29 JUIN 2017 NEWS: Podunajské Biskupice - Newport - Ulliyeri - Tripolis - Xinjiang - Kodiak -Bouyssonie -
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SLOVAQUIE – 
Podunajské Biskupice - One of the most extensive archaeological sites in Slovakia was revealed during the survey of the plots on which the future Bratislava ring road will be built. Situated in the Bratislava borough of Podunajské Biskupice, the excavated area dates back to the 8th century. The archaeologists who have been working on the site for five months have uncovered more than 460 Avarian graves containing objects like men’s bronze belt buckles depicting mythological motifs of animals and women’s bronze jewellery. Among the most precious discoveries is a coin minted during the rule of Charlemagne (Charles the Great), the king of the Franks. It comes from years 771-793 and belongs among the European rarities, the SITA newswire reported.
ROYAUME UNI – Newport – Volunteers are needed to get hands on with the past (literally) at Newport's medieval pottery kiln. Work is ongoing to preserve the kiln, considered the best example of its kind in the UK, a possible second kiln has been discovered and archaeologists have uncovered an overwhelming plethora of pottery sherds made on the site some 500 years ago; 10,000 so far and counting. The sherds are pieces of pots and jugs, some glazed, and are generally thrown to a good standard. Some have the potter's thumb print, creating what feels like a direct connection with the men who worked on the site 500 years ago. When the sherds are analysed, it is hoped to find out how far this forgotten pottery travelled, helping to piece together medieval life in Pembrokeshire and its significance to the rest of the world.
http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/15376770.Sherds_shed_light_on_town__39_s_pottery_past/
INDE - Ulliyeri - A megalithic terracotta jar discovered from a rock-cut chamber at Ulliyeri in Kozhikode some 30 years ago has suddenly become the focus of archaeologists after they discovered a rare graffiti of a bovine figure on the pottery dating back to the early Iron Age. In fact, this jar, which is on display at the Pazhassi Raja Archaeological Museum at East Hill in the city, has a post-firing graffiti (markings made after baking the pottery) — possibly discovered for the first time in the State. K. Krishnaraj of the Department of Archaeology said that the finding was made while cleaning the potteries of the megalithic gallery last week.“The bovine figurine engraved on the shoulder of the pyriform jar has eight legs. By depicting the animal with eight legs the artist appears to be capturing a sense of movement,” he said. Graffiti markings such as arrow signs and hills are usually common in potteries of the megalithic era found in South India. “However, this is the first time archaeologists are stumbling upon a figurine graffiti on a jar.
TURQUIE – 
Tripolis - Archaeologists in Turkey's southwestern Denizli province have discovered remnants belonging to a 2,000-year-old board game from the Roman period, reports said Tuesday. According to reports, the game named Ludus duodecim scriptorum, or XII scripta, which was similar to modern-day backgammon, was found at the ancient city of Tripolis, located in Denizli's Buldan district. Professor Bahadır Duman from Pamukkale University's Archaeology Department told the Anadolu Agency that the game was very popular amongst tradesmen and artisans in the Roman period. The game was reportedly played by three cubic dice and tokens on top of a marble tablet. The ancient city of Tripolis was located near the borders of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia, on the northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander.
CHINE - Xinjiang - In a remote corner of northwest China, a recently excavated 3,000-year-old sun altar offers clues to how the region's tribal cultures practiced religion thousands of years ago. The ruins were first discovered in 1993, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, but were not excavated until last year. Archaeologists can now confirm their initial suspicions that the site was used as a sun altar during the Bronze Age. Nomads once dominated this grassland region, which sits in between Kazakhstan and Mongolia. While similar sun altars had been previously found in the east, the complex in Xinjiang is unique to the region.The altar itself is comprised of three layered circles of stone. The outer diameter of the largest circle is just over 328 feet long, and archaeologists believe this suggests people and horses would have been used to haul the stones from miles away.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/xinjiang-sun-altar-ancient-china-archaeology-spd/
ALASKA – 
Kodiak - A local archaeologist says there may be the remains of a historic Alutiiq fish trap on the north end of Kodiak Island. He identified it as a fish trap, which he calls a corral. “They’re like stone walls on the inter-tidal zone so when the tide came in, all the fish went to go up stream, would float in over the corrals or the trap, and then when the tide went out, they’d be stranded in the pens, so then you catch a whole lot of fish.”He says it can be challenging to determine whether a corral is natural or man-made, but he sees evidence of it being a fish trap. “I could tell that there were some boulders that they used that there were there already, but almost all of it was bringing boulders in,” he said. “It’s like a wall, like 5 feet across and maybe 2 feet high now, but it was probably much higher (back) in the day.” Archaeologists found what looks like petroglyphs nearby, he said, speckled dots and incised lines carved into slate. “What the cool pattern is is they all seem to be associated with fishing localities,” Saltonstall said. “You look at the typical petroglyphs, you know with faces, whales, drummer, they’re associated more with whaling or with villages.” It’s hard to determine the age of either the corral or the petroglyphs, but based on nearby archaeological sites, the carvings could be dated back to about 500 years ago.
http://www.ktoo.org/2017/06/26/archaeologists-find-alutiiq-fishing-method-low-tide/
FRANCE – 
Grotte Bouyssonie - Pour la 8 e année, une nouvelle campagne de fouilles se déroulera à la grotte Bouyssonie. Un site préhistorique qui a encore beaucoup de secrets scientifiques à livrer. Les fouilles des dernières années ont ainsi révélé une douzaine d'occupations échelonnées entre 33.000 et 5.000 ans avant le présent (c'est-à-dire avant le 1 er janvier 1950, date des essais de datation au carbone 14). « C'est un niveau qui ne possède aucun équivalent en Europe et qui est à même de mettre en évidence un épisode tout à fait original dans l'évolution des sociétés autour de 30.000 avant le présent », se félicitait lors de la campagne 2016, Damien Pesesse, le responsable des fouilles. La nouvelle campagne va permettre de fouiller des niveaux archéologiques jusqu'alors inédits avec deux objectifs en vue : un niveau du Magdalénien inférieur (17.000 avant le présent) reconnu en 2015 et qui s'avérerait d'une grande richesse. D'après les scientifiques, il présente des conditions de conservation tout à fait remarquables par rapport à d'autres sites français et espagnols se rapportant à cette période et pourrait combler une lacune majeure dans la séquence archéologique en Europe atlantique.L'autre niveau concerné par les fouilles s'annonce lui aussi très intéressant puisqu'il ne posséderait aucun équivalent en Europe, à part la grotte de Font-Yves, située à quelques kilomètres de là, dans la vallée de Planchetorte. Un niveau qui devrait permettre de mettre en évidence un épisode tout à fait original dans l'évolution des sociétés autour de 30.000 avant le présent. La production de l'industrie lithique (ensemble des objets en pierre transformés intentionnellement par les humains) trouvée sur place permettra certainement de comprendre la reconfiguration des réseaux sociaux à cette période et l'émergence de nouveaux savoir-faire.