26 MARS 2018: Woodbridge - al-Serrian - Brad - Kanakkuvelanpatti - Koweit - Egypte - Suikerbosrand -
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
ONLINE COURSES / COURS A DISTANCE
SPRING TERM : APRIL 2018
REGISTER NOW
ROYAUME UNI – 
Woodbridge - Finds declared as treasure reveal more about what is believed to be a lost Anglo-Saxon royal palace, an archaeologist said.Experts said remains dating from the 7th Century could be linked to the palace, in Rendlesham, Suffolk.The items, including coins, parts of jewellery and an ingot, were found near Woodbridge. Archaeologist Faye Minter said: "They add to the picture of what we have got for that high status 7th Century site." One of the items was a solid silver ingot, which she said could date from either the Viking or Anglo-Saxon periods. Another item was an incomplete part of a piece of gold, which would have held a pendant in the 7th Century. A copper-alloy early medieval strap end, which might have been used on the end of a belt, and a set of Roman coins were also found. The Rendlesham site, which archaeologists think may have once been home to a royal palace or hall, is about four miles from the Sutton Hoo burial site. The remains at the 120-acre (50-hectare) site were found with aerial photography and geophysical surveys. It is thought Rendlesham and Sutton Hoo were intimately linked - with Sutton Hoo being the burial place of the king at Rendlesham. The discovery at Sutton Hoo was made in 1939.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-43516695
ARABIE SAOUDITE – 
al-Serrian - Chinese archaeologists with the National Center of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which is affiliated with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, are set to conduct field research of the ruins, known as al-Serrian, from March 26 to April 13. Al-Serrian was one of the gateways for Hajj pilgrims to Mecca, together with the bigger trade hub of Jeddah to the north. Jiang Bo, the team head, said some ancient travelogues show that it was a busy port with mosques, markets and residential areas. "However, no comprehensive excavation has been done in the area before," Jiang said. Jiang conducted preliminary field research at al-Serrian in 2016 and found some construction components and broken porcelain pieces on the beach. Local Arabic historical documents showed that al-Serrian had its peak from the ninth to the 13th centuries, but Jiang speculated that a Chinese porcelain piece he found was produced in Fujian province during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Some tombstones also were found, but the writing on them needs further study, Jiang said.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/asean-plus/30341660
SYRIE – 
Brad - Turkey on Saturday denied Lebanese media reports claiming Turkish warplanes bombed archaeological site of Brad near Syria's Afrin region during Operation Olive Branch, Anadolu agency reported. Friday's reports claimed the airstrikes destroyed the Julianus Church and Brad monastery in the Brad ancient site near Afrin. In a written statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy termed the reports 'completely untrue'.'No airstrike targeting the Brad [ancient] site, Julianus Church and Brad monastery has been carried out by Turkish Armed Forces so far.'He said it could be easily proved that the Julianus Church was destroyed by armed groups in 2013, he added.
http://menafn.com/1096649152/Turkey-denies-bombing-archaeological-site-near-Afrin
INDE – 
Kanakkuvelanpatti - Archaeological enthusiasts aver it is Bahubali, while locals of Kanakkuvelanpatti village in Karur worship the bas relief as “Mottai Andavar,” a form of Lord Muruga. While the movie Bahubali caught the imagination of millions in the country, a village near here is debating if a sculpture identified days ago as over 1,000-year-old actually represented him. Bahubali was the son of Rishaba, the first of the 24 ‘Theerthankaras’ of the yore, according to Jainism. A bas-relief, a type of sculpture carved out of a hillock’s side portion is being worshipped all along by the local people as “Mottai Andavar,” a form of Lord Muruga at Kanakkuvelanpatti village about 30 km from here in western Tamil Nadu. “During our recent visit to this village, we found that the bas relief situated at an elevation of about 25-30 feet is actually that of a Jain Theerthankara dating back to 10th Century AD,” Archaeologist S. Ramachandran said. Standing in a straight posture, the Theerthankara is without any symbolic gestures and such a position is called “Kayoth Sarga,” Mr. Ramachandran, who was formerly with the Tamil Nadu State Archaeology Department, told PTI. The Theerthankara’s bas relief is about eight feet in height, and he is flanked by “Yakshas” (attendants) on both sides, he said. According to the local people they are Valli and Devasena, symbolic divine consorts of Lord Muruga. Some archaeological enthusiasts, who too visited the bas-relief, opined that it could represent Bahubali.“Enthusiasts like Santharam pointing to features like the three-tier parasol above the bas relief opined that it was Bahubali, while Ramachandran, however, said it was a wrong inference,” Sugumarpoomalai, a resident and an archaeology enthusiast, said. Mr. Santharam said the bas relief “looks like Bahubali when you take a look at the three-tier parasol and his other images in a standing, meditative posture.”
KOWEIT – 
Dozens of cemeteries and engraved artifacts have been discovered at an eastern resort on the shores of the Arabian Gulf, Kuwait National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) announced. The new discoveries are reminiscent of a bronze age culture known as “Um Al-Nar”, which existed around 2,500 BC in the area of modern-day United Arab Emirates and northern Oman, the director of NCCAL’s department of antiquities and museums Sultan Al-Duweish. In a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), he said that the designated site was used to be a vibrant trade zone which linked vast civilizations across eastern Saudi Arabia. “The findings are the byproduct of extensive archaeological surveys carried out on unexplored landscapes”, he pointed out.
http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/334167/Archaeologists-unearth-ancient-treasure-trove-in-Kuwait
EGYPTE – 
- An image bearing the head of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's first female pharaoh, has been discovered in an ancient artifact excavated from an unknown location. The ancient artifact has been stored in the Swansea University Egypt Centre before it was requested for a handling session led by lecturer Ken Griffin. Apparently, what was first thought to be just another relic turned out to be a rare discovery. Upon close examination, Griffin and his students determined that the two limestone fragments contained hieroglyphs, a figure with a cobra on the forehead, and an iconic fan behind the head. Although the figure's face is missing, the Egyptologist immediately recognized that it belonged to none other than Queen Hatshepsut. First off, the writings make use of a female pronoun, suggesting that the head belonged to one of the few female rulers of ancient Egypt. In addition, Griffin identified the fan's details, as well as the hair and headdress features of the figure, to resemble reliefs in the queen's temple at Deir-el Bahri, which was constructed during the rise of the New Kingdom. Even though the lecturer managed to identify the Pharaoh depicted in the Egyptian artifact, it presents two archeological mysteries that, unfortunately, remain unsolved.Although the figure's face is missing, the Egyptologist immediately recognized that it belonged to none other than Queen Hatshepsut. First off, the writings make use of a female pronoun, suggesting that the head belonged to one of the few female rulers of ancient Egypt.In addition, Griffin identified the fan's details, as well as the hair and headdress features of the figure, to resemble reliefs in the queen's temple at Deir-el Bahri, which was constructed during the rise of the New Kingdom. Even though the lecturer managed to identify the Pharaoh depicted in the Egyptian artifact, it presents two archeological mysteries that, unfortunately, remain unsolved.
AFRIQUE DU SUD – 
Suikerbosrand - Archaeologists in South Africa have located the site of a centuries-old “lost city” using sophisticated laser technology. Local landowners had known about ruins at Suikerbosrand near Johannesburg for generations, according to Karim Sadr, professor at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. “Archaeologists from my University dug several of the homesteads there in the 1970s and 1980s,” he told Fox News, via email. “But no one ever saw the ruins as anything more than a scatter of homesteads, a few villages dispersed here and there.”Sadr, who has visited the area multiple times in the past three decades, explained that he used LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology to reveal the city’s secrets. The in-depth aerial images tell a fascinating story of the archaeological site, which is known as “SKBR.”“It is only when I obtained LiDAR imagery for about 7.72 square miles of the western foothills and had examined it in minute detail that I started to see the aspects of the built environment that are largely invisible from the ground and on air photos because of the vegetation cover,” he said. A host of stone structures showed up on the images.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/23/laser-technology-reveals-lost-city-in-south-africa/
