12 JUILLET 2021 NEWS
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TURQUIE – 
Euromos - Two 2,500-year-old marble statues and an inscription have been found during excavations at the Temple of Zeus Lepsynos. Built in the 2nd century B.C., the temple is located in the ancient city of Euromos. Abuzer Kizil told Anadolu Agency that the artifacts were found during the restoration efforts unexpectedly. “We have unearthed two very important links of the missing archaic sculpture of the Caria region, and an inscription dating to the Hellenistic period,” he said. “One of the two kouros unearthed at Euromos is naked, the other is wearing armor and a short skirt. The armor is made of leather and it is remarkable that both statues have a lion in their hands. He said the naked statue has a lion in his hand indicating it is most likely Apollo. Kizil said the inscription from the Hellenistic period is expected to reveal important insights on the Carian history, and efforts to decipher it are continuing.
ISRAEL – 
- Khirbat er-Ra‘i - For the first time: an inscription from the time of the biblical Judges and relating to the Book of Judges has been recovered from excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Qiryat Gat. The rare inscription bears the name ‘Jerubbaal’ in alphabetic script and dates from around 1,100 BCE. It was written in ink on a pottery vessel and found inside a storage pit that was dug into the ground and lined with stones. The inscription was written in ink on a jug – a small personal pottery vessel that holds approximately one liter, and may well have contained a precious liquid such as oil, perfume or medicine. Apparently, much like today, the vessel’s owner wrote his name on it to assert his ownership. It clearly shows the letters yod (broken at the top), resh, bet, ayin, lamed, and remnants of other letters indicate that the original inscription was longer. The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash. Gideon is first mentioned as combatting idolatry by breaking the altar to Baal and cutting down the Asherah pole. In biblical tradition, he is then remembered as triumphing over the Midianites, who used to cross over the Jordan to plunder agricultural crops. According to the Bible, Gideon organized a small army of 300 soldiers and attacked the Midianites by night near Ma‘ayan Harod. In view of the geographical distance between the Shephelah and the Jezreel Valley, this inscription may refer to another Jerubbaal and not the Gideon of biblical tradition, although the possibility cannot be ruled out that the jug belonged to the judge Gideon. In any event, the name Jerubbaal was evidently in common usage at the time of the biblical Judges.” This is the first time that the name Jerubbaal has ever been found outside the Bible in an archaeological context – in a stratum dated to around 1,100 BCE, the period of the Judges.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309675
NORVEGE – 
Hestnes - To an untrained eye, the artefact looks brown and dull, but it’s actually something very special: Viking textiles — embroidered wool fabric more than 1000 years old, preserved on top of a turtle brooch.“Those of us who work with textiles are happy if we find a piece of fabric that’s one cm by one cm. In this case we have an almost 11 cm textile remnant. Unearthing embroidery in addition is completely unique,” says archaeologist Ruth Iren Øien.The brooch with the textile was found in a woman’s grave at Hestnes in southern Trøndelag county, during excavations in 2020. The grave is dated to approximately 850-950 CE, in the middle of the Viking Age. The deceased woman was placed in a wooden burial chamber in a long mound above the grave – an elongated burial mound. Chamber graves of this type are unusual in Central Norway. The woman was buried with a three-lobed brooch, which is quite a rare find in Norway, typical mostly in the old Danish areas. She was also laid to rest with several hundred miniature pearls – a type known only from a very few Norwegian graves. “The pearls were concentrated over her right shoulder, but we don’t know if they were a pearl necklace or something else. A find from Hedeby with similar pearls has been interpreted as being pearl embroidery in one form or another, and it’s plausible that the same is the case here,” says Sauvage. Archaeologists believe they have found the remains of eight different textiles in the grave – six pieces of woollen fabric and two of linen fabric. The fabrics vary in quality, structure and appearance.
TURQUIE – 
Soli Pompeipolis - Archaeologists working in the ancient Greek city of Soli Pompeipolis in the southern Mersin province in Turkey have unveiled the memorial tomb of the Greek poet and astronomer Aratus, who was born in 315 BC. The unearthing of the ruins has been ongoing since July 20 of 2020, Yağcı said. Showing photographs of the unique discovery, he indicated the two rows of hexagonal structures and arches around the memorial tomb that had been unearthed by his workers. “This place looks like a crater,” he explained, “and has a circular area (that could have been used by) an astronomer. We have also come across a solid and large monumental structure.”Yağcı added that Aratus was widely known during both the Hellenistic and Roman periods and his works on astronomy, as well as his poetry, are still read and studied to this day. Often, Aratus combined astronomy with poetry, creating unique works that were extremely popular in his time. He is best known for his work “Phenomena,” a hexameter poem that describes the constellations.
CHINE - 
Liangzhu - Six restored giant wooden pillars of an ancient palace at the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in east China's Zhejiang Province, have been unveiled to the public for the first time. Made with 3D printers, the columns on display are high-tech, full-scale replicas of some 5,000-year-old components unearthed at the archaeological ruins of the ancient city that existed between 3300 B.C. and 2300 B.C. According to the archaeologists, the components date back to the period when the Mojiaoshan Palace was constructed. A total of 15 giant wooden components were found in the watercourses at the 5,300-year-old archaeological site. The discovery showed that people living at the time were able to build large-scale structures, such as palaces, over 5,000 years ago. The longest component on display is 17.2 meters and the thickest is 80 centimeters in diameter. Square holes called mortise, important building structures used to connect two wooden parts in ancient Chinese architecture, can be seen on some of the components. The wooden components might have been used to strengthen the stability of the palace during its construction. They might also be part of the building blocks of the palace, much like beams or pillars.
USA - South Carolina - Conservationists have pulled a historic canoe from a river at the Georgia-South Carolina line and plan to put it on display. Volunteers with the Chattooga Conservancy hauled the weathered wooden canoe out of the South Carolina side of the Chattooga River. Archaeologists at the University of South Carolina say the boat could be 200 to 250 years old, a discovery that could shed light on life in the late 1700s. The experts said the canoe was hollowed out using an iron hatchet or ax, suggesting it was made after Europeans settled in the Southeast. A nail was also found at one end of the canoe.
https://www.heraldonline.com/news/state/south-carolina/article252700063.html#storylink=mainstage
