More than 400 archaeological excavations discovered along the route dug out for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) have been completed, while another 7 large-scale projects are ongoing in the regions traversed by the pipeline, the company said on Tuesday, following the 31st annual Conference "Archaeological Excavations in Macedonia and Thrace" in Thessaloniki, held between 8 and 10 March 2018 at the Aristotle University.

More than 400 archaeological finds have been discovered along the route dug out for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), while another seven large-scale projects are ongoing in regions traversed by the dig [Credit: ANA-MPA]

To date, specialist teams have concluded ca. 300 small- and large-scale rescue excavations and more than 100 trial trench investigations within the project's Right of Way, with more than 650 experts in archaeological research (archaeologists, topographers, conservators, etc.), as well as archaeological labourers involved in the work.

Fortress of the 4th cent. BC related to the activity of Philip II in the region of Aegean Thrace  [Credit: ANA-MPA]

The multiple findings that have been unearthed - both movable and immovable - include burial grounds or individual tombs with some of them containing grave goods, parts of settlements and architectural remains such as walls and churches, monuments, workshops and indications of human activity, for instance kilns and wells.

Aerial view of ancient cemetery found along the route of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) [Credit: ANA-MPA]

In addition, many movable findings have also been located (pottery, jewellery, coins, etc.), dating from the prehistoric to the post-Byzantine period.

Archaeologists excavating an ancient Macedonian warrior's grave [Credit: ANA-MPA]

Lead scientists-representatives of 9 Northern Greek Ephorates (from the regional units of Evros, Rodopi, Xanthi, Serres, Kilkis, Thessaloniki, Kozani, Kastoria and Florina) discussed the initial findings of their excavation research, noting that archaeological excavations in Greece would have almost completely ceased, if it weren't for the funds from public or private works.

Workers remove an ancient furnace for relocation [Credit: ANA-MPA]

"We are collaborating closely with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as the local Ephorates of Antiquities, for the protection and promotion of the rich Greek cultural heritage. We are thankful for this collaboration that guarantees the implementation of archaeological best practice and the promotion of academic work and scientific knowledge,"  TAP's Country Manager for Greece, Katerina Papalexandri, said.

Glass bracelets from the Byzantine period Cemetery [Credit: ANA-MPA]

Archaeological works implemented in collaboration with TAP and its contractors are monitored by the ministry of culture and the 13 local Ephorates of Antiquities (one per each regional unit traversed by the pipeline), as provided for by the relevant memoranda of understanding.

Source: ANA-MPA [March 13, 2018]

From June 2015 to 2017, Guangxi Provincial Institute of Heritage preservation and Archaeology conducted archaeological excavations to the Yahuai Cave site. In total, more than 40 square meters had been excavated, dates back to Palaeolithic period to Neolithic period. Yahuai Cave site is located on an isolated hill in the town of Qiaojian, Longan County, Guangxi Province.

The excavation at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

Remains and Assemblage

1. A Palaeolithic burial was found, with a complete human skull. The burial pit was roughly rectangular. The tomb dates back 16,000 years through Carbon-14 dating method.

A human skull found at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

2. Two fire-use evidences (fire pit or fireplace) were found in the Palaeolithic strata. One of them measured 3 m × 4 m, with more than 10 cm in thickness. The other one measured 40 cm × 90 cm, and nearly 10 cm in depth at the deepest part. From it charcoal debris, fired bones and stone artefacts were found.

The excavation at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

3. Phytolith remains of rice (Oryza sativa L.) uncovered from the Yahuai Cave, which dated approximately 16,000 years before the present. In addition, phytoliths likely belonging to rice dating back to 28,000-35,000 years ago were found.

Animal teeth remains found at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

4. Tens of thousands of artefacts were unearthed, and the assemblage comprises a large number of stone implements and several mussel shell, bone tools and pottery fragments, as well as abundant terrestrial animal and plant remains.

Xie Guangmao, a leading archaeologist from the Guangxi Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeological Institute, works at the Yahuai cave site in Longan, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

Stone artefacts were the main assemblage that were uncovered, with more than 10,000 pieces, including chipped and polished stone tools; Chipped stone tools accounted for the vast majority. Raw materials not only included common sandstone, quartzite and quartz, but also flint and tektite which is rarely seen in prehistoric sites of Guangxi. Stone implements included hammer, stone cores, stone flakes, broken blocks, debris and tools, etc. Flake stone tools were the most abundant; some of them had traces of usage. Chipped stone tools were mainly tiny flake tools, with lengths between 2cm to 5 cm.

Obsidian and flint tools found at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

In addition to stone products, a small amount of pottery, shell and bone tools were also found. Pottery shards were composed of sandy pottery with cord pattern and bare surface pottery, most of which were broken and difficult to distinguish shape. Shell tools were chipped and only clam knives were recognized. The only bone tools were bone awls. Remains of animals and plants were rich, including tens of thousands of aquatic and terrestrial animal bones and teeth, a large portion of which were small animal remains discovered through screening and flotation.

Phytolith remains of rice (Oryza sativa L.) found at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

Dating and Periodization

The site was primarily dated to 44,000-4,000 BP. Based on the stratification of strata, the characteristics of unearthed artifacts and the existing dating results, the remains can be roughly divided into four phases.

The excavation at the Yahuai cave site in Longan County, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [Credit: China News Service/Zhong Xin]

Significance

1. New Type of Late Palaeolithic Archaeological Culture of Lingnan region

Most of the stone implements were tiny chipped stone tools belonging to the flake tool industry system, which is in contrast to the pebble tool tradition in the same region. The tiny stone-tools found at Yahuai Cave added new data for studying the relationship between the northern and southern cultures of the late Paleolithic culture in China.

2. Bridging the Prehistoric Culture Sequence in the You River Valley

A large number of remains were found in Yahuai Cave site dating to 44,000-10,000BP, most of which with precise culture strata, bridged the timeline of middle to late Palaeolithic culture in the You River Valley, thus further completing the prehistoric cultural sequence in Guangxi.

3. New Findings of Late Pleistocene Burial and Human Fossils in China.

Very few late Palaeolithic burial and human fossils have been found in China before, with a lack of exact dating. The burial at Yahuai Cave is the second one discovered in China after that at Upper Cave (Shandingdong site). The human fossils are of great academic value for studying the diversity of modern people, the migration and exchange of human populations in the late period of Late Pleistocene, and the burial customs in the late Palaeolithic Age.

4. Earliest Evidence of Humans Utilizing Wild Rice in the World

There is a long time in the use of wild rice before the rice domestication. The presence of phytoliths from rice (Oryza sativa) found in Yahuai Cave dating to ca.16,000 BP provided valuable material data for the wild rice exploitation and offer new clues for exploring the rice domestication.

Source: Chinese Archaeology [March 13, 2018]

Morocco’s National Rock Heritage Park has successfully identified more than 400 new archaeological heritage sites across the country.

Credit: Morocco World News

Aiming to study, document, and protect the deep-rooted heritage of Morocco, the park is planning more scientific and archaeological research programs, according to a statement made by the Ministry of Culture.

The park has also contributed to the establishment of excavation programs in the areas of Tata, Tan Tan, Al-Haouz, Aousserd, and other Moroccan regions. Furthermore, it is working to protect rock engravings from plunder and destruction in southern regions, according to the statement.

The Ministry also chaired a series of scientific and communication meetings which aimed to protect rock art sites. These meetings, according to the Ministry, help promote cultural heritage and encourage local and regional authorities to adhere to the program regulations to preserve the sites.

The Ministry also organizes training sessions for local actors that teach preservation of rock heritage, and offer tools and various means to raise awareness for the need to protect the national archaeological sites.

The statement added that the ministry has set up a Provincial Center for the Preservation and Interpretation of Rock Carvings in Tata—a province located in southwestern Morocco.

Recently, the Ministry promoted a draft law which would significantly bolster the protection and preservation of Morocco’s vast cultural heritage.

The Ministry is promising a higher level of consistency in its role of overseeing preservation. Additionally, the strategy integrates newly recognized international concepts of cultural heritage, said the ministry in a statement released by Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).

Author: Safaa Kasraoui | Source: Morocco World News [March 12, 2018]

A kiln apparently used to bake tiles for the roof of Toshodaiji temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site here, offers new hints into the craftsmanship that went into creating the magnificent structures more than 1,000 years ago.

Remains of a tile kiln unearthed from the grounds of Toshodaiji temple in Nara [Credit: Kazushige Kobayashi]

The Archaeological Institute of Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, said the kiln was likely used for the roof tiles of the “kondo” main hall and other structures in the temple complex between the late Nara Period (710-784) and early Heian Period (794-1185).

Remains of the kiln, measuring 4.2 meters by up to 2.2 meters, were excavated from under the “mieido” building north of the center of the temple.

The kiln is thought to have been 4.2 meters long and up to 2.2 meters wide [Credit: Kazushige Kobayashi]

“The tile kiln was likely set up on the temple grounds during the final stage of construction of the kondo, east pagoda and other buildings,” said Michio Maezono, an archaeology professor at Nara College of Arts.

“Toshodaiji is not a large publicly commissioned temple, so those facilities could have been erected gradually over dozens of years.”

Tiles for the roof of Toshodaiji temple's “kondo” main hall are believed to have been baked here [Credit: Kazushige Kobayashi]

Toshodaiji was founded in 759 by Ganjin (688-763), a high-ranking monk from China's Tang Dynasty, as a place to impart Buddhist disciplines and teachings.

Building work at the temple site apparently continued after Ganjin died. While the record remains murky, it is said that the east pagoda built in 810 is the most recent addition to Toshodaiji.

Author: Yuya Tanaka | Source: The Asahi Shimbun [March 12, 2018]

The history and archaeology of Mongolia, most famously the sites associated with the largest land empire in the history of the world under Ghengis Khan, are of global importance. But they're facing unprecedented threats as climate change and looting impact ancient sites and collections.

Burial sites may contain treasures, or just old bones. And looters won’t know until they’ve destroyed them [Credit: Julia Kate Clark]

Climate change and looting may seem to be unrelated issues. But deteriorating climate and environmental conditions result in decreased grazing potential and loss of profits for the region's many nomadic herders. Paired with a general economic decline, herders and other Mongolians are having to supplement their incomes, turning to alternative ways of making money. For some, it's searching for ancient treasures to sell on the illegal antiquities market.

The vast Mongolian landscape, whether it be plains, deserts or mountains, is dotted with man-made stone mounds marking the burials of ancient peoples. The practice started sometime in the neolithic period (roughly 6,000-8,000 years ago) with simple stone mounds the size of a kitchen table. These usually contain a human body and a few animal bones.

Over time, the burials became larger (some over 400 metres long) and more complex, incorporating thousands of horse sacrifices, tools, chariots, tapestries, family complexes, and eventually treasure (such as gold, jewellery and gems).

For Mongolians, these remains are the lasting reminders of their ancient past and a physical tie to their priceless cultural heritage.

Mongolia has reasonably good laws regarding the protection of cultural heritage. But poor understanding of the laws, and the nearly impossible task of enforcing them in such a large space with relatively few people and meagre budgets keep those laws from being effective. And laws can't protect Mongolia's cultural heritage from climate change.

Looting losses

The looting of archaeological sites in Mongolia has been happening for a very long time. Regional archaeologists have shared anecdotes of finding skeletons with break-in tools made from deer antlers in shafts of 2,000 year old royal tombs in central Mongolia. These unlucky would-be thieves risked the unstable sands collapsing in the shafts above them for a chance at riches, not long after the royal leaders had been buried there.

While looters discard bones, they are invaluable to archaeologists’ research [Credit: Julia Kate Clark]

But many recent pits dug directly into burial sites around Mongolia, some that are more than 3,000 years old, suggest modern day looting is on the rise. For the untrained looter, any rock feature has the potential to contain valuable goods and so grave after grave is torn apart. Many of these will contain no more than human and animal bones.

Archaeologists' interest in these burials lie in the information they contain for research, but this is worthless on the black antiquities market. But to steer looters away from these burials would be to teach them which ones to target for treasure and so this strategy is avoided.

Archaeologists working in northern Mongolia in 2017 found hundreds of looted sites, including an 800 year old cemetery consisting of at least 40 burials. Each and every one of them had been completely destroyed by looters looking for treasure. Human remains and miscellaneous artefacts such as bows, arrows, quivers, and clothing were left scattered on the surface.

Having survived over 800 years underground, these priceless bows, arrows, cloth fragments and bones likely have less than a year on the surface before they're gone forever. This is not to mention the loss of whatever goods (gold, silver, gems) the looters decided was valuable enough to keep.

The mummy race

Archaeological teams are currently working against climate change, looters, and each other for the chance to unearth rare mummies in the region that are known to pique public interest within Mongolia and abroad. A 2017 exhibit at the National Museum of Mongolia featured two mummies and their impressive burial goods—one of which had been rescued from the hands of looters by archaeologists and local police. Though they appeared not to have been particularly high ranking individuals, their belongings displayed incredible variety, artistry and detail.

Discovering mummies offers the opportunity to increase interest and tourism in Mongolia [Credit: The Center of Cultural Heritage of Mongolia]

The result of natural processes rather than intentional mummification as in ancient Egypt, some of these mummies are preserved by very dry environments protected in caves and rock shelters. Others are ice mummies, interred in burials that were constructed in such a way that water seeped in and froze—creating a unique preservation environment.

Both preservation environments produce artefacts that rarely survive such long periods of time. This includes human tissues like skin and hair, clothing and tapestries, wooden artefacts, and the remains of plants and animals associated with the burial.

As looters zero in on these sites, and climate change melts ice and changes the environmental conditions in other yet unknown ways, archaeologists are racing to locate, and preserve these finds. But with little infrastructure, small budgets and almost no specialised training in how to handle such remains, there's some concern about the long term preservation of even those remains archaeologists are able to rescue.

Efforts to provide training opportunities, international collaborations with mummy experts, and improved infrastructure and facilities are underway, but these collections are so fragile there is little time to spare.


What Mongolia can teach us

The situation in Mongolia could help us to understand and find new solutions to dealing with changes in climate and the economic drivers behind looting. Humans around the world in many different times have faced and had to adapt to climate change, economic strife and technological innovations.

There's truth represented by a material record of the "things" left by ancient peoples and in Mongolia, the study of this record has led to an understanding of the impact of early food production and horse domestication, the emergence of new social and political structures and the dominance of a nomadic empire.

Author: Julia Kate Clark | Source: The Conversation [March 12, 2018]

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Imagine a year in Africa that summer never arrives. The sky takes on a gray hue during the day and glows red at night. Flowers do not bloom. Trees die in the winter. Large mammals like antelope become thin, starve and provide little fat to the predators (carnivores and human hunters) that depend on them. Then, this same disheartening cycle repeats itself, year after year. This is a picture of life on earth after the eruption of the super-volcano, Mount Toba in Indonesia, about 74,000 years ago. In a paper published this week in Nature, scientists show that early modern humans on the coast of South Africa thrived through this event.

The glass shards at Pinnacle Point were carried nearly 9000 km from the source in Indonesia [Credit: Erich Fisher]

An eruption a hundred times smaller than Mount Toba - that of Mount Tambora, also in Indonesia, in 1815 - is thought to have been responsible for a year without summer in 1816. The impact on the human population was dire - crop failures in Eurasia and North America, famine and mass migrations. The effect of Mount Toba, a super-volcano that dwarfs even the massive Yellowstone eruptions of the deeper past, would have had a much larger, and longer-felt, impact on people around the globe.

The scale of the ash-fall alone attests to the magnitude of the environmental disaster. Huge quantities of aerosols injected high into the atmosphere would have severely diminished sunlight - with estimates ranging from a 25 to 90 percent reduction in light. Under these conditions, plant die-off is predictable, and there is evidence of significant drying, wildfires and plant community change in East Africa just after the Toba eruption.

If Mount Tambora created such devastation over a full year - and Tambora was a hiccup compared to Toba - we can imagine a worldwide catastrophe with the Toba eruption, an event lasting several years and pushing life to the brink of extinctions.

In Indonesia, the source of the destruction would have been evident to terrified witnesses - just before they died. However, as a family of hunter-gatherers in Africa 74,000 years ago, you would have had no clue as to the reason for the sudden and devastating change in the weather. Famine sets in and the very young and old die. Your social groups are devastated, and your society is on the brink of collapse.

The effect of the Toba eruption would have certainly impacted some ecosystems more than others, possibly creating areas - called refugia - in which some human groups did better than others throughout the event. Whether or not your group lived in such a refuge would have largely depended on the type of resources available. Coastal resources, like shellfish, are highly nutritious and less susceptible to the eruption than the plants and animals of inland areas.

The research team has been excavating caves at Pinnacle Point, South Africa, for nearly 20 years. Glass shards from Mount Toba were discovered at the PP5-6 location [Credit: Erich Fisher]

When the column of fire, smoke and debris blasted out the top of Mount Toba, it spewed rock, gas and tiny microscopic pieces (cryptotephra) of glass that, under a microscope, have a characteristic hook shape produced when the glass fractures across a bubble. Pumped into the atmosphere, these invisible fragments spread across the world.

Panagiotis (Takis) Karkanas, director of the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science, American School of Classical Studies, Greece, saw a single shard of this explosion under a microscope in a slice of archaeological sediment encased in resin.

"It was one shard particle out of millions of other mineral particles that I was investigating. But it was there, and it couldn't be anything else," says Karkanas.

The shard came from an archaeological site in a rockshelter called Pinnacle Point 5-6, on the south coast of South Africa near the town of Mossel Bay. The sediments dated to about 74,000 years ago.

"Takis and I had discussed the potential of finding the Toba shards in the sediments of our archaeological site, and with his eagle eye, he found one," explains Curtis W. Marean, project director of the Pinnacle Point excavations. Marean is the associate director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and honorary professor at the Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.

Marean showed the shard image to Eugene Smith, a volcanologist with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and Smith confirmed it was a volcanic shard.

"The Pinnacle Point study brought me back to the study of glass shards from my master's thesis 40 years earlier," says Smith.

Students excavating the site at Vleesbaai [Credit: Dr. Jayne Wilkins]

Early in the study, the team brought in expert cryptotephra scientist Christine Lane who trained graduate student Amber Ciravolo in the needed techniques. Racheal Johnsen later joined Ciravalo as lab manager and developed new techniques.

From scratch, with National Science Foundation support, they developed the Cryptotephra Laboratory for Archaeological and Geological Research, which is now involved in projects not only in Africa, but in Italy, Nevada and Utah.

Encased in that shard of volcanic glass is a distinct chemical signature, a fingerprint that scientists can use to trace to the killer eruption. In their paper in Nature, the team describes finding these shards in two archaeological sites in coastal South Africa, tracing those shards to Toba through chemical fingerprinting and documenting a continuous human occupation across the volcanic event.

"Many previous studies have tried to test the hypothesis that Toba devastated human populations," Marean notes. "But they have failed because they have been unable to present definitive evidence linking a human occupation to the exact moment of the event."

Most studies have looked at whether or not Toba caused environmental change. It did, but such studies lack the archaeological data needed to show how Toba affected humans.

The Pinnacle Point team has been at the forefront of development and application of highly advanced archaeological techniques. They measure everything on site to millimetric accuracy with a "total station," a laser-measurement device integrated to handheld computers for precise and error-free recording.

Naomi Cleghorn with the University of Texas at Arlington, recorded the Pinnacle Point samples as they were removed.

Cleghorn explains, "We collected a long column of samples - digging out a small amount of sediment from the wall of our previous excavation. Each time we collected a sample, we shot its position with the total station."

Sampling of Cryptotephra at Vleesbaai, South Africa [Credit: Dr. Jayne Wilkins]

The sample locations from the total station and thousands of other points representing stone artifacts, bone, and other cultural remains of the ancient inhabitants were used to build digital models of the site.

"These models tell us a lot about how people lived at the site and how their activities changed through time," say Erich Fisher, associate research scientist with the Institute of Human Origins, who built the detailed photorealistic 3D models from the data. "What we found was that during and after the time of the Toba eruption people lived at the site continuously, and there was no evidence that it impacted their daily lives."

In addition to understanding how Toba affected humans in this region, the study has other important implications for archaeological dating techniques. Archaeological dates at these age ranges are imprecise - 10 percent (or 1000s of years) error is typical. Toba ash-fall, however, was a very quick event that has been precisely dated. The time of shard deposition was likely about two weeks in duration - instantaneous in geological terms.

"We found the shards at two sites," explains Marean. "The Pinnacle Point rockshelter (where people lived, ate, worked and slept) and an open air site about 10 kilometers away called Vleesbaai. This latter site is where a group of people, possibly members of the same group as those at Pinnacle Point, sat in a small circle and made stone tools. Finding the shards at both sites allows us to link these two records at almost the same moment in time."

Not only that, but the shard location allows the scientists to provide an independent test of the age of the site estimated by other techniques. People lived at the Pinnacle Point 5-6 site from 90,000 to 50,000 years ago. Zenobia Jacobs with the University of Wollongong, Australia, used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to date 90 samples and develop a model of the age of all the layers. OSL dates the last time individual sand grains were exposed to light.

The photo shows a volcanic glass shard erupted 74,000 years ago from the Toba volcano in Indonesia found at an archaeological site nearly 9000 km away at Vleesbaai, South Africa [Credit: Racheal Johnsen]

"There has been some debate over the accuracy of OSL dating, but Jacobs' age model dated the layers where we found the Toba shards to about 74,000 years ago - right on the money," says Marean. This lends very strong support to Jacobs' cutting-edge approach to OSL dating, which she has applied to sites across southern Africa and the world.

"OSL dating is the workhorse method for construction of timelines for a large part of our own history. Testing whether the clock ticks at the correct rate is important. So getting this degree of confirmation is pleasing," says Jacobs.

In the 1990s, scientists began arguing that this eruption of Mount Toba, the most powerful in the last two million years, caused a long-lived volcanic winter that may have devastated the ecosystems of the world and caused widespread population crashes, perhaps even a near-extinction event in our own lineage, a so-called bottleneck.

This study shows that along the food-rich coastline of southern Africa, people thrived through this mega-eruption, perhaps because of the uniquely rich food regime on this coastline. Now other research teams can take the new and advanced methods developed in this study and apply them to their sites elsewhere in Africa so researchers can see if this was the only population that made it through these devastating times.

Source: Arizona State University [March 12, 2018]

The recent discovery of vestiges of early Montevideo's colonial-era defense system has provided an opportunity to enhance and integrate a past that was buried under the Old City into the current urban landscape, Uruguayan archaeologist Veronica De Leon said in an interview with EFE.

A worker digging out the remains of a fortification, from an early colonial-era defense system, in Montevideo, Uruguay [Credit: EPA-EFE/Municipality of Montevideo]

De Leon, who has studied the impact of public works in the Old City, found the remains of fortifications that have not yet been assessed by the National Heritage Commission.

The most recent find involved the San Carlos Battery, an artillery emplacement near the port of Montevideo, but De Leon said other historical vestiges of colonial Montevideo have been found in the city's oldest district in recent years.

One includes remnants of the colonial city's fortifications found in 2017 during work on sidewalks around Plaza Zabala, named in memory of the Spanish colonial outpost's founder and first governor, Bruno Mauricio de Zabala.

"Last year, we started monitoring public works at Plaza Zabala and by late August some walls were found," the archaeologist said. "We were able to identify the remains as a portion of the colonial fort in Montevideo that was completed around December 1725."

Near the Taranco Palace, located across from Plaza Zabala, other structures found could have been part of the colonial governors residence built after 1740.

View of the remains of a fortification, from an early colonial-era defense system, in Montevideo, Uruguay [Credit: EPA-EFE/Municipality of Montevideo]

"(There) have been other finds outside what was then the walled city, like the colonial water fountain located where the annex of the Executive Tower, the current presidential office building, is now," De Leon said.

The artillery emplacements found recently, like the rest of the fortifications, underwent numerous upgrades over the decades until they were dismantled by on government orders in 1829, four years after the country became independent Uruguay.

"There are different reports and documents that refer to those (upgrades), including the bastions at the Ciudadela, the high-walled fortification built around the Old City in 1741 that comprises some segments of stone wall and others with earthen levees," the archaeologist said.

The Ciudadela became a produce market, the fortifications were demolished and the stones were later used in other buildings.

This explains why in the area where the San Carlos Battery was found there were also vestiges of a cistern along with houses built during the 19th century after the network of walled fortifications was dismantled.

Author: Alejandro Prieto | Source: EFE-EPA [March 11, 2018]

A team from the Egypt's Mummies Conservation Project has finished restoring a group of seven mummies in the El-Muzawaa necropolis in Dakhla oasis, completing the first phase of the project, Gharib Sonbol, head of Ancient Egyptian restoration projects at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online.

Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

The restoration of Al-Muzawaa necropolis mummies came within the framework of the project, which launched three years ago by the ministry to preserve and maintain all mummies stored in Egyptian storehouses.

Aymen Ashmawi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities sector at the ministry, explains that the project started with the conservation of mummies in the Mostafa Kamel gallery storehouses in Alexandria and at the Alexandria National Museum, as well as those in the Kom Ushim stores in Fayum.

Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

According to Sonbol, the second phase of the project will begin shortly and will involve the restoration of several more mummies.

He explained that during the recently completed work, the team noted that two mummies have "screaming" faces, a term used to describe mummies with open mouths. The hands of a third mummy were bound with rope.

Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities

“This is not the typical form of mummification, but it indicates that those people were cursed by the god or the priests during their lifetime,” Sonbol said.

He continued that the project offers a great opportunity for restorers to learn more about the death and life of those mummified people.

Author: Nevine El-Aref | Source: Ahram Online [March 10, 2018]

The late Roman mosaics found during work for the Thessaloniki metro recently will be extracted, cleaned and be exhibited at the same station they were excavated in, the Central Archaeological Council (CAC) said on Wednesday.

The late Roman mosaics found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

The mosaics were found in the south entrance of the station "Agia Sofia" and are believed to be part of a nearly 315 sq.m. urban villa dated to the first half of the 4th century AD to the 5th century AD, experts said.

The late Roman mosaics found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

Other areas discovered in the villa complex were a section of a pillared corridor (stoa), five consecutive rooms, a complete under-floor wood-heating system (hypocaust), and several multicoloured mosaics, which have been destroyed in parts by subsequent construction layers.

The late Roman mosaics found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

Decoration of the mosaic floors consists of geometric patterns, while one includes a central medallion, possibly depicting Aphrodite, head of the Thessaloniki Ephorate of Antiquities Polyxeni Adam-Veleni told CAC.

The late Roman mosaics found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

She said the head of the figure was missing but the face of Eros, holding on to her, is visible. She added that the villa complex in the multiple-levelled site is probably "a large urban villa (villa urbana) in the center of town," as the size of the intact hypocaust at the site corresponds to a house.

The mosaics have been destroyed in places, by the opening of big holes during the Ottoman period [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

Adam-Veleni added, "Thessaloniki had a several such houses ? at least 18 have been found until now. In the second half of the 4th century AD, following the founding of Constantinople, a lot of officials settled in the city, where they built huge houses."

The late Roman mosaics found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

The city went through several rebuilding phases in late antiquity, she said, including later on by Byzantine emperor Justinian, "who paid a lot of attention to Thessaloniki," she revealed.

The well preserved hypocaust bath found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

The new findings lay south of the renowned in antiquity Byzantine highway of "decumanus maximus," where more mosaics connected to the ones found now were discovered in previous years.

The well preserved hypocaust bath found during work for the Thessaloniki metro [Credit: Ministry of Culture and Sports]

Constantine the Great had initially settled in a palace in Thessaloniki and thought of turning the city into a capital of the Roman Empire before going on to found Constantinople, Adam-Veleni said.

Source: ANA-MPA [March 10, 2018]

A team of Peruvian archaeologists has found a 1,300-year-old pre-Hispanic cemetery near Lima's main zoo, a researcher said Friday.

Credit: Diffusion

"We have found three human burials that belong to the pre-Inca culture of Lima with an antiquity of 1,300 years," Lucenida Carrión, head of the Directorate of Archaeology of the Parque de Las Leyendas, told AFP.

The human remains, including two skulls belonging to the Peruvian culture (100-650 AD), were shown to the press by the researchers.

Credit: Diffusion

Carrión explained that the remains were found at the end of February in the 'huaca' or pre-Hispanic sanctuary 'El Rosal' in the district of San Miguel, on the coast of Lima.

The remains, which belong to two adults and one child, were found more than a metre deep. In addition, archaeologists found an oven for ceramics, earthenware vessels and two 'piruros' or spindle whorls.

Credit: Diffusion

The archaeologist explained that one of the adults was found lying face down, while the child, who was about three years old, was lying on his right side with bent legs.

"At the moment we are also excavating a third adult burial, some of the bones of which can be seen protruding from the earth," she said.

Credit: Diffusion

La Huaca El Rosal is located in the northeast corner of Peru's main zoo, Parque de Las Leyendas.

The objects found in this park contain traces of three civilizations and are located in the archaeological complex of Maranga.


According to the archaeologist, the inhabitants of the Lima culture built the first structures in Huaca El Rosal.

In 2016, adobe walls and mud floors were discovered in the lower part of the huaca, and the walls of an oven between 400 and 500 AD.

"These findings are contemporary with the nine human burials found between 2016 and 2017," Carrión noted.

Source: El Pais [March 10, 2018]

A secret dig at the site of a new section of the A15 motorway has yielded a large Roman cemetery but no clues as to the provenance of its occupants, government roads department RWS announced this week.

Archaeologists excavate the Roman cemetery [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

The find, in a field at Bemmel near Zevenaar, dates from the 2nd or 3rd century AD and consists of 48 graves, some with their stone funerary urns still present.

Four of the graves were found to be more or less intact, which is a first in the Netherlands.

Tufa stone funerary casket recovered from the cemetery [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

The skeleton of a baby, from the same period, was also among the remains. The graves were discovered at a depth of only 50 centimetres.

According to the archaeologists, who carried out the dig in secret for fear of treasure hunters, it is obvious the remains are those of wealthy Romans but as there are no known Roman settlements close to the site, it is unclear where they lived.

Grave goods include decorated bronze vessels and expensive glassware [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

Among the funeral gifts were such luxury items as imported painted earthenware jars, plates and cups, and tableware consisting of glass bottles and decorated bronze jugs, cups and dishes.

Although personal items did not usually accompany their owners in death, the archaeologists found clothing pins, mirrors, a pair of scissors and even a complete perfume bottle with its contents intact, RWS says.

Artist's impression of how the cemetery might have looked [Credit: Rijkswaterstaat]

Among the more unusual items were fragments of four parchment roll holders and a stone grave monument with a depiction of a woman.

Such gifts are more typical of Roman cities like Nijmegen, or high-ranking Roman officials in Belgium, Germany or France, RWS said.


The best explanation therefore is that these were the inhabitants of a Roman villa near Bemmel, which would make it perhaps the most northerly position of a Roman villa in all of the Roman empire.

On April 27, 28 and 29 the objects will be presented to the public in Bemmel after which they will be put on show at the Valkhofmuseum in Nijmegen.

Source: Dutch News [March 10, 2018]