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NORVEGE – 
Lendbreen - Archaeologists recently documented a rare treasure trove of Viking Age objects littering a long-forgotten mountain pass, including the remains of a dog wearing its collar and leash. As climate change melts Norway's glaciers, pockets of history hidden for centuries or millennia are finally seeing the light of day. Melting along a high-altitude trail in the Lendbreen glacier has revealed hundreds of artifacts dating to the Viking Age, the Roman Iron Age and even the Bronze Age. Remarkably well-preserved items littered the winding path, including clothing and shoes, a variety of tools and riding gear, and animal bones and dung. They offer clues about daily life, and hint at the challenges and importance of mountain travel in this region, according to a new study published online April 16 in the journal Antiquity.
https://www.livescience.com/viking-treasure-lost-mountain-trail.html
ROYAUME UNI – 
Vindolanda - The Roman author Pliny the Younger advised “kissing the hairy muzzle of a mouse” as a cure for the common cold. His fellow countrymen linked mice to the god Apollo, who could bring deadly plague upon them with his arrows. So they might not have seen the funny side of a lifelike mouse made out of a strip of leather which has been newly discovered at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, south of Hadrian’s Wall, near Hexham, Northumberland. About the size of a real rodent and lying unnoticed until now among thousands of leather offcuts held by the Vindolanda Museum since 1993, it looks as if it had been squashed flat after being run over – perhaps by a Roman cart. Whether it was a practical joke or a child’s toy will never be known, but the find has excited archaeologists, who are unaware of anything comparable from the Roman world.
CHINE - Researchers reported on Friday that an analysis of sequenced ancient genomes revealed a major episode of admixture of ancient humans in East Asia, suggesting that population movement played a profound role in the early genetic history of East Asians. Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported in the latest issue of the journal Science online that they retrieved ancient DNA from 25 ancient human remains dating back 9,500 to 4,200 years and one dating back 300 years from sites across China. They found that Early Neolithic East Asians were more genetically differentiated from each other than present-day East Asians are. In early Neolithic East Asia since 9,500 years ago, a northern ancestry existed along the Yellow River and up into the eastern steppes of Siberia, while a southern ancestry existed along the coast of the southern Chinese mainland and islands in the Taiwan Strait since 8,400 years ago. But present-day Chinese from both the north and south share a closer genetic relationship to northern Neolithic East Asians along the Yellow River. Further analyses showed northern ancestry played a larger role in the genetic admixture. Population movement, particularly from the north along the Yellow River southward, was a prominent part of East Asian prehistory after the Neolithic. They added that unlike in Europe, influences from Central Asia had no role in the formation of East Asian ancestry, with mixing largely occurring regionally between northern and southern populations in East Asia. Meanwhile, southern ancestry is found to have extensive influence on other regions. Present-day Austronesian speakers, who live across a wide swath of islands in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific, show a remarkably close genetic relationship to Neolithic populations from the southern coast of China. The researchers noted this provides evidence that Austronesian speakers today originated from a population derived from southern China at least 8,400 years ago. Austronesian refers to a family of languages spoken in the area extending from Madagascar eastward through the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago to Hawaii and Easter Island and including almost all the native languages of the Pacific islands. The researchers said their study highlights the profound impact that population movement and mixture had on human history.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/15/c_139059701.htm
MARTINIQUE – 
Basse-Terre / Désirade - Corentin Bochaton of the University of Bordeaux identified eight vertebrae from boa snakes among artifacts recovered from three archaeological sites in the Lesser Antilles, including the islands of Martinique, Basse-Terre, and La Désirade. Bochaton said that the remains of many other snake species were found at the sites, but these were the only boa remains, and the only snake bones to have been made into beads, based upon his microscopic evaluation. This suggests the constrictors were given prominent status within Pre-Columbian Amerindian communities, as reflected in a seventeenth-century chronicle of a voyage to the Caribbean known as Carpentras Anonymous, which describes the unwillingness of the island inhabitants to kill boas. Such revered status could account for the scarcity of boa remains in the archaeological record, Bochaton explained.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/mpif-bmo051420.php
IRAN – 
Khalil Abad - A centuries-old Chogan (polo) filed with stone gates, one of which bearing a dedicatory inscription, has recently been found near a village in Iran’s western Lorestan province. The horse-riding game, traditionally played in royal courts and urban fields and accompanied by music and storytelling, won the UNESCO world heritage status in December 2017. In Chogan, two-rider teams compete and the aim is to pass a ball through the opposing team’s goal post using a wooden stick. “The unearthed architectural elements include four standing stone mills, which are related to the gates of the Chogan field, one of which has inscriptions in Persian,” Qasemi added. “This Chogan field is located in the village of Khalil Abad on the slopes of Qali Kooh and Oshtrankooh. “The inscription discovered on the stone masonry body of the gates of the Chogan field, …. And it includes four shutters of Persian poetry, which dates back to 1116 AH [1704 -1705 CE] and coincides with the middle of the Safavid era.”“The inscription shows that Yahya ibn Yusuf, the grandson of Khalil Khan Sarlak, one of the famous Bakhtiari rulers in the Safavid period, founded a mansion in this area overlooking the polo field and the well-carved stones left over from the mansion, which are now scattered around, testify the glory of this building [in its hey-day].”
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/447898/Centuries-old-polo-field-discovered-in-western-Iran
IRLANDE – 
Brú na Bóinne - Durant une récente conférence organisée par l’University College de Dublin (UCD), intitulée The Pleasant Boyne, la Dr Annalisa Christie, de l’UCD, a annoncé avoir trouvé ce qui s’apparenterait à un quai datant du Néolithique, près de Brú na Bóinne, dans le chenal d’étiage de la rivière Boyne. Grâce à la détection sous-marine par ondes sonores, un sonar en clair, le Dr Christie et le Dr Kieran Westley, de l’Ulster University, ont pu sonder une portion de 10 km de la rivière Boyne, allant d’Oldbridge à un barrage situé à 1,8 km à l’est de Slane Bridge. Les chercheurs ont alors détecté ce qui serait apparemment des restes de navires faits en bois et des quais. Selon les déclarations de Christie, en plus des restes de bateaux faits de rondins, des éléments constitutifs d’un quai ont été distingués. En effet, six pierres alignées désignaient clairement un déversoir construit par l’homme, tandis qu’une structure souterraine avançant dans la rivière Boyne faisait sûrement office de quai. En outre, vu que Brú na Bóinne est un territoire particulièrement boisé, la rivière Boyne fut probablement le moyen le plus adéquat afin d’y accéder. Cela expliquerait la découverte de ce quai. Christie souligne d’ailleurs le fait que la rivière Boyne était une voie très prisée, que ce soit pour les habitants de Brú na Bóinne que pour les visiteurs venus de loin. En effet, la rivière Boyne relie également Brú na Bóinne au Pays de Galles et aux Orkney.
CHINE - Des agriculteurs chinois ont-ils apprivoisé des lièvres durant le Néolithique ? Une analyse d'ossements menée par des chercheurs chinois tendraient à prouver que les humains et ces léporidés auraient bien entretenu une relation particulière il y a près de 5.000 ans. La plupart des preuves datant de l'Holocène (débuté il y a 10.000 ans environ, ndlr) concernant les interactions homme-lièvre révèlent que les humains ont attribué des significations religieuses et spirituelles aux lièvres, comme cela est également attesté dans l'art et la littérature, notent dans une étude parue le 12 mai 2020 dans la revue , des chercheurs chinois. Les fouilles dans le nord de la Chine ont permis de trouver des représentations symboliques des léporidés sous la forme de sculptures en jade et de décorations en bronze". À partir de la dynastie Han (environ 200 av. J.-C. jusqu'à 200 après J.-C.), les léporides étaient décrits dans les mythes comme des animaux portant bonheur. "Bien que les humains aient clairement eu des interactions complexes avec les léporidés en Chine à partir de l'âge de bronze (3.000 avant J-C., ndlr), il existe encore peu de preuves documentant comment un paysage de plus en plus agraire a pu affecter l'alimentation et le comportement des lièvres", soulignent les chercheurs. Les lièvres ont-il eu une place à part auprès des Chinois avant cette période ?Pour en savoir un peu plus, les chercheurs ont analysé des ossements provenant du plateau de Loess situé dans le nord de la Chine. La culture du millet a attiré de nombreux petits mammifères.
CHINE - Shuanghuaishu - Une conférence d'archéologues dans la ville de Zhengzhou a annoncé les résultats d'une recherche révélant un royaume préhistorique jusque-là inconnu. Les découvertes ont été faites lors d'une fouille sur le site de Shuanghuaishu à proximité du fleuve Jaune.