10 AOÛT 2017 NEWS: Aigai - Scapa Flow - Swandro - Yulin - Autrecourt-et-Pourron - Moturua - Bursa -
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TURQUIE – 
Aigai - 55-kilometer section of a road that was built 2,000 years ago has been discovered in ongoing excavations of the ancient city of Aigai located in Turkey's Manisa province. Sezgin said that excavation work, which began in 2004, has pointed to evidence that the city became a regional point of economic and cultural attraction during the Hellenistic period in the 3rd century B.C. with the support of the Kingdom of Pergamon.The ancient city of Pergamon, now the town of Bergama, is located some 30 kilometers north of Aigai, nestled in the Yunt Mountains of the Aegean region. Sezgin said that the team had come across a road dating back to Roman era in 1st century A.D., which started from the Aegean Sea shore and was once used to facilitate transport between Izmir and Manisa."It is noteworthy that the road is as solid as the first day that is was built. Our examination showed that large water discharge channels were constructed under the road to prevent possible flash floods. In addition, we noticed that engravings were carved upon the stone plating to prevent horses from slipping during winter," Sezgin said. The road was first used as a route for war campaigns, and later for trade caravans, Sezgin explained, noting that it was part of a larger system of paths operated by the Roman Empire, which was famous for building vast networks of roads.
ROYAUME UNI – 
Scapa Flow - The first image generated of a scuttled German battleship at Scapa Flow after a multibeam echosounder survey has been released. The Markgraf was among dozens of ships from the German High Seas Fleet scuttled by their crews off Orkney in 1919 following the end of World War One.More than 50 German ships sank to the bottom of Scapa Flow in June 1919. Most were removed from the water but some remain on the sea bed, and were declared monuments of national importance in 2001. Marine archaeologists from Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (Orca), the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute and divers from scientific logistics diving company Sula have been involved in the multibeam echosounder technology project. The new image shows the Markgraf lying in 30m (98ft) of water on the seabed of Scapa Flow. More than 50 German ships sank to the bottom of Scapa Flow in June 1919.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-40862458
ROYAUME UNI – 
Swandro - Excavations at Swandro, on the west coastline of Rousay on Orkney, have proved to be extremely successful. The endangered multi-period site, much of which is under the storm beach, is being pounded by the winter storms, making the dig a battle against time. This year’s excavation has provided a valuable insight into both the Iron Age settlement mound and the Neolithic Passage Grave. Two Iron Age buildings formed the focus of study this year, a building dating to the first half of the first millennium. The removal of a flagged floor provided a glimpse of earlier levels and some in situ metalworking evidence. Signs of an earlier stone-built tank pre-dating the floor proved of interest.The back of the flagged floor in the middle Iron Age building has been “stolen” by the sea, demonstrating the risk that these buildings face from the destructive power of the storms. There is a Late Iron Age or Pictish building which proved to have a surviving hearth and as floor, as well as a doorway with intact door pivot, door jamb and bar keep, enabling the building to locked from the inside. Steve said: “This floor proved to be very interesting as broken pieces of fired clay, slag and other indicators of metal working appeared to have been trodden into the ashy surface. “The remains of a large elongated beach cobble was found partly covering the hearth. This stone appeared to have been set upright and its upward end showed damage consistent with it having been repeatedly struck. If we are correct in thinking that this semi underground building was used as a smithy this is a likely candidate as having been used as an anvil.”The earliest and most interesting parts of the site are the investigations of the Neolithic Chambered Cairn. The eroding beach portion of the tomb has revealed both the passage and evidence for the collapse of its roof. Dr Bond said: “We are now down to the rubble infill, above this we had evidence for later infill dating probably to the first Viking settlers. “They may well have found that the tomb was a good source of stone and they infilled the top of the passage with a number of butchered sheep, at least three cats and a coin of Eanred, a ninth century king of Northumbria.”
http://www.scotsman.com/regions/inverness-highlands-islands/archaeological-excavation-on-orkney-yields-new-discoveries-1-4525792
CHINE - Yulin - archaeologists recently unveiled a stone-walled imperial city platform in Yulin City, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province. It is a gated structure with the largest size and the most complicated structure found so far in China’s late Longshan culture. The Shimao site, dating back for some 4,000 years, is the largest known prehistorical site and provides vital data on the beginning of the Chinese civilization. Archaeologists from Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology and Yulin Cultural Relic Bureau have spent two years in the excavation of the platform. This imperial city platform is the only known structure of the kind that has top and bottom layers. It is composed of a square, external barbican, south and north platforms, and inner barbican. It is the largest prehistoric one found so far in China. “Judging from the ages of these relics, we believe the imperial city platform was built in 2300 to 2200 BC. In other words, the platform should be the first building constructed at the Shimao site,” Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archeology director, Sun Zhouyong said. Archeologists conclude that the platform represents the highest structural standard of an ethnic group in an early monarchical state
https://www.untvweb.com/news/chinese-archaeologists-unveil-imperial-city-platform-northwest-china/
FRANCE - Autrecourt-et-Pourron - Tout a commencé en 2012, dans la Vallée de la Meuse. Plusieurs diagnostics avaient été effectués dans cette zone en prévision de l'installation d'une carrière de granulats. L'Etat avait alors retenu un secteur marqué par la présence de plusieurs lits fossiles de la Meuse pour étudier plus en profondeur l'évolution du paysage autour de ce fleuve au cours des 12 derniers millénaires.Lors de cette opération, les géoarchéologues ont réalisé de nombreuses observations sur des stratigraphies, ces couches de terrain qu'on étudie afin d'établir des séquences chronologiques, datant de la fin de la glaciation (il y a 110 000 à 10 000 ans) jusqu'à aujourd'hui. L'occasion de procéder à des prélèvements, en prévision d'analyses destinées à comprendre l’évolution des paléoenvironnements. Autre étape réalisée pendant cette période de recherche : l'utilisation de la carpologie ou l’étude des graines et des fruits conservés dans les sédiments (archéologiques), une discipline encore peu développée pour les milieux naturels anciens. Premier résultat de ce travail de fourmi mené Caroline Schaal, spécialiste menant une thèse sur ce sujet : la découverte des fameuses graines de lin dans des sédiments datés du début de l’Holocène (-10 000 ans). Mais encore fallait-il s'assurer que le site n'avait pas été pollué et que ces graines dataient bien de l'Holocène. Une datation radiocarbone (14C) a permis de confirmer que les petites graines dormaient dans le sol depuis 9790 +-50 avant notre ère. Et qu'elles sont donc bien les plus anciennes représentantes de leur espèce retrouvées à ce jour dans le Grand Est.
NOUVELLE ZELANDE – 
Moturua - Archeologists in New Zealand are starting to unravel the mysteries of an early settlement near the northern tip of the islands that may have been founded by some of the first Polynesians to arrive in the region around 700 years ago. The artifacts from Moturua Island include a pendant made from shell that appears to have originated in tropical Pacific waters, which may have been brought by the earliest generations of Polynesian settlers, who developed New Zealand's indigenous Maori culture in the centuries that followed, say the researchers. The archaeological site, located beside a beach at Mangahawea Bay on Moturua island, about 124 miles (200 kilometers) north of the city of Auckland, was first excavated by archaeologists from the University of Auckland in 1981.Among the key findings at the site during the latest excavations are the cooked remains of seals, shellfish and moa — New Zealand's largest flightless bird, now extinct. The latest dig has also revealed signs of archeological layers that indicate the site was occupied successively during different periods of Maori cultural development — an unusual find in New Zealand, where many early sites were often abandoned when some key local resource became scarce, Robinson said.
https://www.livescience.com/60086-maori-site-earliest-polynesian-settlement.html
TURQUIE – 
Bursa - Zindan (dungeon) Gate, which was built in the Bithynia Kingdom 2,500 years ago, has been unearthed in the northwestern province of Bursa. Restoration work has been ongoing at Zindan Gate, located in the last part of Bursa’s dungeons in the Alacahırka neighborhood. The dungeon is made up of a “bloody well,” “torture room” and “corridors connected to the tower.”
Bursa is on the UNESCO list with its seven different regions. “The city offers heritage not only from the Ottoman era but also from the Byzantine, Roman and Bithynia eras. The walls of the Bithynia era are still here. An area of one million square meters are surrounded with four kilometer walls,” said Bursa Metropolitan Mayor Recep Altepe. Within the scope of the work to unearth the walls, the mayor said they have started restoring the Saltanat Gate. “Next will be Fetih [Conquest] Gate, Yer [Ground] Gate, Tahtakale Yokuş Street Gate, Zindan Gate and Kaplıca Gate after that. We are now working on Zindan Gate. Zindan Gate was surrounded with buildings in the past. Moreover, there was an apartment building in the center of its three towers. There were weaving shops around the apartment building. Its surroundings have been cleaned from the buildings. The details of the walls and life inside the walls have begun to come to light. There are dungeons and ‘bloody wells.’ After the Yedikule Dungeons in Istanbul, the one in Bursa is the second example,” he explained.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/bursas-dungeons-reveal-ancient-violence.aspx?pageID=238&nID=116468&NewsCatID=375
