19 OCTOBRE 2018: Jerusalem - S John -
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ISRAEL – 
Jerusalem - Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed the beheaded remains of some 125 men, women and children thought to have died more than 2,000 years ago, according to Haaretz. The ancient bones found scattered in a water cistern align with historical accounts of a "brutal slaughter" described in academic commentaries of the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Times of Israelreported. “We removed from the pit more than 20 neck vertebrae, which were cut by a sword,” Israel antiquities authority anthropologist Yossi Nagar said during a presentation at the 12th Annual Conference on New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region, the publication reported. “We discovered in the pit bodies and body parts of infants and adult individuals, women and men, who were probably victims of a brutal slaughter.” The bones are thought to date from the reign of Judean king and high priest Alexander Jannaeus (103–76 B.C.)—a period characterized by bloody violence and ongoing power struggles, the Times stated. After a brutal six-year civil war, Jannaeus ordered the crucifixion of some 800 political opponents, according to interpretations of text from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Others, the publication reported, were beheaded. Archaeologists Kfir Arbiv and Tehillah Lieberman, who excavated the bones, said the newly-unearthed remains match up with this historical picture. Jannaeus slaughtered his enemies and their families, with embryonic remains suggesting that even pregnant women were killed, the researchers said. Large numbers of sword cuts to the neck, lower jaw and even the base of the skull support a picture of mass decapitation. Roman-era charred bones of men were also discovered at the site, Haaretz stated.
BULGARIE – 
St John - A piece of a document linking the ancient Greek colonies of Apollonia Pontica and Heraclea Pontica has been discovered on the Black Sea island of St. John. The two colonies were situated on the Black Sea coast in what are now the countries of Bulgaria and Turkey, respectively. The decree, drafted by the assembly of Apollonia Pontica and carved into a stone in the third century B.C., described the cordial ties between the two cities. “The citizens of Heraclea [Pontica] became honorary representatives of their own city in Apollonia [Pontica],” said epigraphist Nikolay Sharankov of Sofia University. “They received the right to buy real estate property there and to trade there without additional taxes and duties, not to wait their turn in judicial trials, to be given the floor with priority in the council and the assembly, to occupy the front row seats in the theater, and so on,” Sharankov explained. A copy of the document would have been sent to Heraclea Pontica, he added. The decree is thought to have been displayed in a prominent place in a shrine on the island, and then later reused as building material in the Christian monastery where it was recovered.