18 AOUT 2021 NEWS
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ITALIE –
Pompéi - A "unique" tomb containing a semi-mummified body has been found at Pompeii. The body dates back to a time when dead bodies were always incinerated in the ancient Roman city. Instead, in this case, the body was semi-mummified and placed in a burial chamber in the tomb. Also found was an inscription confirming that Greek was spoken in the theatres of the Roman colony on the Bay of Naples, destroyed and preserved by an eruption from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Former Pompeii director Massimo Osanna said the Greek inscription "is an extremely interesting testimony, which must be linked to the others that we have of the presence of Greeks and above all Greek culture in Pompeii". He said that Greek culture, especially its artists and its classic plays, was "all the rage in Pompeii". The discovery of the mysterious tomb of the freed slave Marcus Venerius Secundio, Osanna said, is in some ways "confirmation of the triumph of Greece in the highest milieux of the Latin colony". Alapont, the Valencia university archaeologist, said the man in the tomb "may well have had himself buried and even embalmed with the precise intention of preserving his body from the moisture of the grave". He said "the tomb at the Sarno gate is really an extraordinary discovery because of all the information it can give us, a unique burial for that era in Pompeii, and it may in some ways also change our knowledge on the rules of death rites in the Roman world". Marcus Venerius Secundio was a freed slave who had previously been a guardian of the Temple of Venus in Pompeii, a very important monument because the Romans named the city after that deity. He had also been a 'minister' of the Augustali priests and finally, after his liberation, also an Augustale himself, one of the college of priests of the imperial cult. He had earned enough money to pick a tomb in a very prestigious site, Alapont said.
VIDEO = https://fr.euronews.com/2021/08/18/les-archeologues-font-une-surprenante-decouverte-a-pompei?utm_source=yahoo&utm_campaign=feeds_news&utm_medium=referral
TURQUIE – 
Dascylium - An ancient relief depicting the Greek-Persian wars was discovered on Monday during excavations. According to the report filed by the Anadolu Agency, the relief is dated from the fifth century B.C. and shows figures of fighting Greek soldiers beneath the hoofs of Persian warhorses. Archeologist Kaan Iren, who made the discovery with his team in the ancient city of Dascylium found in the modern-day Bandirma district of Balikesir province referred to the depiction as “a scene of propaganda under the pretext of war”. An ancient relief depicting the Greek-Persian wars was discovered on Monday during excavations in the northwestern Turkey reported the country’s official news agency. According to the report filed by the Anadolu Agency, the relief is dated from the fifth century B.C. and shows figures of fighting Greek soldiers beneath the hoofs of Persian warhorses. Archeologist Kaan Iren, who made the discovery with his team in the ancient city of Dascylium found in the modern-day Bandirma district of Balikesir province referred to the depiction as “a scene of propaganda under the pretext of war”.“Of the eighth-century-B.C. wall left from the Phrygian age, this year we unearthed an area of four meters (13.1 feet) high and 40 meters long. We think this wall, which made of stone and mudbrick with the mudbrick parts having disappeared over time, was seven or eight meters high,” Iren told the media outlet.
ROYAUME UNI – 
Crowland - Excavations on Abbey Church Field have now wound down after a team of students from Newcastle and Sheffield universities have completed a two week dig. This area has had a long association with St Guthlac – the seventh century soldier who went to live in isolation in a hermitage in Crowland. Along with the foundations of a high status building, the teams have uncovered a comb from the Guthlac period along with a human poo – or coprolite – believed to be from the Saxon era. Dr Wright said: “Coprolites give us a lot of information about the diet and how healthy people were at the time. “It is not that common to pick up a coprolite but it shows how well preserved the site is. We have also found some wood remains. Generally organic material does not survive at archaeological sites. “I think the comb is the highlight find as that dates from the Guthlac time. That is a high status item from the period we are interested in.” The wood is believed to have part of a gully and will be carbon dated late to give archaeologists an exact time when the high status hall were built. But the dig has also shown that people have been living and working on that site for thousands of years as flint scrapes from the Mesolithic era were found.
https://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/saxon-poo-among-exciting-finds-uncovered-at-dig-9212108/
USA - Stockbridge - The Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans wrapped up their second archeological dig in the Berkshires this summer with a discovery that could shift thinking about the tribe's history in the region.On a recent morning, archaeologist Ann Morton stood inside a pit, about hip high, within sight of the Housatonic River in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She pointed to the walls with her trowel. “Thisred and black streak through here indicates a hearth. The black is charcoal and the red is burnt earth. So, there was a fire here,” said Morton. “I can see little flecks of it in the walls around the corner. But that's probably where the hearth was, right there in the wall.” Morton's team found evidence of two floors. One is about four inches thick, suggesting the Mohicans lived here for a while. Historians have said in the past that they felt that the Berkshires was more of a hunting grounds and it was more seasonal. But all of this evidence suggests that there were a lot of permanent residents and over a longer period of time. The date of the site isn't known yet. Morton said tribal members could have lived here just before 1737. That's when the Mohicans formed a Christian community with English settlers, in what was known as Indiantown, and later Stockbridge. She said the site could also be much older, going back five thousand years. The archeological team collected charcoal samples, which will be used for radiocarbon dating, to try to determine the age of the site. Nathan Allison, the tribal historic preservation officer, pointed out a palm sized stone, a “fire-cracked rock,” found in a second pit. The dig also found several stone flakes, that would have been shaved off of other rocks, being shaped into tools with “a projectile point, like a spear head or an arrowhead."
ROYAUME UNI – 
Soulton Hall - Depuis de nombreuses décennies, un mystérieux monticule situé à Soulton Hall, un manoir anglais dans le Shropshire, suscite les interrogations de ses propriétaires, qui ont récemment fait appel à des archéologues afin de percer ce mystère. Les archéologues ont effectivement trouvé les ruines de ce qui semble être un château datant du Moyen Âge. Au cours de leurs recherches, ils ont également découvert des bibelots et des artefacts probablement laissés par des pèlerins religieux. Ce château récemment découvert aurait donc probablement été construit entre le 13e et le 15e siècle. Les fouilles récentes ont également permis d’exhumer des artefacts appartenant sûrement à des chrétiens. Nous pensons notamment ici à un insigne de pèlerin daté du Moyen Âge, une petite croix portant l’image de Jésus-Christ crucifié. Tout ces petits objets étaient portés par les pèlerins chrétiens lorsqu’ils se rendaient dans des lieux considérés comme saints par l’Église catholique. Des poteries anciennes et une ampoule aplatie ont aussi été retrouvées. Une ampoule est un récipient conçu comme une cruche romaine et que l’on utilise pour transporter de l’eau ou de l’huile. Elle appartenait sans aucun doute à un pèlerin transportant de l’huile sainte.
https://dailygeekshow.com/vestiges-chateau-medieval/
ROYAUME UNI – 
Londres - Depuis 1901, Alfred le Grand (848-899) trône fièrement à Winchester, sur le site où le roi de Wessex, puis des Anglo-Saxons, avait installé sa résidence et sa cour. Haute de 5 mètres, la statue représente le souverain victorieux, armé de pied en cap, et soulevant le pommeau de son épée au ciel. Difficile, pour la statue en pierre du même roi, logée en toute discrétion au centre du square londonien de Trinity Church, dans le quartier de Southwark, de rivaliser avec pareille figure ! Et pourtant. Considéré jusqu'à il y a peu comme un probable ouvrage médiéval du XIVe siècle ou une copie du XIXe siècle, le petit monument délaissé de Trinity Church Square mérite une plus grande attention. Il serait en réalité en partie romain, ce qui en ferait la plus ancienne statue de Londres. L'inspection menée cet été par les archéologues anglais a révélé que le monument de 2,3 mètres était composé de deux éléments bien distincts : le corps d'une statue romaine en calcaire enchâssé dans une reconstitution d'époque moderne en pierre de Coade. D'après les analyses menées sur le monument, la base de la statue aurait été taillée dans un calcaire originaire de la région de Cotswolds, dans l'ouest de l'Angleterre. Cette pierre est bien connue des archéologues britanniques spécialisés dans l'époque romaine pour avoir été employée sur le site romain de Bath ainsi que dans 90% des constructions de Londinium réalisées en pierre locale. La statue témoignerait de la présence d'un atelier compétent dans la région. Elle est très bien sculptée, avec un souci évident du détail pour la musculature, ce qui doit probablement indiquer qu'elle a été réalisée par un artisan venu du continent et habitué à travailler la pierre britannique locale». La date de création de la sculpture pourrait être située vers les années 80 à 130 ap. J.-C.. Il est plausible d'y voir une statue de déesse. Et pas n'importe laquelle. Il doit vraisemblablement s'agir d'un vestige d'une statue de culte, très probablement de Minerve, en provenance d'un sanctuaire romain voisin. Le square de Trinity Church se situe de manière avérée à moins de 300 mètres d'un important sanctuaire d'époque romaine. En activité au IIe siècle, le site fouillé en 2002 possédait au moins deux temples britto-romains de type fanum, reconnaissables à leur forme carrée. Le monument pourrait provenir de cet espace de culte et n'en avoir été excavé qu'à l'occasion des travaux d'aménagements du quartier de Southwark dans les années 1820, à une époque où les ouvriers britanniques ont également retrouvé la trace d'une ancienne nécropole romaine. Mentionnée au plus tôt en 1831, la statue aurait été remployée avant cette date, avec une tête sculptée pour l'occasion à l'effigie - idéalisée - d'Alfred le Grand.