Israel’s best-known archeologists who unearthed King Herod’s tomb near Bethlehem three years ago, died on Thursday after being injured in a fall at the site. He was 76. After three decades of research, he was the pre-eminent expert on Herodium, a fortified palace complex that Herod built atop a small mountain near Bethlehem when he ruled in the decades just before the birth of Jesus. Netzer announced in 2007 that he had found the remnants of Herod’s burial site, including pieces of a large sarcophagus made of pinkish Jerusalem limestone and decorated with carved floral motifs. He had been excavating the site since 1972. Netzer began his archeological career in the 1960s as part of the dig of Masada led by Yigael Yadin, the country’s best-known archeologist, who later went into politics. Masada is the site of a showdown between Roman legionnaires and Jewish rebels after the destruction of Herod’s temple in A.D. 70. That siege ended when the Jews committed suicide en masse and has become a potent symbol in contemporary Israel.
- CANADA : Kingston - Six squelettes humains qui semblent âgés de plus de 200 ans ont été trouvés dans une sépulture jusque-là inconnue au sud-ouest de Kingston, en Ontario. Les restes humains ont été trouvés par un archéologue qui examinait le site d’un chantier de construction. Il serait possible que quatre cimetières non déclarés se trouvent sur la propriété. Cette découverte n’empêchera pas la fouille archéologique de se poursuivre.
http://www.canoe.com/infos/quebeccanada/archives/2010/10/20101029-160219.html
- 29 OCTOBRE :
- FRANCE : Poitiers - Le creusement des fosses, place Leclerc, destiné à y planter des arbres a fait couler beaucoup d'encre et de salive. Et ce n'est pas fini ! Le maire attend son feu vert avant d'autoriser le remblaiement des cavités. Les deux autres, dont une qui contenait un mur et une arche romaine, ont été refermées. L'archéologue employée à mi-temps par la Ville de Poitiers épaulée par un archéologue de la Drac a poursuivi ses investigations dans les trois fosses : deux contiennent des ossements qui devaient être enfermés dans des cercueils en bois. La troisième contenait huit sarcophages en pierre de l'époque médiévale, brisés par une pelleteuse. Des fragments de pots en céramique y avaient été retrouvés. Il ne s'agirait pas d'offrandes mais de pots cassés utilisés pour le comblement. L'archéologue va s'attacher à dater la céramique, ce qui permettra de savoir à quelle époque ont été déposés les cercueils. La fosse a pu toutefois être utilisée à plusieurs périodes.
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Musselburgh - It is a major public sector building project which has been delayed, causing headaches for bosses and the public. But it is decapitated skeletons and 2000-year-old forts rather than red tape and swelling costs that have caused the hold-up for the new health centre in Musselburgh. Progress on the site has been delayed by at least six months after significant Roman remains were discovered. Now architects have revealed the extent of their discoveries, which include human remains, the bones of horses and weapons and culinary tools. Archeologists there said the "unique" finds, among the most impressive ever discovered in Scotland from that period, will help build a picture not only of Roman activity in Musselburgh from 140AD, but improve the wider understanding of life at that time. As well as the skeletons, some of which have been superbly preserved, there are impressive sections of rampart, thought to be part of a defensive wall for a fortlet. Some of the findings predated the Roman era, with items such as flints possibly dating back up to 5000 years. It is thought the Votadini tribe inhabited the Lothians during the late Iron Age period, around the time of the birth of Christ. They built hill fort defences which are still visible on Arthur's Seat, at Dunsapie Hill and above Samson's Ribs. Historians believe they also occupied Traprain Law in East Lothian. The Roman occupation of the Lothians soon after the turn of the millennium is said to have left both physical landmarks and governance legacies. As well as forts, artefacts found across the Lothians point to an active trading set-up with locals and experts believe the Roman's stay in the Lothians helped convert Scotland to Christianity, and establish the early roots of our legal system. The quality of the structures such as the rampart are fantastic.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/Skeletons-halt-work-on-clinic.6602784.jp
- Rep. TCHEQUE : Prague - An international scientific team will examine the tomb in Prague's Tyn Church that contains the remains of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) in mid-November. The examination has been initiated by Danish scientists who are trying to find out the real cause of Brahe's death. Tycho Brahe, an astronomer, astrologist and alchemist worked at the Prague seat of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II of the Habsburg dynasty. According to textbooks he died over problems with renal stones, but there are certain signs pointing to poisoning, even on the order of then Danish King Christian IV.
http://www.praguemonitor.com/2010/10/29/scientists-examine-tycho-brahes-tomb-prague
- JAMAÏQUE : 
Kingston - Following the discovery of 21 cannonballs and nine cannons at the site for the construction of Digicel's headquarters in downtown Kingston, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) intends to put the artefacts on display at the telecommunication company's new location once construction is complete. That location used to be the ordnance yard for the British military. They stored military equipment there. One of Jamaica's national heroes, George William Gordon, boarded the HMS Wolverine there and was taken to St Thomas where he met his fate and was hanged for his revolutionary role in the Morant Bay Rebellion in the late 1800s. According to Gray, the ordnance yard was active in the 1700s and 1800s. Other artefacts have been discovered in the past, hinting at the communal setting that used to be there. "Bits and pieces such as plates and jugs have been discovered. We've even come across a Taino ceramic shard," Gray said. The Taino people are the earliest recorded inhabitants of the Caribbean.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101028/news/news1.html
- ROYAUME-UNI : 
Kensing - Having wielded a metal detector for 15 years, a builder finally struck lucky when his detector found three cremation urns dating back to the late Iron Age and early Roman period. A team from the Kent Archaeological Project spent more than a week turning up more urns. In one case they found what are believed to be two urns next to each other, one with pointed edges and the other curved, with a pot for perfume nearby. The team believe it could be the remains of a husband and wife. A brooch was found next to another urn. The most interesting thing is it's probably quite a big burial ground and when there is a big burial ground there is a big settlement near. While some of the urns crumbled when uncovered, others remained intact and will be opened in a laboratory.