31 OCTOBRE 2016 NEWS: Xingyi - Islamabad - Jerusalem - Edessa -
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CHINE – 
Xingyi - People living 3,400 years ago in southwest China's Yunnan province ate snails and lived in different houses in winter and summer, latest findings from a historical site showed. The site in Xingyi village of Yuxi city was discovered in July 2015 during construction of a primary school. Houses, tombs, coffins, ash pits, roads, ditches, pottery, stoneware and bronzeware were all found there. A Xinhua reporter saw piles of snail shells at the site. Zhu Zhonghua, an archaeologist with Yunnan cultural relics and archaeological research institute, said the snails were of two types. "One was unique to lakes in Yunnan and they are hard to find today. The other is known to have been used by people in prehistoric times for food and decoration," he said. "The amount of shells is quite large," he continued. "They have the top broken and there is a large amount of pots around. We concluded that the shells were discarded by humans after the snails inside were eaten." Examination of bones found at the site revealed them to be 3,400 years old."Most of them were fishermen, living off snails, fish, crabs and clams," Zhu said. "They also grew rice, raised cattle and pigs, and hunted birds, deer and elephant. They lived in square houses in the summer and semi-subterranean dwellings in winter." Excavation of the site is almost complete.
PAKISTAN – 
Islamabad - Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM) is successfully continuing the survey work of archaeological sites at Zone-IV of federal capital to find potential sites for documentation, excavation and preservation. DOAM Director Archaeology Abdul Azeem said the team of archaeologists has so far identified eight sites in Zone-IV of the capital and the survey continues in different areas. These include historical monuments, worship places of Sikh community before partition, mosques of Mughal period, remains of Buddhist period and a memorial of British-Sikh War.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1214661/survey-archaeology-dept-search-buddhist-relic-near-capital/
ISRAEL – 
Jerusalem - Archaeologists have doubted the authenticity of a seventh century B.C. text that Israel says contains the earliest mention in Hebrew of Jerusalem outside the Bible. Israel’s antiquities authority unveiled the papyrus Wednesday amid a row with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization over a U.N. resolution on the city of Jerusalem. “How do we know it isn’t a forgery intended for the antiquities market?” an archaeology professor from Bar-Ilan University said in comments published by the daily Haaretz Friday.Aren Maier Thursday said carbon 14 dating to prove the document’s age was insufficient in view of “well-known cases in which writing was forged on an ancient platform.”“It’s very possible that only the papyrus itself is ancient,” he said.Professor Christopher Rollston from George Washington University has also voiced his doubts. The antiquities authority Wednesday said the papyrus, found near the Dead Sea, was seized from traffickers after a lengthy investigation as it was about to go on sale on the black market. “Ancient papyrus is readily available for purchase online,” he wrote in a blog post Wednesday. “No modern forger worth his or her salt would forge an inscription on modern papyrus.” But a professor from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem defended the text’s authenticity, saying the words used on the papyrus were very rare.
TURQUIE – 
Edessa - Archaeological excavations around the historic Balıklı Lake in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa have unearthed floor mosaics dating back to the Kingdom of Osroene, known by the name of its capital city, Edessa (today’s Şanlıurfa). Works have been continuing in an area of 4.5 hectares for six years. Nearly 80 rock graves from the Roman era have been restored so far and five more floor mosaics were recently discovered in the same area. After the restoration works, the mosaics will be displayed at the museum. Officials said the floor mosaics featured Syriac inscriptions and fine engravings. The Kingdom of Osroene, known by the name of its capital city, Edessa, was located in Upper Mesopotamia. Osroene was one of several kingdoms arising from the dissolution of the Seleucid Empire. The kingdom occupied an area in what is now the border region between Syria and Turkey. The independence of the state ended in 244 A.D. when it was incorporated into the Roman Empire.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ancient-edessa-floor-mosaic-unearthed-.aspx?pageID=238&nid=105425&NewsCatID=375