24 AVRIL 2013 NEWS: Mezenc - Lituanie - Dindigul - Bhopal - Australie -
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FRANCE – 
Mezenc - Il y a environ trois semaines, un carnyx aurait été découvert par des comédiens à la frontière entre Haute-Loire et Ardèche, sur le massif du Mézenc. Cette grande trompette de guerre utilisée par les Gaulois fait depuis l'objet des investigations de l'agence Puèi-Vèlh Rapportage. Le carnyx serait-il la preuve de l'existence du fameux trésor du Mézenc enseveli par les druides, comme l'évoque Albert Boudon-Lashermes dans son livre Us et coutumes en Velay ?
http://www.zoomdici.fr/actualite/Une-decouverte-archeologique-gauloise-sur-le-Mezenc--id129175.html
LITUANIE – 
What does it mean to be an archaeologist searching for remains of the past? In the April edition of Europeana eNews, one can browse images of the excavations which were conducted in Lithuania fifty years ago; photographs not only showing some great archaeological finds but also giving insight to the day-to-day work of an archaeologist. Lithuania is the largest of the Baltic States and has contributed over 78,000 items to Europeana. Amongst this collection is a particularly interesting set of photographs of archaeological explorations, the originals of which are held by the Lithuanian Institute of History Manuscript Archive. The excavations took place 45-65 years ago but their discoveries date back over 10,000 years to the time of the woolly mammoth. The Lithuanian images, which have also been presented in Facebook galleries, reveal the day-to-day routines of archaeological expeditions, and show excavations as works in progress. The people in the photographs are snapped both in work and at rest, faces tired and worn out, or joyful at some new discovery. Sometimes they are captured on camera seemingly at random, and at other times they are deliberately posed to capture that special moment of an expedition. Other photographs focus on landscapes, looking at what the various mounds and field boundaries can tell us about a siteâs past. And elsewhere, you can find items discovered from the remains of a shipwreck â including belt buckles, jewellery and even human remains.Browsing these photographs gives you a sense of what it means to be an archaeologist on a quest to uncover the past. In these images, you see the teamwork, the dedication and the rewards when something unexpected and fascinating turns up. They show that archaeology can, for all its many hours carefully brushing away dust and dirt, be pretty exciting after all.
http://www.archaiologia.gr/en/blog/2013/04/24/digging-up-lithuania/
INDE – Dindigul - A group of archaeologists has found a 1,200-year-old Mahaveer statue on the Amaravathi riverbed in Dindigul. The group members - Archaeology Survey of India (ASI) officials K Moortheeswari, V Narayanamoorthy and historian Raja - said the statue was made of a polished white granite stone and was in a good condition. The statue is five feet in height and four feet in width. There are three lions on the 'peedam' or stage on which Mahaveer is sitting and two serpents are seen on both sides. He is surrounded by his guardians, Mathangar on the left and Sithayika on the right. A Jain school is said to have flourished here about 1,000 years ago, but it is not still clear whether the statue had any significance with the school.
INDE – Bhopal - BaghHayatAfza was a mother's wedding gift to her daughter and heir apparent Nawab Sultan JahanBegum who took forward a legacy of women Muslim rulers of Bhopal and their attempts to secure their own education and rights. Presently, under the state archaeology, this garden is now a pale shadow of its original glory. Located on Berasia road, it used to be called as PGBT College and in 1980 it was re-christened as Geetanjali College. A dilapidated portion of the once magnificent complex is still lying in abandoned state. This garden complex later inspired the making of Noor-us-Sabah complex situated at Koh-e-Fiza and which was later converted in a hotel. The post-independence Hayat Afza housed 'women's empowerment cell'. n the middle of Hayat Afza is a brilliant building structure and reminisces of a large reservoir that was deep and perennially filled with water. The building structure, comparable to a palace, is built over a tank. "From the outside it is unimaginable to perceive that between a large hall with corridors and rooms on all the sides, water would flow in the middle," said heritage conservationist Sikander Malik. Due to water storage below, the building was ventilated with cool air and it also had an efficient water system, he added. Built around 1890, the complex functioned as an entertainment and recreation core for the rulers. It was part of the series of gardens and this was laid to synchronize with Bagh Nishat Afza, a kilometre away. Both the state government and Auqaf-e-Shahi (the royal waqf trust whose patrons are members of the erstwhile royal family) claim the ownership of them. If the state archaeology notice outside the building is to be believed, it has notified it as 'Nishat Afza' instead of Hayat Afza.
AUSTRALIE - Australia’s prehistoric population suffered an "astounding" decline at the peak of the last ice age, with food and water shortages more than halving the number of inhabitants, a new study suggests. Alan Williams, an archaeological consultant and PhD candidate at the Australian National University, said cool and incredibly dry conditions between about 21,000 and 18,000 BC had cut a swathe through the population, which at that time numbered around 20,000.