07 MARS 2021 NEWS
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
ONLINE COURSES / COURS A DISTANCE
SPRING TERM : APRIL 2021
REGISTER NOW
GRECE – 
Pavlopetri - Discovered in 1967 by Nicholas Flemming and mapped in 1968 by a team of archaeologists from Cambridge, Pavlopetri (Παυλοπέτρι) is located between the islet of Pavlopetri and the Pounta coast of Laconia on the Peloponnese peninsula. Pavlopetri,which literally translates to ”Paul’s Stone,” is one of the oldest submerged cities, as well as the oldest in the Mediterranean sea. The settlement contains both Neolithic and Bronze Age material and the town is believed to have flourished in the period between 3000 and 1000 years BC. “There is now no doubt that this is the oldest submerged town in the world,” Dr Jon Henderson, associate professor of underwater archaeology at the University of Nottingham said in 2009. “It has remains dating from 2800 to 1200 BC, long before the glory days of classical Greece. There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique.” Marine geologists have yet to work out why the settlement sank. Theories include sea level changes, ground subsidence as the result of earthquakes, or a tsunami. “It is very likely a combination of the first two,” Dimitris Sakellariou, at the Greek Institute of Oceanography said. Aided by digital technology archaeologists discovered a world of buildings, courtyards, main streets, rock-cut tombs and religious structures. It is also believed that the town was the centre of a thriving textile industry (from the many loom weights found in the site). The underwater ruins of Pavlopetri are an example of underwater cultural heritage that could benefit from the protection of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage
https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/03/04/pavlopetri-oldest-submerged-city/
BAHAMAS - "The Bahamas were the last place colonized by people in the Caribbean region, and previous physical evidence indicated that it may have taken hundreds of years for indigenous people of the Bahamas -- called the Lucayans -- to move through the Bahamian archipelago that spans about 500 miles," van Hengstum said. While people were present in Florida more than 14,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, he said, these people never crossed the Florida Straits to nearby Bahamian islands, only 50 to 65 miles away. Meanwhile, the Caribbean islands were populated by people migrating from South American northward. Van Hengstum said the oldest archaeological sites in the southernmost Bahamian archipelago from the Turks and Caicos Islands indicate human arrival likely by 700 A.D. "But in the northern Bahamian Great Abaco Island, the earliest physical evidence of human occupation are skeletons preserved in sinkholes and blueholes," he said. "These two skeletons from Abaco date from 1200 to 1300 A.D. Our new record of landscape disturbance from people indicates that slash-and-burn agriculture likely began around 830 A.D., meaning the Lucayans rapidly migrated through the Bahamian archipelago in likely a century, or spanning just a few human generations." The team's other findings show how the Lucayans changed the new land.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210303161651.htm
BANGLADESH - Nateshwar - An ancient relic chamber has been discovered at Nateshwar village in Munshiganj district's Tongibari upazila. Two large 180 square-metre octagonal mounds, a 17-metre protective wall and carved bricks were also found there. The state minister said the earlier discovery of Nateshwar Deul at the level of the second civilisation (950-1223 AD) and the contents of the discovery clearly indicate that in the 10-11th century, there was a large and rich mound complex at Nateshwar archaeological site, which is the first in Bangladesh. A special architectural "relic chamber" at the centre of the octagonal mound is a rare and significant discovery. Belongings of Gautama Buddha and his important disciples were kept here, said the researchers in the press release. The upper part of this relic chamber is round and the lower part is quadrangular. This is the first such discovery in Bangladesh. The circular part of the relic chamber symbolises zero, or kuu, a core tenet of Buddhist philosophy. The quadrangular part symbolises the four noble truths of Buddhism. Earlier, parts of the protective brick wall were found, but the details of the structure were not yet clear. The recent discovery clarifies that the protective wall was all over the complex, which is another first in Bangladesh's archaeological discoveries. This time, a complete brick design on the outer part of the protective wall has been discovered in its correct position. Designed bricks have been used instead of terracotta plaques to decorate the walls of the complex in Atish's birthplace, said the press release. These discoveries will open new horizons for archaeological research.
https://www.thedailystar.net/city/news/ancient-relic-chamber-discovered-nateshwar-2054681
ALGERIE – 
Saf-saf - Une importante découverte a été faite dans le wileya de tébessa, plus exactement dans le commune de saf-saf. Les ouvriers communaux on pu mettre à jour une nécropole romaine datant de plusieurs siècles. en effet, les travailleurs communaux de la localité de saf-saf, située à plus de 30 km au sud-est de chef-lieu de le wileya de tébessa, son tombés nez à nez avec les sarcophages romains antiques qui renfermaient deux crânes humains, comme cela est rapporté par nos confrères de quotidien le soir d’algérie. Suite à cette découverte, les services de sécurité de le région on été alertés. les éléments de le protection civile ainsi que les engins spécialisés se son aussi déplacés sur les lieux, ce qui avait permis de déterrer 12 autres tombes. Ces dernières conenaient plusieurs ossements. Des pierres tombales on été également découvertes sur les lieux, elles contenaient des inscriptions latines.
https://www.algerie360.com/tebessa-des-ouvriers-communaux-decouvrent-une-necropole-romaine/
POLOGNE – Kujawy - The Kujawy megalithic tombs are a cluster of 130-metres-long elongated trapezium shaped tombs located in the Kujawy region of Poland that were constructed during the 4th millennium BC. Archaeologists used a combination of exploratory non-invasive methods such as drone and aerial surveys, geochemical, and geophysical studies to discover individual houses and larger settlement networks. The villages were small – up to 10 families lived in each of them and they covered an area of 1-1.5 hectares. Archaeologists suggest that the tombs served as a focal point of the settlement placement, creating a microregion in which the inhabitants of several villages would be involved in constructing each monument. Limited excavations have discovered many animal bones from cows, pigs, sheep and goats, giving an indication that the settlement’s inhabitants focused mainly on livestock rather than agriculture. This is supported by a study of pollen samples taken by drilling cores into old lake beds that also revealed a low level of deforestation for farming.
EGYPTE – 
Berenice - The individual burials of nearly 600 pet cats, dogs, and monkeys have been found in a cemetery at the early Roman port of Berenice, which is located on the Red Sea. Earlier investigations at the 2,000-year-old site, which was discovered under a Roman trash pit, uncovered the burials of about 100 animals. Most of them appeared to have been pets, but researchers thought to be possible that the remains could have been discarded as trash. The new study indicates that many of the animals lived into old age, or died of injury or disease, and had not been sacrificed or mummified. Archaeozoologist Marta Osypińska of the Polish Academy of Sciences said most of the burials held the remains of cats carefully arranged in pits and covered with textiles or pieces of pottery. Many of them wore iron collars or necklaces of glass and shells. Five percent of the burials contained the remains of dogs. “We have individuals who have very limited mobility,” Osypinska said. “Such animals had to be fed to survive, sometimes with special foods in the case of the almost-toothless animals.” Osypinska and her colleagues conclude that people had strong emotional bonds with these animals.