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USA – Helena - For the past two weeks, a team of Carroll College archaeology students, in cooperation with the National Forest Service, have been working on an ancient site high in the mountains north of Helena. “Here we’ve found projectile points and scrapers, we’ve also found some grinding slabs and stones usually associated with plant processing,” said Arian Randall, Deputy Archaeologist for the Helena/Lewis & Clark National Forest. The work is totally hands on, carefully shoveling soil into buckets, which is then sifted on site, where the students look for chunks of charcoal, shards of rock and the occasional arrow point. The site the students are working on this season is 8,500 years old. Travis said they’ve discovered recurring cycles of wet and dry periods that stretches over that period of time. Evidence collected shows how Native Americans adapted to those changes over time. “During those really dry periods, the environment got very dry so the carrying capacity got a lot smaller, a lot of that big game moved out,” said Travis. “So they started to target some of the smaller game. We have fish, we have grouse, lots of rabbit.” After the dig is complete, the data gathered will be taken back to town for analysis.
http://www.ktvh.com/2017/06/carroll-archaeology-students-partner-with-forest-service-for-ancient-site-dig
TURQUIE – Nicaea - The remains of a 1,600-year-old Byzantine basilica have been discovered at the site of the Councils of Nicaea, at the bottom of a lake in northwest Turkey. “We have found church remains. It is in a basilica plan and has three naves,” said Mustafa Şahin, an archaeology professor at Bursa Uludağ University, told Hurriyet News. Plans are now underway to open an underwater museum to allow tourists to view the foundation of the church, which was found lying in 5-7 feet of water in Lake Iznik, in Bursa, Turkey. The ancient basilica was discovered by aerial photographs taken in 2014 during an inventory of historical and cultural artifacts. According to Sahin, the church was most likely built in the 4th century, in honor of St. Neophytos who was martyred during the time of Roman emperor Diocletian in 303. Neophytos had travelled to Nicaea (now modern-day northwest Turkey) to denounce the pagan faith during the Diocletian persecution. It is possible, according to Sahin, that the basilica was built as a result of the First Council of Nicaea, convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in the year 325. “Most probably, it could have been built in 325 after the first council meeting in İznik. In any case, we think that the church was built in the 4th century or a further date. It is interesting that we have gravures from the Middle Ages depicting this killing. We see Neophytos being killed on the lake coast,” Sahin told Hurriyet News. Archaeologists have determined that the basilica collapsed during an earthquake in 740 and was never rebuilt. The ruins were submerged over time by changes in the water level of the lake.
https://aleteia.org/2017/06/28/1600-year-old-basilica-found-underwater-in-what-was-ancient-nicaea/