17 AOUT 2022 NEWS
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
ONLINE COURSES / COURS A DISTANCE
DEBUT COURS : SEPTEMBRE 2022
REGISTER NOW
OFFRE SPECIALE ETE 2022 :
Frais de dossier gratuit pour toute inscription avant le 30 Aoùt 2022
CHINE – 
Sanxingdui - Archaeologists found a mythical beast with four wings during the most recent excavation of the Sanxingdui Ruins in Sichuan Province. This is the first time such an unusual mythical beast bronze has been found at the archaeological site. The little mythical beast was found on the top of a bronze statue in Pit No.8. The four-winged mythical beast has a round tiger-like head with sharp teeth and carries a sacred tree on its back. The beast is seen with a sacred tree on the back, a "different state of mind the ancient Shu people have at the time," as archaeologists speculated. The mythical beast is said also may have multiple functions. Moreover, a pig-nose dragon bronze ware was also found during the most recent excavation, where archaeologists speculate that the bronze may have been a special decoration for a building. The bronze, found in Pit No.8, is a cylindrical hollow tube nearly 1.3 meters long, 15 centimeters wide, yet only about 3 millimeters thick, the report said. The constructors at the time most likely threaded the tube into a hole in a building and fastened it with nails through two nail holes at the end of the tube."We inferred that the tube was a decoration on the most eye-catching part of a building, such as the roof corners or roof ridges," Zhao Hao, archaeologist from the Sanxingdui Ruins excavation team. The entire body of the bronze was covered with various patterns including dragon scales, feathered wings and Qilin-style feathers (Qilin is a creature from Chinese mythology) made through bas-relief craftsmanship. The head of the tube is an animal face with a rectangular, wide, and long nose that "looks like a pig nose," added Zhao. "So we have temporarily named it after the pig-nose dragon." Additionally, archaeologists also found a mythical beast with a pair of hollowed wings. This is the first time such an unusual mythical beast bronze has been found in the Sanxingdui Ruins.
VIDEO = https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1273094.shtml
ISRAEL – 
Maresha - A rare assemblage of 530 'astragali' – animal knuckle bones used for gambling and divination – dating to the Hellenistic period some 2,300 years ago was unearthed in Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park of southern Israel. This exceptionally large collection, the results of which were first published recently in the British archaeological journal Levant. The bones of goats, sheep, and cattle were used as dice for games and ritual divination, mainly by women and children. Some jointed bones were perforated or filled with lead to be more effectively thrown like dice. Dozens of dice bore Greek inscriptions – some were engraved with the names of gods associated in antiquity with human wishes and desires: Aphrodite, the goddess of fertility, love, and beauty; Eros, the god of love; the god Hermes; the goddess Hera; and Nike, the goddess of victory. On other bones, game instructions and various game roles are engraved, such as "Thief,” "Stop,” or "You are burned.”
LATVIA – Grobina - Archeological fieldwork has just been completed in Grobina, a town in south-western Latvia during which the ancient graves of Porani were accurately measured and new possible Iron Age settlement sites were identified. In the Scandinavian cemetery in the Grobiņa archaeological ensemble, archaeologists mapped the location and dimensions of about 50 burial mounds. Also during the research, archaeologists recorded a hitherto unknown pit stone. Grobiņa is an important place, where a mound with a large settlement and several cemeteries testify to diverse developments, starting from the late Neolithic to the end of the Iron Age.
CHINE - Beijing - Massive archaeological excavation works have been carried out along the Beijing section of the Grand Canal for the comprehensive protection of cultural sites along the world's longest artificial waterway. The archaeological work at the ancient city of Luxian dating back to the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.) has clarified the status of its south gate, where archaeologists have found wooden and bamboo slips from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), representing the first of such discoveries in Beijing.
http://www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2022-08/15/content_78372230.htm
CAMBODGE – 
Angkor - Archaeologists have discovered pieces of the 12th century Apsara, or fairy carvings, in the Angkor Archaeological Park in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province. The stone carvings were spotted in the northern wall of the causeway of the Angkor Thom temple's Takav Gate, where the archaeologists were clearing vegetation and removing soil from the lower structure during restoration. The pieces of stones with Apsara carvings and other decorative sculptures were used as the northern wall of the causeway. These Apsara carvings are similar to the Apsara on the pillars of the Bayon Temple, while other stone carvings have the same shape as the ones that decorated the structure of the Takav Gate. The Bayon-style Apsara carvings might have been built simultaneously with the Takav Gate and the Bayon Temple during the late 12th century and early 13th century. The Takav Gate is one of the five gates of the Angkor Thom, which was built in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII.
https://www.nationthailand.com/international/international-news/40015184
PEROU – 
Altamisa - Archaeologists discovered a set of structures built in stone, which turned out to be a village dating back 5,000 years. This thousand-year-old locality was found in the Altamisa hamlet, located in the José de Lourdes district, in the province of San Ignacio, Cajamarca region. This place is made up of small villages that are just being settled. In the past, sedentary people from aquaculture lived and enjoyed a water source near the Chirinos River, where fishing activities are currently carried out. Excavation of the entire village took five weeks, but has been restricted in terms of space. The experts carried out work on the ground, such as trenches, to record the structures in a space of 100 square meters. they also did recognition, mapping and prospecting in a polygon of 52 hectares. In total, there are three groups of villages in Altamisa: The first are domestic dwellings, with walls one meter high. The second records square terraces, which are presumed to have served as warehouses, while the third has the shape of concentric circles.
INDE – 
Adichanallur - Resumed after nearly one-and-a-half decades, the excavations in the southern wedge of Tamil Nadu have yielded a wealth of materials, including gold, metals and human remains, that will help archaeologists reconstruct the framework of a civilisation that, by all accounts so far, was glorious and fairly advanced with bustling commerce, trade, general prosperity and transcontinental arrivals. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has now literally struck gold at Adichanallur, the largest well-preserved urn burial site in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu. Apart from unearthing burial urns, characteristic of this Iron Age cemetery, the ASI team found a perfect trench where a skull of a member of a clan that lived about 3,000 years ago was buried. With that, the team has also found a gold diadem, bronze artefacts, headgear, spear, arrowheads, dog toy and paddy, all buried alongside the remains. In the adjacent trench, a small gold ring, assumed to be that of a child, was found at a depth of 30 cm itself.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/a-golden-civilisation-beckons-from-underground-at-adichanallur/article65765364.ece
ANGLETERRE – Dorstone Hill - New archaeological research emerging from Manchester in Britain has pointed to a previously unexplored burial ritual used by Early Neolithic Britons. Archaeologists from the University of Manchester have found that extremely distinct and rare rock crystals were moved long distances and used to mark burial sites. The chosen rock crystals for the graves were made of quartz, perfectly transparent, and of a relatively large size for this purpose. Scientific research at a Neolithic burial mound site at Dorstone Hill in England’s West Midlands has shown that the distinctive and exotic rock crystal was being used to create distinctive and memorable moments, binding individuals together, forging local identities, and connecting the living and the dead . This research, published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal , explores a burial ritual which has only rarely been found at prehistoric sites in the British Isles.
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/rock-crystal-0017136
ROUMANIE – 
Biharia - Archaeologists excavating near Biharia found the grave of a woman belonging to the Tiszapolgár culture.The Tiszapolgár culture (4500–4000 BC), was an Eneolithic archaeological culture of the Great Hungarian Plain, the Banat, Crișana and Transylvania, Eastern Slovakia, and the Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast in Central Europe. The woman was buried with 169 gold rings that adorned her hair, along with a multi-spiral copper bracelet, two golden beads, and around 800 beads made from bone. Based on an initial study of the teeth and stature of the deceased, it is believed that the burial was of a high-status woman. This is further supported by the lack of weapons normally associated with male burials from the Tiszapolgár culture. Within the project’s wider excavations, the team also found traces of two dwellings near the town of Sântandrei that contained ceramics from the 2nd century BC up to the 2nd century AD. The team also found a 3rd to 4th century Sarmatian settlement also near Biharia, and a female skeleton buried with several items of jewellery from the settlement’s necropolis.