10 JANVIER 2011
- 10 JANVIER
- CHINE – 
Qianjiang - When a mechanical digger dug its claw into the earth and rose at a construction site in Qianjiang City, Zhejiang Province on Dec. 10 last year, people found that what leaked from the steel claw was not only earth but also a large amount of ancient coins, Qianjiang Evening News reported. A total of about 500,000 to 600,000 ancient coins were discovered in a huge box underground, and the coins belonged to Western Han, Tang, Five Dynasties-Ten Kingdoms, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and other dynasties, archaeologists said. The earliest coin was cast in 175 B.C., while the latest was cast in 1368 A.D.
http://www.kaogu.cn/en/detail.asp?ProductID=2654
- CHINE – Gaohu - Chinese archaeologists have discovered the Terracotta and Painted Pottery Culture, which flourished around 4000 B.C., during excavations of the Laohudun Site in Gaohu, Jing'an of Jiangxi Province. An important collection of late Neolithic remains and cultural relics were discovered in the dig. Xu Changqing, the excavation team leader, stated that in the bottom of the site where the Terracotta Pottery Culture relics sit they excavated some stoneware, including hatchets, adze, stone ploughs and stone walls as well as some pottery ware. The items have been preliminarily estimated to be 6,000 years old. Moreover, archaeologists unearthed a giant sacrificial table aged between 4,000 to 5,000 years, 114 sacrificial tombs and an architectural ruin made from red scorched earth. Mounded by yellow clay of high purity, the table of sacrifice has an area of 3,000 square meters, with its thickness in some parts reaching 80 centimeters. This site is located in the middle of a rice paddy field in Gaohu County, Jing'an. It falls into the category of ancient mound cultural relics.
http://www.kaogu.cn/en/detail.asp?ProductID=2655
- EGYPTE – 
Louxor-Rive Ouest - Six missing pieces from the colossal double statue of the 18th Dynasty King Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye, have been discovered at the king’s mortuary temple on Luxor’s west bank. The double statue is currently a centerpiece of the main hall at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The missing pieces were uncovered 130 years after Mariette discovered the double statue in 1889 at Medinet Habu. The fragments were found during excavation work by an Egyptian team when the statue was first discovered an Italian team restored the statue and filled in the missing pieces with modern stonework. The pieces from Amenhotep III that were recovered come from the right side of his chest, nemes headdress, and leg. The pieces of Queen Tiye that were uncovered include a section of her wig, and pieces from her left arm, fingers and foot. A small section of the base of the double statue was also found. The measurements of the six missing fragments range from 47cm to 103cm. These pieces are currently being held at the site of Amenhotep III’s mortuary temple on the west bank, but will soon be relocated to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for restoration and placement into the colossal statue. The pieces of statuary were found as part of a project to lower the ground water on the west bank of Luxor. These six pieces are only a few of nearly 1,000 statuary fragments that have been found dating from the Pharonic to the Coptic era. All the pieces that have been found to date are being stored in the west bank magazines for documentation and restoration.
http://www.eturbonews.com/20451/missing-egyptian-artifacts-found
- FRANCE – 
Essé - Sur l'emprise de la future 2x2 voies Rennes-Angers, au lieu-dit la Basse-Coudre sur la commune d'Essé, un important chantier de fouilles archéologiques est en cours. Une nécropole d'une trentaine de crémations a été mise au jour. Elle date de l'époque gallo-romaine entre le I er et le IV e siècle, soit de la défaite gauloise d'Alésia en l'an -52, puis de l'empire romain en Europe et de l'approche de sa fin. De nombreuses fosses de formes différentes ont été explorées pour aboutir à présent à 26. Ce sera la plus importante nécropole de ce type repérée en Bretagne qui se chiffraient souvent de dix à quinze. Les fosses rondes ou plus allongées comportent des ossements en amas entourés de pierres ou dans des urnes en céramique... C'est aussi du charbon de bois, d'où ces colorations facilement localisables. Il y avait des crémations primaires où les corps étaient brûlés sur un bûcher, puis ensuite une crémation secondaire dans la nécropole. Les fouilles vont cesser le 21 janvier et les travaux relatifs à la route vont se poursuivre. Yn laboratoire en étude de géomorphologie du sol aura opéré. De la palynologie déterminera s'il y avait des pollens dans les sépultures. De l'anthraracologie en dira plus sur les espèces de bois de cette époque, ceci à partir de l'analyse des charbons. Des spécialistes dans l'étude du métal, de la céramique, du verre, puis encore des ossements et charbons poursuivront en labo les recherches.
- FRANCE – 
Blanzac-Porcheresse -Les sondages archéologiques réalisés, fin juin, par l'Inrap au pied de l'église Saint-Arthémy, côté nord, ont donné lieu à un rapport. Le diagnostic établi à partir de cinq sondages, ont permis de faire des découvertes intéressantes sans toutefois nécessité de nouvelles fouilles plus approfondies. » D'abord, plusieurs sépultures ont été mises à jour. Elles attestent de la présence d'un vieux cimetière, comme autour de la plupart des églises. D'autres sépultures, sous la forme de sarcophage ou encore d'enfeu (tombe encastrée dans l'épaisseur du mur d'un édifice religieux généralement réservée aux nobles), ont aussi été déterrées. Plus mystérieux, les sondages ont révélé les fondations de deux bâtisses accolées au mur nord entre le chevet et le transept. Une construction imposante, probablement haute de trois étages, faisait partie intégrante du lieu de culte. Il s'agirait des vestiges d'un édifice religieux antérieur à l'église, c'est-à-dire du XIe siècle et vraisemblablement posés sur les bases d'un temple primitif. Une autre partie des fondations appartiendraient à l'ancienne sacristie. À l'origine, elle se dressait côté nord avant d'être détruite au milieu du XIXe siècle pour migrer de l'autre côté de l'église. Ce diagnostic posé, les travaux d'assainissement vont pourvoir commencer au pied du mur qui sera dégagé jusqu'à sa base, du chevet au transept, puis prolongé par une galerie ventilée le long de la nef.
http://www.sudouest.fr/2011/01/10/interessantes-decouvertes-au-pied-de-l-eglise-285854-1180.php
- JAPON - Japan's rich past is of course a national treasure, but the sheer volume of items to be cared for and preserved for future generations can be overwhelming. Japanese archaeology faces such a challenge as it tries, in an age of limited budgets, to protect and restore ancient sites, catalog and study dug-up artifacts, and simply manage to store the mounds of unearthed pottery shards. Japanese archaeology faces such a challenge as it tries, in an age of limited budgets, to protect and restore ancient sites, catalog and study dug-up artifacts, and simply manage to store the mounds of unearthed pottery shards. Thus, as of the end of the 2008 fiscal year, some 7.63 million boxes (each box measuring 60 cm by 40 cm by 15 cm) of artifacts were in storage throughout Japan and increasing at the rate of over 100,000 boxes annually. And in November 2009, local authorities in Kashiba city in Nara Prefecture came under fire when it became known that they had reburied more than 20 tons of excavated tiles in "underground storage." A similar problem of materials management is now challenging the Japanese Archaeological Association (JAA). It has archived some 57,000 documents, mostly excavation reports and local archaeology-related publications, that it has received as donations since the JAA was founded in 1948. Since few people were using the collection, the board of directors decided to give it away to a suitable institution. What is clear in both cases is that it is not enough simply to accumulate archaeological materials, as their full value will not be realized without professional evaluation and management.