31 MARS 2017 NEWS: Hoyo Negro - Catterick - Thillaiyadi - Tiel -  Vasyne -

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MEXIQUE –  Hoyo Negro - More details have emerged about one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas, a young woman nicknamed "Naia" whose nearly complete skeleton was discovered in 2007 in a water-filled cave in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.A study has determined that as thought, the young woman was between 15 and 16 when she died by falling into the cave about 13,000 years ago. Researchers add that she was about 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall and weighed about 110 pounds (50 kilograms) at her heaviest, though there was evidence she had suffered episodes of famine. She had broken her arm but it later mended. Finally, the new study suggests she may have recently given birth before she died. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said Wednesday the study was based on X-ray and other tests on the skeleton, which has been pulled out of the cave bit by bit over the last several years. The study was conducted by James Chatters of Applied Paleoscience, a consulting firm in Bothell, Washington, and other researchers.

https://phys.org/news/2017-03-early-americas-girl-naia-young.html

ROYAUME UNI –  Catterick - A bronze ear thought to have broken off from a Roman statue has been unearthed 1,800 years after it was lost. The three-inch (eight centimetre) long fragment, which is among the oldest relics of its kind ever uncovered in Britain, was discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Catterick, North Yorkshire. Experts believe the ear broke off from a statue being transported along Dere Street, an ancient Roman road that runs parallel to the A1 today. The level of craftsmanship is very high, which would indicate it came from a larger piece like a life size statue.The ear was dug up in the village of Brompton-on-Swale, close to Roman fort and settlement Cataractonium, today known as Catterick.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4364142/Ear-Roman-statue-North-Yorkshire.html

INDE - Thillaiyadi  - Students studying history and archaeology in two colleges have unearthed parts of a burial urn at Thillaiyadi in Nagapattinam district. Pieces of the urn have been collected from the site and are being examined by archaeological experts, he said and added that exact details about the urn and its antiquity would be known only after the analysis by experts. The Cauvery Delta in Nagapattinam district, particularly Tarangambadi, Thillaiyadi, Poompuhar, Mayiladuthurai and nearby villages are believed to have served as great centres for human settlement even during the pre-historic periods. Pottery and urns belonging to pre-historic periods have been unearthed from many places in this area in the past.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-students-unearth-parts-of-burial-urn-in-nagai-dist-2375292

PAYS-BAS –  Tiel - Archeologists digging at a site in Tiel in the province of Gelderland, have found a rich haul of Roman artefacts, among which a statue of the god Jupiter, a grave stone inscribed DEAE (to the goddess), 2,500 bronze objects and a unique ointment pot. The area has yielded treasure before. In November last year archaeologists found numerous artefacts dating back some 6,000 years, and a Roman funerary urn with a small glass bottle inside it. That in itself is not surprising, archaeologist Jan van der Velde told broadcaster NOS. In the four centuries the Romans dominated Western Europe, Gelderland was part of a border province of the Roman empire. The surprise is that the find includes such valuable and sophisticated objects when the area was lived in mainly by Batavian farmers in simple wood and mud houses. ‘A statue like this, or the ointment pot, would not be out of place in a rich Roman city like Nijmegen, and even there they would be pretty rare. This tells us more about the Batavians and how they developed. Perhaps a number of them were more Romanised then we thought,’ Van der Velde told the broadcaster. Van der Velde has two theories. ‘The owner of the artefacts could have been an important Batavian who wanted to recreate a piece of Rome in his villa by surrounding himself with expensive and rare objects. But perhaps we have stumbled on a temple. Almost all the bronze objects were found in a square of 20 by 50 metres, so it may well have been a sacrificial site.’ The dig will have to shut down for the next few months to give the present-day farmer a chance to sow and reap his harvest. Van der Velde will then try to discover a floor plan so he can determine the presence of a villa or temple.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/03/rich-roman-haul-surprises-dutch-archaeologists/

UKRAINE –  Vasyne - A fragment of a stele dating back to Scythian times was found by tractor drivers who were ploughing a field near the village of Vasyne near Znamianka.   According to archeologist Kyrylo PANCHENKO, assistant lecturer with the department of the history of Ukraine, the artifact probably dates back to the late 6th or early 5th century B.C. “They came across the stele while they were ploughing the mound, illegally. We learned about it from Natalia Demeshko, history teacher from the Moshoryne school. Actually, it is due to her alarm message we were able to save the stele from likely destruction,” commented Panchenko.

http://day.kyiv.ua/en/article/day-after-day/scythian-stele-found-mound