01 MARS 2022 NEWS
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ZANZIBAR – 
Unguja Ukuu - The medieval settlement of Unguja Ukuu, on the Zanzibar Archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, was a key port in an extensive Indian Ocean trade network that linked eastern Africa, southern Arabia, India and Southeast Asia. Archaeological research shows how human activities between the seventh and twelfth centuries AD irreversibly modified the shoreline around the site. At first, these changes may have helped the trading settlement develop, but later they may have contributed to its decline and abandonment.Unguja Ukuu was an active settlement from the mid-first millennium until the early second millennium AD. Archaeological evidence and historical accounts suggest Unguja Ukuu is one of the earliest known trading settlements on the Swahili coast.
PORTUGAL – 
Amoreira - A team of researchers have found an African man buried in a prehistoric shell midden in Amoreira in Portugal. The man lived just 350 years ago. A shell midden is an archaeological feature consisting mainly of mollusc shells.The discovery is very surprising because Amoreira and other midden sites in the Muge region in Portugal are well known by archaeologists for the cemeteries of the last hunter-gatherers living in the area 8,000 years back. Researchers recently investigated this burial by combining biomolecular archaeology, ancient DNA, and historical records. The study was recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences. The scientists determined that these were the bone remains of a first-generation African, probably from Senegambia, which is a historical name for a geographical region in West Africa. The man arrived in Portugal via the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and died around 1630 and 1760 AD, the study said. The man's diet consisted of plant foods commonly found in Senegambia, the dietary isotope analysis showed. At that time, Senegambia was not in Portugal. According to the study, the African man's diet also consisted of a minor consumption of low trophic level marine foods, such as bivalve molluscs. The researchers determined that the place of origin could be narrowed to the coastal areas of western Africa, in present-day Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia.
BELGIQUE – 
Antwerp - Archaeological research at the St Michael’s Abbey on the Scheldt quays in Antwerp has yielded unique results. In the northern zone of excavations the archaeologists unearthed the abbey’s cellars as well as foundations but also a Merovingian coin dating from the 7th century. Archaeologists also encountered things they hadn’t expected.“We discovered a large number of burials. That surprised us” says archaeologist Anne Schryvers. “When the abbey was demolished warehouses were built here. We had thought they would have wreaked greater devastation. The remains we found were largely intact and we recovered a large number of skeletons”. The southern zone too threw up surprises. “The walls we found didn’t form part of the abbey. We discovered the remains of the St Michael’s bastion. This was an extension of the Spanish walls defending Antwerp in the 16th century”.“Among the most surprising discoveries were the remains of the Spijker Tower”. Archaeologists found the cellar stairs, the base of the trusses and the remains of the tower entrance”.
https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2022/02/27/exciting-archaeological-finds-in-antwerp/
ARABIE SAOUDITE – 
Haql - Archaeologists uncovered a sunken shipwreck in the Red Sea off the coast of Haql Governorate and unearthed hundreds of artifacts from the ship's cargo. The wreck of the ship, which is 300 meters off the beach. Initial reports also suggest that the ship may have collided with coral reefs, scattering its parts and causing its cargo to fall to the ground. These pottery pieces were discovered to be typically shaped as an "amphora", which was made in cities throughout the Mediterranean Basin. A submerged shipwreck had earlier been discovered near the city of Umluj by a joint Saudi-Italian mission in 2015-2016. It contained Chinese porcelain pottery bowls and cups that were part of the cargo and the ship's own planks made of wood and pine, aside from broken glass bottles and metal bowls. The collection dates from the middle of the eighteenth-century AD. The joint Saudi-German team that surveyed the West Coast's underwater cultural sites from 2012 to 2017 also discovered the remnants of a Roman shipwreck in the Red Sea. It resulted in the discovery of over 50 sunken shipwreck sites throughout the Red Sea, each with its own historical and archaeological value and time period. It emphasizes the Kingdom's trade links and historical economy, as well as its activities and cultural ties with neighboring regions.
EGYPTE – 
Tell El Kedwa - An Egyptian archaeological mission working in the Tell El Kedwa region of North Sinai has discovered five water wells believed to be from the 13th century BC. The Egyptian Antiquities Ministry said that wells were built before the reign of Seti I (1292-1190BC), but it did not give an exact date. They are believed to have been a part of the expansive Horus Military Road, an ancient route that was used by pharaohs. The wells were found outside the walls of the Tell El Kedwa fortress, one of several massive strongholds found in the area, which were used as military control points to protect Egypt’s eastern frontier and guard access to its northern regions. Four of the discovered wells were reportedly filled with sand to prevent the Persian army, which invaded Egypt in 525BC, from obtaining water. The fifth well, which was unfilled, was a little more than three metres deep. Inside it, the mission found 13 pottery rings and several clay pots dating back to the 26th dynasty of ancient Egypt (664–525BC), also known as the Saite period. Another archaeological team operating at the nearby Tell El Kedwa fortress discovered a large storage centre dating to the Saite period. Inside the large chamber, the mission found a pile of clay pots. And within the walls of the fortress, the mission found the remains of kilns, also from the Saite period. The kilns are were part of a large copper-smelting workshop. Copper shards were also found near the kilns. The Horus Military Route was used during the old, middle and new kingdoms of ancient Egypt and was depicted in inscriptions at some of Egypt's other prominent archaeological sites, including Luxor's Karnak Temple. At its peak, the route measured 220 kilometres and connected Egypt to Palestine.
HONGRIE – 
Somogy - Excavators in Hungary have discovered a "very rare" gold Roman coin that features the face of a murdered Roman emperor. The third-century coin depicts Emperor Volusianus, who co-ruled the Roman Empire for about two years with his father, until the emperor was assassinated at age 22 by his own soldiers. Because of Volusianus' short reign, coins bearing his face are rare. The coin was unearthed by a museologist of the Rippl-Rónai Museum in Kaposvár, along with museum volunteers in early 2022. The group was excavating a Roman settlement in Somogy County in southwestern Hungary, but Varga declined to elaborate on the site's whereabouts. The exact location of the site is being kept secret for the time being, as the archaeological site is being investigated. The excavators found the 0.2-ounce (5.6 grams) gold coin — known as an aureus — during a metal detector survey of the site. The coin was minted during the rule of Volusianus, or between A.D. 251 and 253. One side of the coin features a portrait of the bearded emperor with a crown of rays on his head, while the other side depicts Libertas, the personification of freedom. The denomination of the coin is not an ordinary aureus, but a rare binio, i.e. a double aureus.
https://www.livescience.com/rare-roman-gold-coin-hungary
EGYPTE – 
Guizeh - A team of scientists will use advances in High Energy Physics (HIP) to scan the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza with cosmic-ray muons. They want to see deeper into the Great Pyramid than ever before and map its internal structure. The effort is called the Explore the Great Pyramid (EGP) mission. The Great Pyramid is well-studied, and over the years, archaeologists have mapped out the interior structure. The pyramid and the ground under it contain different chambers and passageways. Khufu’s (Cheops’) chamber sits roughly in the pyramid’s center.
FRANCE – Angers - Jusqu'en 2023, des archéologues du Département interviennent sur la muraille nord du château, profitant des travaux de sa réfection. Ils ont notamment trouvé des ouvrages métalliques datant du XIIIe siècle. Après la mise à nu des tours et l'enlèvement des couches d'enduit récent, des échantillons du ciment originel, qui sert à jointer les blocs de pierre, sont également prélevés. Ils seront analysés en laboratoire. La mission consiste également à étudier l'évolution des différentes fonction du château, ainsi que les différents systèmes de défense de l'ouvrage ou encore d'accès à celui-ci, afin d'apporter un expertise scientifique mais aussi en termes de connaissance des choix de l'architecte.
VIDEO = https://www.ouest-france.fr/pays-de-la-loire/angers-49000/video-pourquoi-des-fouilles-archeologiques-sont-elles-realisees-au-chateau-d-angers-87c8e82b-f2a2-4606-83d0-ec175f6122f4
