25 JUILLET 2018: San Michele del Golfo - Orkney - Bir Umm Tineidba - Sidon - Belsk - Issyk-Kul -
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ITALIE – 
San Michele del Golfo - Archaeologists have found a burial site with 10 skeletons near Palermo, the capital of the Italian island Sicily. The interesting bit? The skeletons are probably the descendants of Vikings. "Some of the dead buried in the cemetery were undoubtedly members of the elites or the clergy, as the form of some of the graves indicates," said Sławomir Moździoch, the head of the excavation After looking at the 10 buried bodies, which were found near the medieval church of San Michele del Golfo, Moździoch and his team found that three of the bodies were female and two were children. The remaining bodies were difficult to identify and although no goods or equipment was found in the graves, the researchers noted that the cemetery associated with the hospital at San Michele del Golfo was mentioned in a document from the 12th century. Scientists have discovered that the graves belong to Normans, descendants of Vikings. "According to the local anthropologist, the tallness and massive build of skeletons of people buried here indicate this origin," Moździoch said. Normans in Italy are not a surprise, as the group, which arose in the northern part of France, would eventually go on to have military conquests all over Europe, including in the southern part of Italy in the late 10th and early 11 centuries. "In the second half of the 11th century, the island was recaptured from the Arabs by a Norman nobleman, Roger de Hauteville," Moździoch added in the statement.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/07/24/rare-viking-discovery-made-in-italy.html
ROYAUME UNI – 
Orkney - Archaeologists believe they have discovered the hand markings of a Pictish man on an anvil found in Orkney. The find was made during an excavation on the island of Rousay, where the “unparalleled remains” of a smith’s workshop from the Pictish-era have been discovered. A large stone anvil has been removed from the site with archaeologists claimin gthat carbon markings found on the metal working tool are imprints from a smith’s hands and knees. Dr Stephen Dockrill of the University of Bradford said analysis had confirmed that a copper smith worked in the semi-subterranean building now being excavated, with the site dating from 6th to 9th Century AD. He added: “The analysis of the floor enables us to say with confidence where the smith worked, next to a hearth and two stone anvils. “The biggest surprise came when we lifted the larger stone anvil and cleaned it; we could see carbon imprints of the smith’s knees and hands.”The building being excavated was entered via steps and a curved corridor, which would have minimised the amount of light entering the smithy, Dr Dockrill added. This allowed the smith to assess the temperature of the hot metal based on its colour. A door would have separated the workshop from the corridor. Many of the stone fittings - the pivot stone, door jamb and bar hole - remain intact. The centre was dominated by the hearth, with a set upright stone on the doorward side protecting the hearth fire from drafts.
https://www.scotsman.com/regions/inverness-highlands-islands/are-these-markings-the-handprint-of-a-pictish-man-1-4773260
EGYPTE – 
Bir Umm Tineidba- A team of archaeologists — led by Yale Egyptologist John Darnell — has uncovered a “lost oasis” of archaeological activity in the eastern Egyptian desert of Elkab. The researchers from the Elkab Desert Survey Project surveyed the area of Bir Umm Tineidba, once thought to be devoid of any major archaeological remains. Instead, the team unearthed “a wealth of archaeological and epigraphic material,” says Darnell, including a number of examples of ancient rock art or “graffiti,” the burial site of an Egyptian woman, and a previously unrecorded,enigmatic Late Roman settlement. One particularly impressive image identified during the field season, says Darnell, dates back to about 3,300 B.C.E. and includes large depictions of animals, including a bull, a giraffe, an addax (antelope), a barbary sheep, and donkeys. Other tableaux depict long lines of boats, revealing an “interesting mixture of Eastern Desert and closer, Nile Valley-oriented styles,” notes Darnell. “At a time immediately before the invention of the hieroglyphic script, rock art such as this provides important clues to the religion and symbolic communication of Predynastic Egyptians,” says Darnell. “The large addax in particular deserves to be added to the artistic achievements of early Egypt. The archaeologists also uncovered several burial tumuli — or mounds of earth and stone raised over graves — that appear to belong to desert dwellers with physical ties to both the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. They investigated one of the tumuli, which they determined was the burial place of a woman between 25 to 35 years of age at the time of her death. “She was probably one of the local desert elite, and was buried with at least a strand of Red Sea shells and carnelian beads, alluding to her desert and Red Sea associations, as well as a Protodynastic vessel of Nile Valley manufacture, all indicative of the two worlds of Nile and desert with which she and her people appear to have interacted,” says Darnell. To the south of the rock inscription and tumuli sites, the archaeologists located a Late Roman settlement with dozens of stone structures. The ceramic evidence and other materials indicate that the site dates to between 400 and 600 C.E., says Darnell.
LIBAN – 
Sidon - Newly revealed archaeological finds at Sidon in Lebanon include the rare remains of a Canaanite child and its funerary jar, the British Museum excavation team revealed on Monday. By the time of the Canaanites, burial in jars had been the local practice for thousands of years throughout the region. The burial jars archaeologists found in copper-age Sidon had all contained adults. However, the burial presented Monday was a child. The child was interred with a necklace around its neck, said the team, headed by Dr. Claude Doumet-Serhal. The fact of the child's burial, with a funerary vessel and jewelry, could be indicative of status, or of the value attributed to children. Prehistoric burials had been confined to adults, indicating that children were held to be of little importance. Other finds that the the British Museum excavating team announced Monday include marble bowls imported from ancient Egypt – and a defensive tower from the much later Islamic era along the walls of Sidon’s Old City, the Daily Star of Lebanon reports. The tower is yet more proof that the town had been inhabited from at least 4,000 B.C.E. until the Middle Ages, the Star says.
UKRAINE – 
Belsk - The archaeological field research of Europe's largest ancient settlement – Belsk settlement dating back to VIII-III centuries BC – started in Poltava region on Monday. The Belsk settlement is located between the rivers Vorskla and Sukha Hrun on the territory of the Kotelevske district of Poltava region near the village of Belsk. This settlement is considered to be the largest Scythian settlement. Its area is 4,400 hectares, and the length of fortifications is more than 34 km. The Belsk settlement is five times larger than ancient Babylon.
KAZAKHSTAN - 
Issyk-Kul - The remains of the warrior, presumably of IV-V centuries BC have been found in the gorge of Kyrkyn at Issyk-Kul, reports KyrTAG. "Ancient military equipment and human remains, presumably related to the IV-V centuries BC have been found at the Issyk Kul", reports the press-service of representative of Government in the Issyk-Kul region. Excavations are being conducted by the employees of the National Academy of Sciences. The historical discovery was found on July 21 during the reconstruction of the ethnic city on the Jailoo Kyrchyn. Previously, it was assumed that there was a military mound there. In the course of archaeological excavations at a depth of 3 meters, human remains, an arrowhead and other attributes of a warrior, horse equipment were found.
https://www.kaztag.kz/en/news/ancient-burial-of-warrior-discovered-at-issyk-kul