17 JANVIER 2018 : Viyur - Galway - Musiri - Selinonte - Sanlian - Breadsall _
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INDE – 
Viyur - A rare sarcophagus (stone coffin), said to be 2,000-year old from the Iron Age–Megalithic era, was discovered from a rock-cut cave at Viyur village of Kollam, near Koyilandy, in Kozhikode district on Monday. The coffin containing bone fragments was found during an excavation. “So far, such a rare finding has been discovered only from two sites in Kerala. Both these sarcophagi were recovered from Megalithic sites at Chevayur and Atholi, also in Kozhikode district,” K. Krishnaraj of the Archaeology Department, who is supervising the excavation, said. The bone fragments could be of either a man or a woman. They will be sent for carbon dating using accelerator mass spectrometry at the Beta Analytical Laboratory in California, he said. Excavation at the site commenced after a hemispherical rock-cut chamber was discovered in a compound while flattening land using an earthmover. The cave, with an inside pillar, measuring 1.9 metres in diameter, has a height of 90 centimetres. The entrance of the cave was on the eastern side. “The square-shaped door has equal length of 50 centimetres on all sides. Different types of pottery, mostly four-legged jars and iron implements, were found in the cave, ” he said.
IRLANDE – 
Galway - Archaeologists have discovered what is believed to be part of the oldest-known stone building in Galway city, dating from the early 13th Century. The find came as part of a survey during construction work at a site on Quay Street. It is believed that the two metre thick stone walls formed part of Dún na Gaillimhe, a castle built by the De Burgo family in 1232 The fortification was built along what was then the shoreline of the river Corrib. It was preceded by a wooden stronghold on the same site, which is mentioned in the annals of 1124. It is thought that the building was the starting point for the development of what became Galway city in the centuries that followed. The recently published Historic Towns Atlas of Galway states that the structure had a “major bearing” on the development of the settlement. It would have provided for easy access to the river as well as serving as a strategic defence and a residence for the De Burgos. Records show that Richard de Burgo’s son Walter died in the building in 1271 but the last record of the castle was in 1280. Historians believe that it was demolished around that time and that materials from the building were used in the construction of the Hall of the Red Earl, a short distance away. Until now, that was the oldest discovered structure in the city. There is extensive evidence of burning at the site, with charcoal like deposits extending over a considerable area In addition, animal bones, sharpening tools and roof tiles have also been uncovered. These will all be subject to carbon dating tests. Lead archaeologist at the site Frank Coyne said the discovery is of considerable significance as it provides the first trace of the earliest-known stone fortification built by the Anglo-Normans in Galway. Two adjoining sections of the wall have been uncovered, a little under half a metre below ground level.
INDE - Musiri - Mural paintings dating back over 400 years to the Naicker period have been found in a Shiva temple near Musiri in Trichy district. The paintings depict a female deity, Jyestha Devi, with gatekeepers on either side (Dwarabalakar) which throw light on the ancient form of deity worship.A research scholar who has been involved in fine arts in Tamil stumbled upon the paintings which have been remaining neglected over the years. An archaeology enthusiast and epigraphist, Babu says that the paintings are similar to those found in Thanjavur palace. "These mural paintings are identical to the painting at Thanjavur palace which dates back to the Naicker era in Thanjavur," says Babu.The extract of plant leaves has been found to have been used to bring out different colours unlike in recent times when chemical paints are used. That the paintings could survive all these years only reflects the expertise of the painters and the paint ingredients used by them.
https://www.nyoooz.com/news/trichy/1006839/murals-paintings-of-naicker-period-found-in-shiva-temple/
ITALIE – 
Selinonte - Archaeologists have found the oldest ever evidence of the cult of ancient mythological figure Hekate at an ancient Greek city in Sicily. "They have detected the oldest ever evidence in the Greek world of the cult of Hekate, a pre-IndoEuropean god taken up by the Greeks who reigned over the evil demons, the night and the moon," said Selinunte Archaeological park Director Enrico Caruso. The archaeological team used thermal cameras to identify fresh structures at Selinunte near Trapani, including a large temple. Selinunte was an ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy, situated between the valleys of the Cottone and Modione rivers. The archaeological site contains five temples centered on an acropolis. Of the five temples, only the Temple of Hera, also known as "Temple E", has been re-erected. At its peak before 409 BC the city may have contained up to 30,000 people, excluding slaves.
Mongolie - Sanlian - The ruins of an ancient tripartite-city, known as Sanlian City, in midwest Mongolia's Khermental City, demonstrates that the Xiongnu tribe used to perform religious ceremonies and hold alliance meetings there. The Xiongnu was a nomadic tribe that made its first appearance in northern Eurasia in the third century B.C., migrating westward in the second century before vanishing in the fifth century. The new findings, as a result of the joint excavation by Chinese and Mongolian archaeologists since 2014, was selected as one of the most important joint archaeological discoveries of 2017 by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Tuesday.;Over the years, the enigma around the Xiongnu has drawn attention from historians across the world. Being a rare Hun city model, the tripartite-city, adjacent to the Tamir River in the south and the Orhon River in the east, comprises three sub-cities all built in the same structure and rectangular shape. Archaeologists believe that the city existed in a period between the third century B.C. to the first century, but cannot precisely confirm when they first appeared and disappeared. They started excavating the central pedestal in the central city in 2017, finding that there might once have existed grids of large columns or cloisters built for ritual ceremonies. The red-sand pedestal is 35.8 meters in length and 2.75 meters above the ground. Yet, its rooftop structure is unclear. It is connected with smaller southern pedestals via several long paths. "It substantially differs from contemporaneous Han Dynasty (202 B.C. -- A.D. 220) pedestals in forms and structures," said Song Guodong, executive head of the Chinese side of the joint excavation team. But archaeologists have not found heating facilities, ashes or any other life remains in the city, and thus can almost exclude the possibility that it was a place for day-to-day residence and work. Written historical books in ancient China recorded that the Xiongnu used to build religious sites along the basin of the Orhon River for their religious conventions, such as offering sacrifices to the god of heaven three-times-a-year. Later, the chief of the Xiongnu also convened meetings on state affairs at the sites by the opportunity of these religious ceremonies, with horse racing and camel riding as an amusement. Located in the same river basin, the tripartite-city, the largest and best preserved site of the Xiongnu in Mongolia, is believed to show ritual features very similar to historical records. "In the past, most of our global peers specializing in ancient nomadic peoples, like the Xiongnu and Uyghur, mainly focused on tomb excavation and research, and their studies were fragmentary," said Wang Wei, director of the Archaeology Department of CASS.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/16/c_136900293.htm
ROYAUME UNI – Breadsall - 3,000-year-old settlement has been unearthed by "surprised" archaeologists near Breadsall. Experts from the University of Leicester have, so far, uncovered an Iron Age roundhouse, a ditch and post holes dating on the edge of Breadsall Hilltop and Oakwood. Richard Huxley, archaeological assistant from University of Leicester, said he believed the findings to be “a surprise”. He added: “We weren’t expecting to actually find this amount of things here.“However, it’s quite a large roundhouse which we believe to be part of a farm settlement that we have found could date between 2,000 and 2,700 years old. That’s quite a bit of a surprise to find.” Christopher Naisbitt, who is a field archaeologist on the site, says they still have more to do on the site. He said: "During that time, people used to build ditches around their land. It's just something that they did. It's a bit like putting a garden fence around your home. “We’re hoping to be here until the end of the month. There’s still more to do but this finding is proof of a farming settlement that would have been here in the past.
VIDEO = http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/ancient-buried-village-discovered-derby-1068820
