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CANADA - Montréal - La rue Saint-Paul est une des plus anciennes rues de Montréal, selon Simon Santerre, archéologue pour la firme Ethnoscop, qui a travaillé sur ce chantier. Officiellement nommée en 1673, il s’agissait d’un ancien chemin de portage amérindien. «J’ai vu des documents où on dit qu’on a balisé la rue en enterrant des sceaux du séminaire de Saint-Sulpice en plomb dans la rue. J’aimerais ça en retrouver un!», s’exclame M. Simon Santerre. Selon l’architecte à la Ville de Montréal, Hélène Benoît, le chantier de la rue Saint-Paul, devant le marché Bonsecours, est un des sites ayant le plus important potentiel archéologique à Montréal. Du côté nord du site, on peut retrouver des vestiges du régime anglais, alors qu’au sud, on retrouve des vestiges du régime français. «Quand on va refaire la mise en valeur, on pourra signaler des anecdotes des deux régimes», affirme-t-elle. La Ville a rénové la rue Saint-Paul en 1966, juste à temps pour l’Exposition universelle de 1967. Or, lors de ces travaux, on a simplement changé les pavés. Dans le chantier actuel, on a creusé beaucoup plus profondément, jusqu’à 2m dans certaines portions, pour pouvoir changer le parvis du marché Bonsecours et les trottoirs de la rue. Selon M. Santerre, cela a permis de découvrir les fondations d’anciennes maisons qui ont été détruites dans les années 1800 pour construire le marché Bonsecours. «C’est ça qui est le plus important dans les fouilles qu’on a faites cette année, c’est l’ancien front bâti, qu’on a retrouvé de façon intégrale», renchérit Mme Benoît. M. Santerre espère pouvoir retrouver les fondations d’une ancienne chapelle lorsque la Ville procédera à la réfection de la rue Bonsecours en 2018. L’équivalent de plusieurs caisses de petits artéfacts ont été retrouvées pendant l’intervention archéologique dans le chantier de la rue Saint-Paul. Même s’ils sont souvent minuscules, ces objets permettent aux archéologues de mieux dater des vestiges.
http://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/1001305/larcheologie-des-chantiers-montrealais/
ROYAUME UNI – Hillsborough Castle - A well-preserved human skeleton which could be 1,000 years old has been uncovered in the grounds of Hillsborough Castle in County Down. Archaeologists found it during excavation work ahead of a major redevelopment project. The human remains are thought to be that of a young woman. They will be removed for further tests that will confirm the gender and age. Other remains on the site, which is thought to be a burial ground, will be left undisturbed. Archaeologists are also hoping to find the walls of a medieval church on the site. Jonathan Barkley from Northern Archaeology Consultancy Ltd said a well-preserved skeleton of this age was an unusual find in Northern Ireland. "We arrived hoping to find the remains of a 15th or 16th Century church, but about two hours into our first day we uncovered a skeleton," he said. "While it was initially believed to belong to the church we are now thinking it may be about 1,000 years old, so several hundred years earlier."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/36951328
USA – Kodiak - An archaeology program has discovered a primitive knife in their fourth year of digging the Kashevaroff site at Salonie Creek in Kodiak, one of the many pieces of evidence that point to the site having been a hunting camp. “We’re down in the very bottom levels of the site, and all the artifacts we’re finding now are like 6 to 7,000 years old,” said Patrick Saltonstall, Alutiiq Museum Curator of Archaeology. “We’ve been finding really complete tools, and what’s neat is we haven’t been finding a lot of the debris,” he said. “When you make a tool, you have a lot of flakes and bits of slate and stuff, and we haven’t been finding any of that. We’re just finding tools or the broken tools, ’cause they’ve been bringing them to the site.”
http://www.ktoo.org/2016/08/01/knife-discovered-kodiak-community-archaeology-site/
TURQUIE – Myra-Andriake - This year’s excavation activity at the museum will continue for two months. Works will continue in the west wing of the museum, which was constructed in the 6th century and dedicated to St. Nicholas, who lived in the 4th century B.C. Last year’s findings included a vault covered in soil and the structure’s authentic entrance. This year’s excavations will focus on the elimination of the dirt and soil suffused in the vault. The upper part of the structure will be scraped to reveal the construction as a whole. After the building is excavated, works on strengthening the structure will begin and the data will be processed. Çevik said the works would focus on Andriake, which was the coastal town of Myra. “The fields near the Andriake Open Air Museum and the Lycian settlements will be handled first. The works in Church A will also be finished and the chambers of the first graveyard in the ancient city will be given priority.” Çevik said the coastal town of Andriake was one of the biggest harbors of the Mediterranean and one of three big granaries in the era.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/antalyas-demre-opens-new-excavation-season-.aspx?pageID=238&nid=102328
CANADA – Nova Scotia - The Canadian Coast Guard uncovered a mystery earlier this month while trawling the waters off Nova Scotia. Several large wooden fragments of a ship, believed to date back to the 19th century, were pulled from the ocean floor off the coast south of Yarmouth. A couple of these pieces were quite significant — one approximately 20 feet [six metres] long and two tonnes. Nova Scotia maintains a shipwreck database and preliminary research done by the Nova Scotia Museum found a couple of records Cottreau-Robins says are good potential matches for what the coast guard pulled from the ocean — a later 19th century wooden-framed vessel. The Orion was one vessel to pique their interest. It was built in Sweden in 1877 and was in the Maritimes in 1905, loaded with salt from Spain bound for Saint John, when it encountered bad weather and ended up being towed into Halifax. In 1906, the ship, now named the Marion C, was part of the British fleet when it sprung a leak while sailing from Bridgewater, N.S., to New York and sank in the general location the wreck was discovered by the coast guard.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/coast-guard-shipwreck-discovery-nova-scotia-1.3695456
USA – Ree Heights - Archaeologists in the state are hoping to start excavating a bison kill site near Ree Heights later this summer. It's one of the archeology dig sites in South Dakota scientists are probing this summer. Fosha says the time period makes the site unusual. He says most bison kill sites in the state date back to 3,000 years ago. The Ree Heights site is about 890 years ago. Fosha says the site may be linked to the Mitchell Indian Village. He says the village and the Ree Heights site date back to the same time period, which may explain where indigenous people living near the James River area got their bison. Fosha says remains at the village show the people ate mostly fish instead of relying on bison like other prehistoric communities. “If the site relates to the ceramics and everything else we’re seeing in the area, it should be what we call a woodland population. This would proceeded the agriculture communities that became very populated and numerous along the Missouri River and lower James River for a period of time,” says Fosha. Fosha says a new photographic method that takes photos of elevation at close intervals to the surface is showing the village was fortified, meaning their location in Marshall County was more permanent.
http://listen.sdpb.org/post/archaeologists-probe-850-year-old-buffalo-jump-james-river-valley#stream/0