04-07 SEPTEMBRE 2014 NEWS:Seyitömer - Kalthota - Harran - Ulpiana - Swinton - Asko -
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TURQUIE – 
Seyitömer - Excavations in the Seyitömer tumulus in the western province of Kütahya have uncovered a brush and baby rattle, which are estimated to date back 5,000 years. The artifacts were found by Dumlupınar University (DPU) Archaeology Department in a plot of land owned by a private company involved in coal mining. “We found a brush here. The parts, where animal hairs are attached, are made of clay. It is a triangle brush adorned with motifs. They were used in the ceramic production in the early Bronze Age. The other item is a toy that makes the sound of a rattle when you shake it. It dates back to 3,000 B.C. It is very interesting for us since it has not been broken since then,” said the head of the excavations, Professor Nejat Bilgen, adding that the tumulus had been home to many civilizations. Objects from the Roman, Hellenistic, Achaemenid, Middle Age and Bronze Age eras have been found in the excavations since they began in 2006. Archaeologists have discovered interesting items such as goddess figures, brushes and a baby rattle this year so far. Bilgen said that because of its clay-based structure, they also found many cups made of clay in the field. “Reconstruction works have been continuing. There are also many weaving loom weights, made of clay, as well as goddess and small bull statuettes. This shows that bulls were a religious item for these people.”
SRI LANKA – 
Kalthota - Archaeologists claim to have unearthed a settlement that is believed to be about 3,150 years old in Balangoda. News 1st’s reporter in the area visited the expedition. The expedition discovered, what they say, are the remains of this settlement at a dig in the Tanketiya jungle in Kalthota, Balangoda. Professor of Post Graduate Archaeology at the University of Kelaniya, Raj Somadeva, who is leading the expedition, says the remains they have found indicate that they once made up a oval-shaped house. Among the items discovered by the expedition are an iron ring, a grinding stone and a rock carving.
TURQUIE – 
Harran - The remains of a 1,400 year old bath have been discovered in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa’s Harran district, one of the world’s oldest settlements. The city’s history dates back to 6,000 B.C, and it is known to have been the capital of Assyrians and Emevis. Harran is distinguished by its structures of schools, temples, madrasahs, mosques and city walls, and archaeological excavations have been continuing in the area to unearth more ancient artifacts.During the more recent works to clear the city walls, the remains of a bath were found, and it is estimated that there were 14 more baths in the area. The head of the excavations, Professor Mehmet Önal said last year they had found a water well right next to a large inscription and such findings indicated the existence of baths. “Small remains make the traces of a number of them clear,” Önal said. “The walls are plastered and a water well was found right next to the remains. This is why we think this place was probably a bath. The place where people performed ablutions will be revealed after further excavations. We estimate that the bath is around 1,400 years old,” he said, adding that the Eyyubis ruled the region at that time. Önal said in a separate excavation area close to the bath remains, they had found a small room and traces of a cellar. “We estimate that these remains belong to a school,” he added.
KOSOVO – 
Ulpiana - A Turkish archaeologist team headed by Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Professor Haluk Çetinkaya has found traces of a Roman church from the fourth century B.C. close to the Kosovar capital Pristina. Çetinkaya said they first found the baptistery and then reached other parts of the church at the ancient site of Ulpiana, adding that the house of worship collapsed in an earthquake at the end of the fourth century before being restored one century later. The church is estimated to be nearly 19 meters long and will be completely unearthed next year.
“The church’s material, coins and the skeletons that were found in there are important in dating the church,” he said. “People were buried right next to the baptistery. We have examined the skeletons in the laboratory and found out that they date back to the beginning of the fifth century. We found 101 coins in the church area. Almost all of them are from the fourth century. This is a significant criterion for dating. Considering all these, we say that the church belongs to the fourth century. On the other hand, the use of cross was forbidden in the floor of churches in the first quarter of the fifth century. Here, a cross was used in the floor, and this is why the church dates back to before the fifth century.” The excavation works started in Ulpiana, one of the most important settlements in the region in the Roman Empire, in 2012 with a cooperation treaty with the Kosovar Culture Ministry.
ROYAUME UNI – 
Swinton - Three months ago, Andrew Allen was gardening when he found pottery sherds in his garden in Swinton, near Rotherham – an area which, admit the team he reported his finds to, is considered of “little interest or importance” despite its Roman heritage.“The village lies between the end of the Roman ridge and the main Roman road running into Doncaster, which was a minor Roman fortress,” says Dr Lauren McIntyre, who is leading a public bid to pay for a full excavation of a garden which yielded 90 fragments of pottery in June. “There was a Roman coin hoard found quite close to this site in 1853, and the finds that Andrew has uncovered suggest that we are potentially looking at something quite important.
DANEMARK – Askø - Archaeologists are currently raising and examining what is being called the oldest boat ever found in Denmark. The ancient six to seven metre long vessel is estimated to be 6,500 years old and although it is damaged, archaeologists are finding it very interesting. “It split 6,500 years ago and they tried to fix the crack by putting a bark strip over it and drilling holes both sides of it,” Jørgen Dencker, the head of marine archaeology at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, told DR Nyheder. “That two-millimetre wide strip has been preserved.” “The most exciting thing is that there is sealing mass in the holes. We have found sealing mass before – such as bits of resin that children have chewed on and made flexible.” The historic find was made when the energy company SEAS-NVE was replacing sea cables by Askø Island in the Smålandsfarvandet Sea north of Lolland in the southern part of Zealand. In connection with the boat find, archaeologists also found an entire submerged Stone Age settlement that they are checking for more archaeological gems. The archaeologists hope to find more organic material – such as wood, bone or antlers – which could have been preserved under water. Meanwhile, the underwater settlement can help map coastlines from thousands of years ago.
http://cphpost.dk/news/archaeologists-make-spectacular-discovery-off-denmark-s-coast.10710.html
