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HONGRIE – Obuda - Archaeologists have discovered the largest Roman-era cemetery to date in the northern Óbuda district (Aquincum in Roman times) of Hungary, nati onal news agency MTI reported. The cemetery lies along one of the major B udapest arteries which has been a main road since Roman times, archaeologists said. The cemetery was in use between the second and fourth centur ies and an estimated 100,000 people are buried there. Situated on the northern border of the Roman province of Pannonia, Aquincum was a military post from as early as AD 41-54, when a 500-strong cavalry unit was dispatche d there, followed in AD 89 by the 6,000-strong Audatrix II legion. Being the center of operations on the Roman frontier against the neighboring Iazyges, A quincum was occasionally the headquarters of emperors. The city had aro und 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants by the end of the 2nd century, and covered a significant part of the area today known as the Óbuda district of Budapest.
https://rmx.news/hungary/l argest-roman-era-cemetery-discovered-budapest
ISRAEL – Qesem Cave - Tel Aviv University researchers find 400,000-year-old sharp utensils with spec ific functions. The 'recycled' tools were then used with precision to perform specific tasks involved in the processing of animal products and vegetal materials. Qesem Cave, just outside Israel's biggest city, Tel Aviv, was uncovered during road building in 2000. It has since been a source of countless insights into life in the region, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Archaeologists working in similar caves in Spain and northern Africa have also unearthed evidence that prehistoric humans recycled objects they used in daily life, to repurpose them for more specialised tasks.
https://www.aol.co.uk/news/2019/05/30/archaeologists-uncover-400-000-year-old-early-human-tool-kit-i/?guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL2MubmV3c25vdy5jby51ay9BLzk4NzA5MTM5Mj8tMTY3MjI6MjAwMTptb3N0X3JlYWRfdG9w&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANEeRH1DBrkbBLHI0_STuQpTlg4nEr7zxFkmdwEt_mYj1Q1E1b2BAfwZO0ez0NIz6Gsd9CcbZekxbvExhJq8KC0k67uY1yieI-670M2rEEWqXQF_QWw2brV3MuBAt73wqOOpxUHi0HmmwZIcFnkYGEa9FDicwnPLvzULiKUqQjTJ
BULGARIE – Plovdiv - Artefacts found at the Forum West site in Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv change the understanding of the history of the city, news website podtepeto quoted dig team head Elena Kesyakova as saying. Kesyakova said that many architectural elements had been found, including an entire capital – the topmost part of a column – and many fragments of columns. At a propylaeum, an outer monumental gateway forming the entrance to a temple, an inscription dedicated to the main Thracian deity, Heros, had been found. This showed that Heros protected the western entrance to the Forum, archaeologists believe. The find was of great significance, testimony to Thracian culture during the Roman rule of Thrace. “This culture, which we are now uncovering and wanting to show to people, is not Roman, it is from the time of Roman rule in Thrace, but it is a Thracian culture, local, and we should say Thracian-Roman, not Roman,” Kesyakova was quoted as saying. The propylaeum itself is well-preserved and its entire depth and width are being studied. It will be possible to restore the colonnade under which people entered the city, the report said. There will be three columns of up to 7.2 metres, one of them completely authentic, according to restorer Nikola Stoyanov. Large-scale archaeological excavations of Plovdiv’s Forum site began in 2012. The Forum site, near the current modern-era central Post Office, dates from the first to second centuries CE. Overall, it covers about 11 hectares, making it arguably the largest such Roman-era forum site in Bulgaria.
https://sofiaglobe.com/2019/05/30/archaeology-finds-at-forum-site-in-bulgarias-plovdiv-change-view-of-history/
RUSSIE – Ust-Tartas - The skulls of large birds and at least 30 beaks were found in a 5,000-year-old grave in a cemetery belonging to the Odinov Culture in western Siberia. The birds’ species have not been identified by ornithologists yet, but Lilia Kobeleva of the Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography and her colleagues suspect they were cranes or herons. She said the bird remains were arranged around the deceased as if they had been worn as a collar, headdress, or armor. It is not clear, however, whether the beaks were attached to each other or to a piece of fabric. Two children, aged approximately five and 10, were buried near the so-called “Bird Man.” A man’s skeleton was found under the children’s remains, separated by a wooden overlay. Near his skull, excavators uncovered three bronze items bearing traces of organic material that may have made up a burial mask or a type of head gear. Five polished stone pendants thought to have been used in rituals were found beside him. “Both men must have carried special roles in the society,” Kobeleva said, adding that it is likely they were priests of some kind.
https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/the-birdman-of-siberia-sensational-finds-in-the-heart-of-russia-puzzle-scientists/