31 JANVIER 2012 NEWS : Groenland - Niort - Eysses - Marseille - Fort Fisher - Dundee -
31 JANVIER
INDI-UNI : ANTHROPOLOGY - ARCHAEOLOGY
INSCRIPTION 2012 COURS A DISTANCE
REGISTRATION 2012 ONLINE COURSES
GROENLAND – 
- Archaeologists from the Danish national museum have finally succeeded in confirming that Erik the Red and his people could indeed brew beer in Greenland when they lived there. There has long been a question mark over whether or not the southern Greenlandic climate was warm enough in Viking times to grow grain for beer, mead, gruel and bread. Now Danish archaeologists have found remains of burnt barley in a dunghill from the time when Erik the Red and other Icelanders moved to Greenland. The find is the first evidence of corn cultivation in southern Greenland a thousand years ago. According to Jyllandsposten, the archaeologists are very proud of their find and are even shipping 300 kilogrammes of the dunghill home to Denmark for further research.
FRANCE – 
Niort - Profitant des travaux sur la place du donjon, les archéologues de l'INRAP ont mis au jour de nouveaux vestiges. Parmi ceux-ci, une entrée de cave et les vestiges d'une habitation médiévale avec ses fragments de céramiques et d'os d'animaux.
FRANCE – 
Eysses - Si les premières fouilles à Eysses datent du XVIe siècle, elles n'ont jamais été réellement approfondies. Cet été, 20 archéologues seront à l'œuvre. Si on trouve trace de fouilles dès le XVIe siècle sur le site d'Eysses, il faudra ensuite attendre 1 970 pour que l'association longtemps présidée par Jean-François Garnier, rouvre le chantier. Des découvertes, il y en eut beaucoup et certaines sont exposées dans l'espace muséal d'Eysses. Mais quand on dispose d'un site aussi remarquable (ce sont les scientifiques qui le disent) que le site archéologique d'Eysses, on cherche à approfondir les recherches, à écrire l'histoire, à comprendre l'importance d'Excisum sur la carte de l'empire romain. Depuis plus d'un an un comité de pilotage prépare la reprise des fouilles sur le site d'Eysses. « Il s'agira d'étudier la partie sud de l'espace monumental (celui qui jouxte la caserne des pompiers et qui dort depuis plus de 30 ans sous des bâches sombres) » expliquent Martine Rieu, adjointe au maire.
FRANCE – 
Marseille - Le navire de recherche archéologique sous-marine "André Malraux", successeur de l'Archéonaute, a été baptisé mardi à La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône) avant son départ en mer pour explorer les épaves par très grand fond. Construit par les chantiers navals H2X de la ville, ce bateau "soutiendra pour les 50 ans à venir tous les programmes de prospection, d'expertise et de fouille" menés par le département des recherches archéologiques subaquatiques et sous-marines (Drassm), précise le ministère de la Culture dans un communiqué. Le Drassm, basé à Marseille, a choisi de donner à ce nouveau bâtiment le nom d'André Malraux, qui avait créé cet organisme en 1966 quand il était ministre des Affaires culturelles, avant de le doter un an plus tard de l'Archéonaute. "Outil de travail de plusieurs générations d'archéologues sous-marins, l'Archéonaute a sillonné, 40 années durant, la Méditerranée jusqu'en 2005", explorant plus de 1.500 épaves, rappelle le ministère. L'"André Malraux", inauguré mardi en présence du ministre de la Culture Frédéric Mitterrand et de Florence Malraux, fille de l'écrivain, lui succède donc pour explorer les eaux territoriales et contiguës, jusqu'à 24 milles des côtes, en Méditerranée comme en Atlantique, Manche, mer du Nord, Océan indien et Antilles (550.000 km2 au total), où 20.000 épaves ont été répertoriées. La protection du patrimoine sous-marin devrait en outre être bientôt étendue à l'ensemble de la zone économique exclusive, à 200 milles des côtes (11 millions de km2, soit le 2e plus grand espace maritime au monde), avec la ratification dans les prochains mois par la France d'une convention de l'Unesco.
USA - Fort Fisher - Under pursuit by Union warships, the 520-ton steamer Modern Greece ran aground off Fort Fisher on June 27, 1862, and was sunk to evade capture – 150 years ago this summer. For decades, the wreck was thought to have been totally destroyed. In the spring of 1962, however, a storm uncovered the wreck in 25 feet of water, just 300 yards offshore. Beginning that summer 50 years ago, divers from the U.S. Navy and what was then the state Department of Archives and History spent two years exploring the Modern Greece, recovering a treasure trove of military artifacts. The British-owned Modern Greece had been bound for Wilmington with a cargo of Whitworth cannon, Enfield rifle-muskets, bayonets, bullets, hand tools, cutlery, medicine and other items meant for Confederate forces. Much of that cargo was salvaged in the weeks after the 210-foot-long vessel sank, but much remained. Twentieth-century divers recovered thousands of wood, metal and glass artifacts. The Modern Greece became a training ground in underwater archaeology. Now, Wilde-Ramsing and Chris Fonvielle, associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, are organizing a series of programs and activities to mark the double anniversaries of the Modern Greece. Plans also call for new surveys of the wreck site, using modern remote sensing technology, tentatively in March and April, with Underwater Archaeology Branch staffers.
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120131/ARTICLES/120139971?p=3&tc=pg
ROYAUME UNI – Dundee - A hoard of treasure worth at least £12bn could be buried in the sands of a Scottish firth, a world-renowned marine expert claimed today. Historians have argued for centuries about the fate of the fleet of Roundhead general Monck, whose troops sacked Monarchist Dundee in 1651 and are thought to have filled several ships with booty. No trace has ever been found of the fleet, which was hit by a storm, but marine archaeologist Neil Cunningham Dobson believes the vessels may have been quickly covered by the shifting sands of the Tay. Mr Dobson, who works for a US marine exploration firm and has previously helped find wrecks from both world wars, said new equipment and technology could finally revealed the location of the lost fleet. he city was, without doubt, a Royalist stronghold in the mid-17th Century, when Charles II wrote to the inhabitants, thanking them for their faithful service to his executed father. The walls made it, in theory at least, one of the safest in Britain, so much so that Edinburgh kept its gold reserves there. Oliver Cromwell was enraged by the disloyalty of the city, having finally overcome Royalist resistance south of the border in 1649. Monck’s Puritan army of 7,000 laid siege to the city in 1651. After taking Dundee, most of the defenders, along with many women and children, were massacred and the community stripped of its wealth. Monck then commandeered 60 ships from Dundee harbour and loaded them with plunder, planning to sail to Leith. The general’s chaplain wrote that the fleet was “cast away” within sight of the town and “the great wealth perished”, along with an estimated 200 men. Monck was aboard one the biggest ships, which survived.
http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/01/31/12b-sunken-loot-could-be-found-by-new-technology/