17 UILLET 2017 NEWS: Sagalassos - Tintagel - Alexandrie - Bridge of Tilt - Tenochtitlán - Veracruz - Durgi - Lienden -
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TURQUIE – 
Sagalassos - Excavation and restoration work has resumed in the ancient city of Sagalassos in the southern city of Burdur’s Ağlasun district. According to written sources, the history of Sagalassos dates back to 333 B.C. when it was conquered by Alexander the Great. The city had been one of the five most important ceramic production centers in the Roman era. The head of the excavation team, Professor Jereon Poblome, said the most excavation would be done in the ancient agora area.“Our biggest excavation will take place in the eastern part of the upper agora, as the oldest building of Sagalassos was found there two years ago. As far as we have learned, there was a trade building in this area. This building was constructed in the second century B.C. and is the oldest official building of Sagalassos. Here is a rich place and our building is standing. We will open the top of the building and reread history,” said Poblome and added that the restoration works will go hand in hand with the excavation works. Excavations in the city were originally initiated in 1989 by Belgian Professor Marc Waelkens. Among the artifacts unearthed were five-meter-tall sculptures of Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Emperor Hadrian. Among the other significant artifacts unearthed in the city are friezes of a dancing girl and sculptures of the goddess of victory Nike and Dyonisos, Nemesis, Asklepios and Kronis.The ancient city had been founded on the slopes of the Taurus mountain range and had been the metropolis of the Roman province of Pisidia.
ROYAUME UNI – 
Tintagel - Early Cornish kings feasted on a diet of oysters, roast pork and fine wine, eating and drinking from bowls imported from Turkey and glass goblets from Spain, a new dig at Tintagel Castle has suggested. Discoveries made by the Cornwall archaeological unit (CAU) support the view that Tintagel was a royal site during the 5th and 6th centuries, with trading links reaching as far as the eastern Mediterranean. The excavation also uncovered stone-walled structures on the southern terrace of Tintagel’s island area, with substantial stone walls and slate floors, accessed by a flight of slate steps. Significant finds include a section of a fine Phocaean red slipware bowl from Turkey, imported amphorae thought to be from southern Turkey or Cyprus, and fine glassware from Spain. Cow, sheep and goat bones showing signs of butchering and cooking were unearthed, plus a cod bone – possible evidence of deep-sea fishing being carried out from Tintagel. Win Scutt, properties curator for English Heritage, said: “These finds reveal a fascinating insight into the lives of those at Tintagel Castle more than 1,000 years ago. It is easy to assume that the fall of the Roman empire threw Britain into obscurity, but here on this dramatic Cornish clifftop they built substantial stone buildings, used fine tablewares from Turkey, drank from decorated Spanish glassware and feasted on pork, fish and oysters. “They were clearly making use of products like wine and oil, contained in amphorae traded from the eastern Mediterranean. Jacky Nowakowski, project director at CAU, said: “Our excavations exceeded all expectations by partially revealing amazingly well-preserved stone walls, a slate floor and a flight of steps, which belong to a pair of well-built buildings.” The finds were made last year, but the details have only been released as the team moves back in this summer for a second, broader dig. Nowakowski said: “Our plan in 2017 is to open up a much larger area on the southern terrace, so that we get a good look at the scale and size of the buildings and find out exactly when they were built and how they were used. “All indications to date could suggest that they are residential buildings perhaps lived in by important members of the community that lived and traded at Tintagel over 800 years ago.” Tintagel Castle is one of the most spectacular historic sites in Britain and has been linked with the tales of King Arthur since the middle ages. The remains of the 13th-century castle, built by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, stand among those of a much earlier medieval settlement, where high-status leaders may have lived and traded with far-off lands, importing exotic goods and perhaps trading tin.
EGYPTE – 
Alexandrie - An Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities uncovered a Roman floor mosaic during excavation work at the Hend area in the Moharam Bek district of Alexandria. Aymen Ashmawi, the head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Section, explained that the floor mosaic is unique in Egypt but similar mosaics have been found in several areas in Rome, including the Baths of Trajan and Hadrian’s Villa. He said that the floor was in good condition. Mostafa Roshdi, director of Alexandria and West Delta Antiquities, said that excavation work is continuing at the site in order to reveal more parts of the mosaic floor, and that comprehensive studies will be carried out on it. Mohamed Farouk, director of Middle Alexandria Antiquities Department, told Ahram that the newly discovered floor bears an opus spicatum design which was well-known during the Roman period and used in the construction of the floors of baths and fortresses. Egyptologist Mohamed Abdel-Aziz said that the Hend area was once home to workshops, and a large number of glass and clay ovens have been uncovered.
ROYAUME UNI – 
Bridge of Tilt - Archaeologists have digitally recreated the face of an ancient Pict uncovered in Highland Perthshire. In 1986, a long cist burial was dug up in Bridge of Tilt near Blair Atholl, where excavators discovered the skeleton of a man in his forties. Analysis at the time found the man was used to hard work, and lived around 340 to 615 AD, making this one of the earliest Pictish graves ever discovered. The archaeologists are now looking to do further DNA analysis and isotope analysis to get more information about the Pict’s diet, and to find out where the man originally came from.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/ancient-picts-face-reconstructed-10795952
MEXIQUE – 
Tenochtitlán - Nearly 500 years after its fall, Tenochtitlán continues to be rediscovered, meter by meter. The latest to be uncovered are the remains of the ceremonial center of the Calpulli of Cuezcontitlán, found a few meters under the streets of Mexico City, several blocks south of the zócalo near the Plaza Pino Suárez commercial center. In Aztec society, a calpulli, or large house, was the designation for an organizational unit below the level of the Altepetl, or city state, and has been likened to a borough. Chief archaeologist Donají Montero Guzmán told the newspaper El Universal that the recovery of the architectural remains began just over a month ago. The find was a lucky one, she said, especially because prominent discoveries had been made a few meters away in the 1960s, during the construction of a subway line. Back then, the remains of the main buildings of the ceremonial center of the Calpulli of Cuezcontitlán were unearthed, including a small pyramid dedicated to Ehécatl.
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/another-pre-hispanic-find-in-mexico-city/
MEXIQUE – 
Veracruz - The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés landed in Yucatan, Mexico, in 1519, eventually to conquer the Aztec empire of Central America. Now, 500 years later, Mexican researchers plan to find these lost shipwrecks and explore them to see what artefacts they might hold. Popular accounts suggest that Cortés burnt his ships to prevent his men from attempting to flee. But Cortés himself claimed in a letter to the Spanish king Charles V that he sank, or 'scuttled', the fleet off the coast of Veracruz. About a dozen ships are thought to remain at the sea bed in the Gulf of Mexico, where he left them. They have never been found or explored by archaeologists. The Sub-Directorate of Underwater Archaeology at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has announced that it plans to dredge the shores where Cortés landed to recover the ships, the Mexican newspaper La Crónica de Hoy reports.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/search-lost-ships-hernan-cortes-conqueror-central-america-1630242
INDE – 
Durgi - A rare miniature sculpture of Maheswara Murthy, an aspect of Lord Siva, supposedly dating back to 4th century, was discovered in the fields by Jagannadham, a priest of Durgi village in Palnadu of Guntur district. When the small soapstone sculpture measuring three inches height and three inches width was shown to him, Siva Naga Reddy was surprised. After studying it for sometime, he concluded that it is a rare sculpture of Lord Siva. “It was the earliest specimen found in Palnadu area, which is known as cradle of early Shaivite art,” he said. The sculpture of Maheswara Murthy depicting the head from the neck to Jata Mukuta (hair locks), has three faces, with one looking straight and the other two being in side postures facing right and left. “It is an art style of post Ikshvaku period and resembles the iconographic features of the Panchavira plaques reported earlier from Kondamodu (Piduguralla) in Guntur, Darsi in Prakasam, Vijayawada and Peddamudium,” said Reddy. The archaeological expert appealed to the Department of Archaeology to conduct a thorough survey in and around Durgi to identify the potential of the site dating back to pre-Chalukyan period.
PAYS BAS – 
Lienden - A likely deliberately hidden hoard of 41 ancient Roman gold coins was recently discovered in what today is an orchard in the Netherlands. Vrije University (Amsterdam) archaeologist Nico Roymans has suggested the coins may have been buried in the second half of the fifth century C.E. by a Frankish military leader who had been paid by the Romans for help dealing with local Germanic tribes. The region now known as the Netherlands was at that time part of the Frankish Kingdom on the north end of Gaul. Although the denominations were not identified publicly at the time this article was being written, it is known that several of the coins depict Roman Emperor Majorian on the obverse. Since these are the “newest” coins in the find, it appears the coins were likely deposited during or immediately following Majorian’s reign. “On that basis we think this treasure was buried in around 460 C.E., said Roymans. He indicated that 19th century maps show a burial mound at Lienden near Veenendaal where the coins were recently discovered.
http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=28626