13 NOVEMBRE 2017 NEWS: Elayamuthur - Chichen Itza - Kalabgur- Plovdiv -Tamar - Yekkeh So’oud - Sulaiman - Rajouri - Yangguanzhai -Arabie Saoudite -
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INDE – 
Elayamuthur - A team of archaeology enthusiasts unearthed an 18th century stone inscription, two wooden pillars in a farm at Elayamuthur near here on Sunday. An enthusiast P. Narayanamurthy said about 52 lines were carved on the square granite stone on 30th of Karthigai month in Virodhi, Tamil year. It was around 1768 AD. The message in the stone inscription was: Maalai Kovil was built by Pasupathi Paalappa Naicker, Patuthurai Muthaiya Naicker and Chinna Peddha Naicker, in memory of Kuppa Naigaiya Naicker, son of Paranjothi Naciker and king of Thalinji. It also described Thalinji as Varaha Hill (Pandri Malai). Maalai Kovil was a cemetery built for kings. Such cemeteries were found in some parts of Kongu region in Dindigul Theni and Madurai districts. The sculpture on the wooden pole was intact. The pole was 7-foot long. A total of 323 aesthetically carved sculptures, nine sculptures on one portion of each side of the pole, were found, he added.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/inscription-found/article20336549.ece
MEXIQUE - Chichen Itza - Archaeologists are searching for the secrets of why the ancient Mayans chose the sites for the famed pyramids of Chichen Itza by looking underground. Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is dotted with natural wells called cenotes and underground rivers. Archaeologists now believe that some of these hydrological features lie below the sacred ground on which the Mayan pyramids were built. Archaeologist Guillermo de Anda from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said: "We're looking for what seems to be a messoamerican pattern of a relation (between) architecture (and) caves, or architecture (and) artificial cave, tunnel or cenote." Another member of the team is James Brady from the California State University of Los Angeles who is investigating the tunnels and passageways that lie under the pyramids. Brady said, "the great hope is to connect with the cenote under the Castillo (Pyramid)." The team hopes to gather enough information to construct a full 3-D model of all of Chichen Itza's Mayan structures along with the geologic and hydrologic features of the ground underlying the ancient site.
INDE - Kalabgur - In Kalabgur village, a few kilometres away from the bustling district headquarters of Sangareddy, the 800-year-old Sri Kasi Visweswara Temple has been a site of religious significance. For, apart from locals, pilgrims from neighbouring States of Maharashtra and Karnataka frequent the place to worship the presiding deity, Lord Shiva.But there is more to the temple than meets the eye. Till last year, only a portion of it was visible. Sustained and meticulous efforts of the Department of Archaeology and Museums (DAM) have been successful in excavating as much as seven feet of large portions of the temple buried under the earth. “The temple belongs to the Kakatiya period. Residents told us that abhisekamwater was not draining outside the temple naturally. We sent our team there which found out that the water is flowing into a basement. This prompted us to begin excavation,” says DAM Director N.R. Visalatchy. As the team began to work, it stumbled upon a water spout which led the archaeologists to believe the existence of this basement. This enabled them to understand where the original prakara level could have been. Excavations over a period of 17 months led to the discovery of pradakshina pada, or the circumambulation area. The adisthana, or the temple base, was also found. The discovery of the base encouraged the team to look skywards. This led to piecing together a puzzle of the konamattam and chandramattam. “This is the final portion of the roof which was missing,” says Ms. Visalatchy. Surviving roof patterns carved in stone were studied
BULGARIE – 
– Plovdiv - Ruins of part of a Roman neighbourhood have been found after what is alleged to have been the illegal demolition of a house in Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv. The ruins are thought likely to be homes that were on the outskirts of Philippopolis, as the 7000-year-old city was known during Roman times. The site is very close to the city walls of Roman-era Plovdiv. Plovdiv website podtepeto.com said that just a few years ago, an early Christian tomb with impressive frescoes was found a few metres from the location where the demolished house was.
ISRAEL – 
TamarPark - What are likely to be Solomon’s gates, as described in the Bible, have been uncovered at the Biblical Tamar Park in southern Israel. Paul Lagno, Bible student and participant in a five-day dig at the Biblical Tamar Park, said that the discovery gives evidence to the Biblical account of Judean control over Tamar.“The Bible says that Solomon built a fortress in the desert. The archeologists are sure that they have found all the hallmarks of the gate of Solomon – all the hallmarks of the fortified city. They believe this was a fortress built by Solomon,” Lagno told Breaking Israel News. The Biblical Tamar Park is one of the oldest archeological sites in southern Israel and the only site in the area to showcase the entire archeological history of from the Abraham period (2000-1300 BCE) to today.
https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/97696/gates-solomons-desert-fortress-described-1-kings-uncovered-israel/#/
IRAN - Yekkeh So’oud - The Chandir Dam Archaeological Salvage Project led to excavating a pilgrimage site of Qajar Dynasty era in Iranian north-eastern province of North Khorasan, said a local official. During Chandir Dam Archaeological Salvage Project the ruins of a pilgrimage site of Qajar Dynasty era was discovered. The site is in Raz and Jargalan County, North Khorasan Province, in northeastern Iran. The building has been found in an area in the vicinity of Yekkeh So’oud village with a crypt and an octagon hall made of stone bricks, said Mr. Vahdati. A cemetery of the Paleolithic age, according to the same source, was also excavated in the area at the heights near a valley with a defensive form of military use.
PAKISTAN – 
Sulaiman Range - An archaeological team of the University of Peshawar (UoP) during digging along Sulaiman Range in Dera Ghazi Khan has found relics it believes date back from the Stone Age to the British colonial period. In a recent archaeological survey carried out by a team of the Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Peshawar, thousands of years old cultural artifacts have been discovered from a number of sites in Dera Ghazi Khan district of Punjab, along the foothills of Koh-i-Sulaiman. Documenting ancient human settlements in DG Khan, a number of stone implements such as hand axes, flakes and cleavers, being used for butchering wild animals and grubbing up roots of the wild plants, have been collected from a number of sites that could be dated tentatively to the Lower Paleolithic age parallel with the Acheulean Hand Axe culture of France. The Acheulean Hand Axes culture is widely spread in various parts of Pakistan, especially in the Soan Valley of Punjab and Rohri Hills of Sindh where dozens of such implements are reported earlier, said Dr Jan. Such kind of artifacts of the Lower Paleolithic culture is a major breakthrough in the cultural history of Pakistan in general and DG Khan in particular. The sites are located on the banks of hill torrents, suitable for the early human population to exploit resources. Survey like this will arouse interest of those research scholars who are working on the prehistoric archaeology of South Asia, said Dr Jan.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1369923
INDE – 
Rajouri - An ancient fort has been discovered here along National Highway. The ruins of the ancient building were found on top of a mound covered with grass and trees. They inspected the ruins of the ancient fort where remnants of walls, courtyard and barracks can be vividly seen. “Preliminary survey found the ancient structure spread over an area of 2 kanals. However the exact details of the site will be assessed only after scientific excavation of the site,” a spokesperson of district administration said.
The spokesperson said that the architecture of the fort is similar to the Rajouri Fort and the ancient Sarais along the Mughal Road. The time of the existence of the fort could not be ascertained immediately and matter is being taken up with Department of Archaeology for taking over this ancient site and initiating measures for its preservation and protection.
http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/ancient-fort-found-near-rajouri/
CHINE - Yangguanzhai - Archaeologists in China have found over 300 graves in a 5,500-year-old cemetery estimated to have more than 2,000 graves in it in the northwest Shaanxi Province, a media report said today. Covering around 90,000 square meters, the cemetery is in the northeast of the Yangguanzhai ruins, which belonged to a late Neolithic group known as the Yangshao that originated from the middle reaches of the Yellow River and is considered a main precursor for the Chinese civilisation. The excavation of the site began in 2015 and so far 339 graves have been found in an area of 3,800 square meters, half of which have been excavated, Yang Liping, who leads the project, said yesterday. Yang said the total number of graves in the densely distributed cemetery is estimated to surpass 2,000. Most of the grave owners died during middle age, with women outnumbering men, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. In some burial sites, archaeologists have found suspected traces of textile fabrics around human bones, it said."There are no wooden coffins. The dead may have been wrapped in fabric when they were buried," Yang said. Painted pottery, bone beads, hair clasps made with bones and earrings made with stone or pottery, pigments and tortoise shell have also been found in the graves. Archaeologists are working with researchers from Fudan University to figure out the blood relationship between those in the cemetery through whole genome sequencing, the report said.
ARABIE SAOUDITE – 
- Archaeologists have announced a number of discoveries and phenomena in various parts of the Kingdom on the sidelines of the first Saudi Antiquities Forum which ended on Thursday. One of these is a 1,000-year-old gold dinar struck in 453 AH, and uncovered by an archaeologist at King Saud University, local media reported. The gold dinar, an Islamic medieval gold coin, was found only 20 centimeters below the surface at the archaeological site. A new astronomical phenomenon linked to the Rajajil site was also found, in addition to six other Fatimid coins, glass bottles with writings dating back to the reign of the Caliph Al-Mustansir, part of a red agate pottery, and decorative beads. Rajajil, often called the Stonehenge of Saudi Arabia, is a mysterious ancient site located on a sandstone terrace some 20 kilometers south of the center of Sakakah, the capital of Al-Jouf province, and a few kilometers south of Qarah village. Archaeological excavations had revealed that Rajajil is indeed a burial site, but its true importance is “probably its role in the transition of lifestyles from nomadism toward sedentarism induced by climate changes on the Arabian Peninsula. Archaeological investigation in the Al-Hajjar area also revealed the existence of 17 tombs with the names of 14 sculptors who worked in Madain Saleh, the first world heritage site of Saudi Arabia. The archaeological tombs in the area bore artistic inscriptions
