27 OCTOBRE 2017 NEWS: Istanbul - Dalt - Marawah - Konyaaltı - Jingdezhen - Louxor -
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
INSTITUTE OF ANTHROPOLOGY
ONLINE COURSES / COURS A DISTANCE
WINTER TERM : JANUARY 2018
REGISTER NOW
TURQUIE – 
Istanbul - Findings from a subway construction site right next to the Barbaros Boulevard in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district have revealed new information that is set to rewrite the history of Istanbul. Subway excavations continue in a 3,500-year-old graveyard, the oldest one in Istanbul, where 35 graves have been unearthed so far. The discovery of cairn burials that belong to the Northern Black Sea steppe culture - namely earlier Turkish and Altai cultures - is considered an exciting surprise for the scientific world. The results of the archaeological excavations in Beşiktaş are also set to address some questions about the well-known history of the Battle of Manzikert, which paved the way for Turks to enter Anatolia in 1071. But current findings show that this goes back to the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age between 1,200 and 1,500 B.C. The excavation field is formed by dozens of round-shape stone masses. Kızıltan said it is the oldest known graveyard in Istanbul. It is reported that the round-shape stone masses are cairn-type graves, a way old Turkish and Altai cultures buried the dead. Even though archaeologists say it is hard to know the ethnic people who did these burials, scientific sources suggest that Turks maintained their cairn burial methods until the 10th century. But the result of anthropologists’ analysis on the skeletons in the graves will allow us to learn about the origins of the oldest residents of Istanbul.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/earliest-traces-of-turks-in-anatolia-found-in-istanbul-121444
CHINE – Dalt - Ceramics, shells and gemstones have been found at the site of a 1,000-year-old city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, archaeologists said Thursday. The city, known as Dalt and believed to have been built in Song (960-1279) or Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, was discovered in 1985, when a farmer unearthed a silver coin while ploughing a field. Dalt lies on the Silk Road, with routes to Kazakhstan, Russia, and central Asia. Excavation of the site began in June, with archaeologists using digital technology for information collecting to build three-dimensional images of the city's layout, according to Dang Zhihao from the regional cultural relics and archaeology institute. Archaeologists have unearthed pieces of pottery up to 10 kilometers away, and found the ruins of a moat to the south and west of the city. They also discovered the bases for three beacon towers. Within the city, they have collected close to 300 items including pottery, stoneware, ironwork, bronze and bones. They found porcelain from China's inland cities, shells from the coastal areas, and lapis lazuli and amber from west or central Asia. "These items show that Dalt was an important city on the Silk Road, with booming trade and exchanges," Dang said. Archeologists also found a large amount of glass fragments and iron smelting waste, which suggested a high level of development, he added. The Persian word "bolat," which means steel, was earlier identitifed on the silver coin found by the farmer, leading many to believe that Dalt was the "steel city" Bolat mentioned in historical records. According to a book written by Liu Yu during the Yuan Dynasty, Bolat was prosperous and has "a large number of houses had colored glaze as the windows."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/26/c_136707693.htm
ABU DHABI – 
Marawah - Ongoing excavations at an ancient village on Marawah Island have revealed crucial information about Abu Dhabi’s earliest inhabitants. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the settlement dates back to the Neolithic period and the hundreds of artefacts found within it have allowed experts to piece together a comprehensive picture of what life was like in the UAE 7,500 years ago.
TURQUIE – 
Konyaaltı - At world-renowned Konyaaltı Beach located in the southern province of Antalya, a group of underwater archaeologists brought up eight sunken cannons that remained from the Ottoman period from the depths of the Mediterranean. As a result of the work conducted with the Selçuk-1 Scientific Research Ship, eight cannons of different sizes that were produced during the Ottoman period were brought to the surface with lift bags. They were subsequently placed on a ship with a crane and transferred to the Antalya Museum. Dr. Hakan Öniz, the director of Selçuk University's Underwater Research and Application Center, said said the artifacts probably belong to at least three sunken ships. "For a month, we have been studying the remaining from the Ottoman battleships, which probably sank during a storm around 300 years ago. The ruins are known to be under the sea for around 20 to 25 years and appear in the records of the Antalya Museum. The have been on the agenda over the last couple of years. Most of them were produced by the Ottomans, which are quite heavy and have different sizes between 400 kilograms [882 pounds] to over 1,000 tons," Öniz said.
https://www.dailysabah.com/history/2017/10/26/ottoman-cannons-see-light-of-day-again
CHINE – 
Jingdezhen - A villager was the first to discover these coins during the rebuilding of his old home in the Chacun village of Fuliang. Then, the news spread, and villagers believed the place where the coins were found used to belong to a landlord more than 1,000 years ago, based on local folk tales. Archaeologists soon came, and the excavation was completed on Oct 22. About 5.6 tons of ancient coins have been unearthed, nearly 300,000 pieces in total. The coins could be dated back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279), making the coins more than 800 years old, archaeologists concluded. Feng Ruqin, curator of Fuliang Museum, said the coins must have been collected by a folk organization and that the coins' value was small — it had nothing to do with the local landlord. The follow-up work, including rust cleaning, weighing and categorizing, as well as academic research of these coins, will take two or three years, Feng said.
http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2017-10/26/content_41798261.htm
EGYPTE – 
Louxor - A preliminary study carried out on the Coptic tombstone recently discovered in Luxor reveals that it belonged to a little girl named "Takla," who died at the age of ten sometime between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. The study also found that the Coptic inscription found above the carved cross is an abbreviation for the name of "Jesus," Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Ahram Online. Below the cross are five further lines of Coptic text, parts of which are broken off, rendering it more difficult to decipher. A special team of researchers, Waziri noted, will conduct further study on the lower text in an attempt to reveal its meaning.