WEAPONS FOUND ON BUILDING SITE IN LONDON WILL GO ON SHOW

Ancient weapons discovered on a building site will go on display at the Museum of London Docklands. The group of 453 artifacts found in Havering, east London, is the third largest ever discovered in the UK. It "adds immensely to our understanding of Bronze Age life", Historic England said.

The find, which dates from between 800 BC and 900 BC, was officially declared treasure by a coroner earlier this year. The discovery, dubbed the Havering Hoard, was uncovered last September, and will form the centrepiece of a major exhibition from April.
Archaeologists believed the manner in which the weapons had been so carefully buried in groups close together suggested the site could have been a metal workers' former vault or an armoury recycling bank or exchange, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

"The finds have already taught us a great deal about this distant age, and ongoing analysis and public outreach means that many more people will benefit from this window into the past thanks to this example of successful development-led archaeology." Archaeologists believe the site could have been a metal workers' former vault

"It's incredibly rare to have uncovered four separate hoards of such size on one site. "This discovery is also of huge importance due to the deliberate placement of each deposit and raises questions as to why this treasure was buried in this way and why it was never recovered. "These questions and more will be investigated in the exhibition."

INTRIGUING GREEK ORIGINS OF MARSEILLE FRANCE'S OLDEST CITY

Currently the second-largest city in France and definitely among the oldest in Europe, Marseille can trace its origins back to 600 BC, when the first Greeks arrived in the area and established a trading colony. This was at a time when many Phocaeans left their homeland in today’s Turkey (then Greek-speaking Asia Minor), and reached the northern shores of the Western Mediterranean. They found a locale which could easily accommodate a large port and in a few years’ time, a new Greek colony had been established. Its name was ”ΜΑΣΣΑΛΙΑ” (”Massalia”).

The entire coastal region comprised of the modern regions of Catalonia, Spain and France had seen the arrival of many Ionian Greeks before that time, during their expeditions to the West to find new places to live and people to trade with. Nonetheless, the city of Massalia itself was indeed established by Phocaeans, as they were the first to settle permanently there. These first Greek settlers of the port city very soon established a wide network of trade relationships with neighboring cities, not only along the coast but into the French mainland areas as well, where various Celt tribes once lived.

The “Massaliotes,” as the Greeks of Marseille were known, first established good relations with other neighboring Greek colonies in the region beginning in the early stages of their colonization.

Shipments of Greek produce constantly arrived at the region’s ports, and ancient Gaul was able to form a consistent, well-established network of communications and relations with the metropolitan areas of Greece via their colonies, especially Marseille. During the following centuries, the people of Marseille continued to traded with the entire Mediterranean region, and the port grew in importance and size. Consequently, a great deal of pottery, artwork, coins and other objects from that period have been discovered all over France, from the southern to the very northern extremes of the country.

Greek coinage was freely circulating across France, local Celtic tribes were using Greek themes to make their own coins, and the whole region was heavily influenced by the Greek settlers’ ”soft power” of commerce and trade. Their influence even reached the shores of Britain, where local coins discovered in Kent and Surrey have depictions of Apollo. These coins are believed to have been influenced by the designs used in Marseille.

Of course, as the centuries went by, the Romans arrived, other peoples and tribes made it to the shores of southern France, and history moved on. However, the distinctive Greek origins of Marseille have somehow managed to remain intact in the city’s psyche to this very day.

HERCULANEUM HOUSE CONSERVED AND OPENED TO THE PUBLIC

NAPLES, ITALY

—According to a Reuters report, Herculaneum’s House of the Bicentenary, a lavish three-story property boasting more than 6,000 square feet of living space, has reopened following extensive conservation.

Gaius Petronius Stephanus and his wife Calantonia Themis lived in the House of the Bicentenary, which is located on the main street of the ancient Roman town buried by about 50 feet of volcanic ash during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

Herculaneum was smaller than Pompeii, which is located about ten miles to the south, but is thought to have been inhabited by wealthier Romans. Archaeologist Domenico Camardo of the Herculaneum Conservation Project said a sliding wooden grill, placed at the entrance to the building, survived the disaster. The house, discovered in 1938 and named after the 200th anniversary of the first excavations in the ancient city, was closed to the public in 1983 for restoration and repair, including the removal of a coating that had been applied to its frescoes which had caused the paint to flake

“It was an occasion to develop new, innovative materials and methods for conservation that can be used in the site and elsewhere,” the Getty Conservation Institute's Leslie Rainer explained. To read more about Herculaneum's frescoes, go to "Putting on a New Face."

VIVID GLADIATOR FRESCO DISCOVERED AT POMPEII

The fresco was uncovered in what experts think was a tavern frequented by gladiators. A vivid fresco depicting an armour-clad gladiator standing victorious as his wounded opponent stumbles gushing blood has been discovered in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy's culture ministry said Friday.

The striking scene in gold, blue and red was uncovered in what experts think was a tavern frequented by gladiators, who fought each other, prisoners and wild animals for the public's entertainment. A "Murmillo" fighter wearing a plumed, wide-brimmed helmet with visor, holds aloft his large rectangular shield in his left hand, as he grips his short sword in the right. On the ground next to him lies the shield of the defeated "Thraex", who has suffered deep wounds and is on the point of collapse. "What is particularly interesting is the extremely realistic representation of the wounds, such as the one on the wrist and chest of the unsuccessful gladiator, from which the blood runs, wetting his leggings," Osanna said. "The Thraex is gesturing with his hand, possibly asking for mercy," he said.

The fresco—which measures 1.12 metres by 1.5 metres—was found in what excavators believe was a basement room, as the imprint of a wooden staircase can be seen above it. It was found in what excavators believe was a basement room
Treasures of a ruined city The building was situated not far from the gladiators' barracks in Regio V, an entire quarter of the site that has recently offered up several impressive archaeological finds but is yet to open to the public. It was most likely a tavern with an upper floor of rooms used either by the innkeeper or by prostitutes, the ministry said.

The discovery was made during works to secure an area of the north of the archaeological park under the Great Pompeii Project, launched after years of bad maintenance and poor weather caused a series of wall collapses. The ruined city in southern Italy is the second most visited tourist site in the country, after the Colosseum in Rome, with more than 3.6 million visitors in 2018.

ISRAEL ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER ANCIENT CITY

Israel's Antiquities Authority on Sunday said that researchers have discovered the remains of a large, 5,000-year-old city that sheds new light on experts' understanding of the period. Calling it a "cosmopolitan and planned city," the authority said the early Bronze Age settlement covered 65 hectares (160 acres) and was home to about 6,000 people. "In this city, we have a planned settlement with a whole net of streets and alleys and squares, and drainage installations, storage installation," said Yitzhak Paz, a director of excavation on behalf of the authority. The city was discovered during preparations for a highway interchange project near Harish, a town some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv.

Researchers said the discovery "dramatically changes" their understanding of the period—a time in which a rural, agrarian society was beginning to establish urban sites. They said that residents made their living from agriculture and traded with other regions and kingdoms. Among the discoveries was an unusual ritual temple, burnt animal bones—evidence of sacrificial offerings—and a figurine of a human head. There also were millions of pottery fragments, flint tools and stone vessels.

"The remains of residential buildings, diverse facilities and the public buildings are an indication of the organized society and the social hierarchy that existed at the time," the researchers said. The Antiquities Authority said that during the dig, archaeologists also found evidence of an earlier settlement dating back 7,000 years underneath the city's houses.

TWO REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES IN LUXOR

The first discovery as recounted by Hawass was in the West Valley, also known as the Valley of the Monkeys, and the second one was in the East Valley, which houses the famed pharaonic tombs.

Hawass said that the Egyptian expedition has uncovered “an industrial area” for the first time ever in the location. The Expedition has been working in the Valley of the Monkeys since December 2017. He further added that the area houses an oven tailor made for making clay products, and a water storage tank used by workmen. The findings discovered at the site include: a scarab ring and hundreds of inlay beads and golden objects which were used to decorate royal coffins. Some of the discovered inlays are decorated with the wings of Horus. Hawss announced as well that the discovery of 30 workshops is very important. They are comprised of storage buildings and buildings for the cleaning of the funerary furniture, and contained many pottery finds dated to the eighteenth dynasty.

The Egyptian expedition has also discovered a royal tomb, labelled KV 65. They found inside it tools used for tomb construction.
Hawass said that the expedition that is working in the East Valley is the largest excavation which has taken place since the time of Howard Carter. It is searching for tombs that have never been found before, as well as those of the wives and sons of the kings of the eighteenth dynasty buried in the Valley of the Kings, since the Valley of the Queens did not start taking on burials until the beginning of that dynasty.

The expedition is working near the tomb of Ramses VII, the tomb of Hatshepsut, the tomb of Ramses III and behind the tomb of Merenptah, the son of Ramses II. The expedition also excavated the surroundings of Tutankhamun tomb. It found many important objects.

NEW BOOK ABOUT MASADA BY JODI MAGNESS

Jodi Magness trudged across the barren moonscape atop Masada, pointing to where King Herod’s majestic lush gardens would have stood 2,000 years before. The topsoil, she said, would have been brought in baskets from more fertile pastures. An intricate man-powered watering system kept the spacious, planted grounds moist.

As the pioneering archaeologist gestured to an impossibly large swimming pool — in Herod’s day filled with buckets by hand — the movie “Dune” surfaced from the recesses of my heat-addled brain: “He who controls the water, controls the universe.”
It was a hot July morning on the deserted palatial plateau overlooking the salty Dead Sea. But with almost indefatigable energy, the 63-year-old scholar in pink dodged throngs of tourists and led The Times of Israel to a massive underground water cistern, one of 18 that sustained settlement here.

Today, Magness is mostly associated with her excavation of an outstandingly worked, colorful mosaic flooring at an early synagogue at Huqoq, north of Tiberias, where she has dug since 2011.

Complicating the narrative further, said Magness, Josephus’s Jewish War — the sole ancient source for the fall of Masada — was subsidized by the Roman empire. By elevating the rebel Eleazar ben Yair as the tragic hero, Rome’s Flavian dynasty emperors actually elevated themselves.

At the age of 12, inspired by a classical history teacher, Magness decided she wanted to be an archaeologist. She left her home in Miami at 16 to finish high school at a boarding school on her own in Israel’s Negev desert and ended up witnessing the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Later as a young undergrad at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she studied with Yadin.


What the work does best is set the stage for the period prior to the Jewish rebellion. At times it reads like a series of fascinating academic lectures — Herod 101 — as Magness explores the predecessors to the mighty ruthless king, and his descendants and legacy. (Interestingly, although the site is a jewel of architect Herod’s crown, there is no evidence that he ever set foot here.)

As one of Israel’s foremost tourist sites, Masada is well maintained and safety is utmost. The 20-40 minute climb up or down the Snake Path could be risky during summer heat. But even during the high summer season, adventurous visitors seeking to retrace the Roman Legionnaires’ steps can still walk up the relatively easy rampart way — and even tread upon millennial-old, well-preserved planks.

Archaeological excavations are ongoing high on the hill. But looking out into the distance upon the clear uniform outlines of the Roman camps below, Magness smiled and said, “Everybody pays attention to what’s on top of the mountain. I like to see what’s at the bottom.”