26 JANVIER 2017 NEWS: Failaka - Hosakerehalli - Oxon Hill - Aigai -
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KOWEIT – 
Failaka - Danish archaeologists from Moesgaard Museum have discovered the remains of a jewellery workshop on a small island in Kuwait, which includes semi-precious stones that are 3,500 years old. Danish archaeologists have been working on the tiny island of Failaka off Kuwait’s coast for the past nine years. The recent discovery offers clues to the period between 2100 and 1700 BC when the island was home to the Dilmun culture and part of the support structure for trade to the major cities in Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq. Dilmun was the ancient name of a country somewhere in the Persian Gulf. Researchers have defined it as including Bahrain and Failaka and possibly Qatar. It was an important hub for trade during the Bronze Age. The trading network collapsed completely around the year 1700 BC and the temples and cities were abandoned, leading to a ‘dark period’ about which little is known. The Danish discovery sheds a little light on the darkness. “We have found the remains of a jewellery workshop in buildings from the period between 1700 and 1600 BC,” said Flemming Højland, the senior scientist and curator at Moesgaard Museum. “We found bits and pieces of semi-precious stones that do not exist naturally on the island of Failaka, but were imported – probably from India and Pakistan.” Højlund believes that the stones show that Kuwait resumed trade during the dark period. “Kuwait must have re-established the trade routes that collapsed around the year 1700 BC,” he said. “It bears witness to a renaissance in Bahrain and Failaka in around 1600 BC, when it resumed relations eastward to Pakistan and India.”
http://cphpost.dk/news/danish-archaeologists-find-3500-year-old-gemstones.html
INDE – 
Hosakerehalli lake - Dredging undertaken at the Hosakerehalli lake by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Monday turned into an eventful one with the resurfacing of a historic relic, believed to be from the Kempe Gowda era. The black stone ‘mantapa’ was discovered from 25 ft below water at the lake in Banashankari third stage. Old-timers recalled that the lake, built by Kempe Gowda in the late 16th century, served for drinking, irrigation and fishing purposes until the late 1940s. The 10ft x 10ft wide ‘mantapa’ is made of greyish-black granite.
USA – 
Oxon Hill - Sara Rivers-Cofield has something a little unsavory sitting on her desk: a fragile, round-tipped sheath dug out of an abandoned well that she thinks could be the oldest surviving condom in North America. A curator at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, or MAC Lab, Rivers-Cofield found the suspected condom in April 2015 when she was looking for artifacts to put in an exhibit tied to the time-travel TV series Outlander. In search of a silk ribbon for the exhibit, Rivers-Cofield went to a cabinet at MAC Lab containing small organic items that had been found in a well decades ago at Oxon Hill Manor, a slave-owning plantation just south of Washington, D.C., overlooking the Potomac River. The well was used as a trash pit between the 1720s and 1750s. When it was excavated in the 1980s, archaeologists found an array of household garbage, including bottle corks, tobacco leaves, broken porcelain dishes, grass clippers, wooden pieces of musical instruments, and cloth and silk fragments. The English goods that dominated 18th century colonial Maryland are comparable with objects featured in the scenes depicting 1740s Scotland, she says. Humans have been using condoms made from animal guts and bladders for thousands of years to prevent pregnancy and, eventually, disease. But given the private (and biodegradable) nature of early condoms, it’s probably not surprising that there aren’t many examples from the archaeological record. The world’s oldest surviving condoms date back to the 1640s: a pig intestine condom found complete with its user manual in Sweden, and another 10 condoms that were excavated from a latrine at Britain’s Dudley Castle. Historical records suggest that by the 18th century, condoms were widespread in Europe. (It’s also around this time that condoms were first mentioned in English medical literature—in a book about gonorrhea by the unfortunately named William Cockburn.) They were sold in markets, pubs, brothels, and barbershops, much to the predictable dismay of the era’s moralists. In 1705, John Campbell, the 2nd Duke of Argyll, unsuccessfully tried to get the contraceptives banned in Britain. He even brought a linen condom to the floor of the Parliament and waved it around proclaiming that the devices were “debauching of a great number of Ladies of qualitie, and young gentlewomen.”
http://mentalfloss.com/article/91385/americas-oldest-condom
TURQUIE – 
Aigai - A unique sarcophagus, discovered in in Aigai Ancient City excavation, in Manisa, turned out to belong to a headmaster of an ancient school. Aigai Ancient City excavation supervisor and Celal Bayar University (CBU) Faculty of Science and Letters Department of Archaeology Assistant Professor Yusuf Sezgin said, the grave was 2.2 thousand years old and the only example of a sarcophagus that belongs to a headmaster in the history of archaeological excavations. Aigai Ancient City, is one of 12 cities established by Aiol civilisation 2800 years ago, excavation has unearthed a new sarcophagus pieces. Said pieces were combined with the pieces found since 2004. 80 percent completed sarcophagus was turned out to be a Gymnasiarkhos’, headmaster’s. The 2200 years old sarcophagus has writings on it, that are bringing light to the history of the ancient city. Aigai Ancient City excavation supervisor Assistant Professor Yusuf Sezgin said, the sarcophagus will be exhibited after the completion of the missing pieces. Assistant Professor Sezgin added that this is the only example of a school principal’s sarcophagus in the history of archaeological excavations. Assistant Professor Sezgin said, “There are three crowns on the sarcophagus and they all mean different things. The crowns show that the person in the sarcophagus was honoured thrice. One of the crowns say ‘Neoi’, meaning that the person was honoured by the youth, another one say ‘Aiollida’, meaning that the person was honoured by public. The third crown was chipped and could not be read. We have found parchment papers, papyrus scrolls and lettering sets on the sarcophagus, indicating that the person was a teacher or instructor. There are schools called Neoi Gymnasion in the ancient times. As far as we have discovered the person in the sarcophagus was the headmaster of the school, a gymnasiarkhos.” Assistant Professor Sezgin said, the sarcophagus was also examined in terms of linguistics. Sezgin continued, “The sarcophagus was shattered and was all over the place when we started the excavation in 2004. We have found some of the pieces and continue the search for the rest. The writings on the sarcophagus indicates that the person inside was a headmaster. We are conducting a international work since 2015. We are cooperating with German Archaeology Institute and a group of archaeologists from Paris. We are evaluating all of the cultural assests as a part of the project. Our aim is to unearth all the missing pieces, combine them and exhibit the sarcophagus.”
http://www.dha.com.tr/sarcophagus-of-a-headmaster-unearthed-in-manisa_1440182.html