27 AVRIL 2022 NEWS
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NORVEGE – 
Horse Ice Patch - The discovery of an Iron Age sandal on an icy Norwegian mountain provides more evidence that the mountain served as a travel route about 1,700 years ago. A mountain hiker found the sandal in an area known as the Horse Ice Patch in late August 2019. The hiker contacted researchers at Secrets of the Ice, who study archaeology preserved within glaciers and ice patches. Once the archaeologists recovered the sandal, they radiocarbon-dated the footwear to about A.D. 300. The Secrets of the Ice team has also found other artifacts, such as textiles, in this area, but none are as old as the sandal. The team announced the find on Twitter on April 8. The sandal and other finds, such as frozen horse manure that dates to the Viking Age (about A.D. 800 to 1066), show that a route across the icy mountain connected inland Norway to the coast. "I believe the people who walked these routes most likely knew what they were doing. They would have worn something inside this shoe that made it work. Perhaps scraps of fabric or animal skin," Finstad told Science Norway, a Norwegian news site. "We have found cairns [human-made rock stacks] that show where the route has gone," said Finstad, who began investigating the area in 2010. Perhaps a person traveling with goods was wearing the shoe but tossed it on the mountainside once it somehow became damaged, he added. The sandal also sheds light on the people who used the mountain more than a millennium ago. The shoe is inspired by fashion in the Roman Empire," indicating that people who traversed the Norwegian mountain had contact with the outside world
https://azertag.az/en/xeber/1700_year_old_sandal_found_on_a_remote_mountain_in_Norway-2106920
TURQUIE – 
Mastaura - Archaeologists have found a sewer system believed to be 1,800 years old during excavations in the ancient city of Mastaura in the western province of Aydın’s Nazilli district. The engineering technique and materials used in the structure suggest that the construction work started sometime around 200 B.C., and the sewer system was in use throughout the ancient period during the Roman Empire era. The size of the structure is amazing. A person can easily walk through the system, which spreads all over the ancient city.
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/sewer-system-found-in-ancient-city-of-mastaura-173192
INDE – 
Kalahandi - The Asurgarh fortified settlement, which was excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, has been ascertained to be the oldest among the major fortified settlements in the State. It dates back to the ninth century BC. To determine the age of the ancient settlement, archaeologists deployed the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon technique, which established the Asurgarh era as spanning over three cultural phases from ninth century BC to second-third century AD. The analysis of artifacts and materials suggest that local inhabitants might have started to carve out a rural settlement in the landscape around ninth century BC. Subsequently, the settlement might have expanded along with development of iron metallurgy between fourth century BC to second century AD. This era was contemporary to the Mauryan period. During second century AD to third-fourth century AD, the fortified settlement is believed to have lost steam. It might have declined due to the territorial expansion of a neighbouring State like the Satavahana and early Gupta dynasties, or due to ecological changes.
GALLES – 
Barry - In one section of the five-mile road was a collection of Roman artifacts and several skeletons. One is believed to be a mercenary, buried with a large sword and a military broach, dated to the period that the "Roman Empire fell apart in Britain" . Nearby was another skeleton of a decapitated man, buried with his head by his feet. In 2019, in a Roman graveyard in Suffolk, England, archaeologists found the same corpse configuration in 17 decapitated skeletons whose heads had been removed after death, it's believed. It remains a mystery what the practice symbolized. One theory suggests a link to a pagan belief system of pre-Roman Celtic tribes who considered the head was the container for the soul. Another excavated section of the road revealed a burial site from a later period that also raised many questions. In the middle of a field lies a once-hidden medieval burial ground that holds 450 bodies. People returned to the burial ground for roughly 500 years – from the sixth to the thirteenth century – to bury their loved ones there. It's unusual that they're buried effectively in the middle of a field. It's not near a church. And that's one of the things we're puzzling about why people would go back for so long to bury people at the top of this mound. The team is undertaking a detailed analysis of the remain, checking for family links to the bodies, signs of diseases or injuries, or clues about diets.
GRECE – 
Anticythère - Découverte en 1901 au cœur d'une épave romaine échouée au large de l'île grecque éponyme, la machine d'Anticythère est sans aucun doute l'un des artefacts antiques qui questionne et intrigue le plus la communauté scientifique. Dans une étude publiée le 28 mars sur le site arXiv, des chercheurs indiquent avoir identifié la date exacte de "mise en service" du mécanisme, que l'on savait utilisé il y a plus de 2 000 ans. Cette datation précise est évaluée au 22 ou 23 décembre 178 avant J.-C. C'est grâce à une forme en spirale incrustée à l'arrière du mécanisme représentant un cycle de 223 mois appelé Saros (qui peut être utilisée pour prédire les éclipses de Soleil et de Lune) que les scientifiques ont émis l'hypothèse que la machine avait été utilisée pour la première fois lors d'une éclipse solaire annulaire. Ce phénomène se produit lorsque la Terre, la Lune et le Soleil sont alignés, mais que la Lune ne couvre pas la totalité du Soleil, dessinant un contour ressemblant à un "anneau de feu". Partant de cette piste, les chercheurs ont exploré les données de la NASA à la recherche de tous les exemples d'éclipses solaires annulaires survenues lors de la période estimée de sa conception. Or, le 23 décembre 178 avant J.-C., une éclipse annulaire longue de 12 minutes aurait pu être observée. "En un jour, il s'est produit trop d'évènements astronomiques pour que ce soit une coïncidence. À cette date, c'était la nouvelle lune, la lune était à son apogée, il y avait une éclipse solaire, le Soleil entrait dans la constellation du Capricorne, c'était le solstice d'hiver", indique Aristeidis Voulgaris, archéologue de la Direction de la Culture et du Tourisme de Thessalonique en Grèce et co-auteur de l'étude, à New Scientist. Cependant, cette hypothèse est déjà très contestée. Le cycle Saros ne serait en fait pas aussi fiable que l'on pourrait le croire lorsque l'on remonte trop loin dans le passé. Par ailleurs, de précédents calculs ont abouti à des résultats bien différents : en 2014, deux études évaluaient plutôt la mise en service de la machine à 204 avant J.-C.
TURQUIE – 
Hadrianapolis - According to the researchers, Hadrianapolis was suddenly abandoned completely at some point in the seventh century AD. This year’s excavations revealed that there was a sudden evacuation in the ancient city. We are trying to find out the reason—whether an earthquake happened, an invasion occurred or a big fire broke out. But we can certainly say that life here ended in the 7th century. There was not even a single person left in the ancient city . The archeologist recounted that their excavations have unearthed a church, one of the oldest in Anatolia, with mosaics dating back to the fifth century AD.
VIDEO = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-WEZqbItw&feature=emb_logo
https://greekreporter.com/2022/04/26/why-was-the-ancient-greek-city-of-hadrianopolis-abandoned/
TURQUIE – 
Midyat – A large number of artifacts belonging to the second and third centuries A.D. were unearthed in an underground city featuring places of worship, silos, water wells and passages with corridors in southeastern Mardin province’s Midyat district. During these excavations, places of worship, silos, water wells and passages with corridors have been unearthed in the underground city, which is called "Matiate.” Experts also found many artifacts dating back to the second and third centuries A.D. in various parts of the city. Matiate has been used uninterruptedly for 1,900 years. It was first built as a hiding place or escape area. As it is known, Christianity was not an official religion in the second century. Families and groups who accepted Christianity generally took shelter in underground cities to escape the persecution of Rome or formed an underground city. Possibly, the underground city of Midyat was one of the living spaces built for this purpose. It is an area where we estimate that at least 60-70,000 people lived underground.
https://www.dailysabah.com/life/history/excavations-reveal-huge-underground-city-in-turkeys-mardin
PALESTINE - 
Khan Younis - A Palestinian farmer cultivating his land in city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip unearthed the head of an ancient sculpture which Palestinian archaeology authorities identified as Canaanite dating back to about 2500 BCE. The head of the stone sculpture, which measures 22 cm tall (8.6 inches long), is carved out of limestone, but the body of the statue is missing. The head is topped with a snake crown, a symbol of strength and invincibility used by the Canaanite gods. The sculpture represents the Canaanite goddess Anah, the goddess of love. The goddess is also known by the names of Anat, Anatu, Antit and Anath among other names. She was a major Semitic goddess worshipped in various incarnations.
