03 JUILLET 2020 NEWS
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EGYPTE – 
Louxor - Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of ancient walls and ovens along Kebbash Road, the sphinx-lined avenue that connects Luxor to Karnak’s Great Temple of Amon. The find includes several round ovens that may have been used to bake mud bricks or pottery and a mud-brick wall dating to the late Roman Empire, which spanned roughly the third through fifth centuries A.D. The wall, found west of Kebbash Road, measures almost 100 feet long, 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Per Egypt Today, the team also identified a sandstone wall that stretches all the way from Karnak in the north to Luxor in the south—a distance of almost two miles. Organized in three horizontal rows of sandstone blocks, the barrier was built to protect the Nile River’s eastern banks from seasonal flooding.
ISRAEL - 
Jerusalem - A double stamp impression on a bulla and a seal made of used pottery shreds discovered in the City of David may indicate that despite the plight of Jerusalem after the destruction of the First Temple, efforts were made to restore the stature of the administrative authorities. The seal impression, bullae, were small pieces of clay used in ancient times to sign documents or containers (for example, storage jugs for agricultural produce collected as a tax) intended to keep them sealed en route to their destination. According to Professor Yuval Gadot: “Despite the numerous excavations conducted in Jerusalem to date, so far the findings revealed from the Persian period are extremely meager and therefore we lack information regarding the character and appearance of the city during this period.”
https://www.jns.org/excavations-in-jerusalem-dredge-up-a-seal-impression-from-after-first-temple/
IRAN – 
Tepe Hegmataneh - Archaeologists have unearthed new cultural relics and architectural vestiges that sheds a new light on the mysterious capital of Medes, which is widely believed to be in Ecbatana, an ancient city on the site of which stands the modern city of Hamadan in west-central Iran. Ecbatana was subsequently the summer residence of the Achaemenian kings and one of the residences of the Parthian kings. According to ancient Greek writers, the city was founded in about 678 BC by Deioces, who was the first king of the Medes. “Cultural elements, estimated to date back to Iron Age II C (700 – 586 BC), which was almost concurrent with the Median era (around 678 BC–around 549 BC), were unearthed during the 22nd archaeological season recently carried out in Tepe Hegmataneh (also known as Ecbatana) …. In this season we seem to have succeeded to answer an old question: ‘Are there any signs of the Median period in Hegmataneh?’ Yes, we have discovered relatively satisfying signs of Median architecture and pottery,” ISNA quoted senior Iranian archaeologist Mehrdad Malekzadeh as saying on Tuesday. The 70-day archaeological season came to an end late in June aimed at exploring and re-examining the stratigraphy of the hill, to shed a new light on its lowest layers which are deemed to be related to the [early] settlement on Hegmataneh hill and the foundation of its [ruined] fortress and towers, the archaeologist explained.The Greek historian Herodotus described the city in the 5th century BC as being surrounded by seven concentric walls. Ecbatana was captured from the Median ruler Astyages by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, and it was taken from the last Achaemenian ruler by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Herodotus writes: “Deioces bade them build for him a palace worthy of the royal dignity and strengthen him with a guard of spearmen. And the Medes did so: for they built him a large and strong palace in that part of the land which he told them [...]. He built large and strong walls, those which are now called Ecbatana, standing in circles one within the other. And this wall is so contrived that one circle is higher than the next by the height of the battlements alone. And to some extent, I suppose, the nature of the ground, seeing that it is on a hill, assists towards this end; but much more was it produced by art, since the circles are in all seven in number. And within the last circle are the royal palace and the treasure-houses.The largest of these walls is in size about equal to the circuit of the wall around Athens; and of the first circle the battlements are white, of the second black, of the third crimson, of the fourth blue, of the fifth red: thus are the battlements of all the circles colored with various tints, and the two last have their battlements one of them overlaid with silver and the other with gold. These walls then Deioces built for himself and round his palace, and the people he commanded to dwell round about the wall.” According to the Greek historian Xenophon of Athens (c.430-c.355), Ecbatana became the summer residence of the Achaemenid kings. Their palace is described by the Greek historian Polybius of Megalopolis. He writes that the city was richer and more beautiful than all other cities in the world; although it had no wall, the palace, built on an artificial terrace. An inscription, unearthed in 2000, indications that Achaemenid king Artaxerxes II Mnemon (404-358) built a terrace with columns in Ecbatana. Some twelve kilometers southwest of Hamadan is Gandj Nameh, where Darius I and his son Xerxes had inscriptions cut into the rock. Polybius, a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work The Histories, tells that the builders used cedar and cypress wood, which was covered with silver and gold. The roof tiles, columns and ceilings were plated with silver and gold. He adds that the palace was stripped of its precious metals in the invasion of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, and that the rest was seized during the reigns of Antigonus and Seleucus. Later, Ecbatana was one of the capitals of the Seleucid and the Parthian Empires, sometimes called Epiphaneia.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/449448/Excavation-sheds-new-light-on-mysterious-capital-of-Medes-in
AUSTRALIE – 
Murujuga - Australia has a deep human history stretching back 65,000 years, but many of its oldest archaeological sites are now underwater. In an encouraging sign that Aboriginal artifacts and landscapes may actually be preserved offshore, archaeologists have discovered a 7,000-year-old site submerged along Australia's continental shelf, the first of its kind. Their discovery is outlined today in the journal PLoS One. Jonathan Benjamin, a professor of maritime archaeology at Flinders University in Adelaide, led a team that searched for submerged sites off Murujuga (also known as the Dampier Archipelago), a dry and rocky coastal region in northwestern Australia. About 18,000 years ago, the shoreline of Murujuga would have extended another 100 miles further than the current coast. The team used LiDAR-mounted airplanes and sonar-equipped boats to scan the shallow seas around Murujuga for places that might have the right conditions for preservation of artifacts. The team ultimately found 269 stone artifacts at Cape Bruguieres Channel, buried under about eight feet of water. The various tools appeared to be designed for activities like scraping, cutting and hammering, and the researchers found one grindstone that may have been used for crushing up the seeds of Spinifex grass for baking into bread. Based on radiocarbon dating and an analysis of when this spot became submerged, the researchers think the artifacts are at least 7,000 years old. The team also describes a second site, Flying Foam Passage, a freshwater spring about 45 feet below sea level and at least where one stone tool that's at least 8,500 years old turned up.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeology-underwater-australia-180975235/
IRAN – 
Tepe Ashraf - An ancient burial containing the remains of a horse -- estimated to be four years old -- has been discovered by archaeologists in Tepe Ashraf, the sole archaeological hill in Isfahan, central Iran. The horse skeleton was found near a place where a giant jar-tomb was unearthed last month, which researchers believe could shed a new light on ancient human life in Isfahan. “The burial of this horse with its head turned towards the animal’s body, shows an official burial which was practiced during the early years of the Parthian era (247 BC – 224 CE). In this type of burial, the animal's body was buried next to its owner, who had died,” IRNA quoted senior archaeologist Alireza Jafari-Zand as saying on Tuesday.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/449494/Ancient-horse-remains-discovered-in-central-Iran
FRANCE – 
Autun - La fouille porte sur une nécropole située à proximité de l'église paléochrétienne de Saint-Pierre-l'Estrier à un peu plus de deux kilomètres du centre-ville d'Autun. La fouille a permis de mettre au jour 150 tombes. Certains individus sont enterrés dans des sarcophages en grès tandis que d'autres sont placés dans des cercueils en bois ou en plomb. Peu d'objets ont été retrouvés explique l'INRAP, ce qui est "conforme aux pratiques funéraires de l'Antiquité tardive". Les archéologues ont par ailleurs découvert les traces de six mausolées et d'un édifice en bois. Les cercueils de plomb poursuit l'INRAP "sont rares dans la moitié nord de la France, Autun en est l'un des gisements les plus importants, avec une quarantaine d'exemplaires connus, dont huit issus de la fouille en cours". Placé dans un sarcophage de pierre, l'un d'eux "semble hermétique depuis 1.500 ans" il sera ouvert lorsque la fouille sera terminée. Il pourrait "révéler un individu bien conservé". Cette nécropole en usage du IIIe au Ve siècle accueillerait, selon les chercheurs, des sépultures chrétiennes parmi les plus anciennes de la moitié nord de la Gaule. "Certains de ces imposants monuments funéraires contenaient des sarcophages de marbre. L'un d'entre eux aurait abrité la dépouille d'Amator, parfois cité comme le premier évêque d'Autun".
BELGIQUE – 
Tongres - En 2016, lors de fouilles préventives dans la ville de Tongres, une tablette de plomb datant de la fin du Ier siècle apr. J.-C. est mise au jour. L’objet d’une douzaine de centimètres est ce qu’on appelle une tablette de malédiction ou de défixion. De tels objets, usuellement déposés dans les cimetières ou les puits, étaient utilisés pour jeter un mauvais sort à quelqu’un. La tablette est dans un état de conservation remarquable et porte une quinzaine de lignes associant dessins et textes magiques, grecs et latins. Une des particularités de cette tablette est qu’elle est plate alors qu’habituellement ces malédictions étaient pliées ou roulées. Pour décrypter cet objet magique, il a fallu associer des chercheurs de plusieurs disciplines. En dépit de son origine locale, la tablette de Tongres présente des affinités de formes et de structures avec quatre malédictions sur plomb provenant de Tunisie ou de Grèce. Le modèle commun de ces cinq objets a probablement été transmis par un manuel de magie, rédigé peut-être en Égypte, dont des copies ont circulé dans tout le bassin méditerranéen, et même jusqu’aux confins septentrionaux de l’Empire, comme nous l’apprend la tablette de Tongres. La tablette fournit ainsi un témoignage de première main sur la circulation des hommes, des idées et des pratiques religieuses dans l’Empire romain et montre que le territoire de la Belgique moderne a été très tôt intégré à ces réseaux. Les résultats de la recherche ont été publiés dans la revue Latomus.
