31 MAI 2018: Eastland Port - Wangqing - Burghhead - Rome - Bushat -

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NOUVELLE ZELANDE –  Eastland Port - Fourteenth-century artifacts found in northeastern New Zealand suggest a Maori village could be in the area. Moa bones and other food remains, fish hooks made of moa bone, and tools made of obsidian and chert have been recovered. Richard Walter of the University of Otago said Maori canoes, or waka, are thought to have first landed in the region, so an early village site could help fill in gaps in knowledge about the first Maori settlers.

http://gisborneherald.co.nz/localnews/3390128-135/maori-village-dating-back-to-the

CHINE – Wangqing - Archeologists have found new Paleolithic sites in northeast Jilin Province that show similar stone tool-making techniques to those found in Russia and the Korean Peninsula from the same period. The provincial cultural relics institute said that it has found 12 Paleolithic sites dating back 10,000 to 20,000 years and collected 1,362 stone items in Wangqing County, located to the east of Changbai Mountain. Xu Ting, an official with the institute, said the archeologists have not yet started excavation. The relics, made from materials, including firestone, quartz, agate and obsidian, were collected from the sites. He said the sites showed “industrialized” stone tool production. Many stone tools were thin and made with a double-sided processing technique, similar to stone tools of the same period found in Russia’s Far East and the Korean Peninsula. The experts believe that further research on the sites will provide more evidence about a “cultural corridor” appearing during the Paleolithic age. Xu said future archeological study in Wangqing will focus on human migration, production and life in the region.

https://www.shine.cn/archive/nation/12-new-Paleolithic-sites-unearthed-in-Jilin/shdaily.shtml

ROYAUME UNI –  Burghhead - A "treasure trove" of Pictish artefacts has been discovered in the remains of an ancient fort on the Moray coast. The building near Burghhead is believed to have been destroyed by fire in the 10th century as the Vikings invaded. It spelled the end of Pictish life in the area but the blaze preserved material that would normally have rotted away hundreds of years ago. As well as a complex layer of oak planks in a wall, archaeologists have uncovered jewellery and animal bones. Many of their discoveries have been made during their excavation of what was essentially the Picts' rubbish bin. But they are helping to shed new light on the day-to-day life of the fort's inhabitants, including their diet. The team of archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen began their excavation of the site in 2015, when they uncovered a Pictish longhouse and Anglo Saxon coins from the time of Alfred the Great. Led by Dr Gordon Noble, the university's head of archaeology, they returned to the site in April. Dr Noble said: "But when we started digging, we discovered that while the destruction of the fort in the 10th Century may not have been good news for the Picts, the fact that so much of it was set alight is a real bonus for archaeologists."We have discovered that the complex layer of oak planks set in the wall was burned in situ and that the resulting charring has actually preserved it in amazing detail when ordinarily it would have rotten away to nothing by now." The level of preservation has allowed the archaeologists to take samples for carbon dating which should provide new insights into the period when the fort was built, its construction and final destruction.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-44303606

ITALIE –  Rome - Researcher Aurelia Azema has identified a piece of a bronze sculpture in the collections at the Louvre as a bronze index finger from the colossal bronze statue of Emperor Constantine housed in Rome’s Capitoline Museum. All that survives of the fourth-century statue in Rome is the head, the left forearm, the left hand missing part of its middle finger and most of its index finger, and a sphere that rested in the palm of the statue’s left hand. The missing digit arrived at the Louvre in the 1860s with items from the collection of the Italian Marquis Giampietro Campana. It was eventually cataloged as a toe in 1913. Azema, joined by specialist in ancient metallurgy Benoît Mille and archaeologist Nicolas Melard, created a 3-D model of the finger which they took to Rome earlier this month. The finger turned out to be an exact fit with Constantine’s colossal hand.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/emperor-constantine-s-finger-found-in-the-louvre

ALBANIE - Bushat - A Polish-Albanian archaeological expedition has uncovered an ancient habitat near Bushat, Vau i Dejes. Shkoder. According to the leader of this expedition, prof.Saimir Shpuza, no archaeological excavation has been made here since the ‘80s. “The material we found helps us to identify the period, the third or the first century B.C”, says professor Saimir Shpuza. According to the Polish professor, it seems to be an ancient, unknown city, which they hope to identify soon. “It is interesting that it is very close to Shkodra and Lezha. The fortified wall is 3.5 meters wide. We don’t know the name of this town but we think it is unknown before”, says prof.Piot Dyczek.

VIDEO = http://top-channel.tv/english/23-century-old-unknown-fortified-city-excavated-in-bushat-shkoder/