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PEROU – Lambayeque - Seventeen tombs belonging to the late Chimu-Incan civilisation have been uncovered in Peru. The tombs date back 1,000 years. One adult tomb was flanked by those of two children whose feet were amputated. Archaeologists believe they belonged to a high social class and may have been sacrificed because they were mutilated and decapitated. Experts will continue their excavations until December hoping to shed light on burial patterns of the Chimu-Inca. The Chimu lived in the north coast of Peru, and were conquered by the Incas around 1470 A.D.
VIDEO – Reuters = http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/09/07/archaeologists-discover-ancient-tombs-in?videoId=369779072
ROYAUME UNI – Londres - Researchers have confirmed the cause of the 1665 Great Plague by studying DNA from a mass burial pit discovered in east Londonlast year. DNA was analysed from 20 skeletons excavated from the Bedlam burial ground, unearthed during the construction of a new Crossrail station at Liverpool Street. A significant proportion of the samples tested positive for yersina pestis, the bacterium responsible for the 1348 Black Death epidemic and the 1855 bubonic plague outbreak in China. This is the first identification of plague DNA from 17th century Britain, when the Great Plague of Londonclaimed an estimated 100,000 lives – almost a quarter of London’s population at the time.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/plague-cause-discovered-great-1665-london-crossrail-dna-testing-don-walker-bubonic-a7231956.html
ITALIE – Vulci - Archaeologists working in the Etruscan necropolis of Vulci (near Viterbo) have discovered a tomb with the remains of a woman who was possibly a relative of a princess buried nearby. The excavation was led by the Archaeological Superintendency for the Metropolitan Area of Rome, the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria; in cooperation with the Vulci Foundation and the contribution of the City of Montalto di Castro. The tomb was found in the area known as Poggetto Mengarelli, where in recent months a nearby illegal excavation by looters led archeaologists to uncover the now-famous Tomb of the Golden Scarab, that of an Etruscan princess buried around 700 B.C., outfitted with jewelry made of bronze, silver, gold and amber. The excavations of the new tomb were concentrated north of the Tomb of the Golden Scarab, uncovering 25 burial sites, some still intact, mainly from the Etruscan period of the 8th century B.C. and that of the Roman Republic. Under the white limestone closure archaeologists found a funerary urn in tact with ashes of the woman buried in the tomb, together with a fuseruola (a disk with a hole in the middle) - a clear sign of activity linked to spinning cloth - as well as a set of 12 vases, one with a painted geometric decorative motif of the "red on white" type, and five bronze crescent-shaped fibulae (brooches or clasps), perhaps once attached to a garment that was placed over the urn. "We're on the tracks of the first Etruscans who buried their dead in this area," said Carlo Casi, scientific director of the Vulci Foundation. "We find ourselves before an exceptional discovery," said Superintendent Alfonsina Russo. "These initial highly interesting discoveries will allow us to finally understand the topographic and structural development of the northern necropoli of the Vulci, and finally unravel the numerous doubts that accompany the funerary contexts of this period, which are often decontextualised and isolated," she said.
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2016/09/08/new-etruscan-tomb-found-in-vulci-necropolis_04e6cab0-a7cf-4370-a417-4b66ce674a61.html?
FRANCE – Breilly - Diagnostic préalablement à l’implantation d’un lotissement à Breilly. Un foyer et une fosse ont été mis au jour. Cette dernière a livré du torchis rubéfié et deux tessons du Ier-début IIe s.
http://www.associationciras.fr/2016/09/08/diagnostic-pr%C3%A9alablement-%C3%A0-l-implantation-d-un-lotissement-%C3%A0-breilly-sur-2-7-ha-lydie-blondiau-2016/
FRANCE – Iles Sanguinaires - Tout l'été, Hervé Alfonsi et son équipe d'archéologues sous-marins ont fouillé l'épave d'un navire datant de la Renaissance au large des îles Sanguinaires en Corse. Les recherches ont permis de mettre à jour une cargaison importante de céramiques raffinées, d'outils d'artisans et de pierres. Le navire n'a pas fini de livrer tous ses secrets et les recherches se poursuivront l'an prochain. A ce stade Hervé Alfonsi penche pour deux hypothèses : "un bateau de commerce Génois qui rentrait sur Ajaccio ou qui participait à l'édification d'une des deux tours des îles Sanguinaires". En effet, la cargaison était aussi chargée d'un stock important de pierres. En analysant la composition minérale de ces roches, le naturaliste Jean Alessandri pencherait pour l'utilisation du calcaire comme le ciment des tours génoises. "En le chauffant, on obtient de la chaux qui était le ciment de l'époque", affirme-t-il.
VIDEO - http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/tendances/histoire/corse-le-sondage-d-une-epave-de-la-renaissance-met-a-jour-des-ceramiques-245669