OAXACA FUNERARY COMPLEX 1,000 YEARS OLD IS IMPORTANT DISCOVERY

A funerary complex more than 1,100 years old and composed of three funerary chambers was discovered in the prehistoric site of Aztompa, Oaxaca. This discovery is highly important since it was registered inside a building that was designed exclusively to harbor a series of tombs which are placed vertically, one on top of another, and the main difference between the prior and the recently discovered tombs is that they weren’t found underground.

According to specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History who registered the discovery, this distinct construction model had not been identified within the region. This is also relevant since one of the mortuary chambers is decorated with mural paintings alluding to the ball game ritual, something that was rather unseen in a funerary zapotecan context.

According to archaeologists, Atzompa had been a small satellite city of Monte Albán, founded during the Late Classic period (650 – 900 d.C.) as a consequence of the expansion of the large city.

However, “this discovery changes the previous perception, Atzompa was not so similar to Monte Albán as it had been thought, instead it developed its own constructive methods, as was the case of the tombs and the palaces”, said Nelly Robles García, national coordinator of archaeology at INAH, also announcing that Aztompa would be soon open to the public.

Dr. Robles García believes these sepulchers could have belonged to important characters, since this building is adjacent to the House of Altars, this must have been the resting place of the elite.

It was only at the end of last April, during the Archaeological Proyect of Aztompa’s Collection of Historic Buildings, when archaeologists Eduardo García and Jaime Vera discovered the three tombs inside the 6th building of the Oaxacan archaeological site, whose investigation –developed in 2007– was focused on deepening the knowledge about cultural and urban development in Monte Albán and Atzompa.

Dr. Nelly Robles, director of the project, emphasized the “highly relevant importance of the find, because in all we know about Monte Albán and Oaxaca there had never been a similar case that concerned a building created to contain mortuary chambers, due to the characteristics of the murals and structural aspects that allow the support of these chambers.”

CONFLICT THREATENS SYRIA'S ARCHAEOLOGICAL HERITAGE

With its ancient fortresses, castles, mosques and markets, Syria bears the imprint of millennia of Middle Eastern history. But the current uprising is threatening some of the world’s most valuable heritage sites. As the two conflicting camps in the 18-month Syrian uprising appear to be heading for the critical endgame, experts are warning that many of Syria’s ancient sites – including those on the UNESCO World Heritage list – are in peril.

In an appeal issued in May, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova expressed “grave concern about possible damage to precious sites” and called upon “all those involved in the conflict to ensure the protection of the outstanding cultural legacy that Syria hosts on its soil”. In May, Interpol joined UNESCO’s warning of “imminent threats” to Syria's cultural heritage, which is “particularly vulnerable to destruction, damages, theft and looting during this period of turmoil”. The international criminal police organization joined the Syrian National Central Bureau in Damascus in issuing a search for a number of mosaics stolen from the ruins of Apamea in Syria’s Hama province.

Situated on the crossroads of the ancient Orient and Occident, with the Levantine routes of the old Silk Road attracting all manner of art, commerce and culture - as well as conquerors and crusaders, Syria today bears the stamp of millennia of Middle Eastern history.

“The country has layers and layers and layers of civilisation. It’s one of the richest countries in the world in terms of heritage,” says Veronique Dauge, chief of UNESCO’s Arab States Unit. “Syria has six sites on the World Heritage list - which are the ones we tend to focus on - but it does not take away from the others. Syria also has sites on the UNESCO tentative list [that are still being considered] and there are numerous other sites across the country.”

Syria is probably the only country in the world where the political and commercial capitals – Damascus and Aleppo respectively – compete for status of world’s oldest continuously inhabited city. But heavy fighting has gripped both cities as government troops and rebels engage in close-range urban warfare. Earlier this week, residents of Syria’s second city described fierce clashes between rebels and government troops near the Old City in the heart of Aleppo.

Called Haleb in Arabic, the Old City of Aleppo – dominated by an imposing 13th century citadel and a 12th century mosque – has been described as an evocation of The Thousand and One Nights. It’s one of the six Syrian sites on the World Heritage list – and not the only one imperiled by the latest fighting.

Earlier this year, YouTube footage showed shelling damage to the walls of the Crac des Chevalier - a magnificent crusader-era castle overlooking the Jebel Libnan ash-Sharqiya (Anti-Lebanon Range) - that Lawrence of Arabia described simply as “the finest castle in the world”. (GOOGLE TO SEE THE UTUBE)

In an interview with the Associated Press in May, Bassam Jammous, general director of the Syrian Antiquities and Museum Department, said gunmen broke into the castle, threw out the staff and began excavations to loot the site.

Minefields of allegations and counter-allegations Responsibility for the destruction of Syrian heritage sites is hard to apportion in a conflict where both camps have their own axes to grind and have proved adept at playing the blame game.

Most archaeologists and antiquities experts are careful to gingerly thread through the minefields of allegations and counter-allegations, keeping their message focused on the preservation of sites in a country that’s virtually impossible to access due to the security situation.

“Our main concern is that we don’t have information, it’s very difficult to get information,” said Dauge. “We rely on news reports and footage on the Web, but there’s no way we can verify it and check what’s happening on the ground.” The situation on the ground though is fluid and there have been attempts to monitor the damage on social media sites, such as a Facebook page set up by archaeologists to track reports of damage to Syrian heritage sites.

Among the more disturbing footage of heritage destruction to emerge over the past few months has been the shelling of the Qalat al-Mudiq, a 12th century citadel in Hama province. Online footage showed columns of smoke rising out of the imposing hill-top structure with holes punched into the ancient fort walls.

Mathilde Gelin, a researcher at the Paris-based CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and IFPO (Institut Français du Proche-Orient) has worked on the Qalat al-Mudiq site and was in Syria until a year ago when the security situation forced her – like many foreign nationals working on archaeological sites – to leave the country. She now attempts to monitor the sites from outside Syria, but concedes it’s an uphill task. “In the Homs region, some sites are in a catastrophic situation. I heard certain places are being preserved either by guardians or employees paid by joint international missions,” said Gelin in a phone interview with FRANCE 24 from Lebanon. “But it’s really difficult to know what’s happening for two reasons – one, we can’t go in there and two, people inside Syria are afraid to talk on the phone”. Gelin distinguishes between what she calls “inhabited sites” - such as the Old Cities in Damascus and Aleppo or even the Qalat el-Mudiq, which is surrounded by villages - and “uninhabited sites”such as Palmyra in eastern Syria and the Crac des Chevaliers.

According to Gelin, both inhabited and uninhabited sites have reportedly come under fire. When pressed about why the latter have been damaged in the fighting, she replied, “That’s more difficult to say because we can only guess…maybe the opposition [fighters] take refuge there initially because they think it’s relatively secure - or it could be a way to attract international attention. For the government troops, it’s a way to show that nothing will stop them. In both cases, it shows their ignorance and total lack of respect”.

At least one archaeologist has specifically blamed Syrian government forces of directly hitting historic sites and either participating in or turning a blind eye to looting. In an interview with the Associated Press, Spanish archaeologist Rodrigo Martin, who has led past research missions in Syria, said, “We have facts showing that the government is acting directly against the country’s historical heritage.”

“There are many things that can be done after the conflict,” asserts UNESCO’s Dauge. “We can assist in making assessments, recovery plans, reconstruction, capacity-building and trying to find funding for all of the above. The preservation of historical sites is essential because they represent the soul of a nation and the collective memory of its people.”

EARLIEST AMERICAS WERE FIRST POPULATED BY THREE WAVES OF MIGRANTS BASED ON STUDY OF GENOMES OF NATIVE AMERICANS IN SOUTH AMERICA AND CANADA

Some scientists assert that the Americas were peopled in one large migration from Siberia that happened about 15,000 years ago, but the new genetic research shows that this central episode was followed by at least two smaller migrations from Siberia, one by people who became the ancestors of today’s Eskimos and Aleutians and another by people speaking Na-Dene, whose descendants are confined to North America.

The finding vindicates a proposal first made on linguistic grounds by Joseph Greenberg, the great classifier of the world’s languages. He asserted in 1987 that most languages spoken in North and South America were derived from the single mother tongue of the first settlers from Siberia, which he called Amerind. Two later waves, he surmised, brought speakers of Eskimo-Aleut and of Na-Dene, the language family spoken by the Apache and Navajo.

But many linguists who specialize in American languages derided Dr. Greenberg’s proposal, saying they saw no evidence for any single ancestral language like Amerind. “American linguists made up their minds 25 years ago that they wouldn’t support Greenberg, and they haven’t changed their mind one whit,” said Merritt Ruhlen, a colleague of Dr. Greenberg, who died in 2001.

The new DNA study is based on gene chips that sample the entire genome and presents a fuller picture than earlier studies, which were based on small regions of the genome like the Y chromosome or mitochondrial DNA. Several of the mitochondrial DNA studies had pointed to a single migration.

A team led by David Reich of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Andres Ruiz-Linares of University College London reported that there was a main migration that populated the entire Americas. They cannot date the migration from their genomic data but accept the estimate by others that the migration occurred around 15,000 years ago. This was in the window of time that occurred after the melting of great glaciers that blocked passage from Siberia to Alaska, and before the rising waters at the end of the last ice age submerged Beringia, the land bridge between them.

They also find evidence for two further waves of migration, one among Na-Dene speakers and the other among Eskimo-Aleut, again as Dr. Greenberg predicted. But whereas Dr. Greenberg’s proposal suggested that three discrete groups of people were packed into the Americas, the new genome study finds that the second and third waves mixed in with the first. Eskimos inherit about half of their DNA from the people of the first migration and half from a second migration. The Chipewyans of Canada, who speak a Na-Dene language, have 90 percent of their genes from the first migration and some 10 percent from a third.

The team’s samples of Native American genomes were drawn mostly from South America, with a handful from Canada. Samples from tribes in the United States could not be used because the existing ones had been collected for medical reasons and the donors had not given consent for population genetics studies, Dr. Ruiz-Linares said. Native Americans in the United States have been reluctant to participate in inquiries into their origins. The Genographic Project of the National Geographic Society wrote recently to all federally recognized tribes in the United States asking for samples, but only two agreed to give them, said Spencer Wells, the project director.

Archaeologists who study Native American history are glad to have the genetic data but also have reservations, given that several of the geneticists’ conclusions have changed over time. “This is a really important step forward but not the last word,” said David Meltzer of Southern Methodist University, noting that many migrations may not yet have shown up in the genetic samples. Michael H. Crawford, an anthropologist at the University of Kansas, said the paucity of samples from North America and from coastal regions made it hard to claim a complete picture of early migrations has been attained.

“Many linguists put down Greenberg as rubbish and don’t believe his publications,” Dr. Ruiz-Linares said. But he considers his study a substantial vindication of Dr. Greenberg. “It’s striking that we have this correspondence between the genetics and the linguistics,” he said.

MAYAN TEMPLE 1600 YEARS OLD DISCOVERED IN NORTHERN GUATEMALAN FOREST NEAR MEXICAN BORDER

Archeologists have uncovered a 1,600-year-old Mayan temple dedicated to the "night sun" atop a pyramid tomb in the northern Guatemalan forest near the border with Mexico. "The sun was a key element of Maya rulership," lead archeologist Stephen Houston explained in announcing the discovery by the joint Guatemalan and American team that has been excavating the El Zotz site since 2006. "It's something that rises every day and penetrates into all nooks and crannies, just as royal power presumably would," said Houston, a professor at Brown University, Rhode Island.
"This building is one that celebrates this close linkage between the king and this most powerful and dominant of celestial presences."

Archeologists say the temple was likely built to honor the leader buried under the Diablo Pyramid tomb, the governor and founder of the first El Zotz dynasty called Pa'Chan, or "fortified sky."

Mayan civilization, which spread through southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize, was at its height between 250 and 900 AD. Carbon dating places construction of the temple at the early part of that era, somewhere between 350 and 400 AD, the archeologists said. It is ornately decorated with massive stucco masks, 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, each depicting the phases of the sun as it moves east to west, and a painted stucco frieze that the team described as "incredible."

More than half the temple is still to be excavated, co-project leader Thomas Garrison of the University of Southern California told a press conference Wednesday at Guatemala City's National Palace of Culture. "The temple probably had 14 masks at the height of the frieze, but only eight of them have been documented" so far, which is why excavations must continue, added University of Austin archeologist Edwin Roman.

Excavations by the Guatemalan and American team began at the El Zotz dig in 2006, but the temple wasn't uncovered until three years ago.

NEW LAYERS OF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA -- ALTHOUGH IN SOME DISPUTE

HAIZIGOU, China — Zhang Lingmian was collecting walnuts in the countryside north of Beijing last autumn when a friend from a nearby village mentioned a mysterious structure in the mountains that had stumped locals. The retired cultural heritage official and his friend scampered uphill for two hours, whacking their way through the brambles after the path ran out. At the top of a 2,700-foot-high ridge, they reached a long trail of haphazardly placed rocks. Zhang says he immediately recognized what villagers called "the strange stones." "I knew right away it had to be part of the Great Wall of China," Zhang recalled on a recent hike to show off his discovery, about 50 miles from central Beijing.

Although most of the rocks had tumbled down, a few piles reached up to Zhang's chest. "The walls just had to be high enough to keep the barbarians from crossing with their horses," explained Zhang, who says he has been studying the wall for 33 years.

The Great Wall of China may be one of the most recognizable structures on Earth, but it is still in the process of revealing new layers of itself — to cries of disbelief and fury in some quarters. At a time when Beijing is asserting its territorial borders in the South China Sea, the discoveries are not universally applauded.

In early June, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced that it now believes the Great Wall is a stunning 13,171 miles long, if you put all of the discovered portions end to end. That's more than half the circumference of the globe, four times the span of the United States coast to coast and nearly 2 1/2 times the estimated length in a preliminary report released in 2009, two years into a project that saw the Chinese measure it for the first time.

"I'm very suspicious. China wants to rewrite history to make sure history conforms with the borders of today's China," said Stephane Mot, a former French diplomat and a blogger based in Seoul, who has accused the Chinese archaeologists of obliterating Korean culture.

Traditionally, the Great Wall was thought to extend from Jiayuguan, a desert oasis 1,000 miles west of Beijing, to Shanhaiguan, 190 miles east of the capital, on the Bohai Sea. In 2001, Chinese archaeologists announced that the wall extended deep into Xinjiang, the northwestern region claimed by the minority Uighurs as their homeland. Last month's announcement brought the eastern bounds of the wall to the North Korean border. That has outraged Koreans, who say the relics were built by ancient Koreans of the Koguryo kingdom, which occupied much of modern-day Manchuria from 37 BC to AD 688.

"I would say that these are not necessarily 'new discoveries.' Rather, we are looking more carefully at what is on the ground and trying to clarify whether it is the Great Wall or not," Yan Jianmin, office director of the China Great Wall Society, a nongovernmental organization of scholars and wall enthusiasts.

The survey of the Great Wall's length involved thousands of people, with 15 provinces and regions submitting the results of their research to Beijing. In all, the State Administration certified 43,721 known sites of Great Wall remains, up from 18,344 before the survey. (Portions of the list were published on the agency's website, although it did not include the locations in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces that are contested by the Koreans. Maps will not be released because they are considered a state secret.)

What most people recognize as the Great Wall is the crenelated brick wall with watch towers and archer slits, the symbol of China from countless postcards and guide books. But there are many older walls dating from the 7th century that served the common purpose of defending China from invasion from the north.

The late Luo Zhewen, who was considered the top Chinese authority on the subject, once wrote that nothing should be considered the Great Wall unless it was at least 30 miles long, clearly defensive in nature and not circular, as opposed to a wall to keep your sheep from wandering

BRITAIN: THE HAPPISBURGH HAND AXE IS AT THE TOP OF 50 DISCOVERIES FOUND IN THE PAST 15 YEARS

Unearthed in 2000 on Happisburgh Beach, Norfolk, by Mike Chambers, a civil servant, the axe radically altered historians’s understanding of our past, revealing that Britain had been inhabited by human beings for 100,000 years longer than had been previously thought.

The flint hand-axe, which is on display at Norwich Castle Museum, was used by Britain's early ancestors as a butchery tool to carve flesh off skeletons between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago.

ISRAELI ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE UNCOVERED AN ANCIENT HARBOR AT AKKO (ACRE)

The remains of a magnificent ancient harbor have emerged from a dig in Akko (Acre), a city at the northern tip of Haifa Bay in Israel. Dating back to the Hellenistic period (third-second centuries BC), the port was Israel's largest and most important at the time. Archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authority made the discovery as they unearthed large mooring stones that were incorporated in the quay. They were used to secure sailing vessels that anchored in the harbor about 2,300 years ago.

In some of the stones the archaeologists found a hole for inserting a wooden pole -– probably for mooring and/or dragging the boat. This was most likely a military harbor, according to Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "A find was uncovered recently that suggests we are excavating part of the military port of Akko. We are talking about an impressive section of stone pavement about 8 meters long by about 5 meters wide," Sharvit said.

Delineated on both sides by two impressive stone walls built in the Phoenician manner, the floor sloped slightly toward the south. The archaeologists found a small amount of stone collapse in its center. "Presumably this is a slipway, an installation that was used for lifting boats onto the shore, probably warships in this case," Sharvit said. "Only further archaeological excavations will corroborate or invalidate this theory," he added.

Along with the mooring stones, the archaeologists found thousands of pottery fragments, among which are dozens of intact vessels and metallic objects. Preliminary identification indicates that many of them come from islands in the Aegean Sea, including Knidos, Rhodes, Kos and others, as well as other port cities located along the Mediterranean coast. The dig also uncovered a mound of collapsed large dressed stones that apparently belonged to major buildings or installations.

The excavation will continue in the attempt to clarify if there is a connection between the destruction in the harbor and the destruction wrought by Ptolemy in 312 BC. , or by some other event such as the Hasmonean revolt in 167 B.

VEGGIES & HERBAL REMEDIES FOR NEANDERTHALS FOUND IN CAVE IN NORTHERN SPAIN

A cave in northern Spain that previously yielded evidence of Neanderthals as brain-eating cannibals now suggests the prehistoric humans ate their greens and used herbal remedies. A new study of skeletal remains from El Sidrón cave site in Asturias (map) detected chemical and food traces on the teeth of five Neanderthals.

Tartar samples from the 50,000-year-old teeth revealed microscopic plant starch granules, which had cracks indicating the plants had been roasted first. Further chemical analysis revealed compounds associated with wood smoke.Starch and carbohydrates in the tartar show the Neanderthals ate a variety of plants, but there were surprisingly few traces of meat-associated proteins or lipids.

Not only did our extinct cousins prefer grilling vegetables to steaks, they were also dosing themselves with medicinal plants, according to a team led by Karen Hardy, an archaeologist at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Barcelona. The cave dwellers' diet was found to include yarrow and chamomile, both bitter-tasting plants with little nutritional value. Earlier research by the same team had shown that the Neanderthals in El Sidrón had a gene for tasting bitter substances. "We know that Neanderthals would find these plants bitter, so it is likely these plants must have been selected for reasons other than taste"—probably medication, Hardy said in a statement.

The research adds to recent findings that question the Neanderthals' reputation as inflexible carnivores—previously cited as a reason why modern humans, able to draw on a wider variety of food sources, gained a competitive edge over their heavy-browed cousins. "Our results do add to the growing picture of plant consumption by Neanderthals," said Hardy, who worked with archaeological chemist Stephen Buckley of the University of York.


The Neanderthal study was published July 18 in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

A BULGARIAN HERCULANEUM -- AKRA -- DISCOVERED ON THE AKIN CAPE NEAR CHERNOMORETS ON SOUTHERN BLACK SEA COAST

A Bulgarian Herculaneum, named Akra, has been discovered by archaeologists on the Akin cape, near the town of Chernomorets on the southern Black Sea coast. The information was reported by the Director of the National History Museum, NIM, Bozhidar Dimitrov. The historian says that the settlement had been destroyed by an Avar invasion.

Ivan Hristov, who leads the archaeological team and is a Deputy of Dimitrov, is continuing excavations on the cape, where a unique for the Bulgarian Black Sea coast underwater district with remnants from an early Byzantine fortress have been found. The fortress, initially believed to be named Krimna, dates from the end of the 5th century A.C.

According to Hristov, the fire set by the Avars, in some way sealed the finds into the earth, similarly to the lava from Vesuvius sealing Pompeii. The heavy tile roofs collapsed preserving everything underneath.

Dimitrov says that the finds included several fully preserved vessels, clay amphorae, lamps, gorgeous tiny glass cups, along with a number of ceramic fragments, which will be restored. The items were made at the time by craftsmen in northern Africa and then taken to Akin by ships.

The NIM Director further reiterates that after taking a thorough look at the finds and digging deeply into archives, he realized that this has been a city very similar to the Italian Herculaneum in the way it has been preserved, and that he was inclined to change his initial belief the city was named Krimna.

"Most likely it was the same as now – Akra. In ancient Greek Akra means cape but also a fortress and a citadel. Many historical documents confirm it; there was such large city," says he.

"We are studying now a third house and we see already something like a residential district behind the fortress walls, with large homes with stone foundations," the archaeologist explains. The team has also found four large bronze coins with the portrait of Emperor Justinian the Great, showing that the fortress was built during the reign of Emperor Anastasius about year 513, and was later reinforced by Justinian.

NAMES FOR DOGS -- IN ANCIENT GREECE

Dogs played a special role in ancient Greek society and mythology; Cerberus guarded the gates of Hades, the goddess Artemis used dogs in her hunt, and Greek citizens employed dogs for hunting and protection. To the ancient Greeks, picking your new pup was an important decision, just as it is today. But, according to Stanford University researcher Adrienne Mayor, writing for Wonders & Marvels, the process could have been just a little bit different.

Like moderns, the ancients looked for an adventurous and friendly nature, but one test for selecting the pick of the litter seems rather heartless today. Let the mother choose for you, advises Nemesianus, a Roman expert on hunting dogs. Take away her puppies, surround them with an oil-soaked string and set it on fire. The mother will jump over the ring of flames and rescue each puppy, one by one, in order of their merit.

Mayor says that dogs were typically given short names that evoked ideas of things like power, speed, or beauty. Then again, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. According to Mayor,


Popular names for dogs in antiquity, translated from Greek, include Lurcher, Whitey, Blackie, Tawny, Blue, Blossom, Keeper, Fencer, Butcher, Spoiler, Hasty, Hurry, Stubborn, Yelp, Tracker, Dash, Happy, Jolly, Trooper, Rockdove, Growler, Fury, Riot, Lance, Pell-Mell, Plucky, Killer, Crafty, Swift, and Dagger.

SICILY -- POSSIBLY OLDEST REMAINS (C.570 BC) OF A TEMPLE TO DEMETER AT SELINUNTE

Archaeologists have discovered what may be among the oldest remains at the ancient site of Selinunte: an ancient temple. Inside, fragments have been found that help explain the site's significance: an offering to Demeter, the goddess of grain and agriculture; a small flute, made of bone and dating to 570 BC; a small Corinthian vase.

These findings are critically important in helping archeologists to date the temple where they were found, to around the 6th century BC - possibly the oldest in the archaeological area of Selinunte in Sicily.

They've been unearthed in recent months by a team led by Clemente Marconi of New York University, working with the Department of Culture and Identity in Sicily and Selinunte Archaeological Park Together, they've also identified the remains of a central colonnade and nearby are pottery shards dated from around 650 BC, including a long vessel decorated with grazing animals. The research confirms assumptions made about the history and age of temple.

Particularly significant, researchers say, was the discovery of the flute, which suggests musical performances and dances related to worship of the goddess Demeter, depicted on a series of Corinthian vases found in the area.

Researchers still hope to better understand the dimensions and the age of the temple, within the context of the full archeological site of Selinunte.

DESTRUCTION OF TOMBS AND OTHER ANCIENT SITES SACRED TO SUFIS CONTINUES IN TIMBUKTU, MALI

Human Rights Watch senior researcher Corinne Dufka, who is in Mali, relates that the destruction of tombs and other sites sacred to Sufis continues. And because there is no legitimate government in the country now, there's seemingly little that can be done, Dufka says. About all other African nations are trying to do is "contain and stop foreign Islamists from coming into Mali," she says.

Mali's democratically elected president was toppled in a coup earlier this year. Rebel groups have since moved to grab parts of the nation.

Meanwhile, a "serious humanitarian crisis" is growing, Dufka warns. About 300,000 people have fled to neighboring countries to avoid the fighting between various forces. There's a "looming famine," Dufka says.

Extremists from a group known as Ansar Dine, as NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton said last week on Talk of the Nation, say the tombs in Timbuktu, "these mausoleums of Muslim saints, are idolatrous."

That, of course, is the same excuse the Taliban gave about destroying the towering Buddhas in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in early 2001.

SEDIBA FOSSILS (DUBBED KARABO) ARGUABLY THE MOST COMPLETE REMAINS OF ANY HOMINIDS FOUND

The remains of a juvenile hominid skeleton, of the Australopithecus (southern ape) sediba species, constitute the "most complete early human ancestor skeleton ever discovered," according to University of Witwatersrand palaeontologist Lee Berger. "We have discovered parts of a jaw and critical aspects of the body including what appear to be a complete femur (thigh bone), ribs, vertebrae and other important limb elements, some never before seen in such completeness in the human fossil record," said Berger, a lead professor in the finding.

The latest discovery of what is thought to be around two million years old, was made in a one-meter (three-foot) wide rock that lay unnoticed for years in a laboratory until a technician noticed a tooth sticking out of the black stone last month. The technician, Justin Mukanka, said: "I was lifting the block up, I just realized that there is a tooth."

It was then scanned to reveal significant parts of an A. sediba skeleton, dubbed Karabo, whose other other parts were first discovered in 2009. Parts of three other skeletons were discovered in 2008 in the world-famous Cradle of Humankind site north of Johannesburg.

It is not certain whether the species, which had long arms, a small brain and a thumb possibly used for precision gripping, was a direct ancestor of humans' genus, Homo, or simply a close relative. "It appears that we now have some of the most critical and complete remains of the skeleton," said Berger. Other team members were equally enthusiastic.

The skeleton of what has been dubbed Karabo and is thought to date back to around two million years old, would have been aged between nine and 13 years when the upright-walking tree climber died. Remains of four A. sediba skeletons have been discovered in South Africa's Malapa cave, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Johannesburg, since 2008. The individuals are believed to have fallen into a pit in the cave and died. The sediba fossils are arguably the most complete remains of any hominids found and are possibly one of the most significant palaeoanthropological discoveries in recent time.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-safrican-scientists-pre-human-skeleton.html#jCp

EARLY "ART STUDIO" (100,000 YEARS AGO) DISCOVERED IN SOUTH AFRICA

Two shells containing a primitive paint mixture have been uncovered in South Africa, revealing what researchers believe may be the remnants of a 100 000 year old art studio. The abalone shells held a paste containing ocher, an earthy iron ore offering yellow or red hues, which may have been used for painting or body decoration, said the study in the journal Science. The shells were found at Blombos Cave near Cape Town with other tools, which suggested the users were scraping off ocher flakes and mixing them with other compounds to form a liquid paint.

Stone Age artists possibly rubbed pieces of ocher on quartzite slabs to make a fine red powder. Any chips of ocher were probably crushed with quartz hammers and mixed with hot crushed animal bone, charcoal, stone chips and some liquid. The concoction was then transferred to the shells and "gently stirred," said the study led by Christopher Henshilwood from the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

The discovery suggests that humans of the era understood some basic chemistry and were able to plan ahead to store the paint for future use, whether ceremonial, decorative or protective.

"This discovery represents an important benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition in that it shows that humans had the conceptual ability to source, combine and store substances that were then possibly used to enhance their social practices."

Scientists were able to date the quartz sediments in which the shells were found to 100 000 years ago using a process called optically stimulated luminescence dating (OSL). The absence of other archaeological remains in the area suggests the "site was used primarily as a workshop and was abandoned shortly after the compounds were made," said the study.

"Sand then blew into the cave from the outside, encapsulating the tool kits."

STUNNING MOSAIC MOSAIC FLOOR DATING TO LATE ROMAN PERIOD FOUND IN ISRAEL'S GALILEE

The excavations are being conducted by Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and David Amit and Shua Kisilevitz of the Israel Antiquities Authority, under the sponsorship of UNC, Brigham Young University in Utah, Trinity University in Texas, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Toronto in Canada. Students and staff from UNC and the consortium schools are participating in the dig. Excavations have revealed portions of a stunning mosaic floor decorating the interior of the synagogue.

Huqoq is an ancient Jewish village located approximately two to three miles west of Capernaum and Migdal (Magdala). This second season of excavations has revealed portions of a stunning mosaic floor decorating the interior of the synagogue building. The mosaic, which is made of tiny colored stone cubes of the highest quality, includes a scene depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes (as related in the book of Judges 15). In another part of the mosaic, two human (apparently female) faces flank a circular medallion with a Hebrew inscription that refersto rewards for those who performgood deeds.

“This discovery is significant because only a small number of ancient (Late Roman) synagogue buildings are decorated with mosaics showing biblical scenes, and only two others have scenes with Samson (one is at another site just a couple of miles from Huqoq),” said Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor in the department of religious studies in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. “Our mosaics are also important because of their high artistic quality and the tiny size of the mosaic cubes. This, together with the monumental size of the stones used to construct the synagogue’s walls, suggest a high level of prosperity in this village, as the building clearly was very costly.”

Excavations are scheduled to continue in summer 2013.

BABYLON (IRAQ) RUINS THREATENED BY OIL AND POLITICS

Once the center of the ancient world, Babylon has been despoiled in modern times by Saddam Hussein's fantasies of grandeur, invading armies and village sprawl.
Now come two more setbacks for the Iraqi city famous for its Hanging Gardens and Tower of Babel: Parts of its grounds have been torn up for an oil pipeline, and a diplomatic spat is hampering its bid for coveted UNESCO heritage status.

Babylon, straddling the Euphrates River some 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, was both a testament to human ingenuity and a symbol of false pride and materialism.
It produced two of the major kings of antiquity - Hammurabi, author of one of the world's oldest written legal codes, and Nebuchadnezzar II, conqueror of Jerusalem in 597 BC. With towering temples and luxurious palaces, Babylon was transformed by Nebuchadnezzar into the largest city of its time. His Hanging Gardens, according to legend a multilevel horticultural gift to his homesick wife, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The pipeline was laid in March by Iraq's Oil Ministry, overriding outraged Iraqi archaeologists and drawing a rebuke from UNESCO, the global guardian of cultural heritage. Then Iraq's tourism minister blocked official visits to the site by the World Monuments Fund, a New York-based group that is helping Babylon secure a World Heritage site designation after three rejections. It's payback for an unrelated dispute with the US over the fate of Iraq's Jewish archives, rescued from a waterlogged basement after the 2003 US-led invasion and taken to the US.

“I will make Babylon a desolate place of owls, filled with swamps and marshes. I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction,” God warns in Isaiah 14:22-23.

Today desolation and destruction are all too evident. Uncontrolled digging, paving and building have resulted from Saddam Hussein's heavy-handed attempt to replicate the splendor of a city dating back nearly 4,000 years. Since his downfall foreign troops have camped in parts of Babylon's 10 square kilometers. Growing villages are spilling onto its grounds and rising groundwater threatens the ancient mud brick ruins in the roughly 20 per cent of its area that has been excavated over the past century.

“It's a mess and there are a load of problems,” said Jeffrey Allen, a consultant for the World Monuments Fund. “A lot of this feeling you get from a major archaeological site is missing from Babylon, ”

Visitors would have to struggle to imagine the ancient city once nestled among date plantations. There are still palms, but otherwise Saddam's works overpower the scene - modern brick and mortar on brittle ruins, a wide thoroughfare and a new palace for the latter-day despot. The new oil pipeline runs 1.7 metres under Babylon for about 1.5 kilometres, alongside two other pipelines dug in the Saddam era. The Oil Ministry says no artifacts were found during the digging, and that the new pipeline is needed to ease energy. Spokesman Assem Jihad said the ministry is looking for an alternative route, but needs time. “I think this issue was blown out of proportion,” he said. The antiquities department has nonetheless sued the ministry, demanding it remove the pipeline. UNESCO said it wrote to the Iraqi authorities, expressing concern.

Meanwhile, the World Monuments Fund is trying to help authorities protect the ruins from rising groundwater caused by the government's irrigation policies, said Allen, the group's Babylon site manager. The WMF is training Iraqi staff and helping to prepare Babylon's bid for UNESCO recognition. Previously, the Saddam-era reconstructions were a major obstacle to getting the nod.

But now the WMF itself has fallen foul of officialdom. Iraq's government decided several months ago to suspend ties with US universities and institutions involved in archaeology in Iraq.

It's part of a long-running dispute over the fate of the Iraqi Jewish archives. The trove of books, photos and religious items were found in Baghdad by US troops and taken to the US for study and preservation under an agreement with Iraqi authorities that stipulated they would be returned.

Allen said he was recently prevented from visiting the site. WMF officials expressed hope the measures are temporary and that the group can continue some of its work. Qais Rashid, head of Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, said the government also called off a US training course for employees of the antiquities department.

ANCIENT BABYLONG (IRAQ) IS FACING MODERN THREAT FROM OIL AND POLITICS

Once the center of the ancient world, Babylon has been despoiled in modern times by Saddam Hussein's fantasies of grandeur, invading armies and village sprawl. Now come two more setbacks for the Iraqi city famous for its Hanging Gardens and Tower of Babel: Parts of its grounds have been torn up for an oil pipeline, and a diplomatic spat is hampering its bid for coveted UNESCO heritage status.

The pipeline was laid in March by Iraq's Oil Ministry, overriding outraged Iraqi archaeologists and drawing a rebuke from UNESCO, the global guardian of cultural heritage. Then Iraq's tourism minister blocked official visits to the site by the World Monuments Fund, a New York-based group that is helping Babylon secure a World Heritage site designation after three reject

It's payback for an unrelated dispute with the US over the fate of Iraq's Jewish archives, rescued from a waterlogged basement after the 2003 US-led invasion and taken to the US.

“I will make Babylon a desolate place of owls, filled with swamps and marshes. I will sweep the land with the broom of destruction,” God warns in Isaiah 14:22-23.

Today desolation and destruction are all too evident.

Uncontrolled digging, paving and building have resulted from Saddam Hussein's heavy-handed attempt to replicate the splendour of a city dating back nearly 4,000 years.
Since his downfall foreign troops have camped in parts of Babylon's 10 square kilometres. Growing villages are spilling onto its grounds and rising groundwater threatens the ancient mud brick ruins in the roughly 20 per cent of its area that has been excavated over the past century.

“It's a mess and there are a load of problems,” said Jeffrey Allen, a consultant for the World Monuments Fund. “A lot of this feeling you get from a major archaeological site is missing from Babylon.”

Babylon, straddling the Euphrates River some 90 kilometres south of Baghdad, was both a testament to human ingenuity and a symbol of false pride and materialism.
Visitors would have to struggle to imagine the ancient city once nestled among date plantations. There are still palms, but otherwise Saddam's works overpower the scene - modern brick and mortar on brittle ruins, a wide thoroughfare and a new palace for the latter-day despot. After he was toppled, coalition forces camped on the grounds for 20 months, according to a 2009 UNESCO report. It said they dug trenches, spread gravel and damaged parts of Babylon's famed Ishtar Gate and the Processional Way.

The new oil pipeline runs 1.7 meters under Babylon for about 1.5 kilometers, alongside two other pipelines dug in the Saddam era. The Oil Ministry says no artifacts were found during the digging, and that the new pipeline is needed to ease energy. Spokesman Assem Jihad said the ministry is looking for an alternative route, but needs time. “I think this issue was blown out of proportion,” he said.

The antiquities department has nonetheless sued the ministry, demanding it remove the pipeline. UNESCO said it wrote to the Iraqi authorities, expressing concern.

Meanwhile, the World Monuments Fund is trying to help authorities protect the ruins from rising groundwater caused by the government's irrigation policies, said Allen, the group's Babylon site manager. The WMF is training Iraqi staff and helping to prepare Babylon's bid for UNESCO recognition. Previously, the Saddam-era reconstructions were a major obstacle to getting the nod. But now the WMF itself has fallen foul of officialdom. Iraq's government decided several months ago to suspend ties with US universities and institutions involved in archaeology in Iraq.

It's part of a long-running dispute over the fate of the Iraqi Jewish archives. The trove of books, photos and religious items were found in Baghdad by US troops and taken to the US for study and preservation under an agreement with Iraqi authorities that stipulated they would be returned.

LEBANON'S SITE OF SIDON REVEALS MANY DISCOVERIES -- MUSEUM TO BE BUILT

Excavations led by a delegation from the British Museum at the Frères’ archaeological site in the old city of Sidon have unearthed more important antiquities during their 14th year. Preparations also got under way for the construction of a museum to display the findings at the site. The construction is due to begin in September.

Discoveries at the site since excavations began in 1998 have revealed artifacts from the Early Bronze Age, which began around 3,000 B.C., through to the Iron Age, which covered around 1,200-539 B.C. Among the latest discoveries was a particular type of Phoenician architecture, which the archaeologists said was not commonly found in Lebanon, consisting of stones cut for the construction of walls or floors.

Over 50 amphorae were also found, as well as a stunning Attic vase, depicting two riders going to war wearing white tunics and holding spears. Excavations also turned up further graves in addition to those found in previous years, dating to the second millennium, bringing the total number of graves found at the site to 122. Among the latest discoveries was a Mesopotamian-style cylinder seal, which was used to roll pictures onto surfaces, featuring the God of water and the Goddess Lama.

Archaeologists also found further evidence that shelters were constructed at the time of burial, and food such as lentils, chickpeas and beans were consumed. Among the findings this year were a platform used around 1,600 B.C. within a large temple built for burial ceremonies.

Also among the discoveries in Sidon was a coin depicting the legend of Europa, a Phoenician woman who was abducted by Zeus disguised as a white bull and taken to Crete, increasing speculation that Europa may have been a Sidonian.

The head of the British Museum delegation in Lebanon, Claude Doumit Serhal, said the Frères’ site “can now summarize the history of Sidon and of the civilizations that lived there for 6,000 years, and also removes the mystery of some stages that were missing from Sidon’s history.”

YEMEN SITE YIELDS TOOLS FROM 63,000 YEARS AGO -- TOOL MAKERS VERY FAR INLAND A SURPRISE!

Stone Age tools uncovered in Yemen point to humans leaving Africa and inhabiting Arabia perhaps as far back as 63,000 years ago, archaeologists report from the site of Shi'bat Dihya located in a wadi, or gully, that connects Yemen's highlands to the coastal plains of the Red Sea.

The age of the site puts it squarely at a time when early modern humans were thought to be first emigrating from Eastern Africa to the rest of the world. "The Arabian Peninsula is routinely considered as the corridor where migrating East African populations would have passed during a single or multiple dispersal events," says the study.

"It has also been suggested that the groups who colonized South Asia rapidly expanded from South and East Africa along the Arabian coastlines, bringing with them a modern behavioral package including microlithic (stone) backed tools, ostrich-eggshell beads or engraved fragments.

One new site is the study's subject, Shi'bat Dihya, located along the Wadi Sudud. Excavating down to a level dating to perhaps 63,000 years ago, when the region was quite arid, the team found some "5,488 artifacts" -- Stone Age blades, pointed blades and pointed flakes, nearly an inch long or longer, as well as the bones of 97 animals, mostly cows, horses, pigs and porcupines.

Finding tool-makers so far inland, nearly 75 miles from the coast, surprised the study team, as most models of human expansion picture our ancestors migrating along the coasts on their way to Europe and Asia. "The adaptation of the occupants of Wadi Sudud to an arid environment significantly nuances the environmental determinism inherent in nearly all models concerning the peopling of southern Arabia," says the study.

Most intriguing, the stone tools found at the site fall into the tradition of older Stone Age tools, rather than ones associated with the early modern humans thought to have left Africa roughly 60,000 years ago. They might have belonged to descendants of earlier modern human migrants from Africa who established themselves in Arabia despite its desert conditions. Or maybe they belonged to a sister human species, our Neanderthal cousins, suggest the researchers:

"Our fieldwork at the Wadi Surdud in Yemen demonstrates that during the period of the supposed expansion of modern humans out of Africa (60,000 to 50,000 years ago), and their rapid dispersal toward south-eastern Asia along the western and southern Arabian coastlines, the interior of this region was, in fact, occupied by well-adapted human groups who developed their own local technological tradition, deeply rooted in the Middle Paleolithic. Future research will likely reveal whether the archaeological assemblages recovered from the Wadi Surdud can be associated with the descendents of anatomically modern human groups who occupied the Arabian Peninsula during (this era) or the southernmost expansion of the Neanderthals."

P.S. on the Thessaloniki Roman Road

This is the famous Via Egnatia, of course. It has been unearthed over huge distances, and it is quite fascinating how these old arteries survive and function till now. The modern highways practically follow the same route east-west and I am sure the pre-Roman people traveled the same paths, too (maybe as far back as the Neolithic)