31/01/2020 NEWS
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TURQUIE - 
Sardis - Archaeologists have discovered a fantastical-looking, 1,500-year-old house in Turkey that was decorated with illusory wall paintings and terracotta tiles on the floor with puppy prints and possible chicken decorations pressed into them. The animals likely walked on the tiles while they were drying out prior to firing, the researchers said. Drawings depicting what may be chickens or ducks were also found on the floor tiles; "these were finger-drawn before the tiles were fired," Gallart Marqués said. If the floor tiles were left visible, and not covered up by a carpet, the paw prints and possible chicken decorations would have gone well with the "fanciful" style of the house’s wall paintings, the researchers told Live Science. The wall paintings are painted on plaster and mimic draped curtains and polychrome marble. The mix of colors and illusions in the paintings combined with the possible chicken decorations on the floor as well as light coming through the windows may have created a fantastic look.
https://www.livescience.com/ancient-house-turkey-puppy-prints.html
TURQUIE – 
- Türkmen-Karahöyük - In 2019, archaeologists were investigating an ancient mound site in central Turkey called Türkmen-Karahöyük. A local farmer told the group that a nearby canal, recently dredged, revealed the existence of a large strange stone, marked with some kind of unknown inscription. With the aid of translators, the researchers found that the hieroglyphs on this ancient stone block – called a stele – boasted of a military victory. And not just any military victory, but the defeat of Phrygia, a kingdom of Anatolia that existed roughly 3,000 years ago. The royal house of Phrygia was ruled by a few different men called Midas, but dating of the stele, based on linguistic analysis, suggests the block's hieroglyphics could be referring to the King Midas – he of the famous 'golden touch' myth. The stone markings also contained a special hieroglyphic symbolising that the victory message came from another king, a man called Hartapu. The hieroglyphs suggest Midas was captured by Hartapu's forces. "The storm gods delivered the [opposing] kings to his majesty," the stone reads. What's significant about this is that almost nothing is known about King Hartapu, nor about the kingdom he ruled. Nonetheless, the stele suggests the giant mound of Türkmen-Karahöyük may have been Hartapu's capital city, spanning some 300 acres in its heyday, the heart of the ancient conquest of Midas and Phrygia. "We had no idea about this kingdom," Osborne said. "In a flash, we had profound new information on the Iron Age Middle East." There's a lot more digging to be done in this ongoing archaeological project, and the findings so far should be considered preliminary for now. The international team is eager to revisit the site this year, to find out whatever more we can about this kingdom seemingly lost in history.
AMERIQUE – 
- The first humans to settle in the Americas took their dogs with them, according to new research into how canines were domesticated. An international team has studied the archaeological and genetic records of ancient people and dogs. Researchers led by archaeologist Dr Angela Perri, of Durham University, found that the first people to go to the Americas, more than 15,000 years ago from Northeast Asia, were accompanied by their dogs. They discovered that canine domestication likely took place in Siberia more than 23,000 years ago, and people eventually moved west towards Europe and east towards the Americas. The Americas were one of the last regions of the world to be settled by people, by which time dogs had been domesticated. “Dog domestication occurring in Siberia answers many of the questions we’ve always had about the origins of the human-dog relationship,” said Dr Perri. “By putting together the puzzle pieces of archaeology, genetics and time we see a much clearer picture where dogs are being domesticated in Siberia, then disperse from there into the Americas and around the world.” Dogs may have been part of their ‘cultural repertoire’ as much as stone tools, the researchers say. “The only thing we knew for sure is that dog domestication did not take place in the Americas,” said Geneticist and co-author Dr Laurent Frantz of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. “From the genetic signatures of ancient dogs, we now know that they must have been present somewhere in Siberia before people migrated to the Americas.” The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/first-humans-in-americas-took-their-dogs-with-them/
FRANCE – 
Chessy - Sur le site de la Mare Baignoire à Chessy les archéologues ont mis au jour de nouvelles traces des époques passées. Au cours de l’exploration, les archéologues ont mis à jour ce qui ressemble à une ferme datée selon leurs estimations, de la fin de la période gauloise (Ier siècle avant JC). S’étendant sur la quasi-totalité de l’emprise du site, cette ferme jouxtait une habitation de grande taille dotée d’une tour, selon les traces mises à jour par les archéologues. Elle comptait plusieurs grands enclos, un schéma typique de l’habitat gaulois qui fonctionne comme une petite zone d’activité. Les deux silex retrouvés dans les enclos, encore très coupants, servaient de hache. Plus insolite, la ferme avait trois puits dont l’un deux a servi… à enterrer des corps : « Nous avons retrouvé deux squelettes à 4,5 m de profondeur et des traces de ce qu’on appelle des crémations simples, dépourvues d’accompagnement », poursuit Xavier Bernardeau. Sans écrits, les chercheurs sont bien en peine pour comprendre, par exemple, les subtilités de leur religion, bien différente de celles qui se sont imposées ensuite. L’étude des ossements pourrait toutefois permettre de connaître l’âge, le sexe et même l’état de santé de la personne. Il faut aussi reconstituer la chronologie. En plus de la ferme, les fouilles ont révélé l’existence passée un fossé drainant de l’époque romaine (2e – 4e s. après J-C) et d’un chemin médiéval qui reliait probablement Chessy à Coupvray et Serris.
GRECE – 
Kassos - Au large de l'île grecque de Kassos en mer Egée, des plongeurs ont retrouvé une épave romaine vieille de plus de 1.800 ans. Plusieurs amphores d'origine et de type différents ont pu être identifiées. Les plus grandes, dites "Dressel 20", sont des amphores qui contenaient de l'huile et étaient fabriquées dans la région du Guadalquivir en Espagne. D'autres, dites Africana I, provenaient d'ateliers de céramique installés dans l'Afrique proconsulaire dans l'actuelle Tunisie. Ce sont ces artéfacts qui ont permis de préciser l'époque de naufrage du navire. Les amphores dateraient en effet d'entre le Ier et le IIIe siècle pour les Dressel 20 et d'entre le IIe et le IIIe siècle pour les Africana I. L'île de Kassos constituait, de part sa position au sein de l'archipel de Dodécanèse, un carrefour de civilisations. Elle représentait également un centre de navigation important. En plus de la précédente épave, les restes de trois navires ont été identifiés. D'après le ministère, le premier remonterait à la période hellénistique (vers le Ier siècle avant notre ère) et contient des amphores originaires du nord de la mer Egée. Le deuxième daterait de l'époque classique (autour du Ve siècle avant notre ère) et transportait des amphores de la région de Mendè en Grèce. Enfin, le troisième bateau remonterait lui à une époque plus moderne qui n'a pas été précisée.
CHINE - Wuhan - Archaeologists announced they have found the remains of ancient stone paving dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C.-1046 B.C.) in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. The remains cover an area of about 30,000 square meters and are believed to have been used for sacrificial rituals. They are located in the Panlongcheng ruins which cover 3.5 square km. A well-preserved, 2.4-meter-long and 2-meter-wide stone stylobate was unearthed. Archaeologists discovered signs of burnt soil surrounding the stylobate and numerous traces of human activities. The discovery is extremely rare in the archaeological study of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in the Yangtze River basin, and provides important materials for the study of Panlongcheng's layout and the beliefs of ancient people in the basin, according to experts. The Panlongcheng ruins constitute the largest Xia Dynasty (2070 B.C.-1600 B.C.) or Shang Dynasty city ever found in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. They are also the settlement most representative of early Bronze Age civilizations in the basin.
http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2021-01/26/content_77154238.htm
ISRAEL – 
Tiberiade - L’une des plus anciennes mosquées du monde découverte à Tibériade, Les fondations de l'édifice, qui datent du 7e siècle de l'ère commune, ont été trouvées sous une autre mosquée du 8e siècle, construite au début de la période islamique. C’est le mode de construction inhabituel de cette structure ancienne qui a permis à Katia Cytryn-Silverman, archéologue, de conclure qu’elle avait probablement été construite pendant le septième siècle. Cytryn-Silverman a estimé que la mosquée faisait 22 mètres sur 49 mètres, avec une cour – ce qui la rend plus petite que la mosquée légèrement plus récente qui a été construite par dessus, et qui faisait 78 mètres sur 90 mètres. Elle avait été construite cent ans plus tard, entre l’an 720 et l’an 740 de l’ère commune. Un indice permettant de déterminer la date de la construction de la mosquée la plus ancienne a été trouvé dans la terre utilisée pour les fondations, qui avait été amenée d’un autre site. En consultant un archéologue au Yémen, Cytryn-Silverman a été encore davantage convaincue que « la technique de construction employée pour l’ancienne mosquée qui se distingue par un style simple et pragmatique, tout à fait atypique dans la région, était apparemment arrivée en Israël au début de la conquête arabe, au septième siècle ». Elle a expliqué que la technique elle-même provenait très certainement de la péninsule arabe.
https://fr.timesofisrael.com/lune-des-plus-anciennes-mosquees-du-monde-decouverte-a-tiberiade/
BULGARIE – 
Varna - Archaeologists have discovered a beautiful white marble table from the 4th – 5th century AD, i.e. the Late Roman and Early Byzantine period, during excavations in one of the towers of the Petrich Kale Fortress near the Black Sea city of Varna in Northeast Bulgaria. Even though the rare artifact, an ancient marble table signifying the presence of a high-ranking Roman official, has been found broken, almost all of its pieces are in place, allowing the restorers from the Varna Museum of Archaeology to put it back together.
http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2021/01/19/rare-5th-century-ad-late-roman-marble-table-discovered-in-petrich-kale-fortress-near-bulgarias-varna/
GRECE – 
Paiania - Two ancient Greek statues depicting female figures were uncovered from inside a burial tomb east of Athens, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced on Sunday. The discovery was made during the construction of the new City Hall of Paiania. According to a statement by the Ministry of Culture, the tomb is preserved in fragments, and the full-sized female figures were uncovered with their heads missing. One of the statues, presumably belonging to a wealthy and prominent individual, sits in an elaborate seat and rests her legs on a low footrest. She is dressed in a transparent Ionic tunic and robe. The second statue depicts her physician, according to the statement. The theme of the representation is typical in the tomb reliefs of the 4th century BC. Similar tomb reliefs were discovered in the past and were found in the built-in tombstone in Markopoulo, Mesogaia, and the cemetery of Kerameikos.