19 JUIN 2012 NEWS: Kilkenny - Ranutovac - Bristol - Ifugao - Stragglethorpe - Monthoiron - Bethlehem -
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
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INSCRIPTION 2012 / Session III : Juillet 2012
REGISTRATION 2012 / Term III : July 2012
IRLANDE – 
Kilkenny - Human remains believed to belong to three of Oliver Cromwell’s soldiers have been unearthed during redevelopment work at James Green. The discovery was made in recent days and the remains are now being examined by an archaeologist, Patrick Neary. “The heads of seven of Cromwell’s men are believed to be buried there. They were killed near Ballinakill in Co Laois in 1642 and their heads were hung from the Market Cross in Kilkenny on the next market day and later buried. To date we have found what we believe are two severed heads belonging to the soldiers ,” he said. This was at the beginning of Cromwell’s tenure and although Cromwell himself had yet to arrive in Ireland seven men (two officers and five soldiers), who were part of the English government forces were killed when they took on the Confederates. It was a bloody battle involving 60 of the government forces, who were marching from Ballyragget to Ballinakill and an estimated 600 of the Confederates. Medieval pottery and an old drain, believed to be from a well at The Closh to the River Breagagh have also being unearthed at the site. Excavations are ongoing and further finds are possible according to Mr Neary. Mr Neary added that James Green is also believed to be close to the site of St James Church, which dates back to the 1300’s and was the departure point for pilgrims who made the pilgrimage to Santiago del Compostela in Spain.
SERBIE – Ranutovac - A team of experts from the Archeological Institute of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade have discovered the necropolis. It is located at the Manište dig in the village of Ranutovac, three kilometers north of Vranje, on the route of Corridor 10. Aleksandar Bulatović, the coordinator of a project of archeological research and preservation on the Corridor 10 route, told Tanjug the necropolis contained remains of the deceased who were burned in funeral pyres. "The necropolis dates back to the Early Bronze Age - based on our initial assessments between 2,000 and 1,800 BC, and it is significant because it is the only fully preserved necropolis from this period in the central Balkans," he explained. “It is the most important discovery made to date on the Corridor X route,” he added. "At the same site, we found multiple ceramic objects, which look quite unusual for this area, and several containers whose use is unknown," said Bulatović. The archeological material is being processed at the National Museum in Vranje, where it will later be exhibited. The Serbian section of Corridor 10, stretching from Grabovnica near Leskovac to Preševo on the Macedonian border, has 33 registered archeological sites, five of which are yet to be explored.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=16&nav_id=80796
ROYAUME UNI – 
Bristol - Bristol Cathedral, in partnership with the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol, is to carry out an archaeological survey of College Green. The geophysical survey will cover the entire Green, aiming to identify any features – such as the locations of graves and buildings – that may lie buried beneath the surface. The Green is one of Bristol's most important sites, having been the centre of civic life for several centuries; before 1542 it was the cemetery of the abbey of St Augustine, which became the cathedral in that year. Among mysteries that may be revealed by the survey are the location of the Bristol High Cross, moved to the Green in the eighteenth century; and of a medieval chapel said to have contained the relics of Bristol's enigmatic 'patron saint', St Jordan.
http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2012/8569.html
PHILIPPINES – Ifugao - The Ifugao Archaeological Project was recently launched here with a native priest (mumbaki) performing a ritual calling on the unseen spirits not to inflict harm to a group of about 20 students from the different universities abroad and in the country to conduct the 2012 Ifugao Archaeological Field School. Adorned in his native attire, mumbaki Rodolfo Dulnuan, prayed to the gods and the spirits at the venue of the said project which is considered as the Old Kiyangan Village and believed to be the first village in Ifugao, to assist the said students in attaining their objective. A pig was butchered as an offering to the gods and spirits. Marlon Martin, Chief Executive Officer of the Save the Rice Terraces Movement, said that investigations will focus on the Old Kiyangan Village, the first Ifugao Village according to Ifugao mythology which is located about four kilometers from the Poblacion here. The said project examines anthropological issues that include relationship between agricultural and irrigation systems with emergent complexity; pathways to intensification and organizational entailments of irrigation systems. Such work informs on theoretical foundations of studies of agricultural systems, providing empirical data to similar studies in island Southeast Asia and elsewhere, and provides a historical ecological approach in the study of emergent complexity. This study will add a new perspective in the recursive relationship between humans and their landscape.
http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=141339128510
ROYAUME UNI – Stragglethorpe - A 4,000-year-old beaker found in fragments during the dualling of the A46 has been put back together. The Bronze Age item is expected to go on show next year in a Notts museum alongside other artefacts which have been dug up. It was discovered in dozens of pieces in an ancient grave close to the road at Stragglethorpe when the area was being investigated by archaeologists ahead of the of the road-building scheme. It was handed to pottery specialists at Cotswold Wessex Archaeology, who have pieced the delicate beaker together again. The 15cm-tall clay patterned beaker, dated to between 2130BC and 1970 BC, was found in a grave next to a Bronze Age burial barrow just south of the new A46 junction at Stragglethorpe. Some experts believe beakers were used to drink alcohol from. The vessel was buried with five adults and two children, who were all found in crouched positions. The beaker was one of 100,000 ancient artefacts found alongside the 28km stretch of new road between Widmerpool and Farndon. Other major finds during the £400 million upgrade have included remains of small late Iron Age settlements at Owthorpe and Saxondale, Roman and Anglo-Saxon field systems at Saxondale and further evidence of Roman occupation, including 17 infant burials just outside the Roman town of Margidunum, near East Bridgford, which suggests there may have been a brothel there. The babies were buried close together in fields to the east of the A46. Ursilla Spence, Notts County Council's chief archaeologist, said: "Finding 17 baby burials together is quite unusual. Perhaps they are evidence of a road-side brothel or some kind of ritual activity." Among the other finds was evidence of three Iron Age round houses at Owthorpe. Another small Iron Age settlement was found at High Thorpe, just to the south of Saxondale.
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/break-4-000-years/story-16386373-detail/story.html
FRANCE – 
Monthoiron - Monthoiron, dans la Vienne, commune de 600 âmes, à deux pas de Châtellerault. Une tour oubliée depuis 500 ans, installée dans le parc de l'ancienne demeure seigneuriale, au fond de la vallée où coule l'Ozon, est l'objet de toutes les interrogations. A l'écart du château, la tour, datée de la première Renaissance est en partie ruinée. Classée aux Monuments historiques en 1996, elle est redécouverte par Nicolas Faucherre, un castellologue nantais réputé. « On connaît les tours médiévales classiques mais placée comme ça, en fond de vallée, c'est déjà étrange », raconte Christian Armbruster, l'un des fils de la famille qui s'occupe depuis cinq ans, avec son frère, de mettre au jour le mystère. « Surtout, Nicolas Faucherre a relevé certains détails architecturaux, comme les dix contreforts en étoile, qui n'existent nulle part ailleurs ». L'historien prouve que le concept est très proche d'études de géométrie, réalisées par Léonard de Vinci. « On retrouve un plan semblable dans le Codex de Madrid II, où Léonard a imaginé une tour pour Cesare Borgia », résume le fils du château. « Effectivement, l'architecture très particulière évoque les dessins de De Vinci », confirme-t-on à la Drac de Poitiers. De fait, ce monument serait la (seule) preuve construite du génie de « Léonard l'architecte ». L'histoire, qui entoure sa construction, est également troublante. « La Tour de l'Architecte », comme elle est baptisée désormais, aurait été édifiée à partir de 1517, par la famille Turpin de Crissé, qui défendait les idées émergentes de la Renaissance italienne. « Or, Léonard de Vinci séjourne à la même époque à Amboise, au Clos Lucé ! », s'enflamme Christian Ambruster. Ce faisceau d'indices a convaincu, en tout cas, plusieurs spécialistes. Une cinquantaine d'experts ont officiellement confirmé que la Tour de l'Architecte est bien issue du concept du maître italien .
PALESTINE – 
Bethlehem - The Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, built above the cave that traditionally marks Jesus’ Birthplace, was recently nominated to become part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. One of Christianity’s holiest sites, the first basilica was built in the fourth century C.E., and the sixth century Church of the Nativity still stands today. While few would contest that the site meets the UNESCO World Heritage List criteria of “holding outstanding value,” bearing “a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition” or being “directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance,” the nomination of a Palestinian UNESCO site has been a controversial affair. The Palestinian Territories were granted UNESCO membership in October 2011 over Israel and the United States’ objections, who responded by cutting funding to the UNESCO program.