18 FEVRIER 2021 NEWS
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ECOSSE – 
Bay of Skaill - Archaeologists may have discovered another Skara Brae around half a mile from the world-famous Neolithic village. Skara Brae is considered the best preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe with people first making their home there around 3,100BC. Sigurd Towrie, spokesman for the Archaeology Institute at University of Highlands and Islands, said the finds “suggest there is another settlement at the Bay of Skaill – one that, from previous environmental sampling, is likely to be 4,000 to 5,000 years old”. He said: “If this is the case, and based on the scale of the eroded section, we may well be looking at a Neolithic/Bronze Age site on a par with Skara Brae – albeit one that is now disappearing at an alarming rate.” The large decorated stone was discovered in the Bay of Skaill by Mr Towrie after he noticed animal remains falling from an eroding section of shoreline. Closer inspection found the stone marked with a pair of incised triangles and a series of rectangular bands running across the surface. The discovery of deer remains is an unusual find for a Neolithic site on Orkney, with the animal perhaps used for rituals rather than food, it is understood.
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/have-archaeologists-found-another-skara-brae-orkney-3129649
EGYPTE – 
Abydos - Archaeologists have unearthed what could be the oldest known beer factory at one of the most prominent archaeological sites of ancient Egypt. The factory was found in Abydos, an ancient burial ground located in the desert west of the Nile River, over 450 kilometres south of Cairo. He said the factory apparently dates back to the region of King Narmer, who is widely known for his unification of ancient Egypt at the beginning of the First Dynastic Period (3150 B.C.- 2613 B.C.). Archaeologists found eight huge units — each is 20 metres long and 2.5 metres wide. Each unit includes some 40 pottery basins in two rows, which had been used to heat up a mixture of grains and water to produce beer.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7640292/ancient-beer-factor-egypt/
ROYAUME UNI – 
Cirencester - Archaeologists have found a human skeleton and rare Roman artefacts during a recent dig near Cirencester. The remains and items were found near the proposed A417 Missing Link route between Cirencester and Gloucester. An almost 2,000-year-old figurine depicting Cupid, the Roman God of love, pictured here, was discovered along with a bow-shaped brooch, and a Roman or early Saxon skeleton. While the most significant find was the figurine of Cupid, the brooch discovered at the same settlement also gives an insight into daily life as a Roman, who would have used the brooch to fasten their cloak to keep out the wind that still blows strongly across the landscape. The brooch is ornate, and shaped like an archer’s bow- it’s likely that the owner would have been quite wealthy. The skeleton has proved a little more unique though. Oriented north to south, archaeologists consider that it is unlikely to be Christian, meaning the remains date to either before 4th Century Roman or early Saxon (5th-7th Century). Researchers were also baffled by the fact the remains were buried face down; potentially suggesting the mystery person was not well liked, for instance a criminal.
GRECE – 
Pavlopetri - Pavlopetri, also called Paulopetri, is a submerged ancient town, located between the islet of Pavlopetri and the Pounta coast of Laconia, on the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece. The physical remains are found 20 metres from the Pounta coast shoreline and run for over 300 metres south to Pavlopetri Island, covering an approximate area of around 19.7 acres. Ceramics recovered in situ confirms that Pavlopetri had Mycenaean occupation, but further archaeological evidence suggests that the town was occupied as early as 3500 BC. The remains are indicated by a network of stone walls up to three stones in height, constructed from uncut aeolianite, sandstone and limestone blocks. Tracing the walls reveals the foundations of a network of streets, courtyards, and up to 15 rectilinear buildings, as well as cist graves and Bronze Age pithos burials at a depth of 3 to 4 metres. The discovery of various loom weights and imported pitharis pots from Crete, suggests that the town was a centre of a thriving textile industry, and a major trading port. The site was initially abandoned during the post-palatial period of Minoan chronology, and re-occupied during the Classical and Hellenistic periods (indicated by Skyphos wine-cups that date from the 4th century BC, and 3rd century BC sherds and doublebarrel handles). Whilst an exact date for submergence is unknown, the evidence so far indicates that Pavlopetri was probably inundated and awash by the time of the Roman period, and thus completely abandoned.
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/02/the-sunken-town-of-pavlopetri/137158
RUSSIE – 
Rostov - Archaeologists have excavated a burial mound containing Scythian Grave Goods. The Scythians, also known as Scyth, Saka, Sakae, Iskuzai, or Askuzai were an ancient nomadic people of Eurasia that mainly centred on the Pontic steppe from about the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. Research of a cluster of burials in the area between the Don and Kagalnik rivers in the Rostov region of Russia have been under continuous study since 1967, with the latest series of excavations focusing on a large mound containing medieval, Bronze Age, and Scythian burials. Near the mound, archaeologist have found an assemblage of bronze adzes (a type of cutting tool), and a polished stone axe from the Cimmerian period during the 8-7th century BC. In the centre of the mound was the disturbed burial of a Scythian noble from the 4th century BC, and the accompanying remains of a tribal warrior buried with an ornate gold chain and a small cast horse. Near the warrior, the team also found two spears, a large iron sword decorated on the hilt with gold foil, a wooden sheath, a sling, a quiver, a bronze cauldron, and several broken arrows associated with the funerary practice of sprinkling broken arrows over the deceased by a priest. The burial of the cast horse was located in a higher context, ordained with deer antlers and decorated with a style that is typical for the tribes of the Urals or Altai Mountains.
ROYAUME UNI – 
Rhuddlan - A county councillor’s determination has led to the discovery of a 9,000 year-old encampment “on a par with the oldest proven mesolithic site” in Wales. The site, on Castle Hill, off Hylas Lane in Rhuddlan, yielded a total of 314 stone artefacts on a site which is believed to have been a sandy-ridge overlooking the floodplain of the Afon Clwyd. Many of the finds were flakes of chert (hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock) and flint but rudimentary tools were also discovered. Expert Richard Cooke of Aeon Archaeology, who dug the site with his colleague Josh Dean, believes the artefacts came from a group which was passing through and made camp by the river more than 9,000 years ago. He said: “We found a lot of worked flint from the mesolithic period. There were three post holes, material from which was carbon dated at between 9220-9280 years old – plus or minus 30 years. “Not many of these mesolithic sites have had samples carbon dated so this is on a par with the oldest proven mesolithic site in Wales. “It was a ridge of high ground – just a sandbank probably. These Mesolithic people were hunter gatherers and didn’t have fixed settlements.”
ESPAGNE – 
Seville - A magnificently decorated 12th-century Islamic bathhouse, replete with dazzling geometric motifs and skylights in the form of eight-pointed stars, has emerged, a little improbably, from the walls and vaulted ceilings of a popular tapas bar in the heart of the southern Spanish city of Seville.
