08 MARS 2017 NEWS: Bet Shemesh - Nottingham - Plocnik - Vallette -
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ISRAEL – 
Bet Shemesh - Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered yet another fantastic find from the past: this time, an impressive 2,000-year-old road dating to the Roman period. The preserved road – stretching up to six-meters wide and continuing for a distance of approximately 1.5 kilometers – was revealed during an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation conducted prior to laying a water pipeline. “The road that we discovered, which 2,000 years ago passed along a route similar to Highway 375 today. . . was apparently meant to link the Roman settlement that existed in the vicinity of Beit Natif with the main highway known as the ‘Emperor’s Road.’ That road was in fact a main artery that connected the large settlements of Eleutheropolis (Bet Guvrin) and Jerusalem,” said Irina Zilberbod, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Zilberbod said the construction of the Emperor’s Road is thought to have taken place at the time of Emperor Hadrian’s visit to the country, circa 130 CE, or slightly thereafter. “The presence of a milestone (a stone marking distances) bearing the name of the emperor Hadrian which was discovered in the past close to the road reinforces this hypothesis,” she said. Archaeologists said coins were discovered between the pavement stones: a coin from the Great Revolt (67 CE), a coin from the Umayyad period, a coin of the prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate, dating to 29 CE and a coin of Agrippa I from 41 CE that was minted in Jerusalem.
https://www.israel21c.org/archaeologists-uncover-roman-era-road-near-bet-shemesh/
ROYAUME UNI - 
Nottingham - Archaeologists have made an exciting breakthrough by finding a new cave which is thought to have once been under an old pub. The hollows have been discovered under a building on Lower Parliament Street. Experts are still unearthing more information about the new network's use and origins - but Nottingham City's archaeologist Scott Lomax reckons the cave was once the cellar of a nineteenth-century pub called The Woodlark. He said: "We managed to get a camera down into the cave and it gave us enough insight to know it's definitely a nineteenth-century beer cellar for a pub. We know that because there were still beer bottles in there - there was a shelf with the ceramic bottles on.
BULGARIE – 
Plocnik - A “sensational” discovery of 75-century-old copper tools in Serbia is compelling scientists to reconsider existing theories about where and when man began using metal. Copper tools – axes, hammers, hooks and needles – were found interspersed with other artefacts from a settlement that burned down some 7,000 years ago at Plocnik, near Prokuplje and 200 kilometres south of Belgrade. The village had been there for some eight centuries before its demise. After the big fire, its unknown inhabitants moved away. But what they left behind points to man’s earliest known extraction and shaping of metal. Scientists had previously believed that the mining, extraction and manipulation of copper began in Asia Minor, spreading from there. With the find in Plocnik, parallel and simultaneous developments of those skills in several places now seem more likely, Pernicka said. Indeed, the tools discovered in southern Serbia were made some 75 centuries ago – up to eight centuries older than what has been found to date. The site at Plocnik, believed to cover some 120 hectares in all, is buried under several metres of soil. Serbian archaeologists have so far exposed three homes – the largest of them, measuring eight by five metres, discovered this year. The layer of earth it stood on is still blackened from the scorching heat that destroyed the village. It is unclear what caused the fire, but no damage that would indicate an outside attack has been found. The huts collapsed on their contents, with mud bricks and ashes burying all that was inside – pottery, statues, tools and a worktable. After dusting the still embedded artifacts off, archaeologists began extracting them, most of all hoping to find more precious copper tools. Scientists are debating whether the Plocnik village led the world to the Copper Age in the 6th millennium BC, particularly as remains of primitive copper smelters were recently found not far away, near today’s mines and smelters in Majdanpek and Bor. It remains unclear why a comparatively large quantity of copper tools were found at Plocnik. The head archaeologist on site, Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic, said that the village may have been a tool-making or trading centre. There is also much more to be learned about the ancient inhabitants, apart from the key question of how man developed his tools. “These people were not wild,” Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic stressed, pointing to fine pieces such as statuettes. “They had finely combed hair and adorned themselves with necklaces.” One statue of a woman shows her wearing some sort of a mini skirt. Others wore long and broad scarves.
http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/20178/mini-skirt-invented-7000-years-ago/
MALTE – 
Vallette - The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure said that the remains of an ancient wall which once formed part of the fortifications in Valletta have been discovered during the excavations. In a statement, the Ministry said that the wall was found on the site of the former public latrine.
