Egipto llega al Museo Nacional de las Culturas

Egipto llega al Museo Nacional de las Culturas


El recinto más antiguo del país dedicará todo agosto a esta antigua civilización faraónica, con una serie de actividades gratuitas como conferencias, talleres, cine y libros.




Redacción Online


Este verano, Egipto llega al Museo Nacional de las Culturas (MNC) en un ciclo de actividades totalmente gratuitas, como conferencias, un ciclo de cine, talleres y una kermés donde habrá comida, libros, juguetes y más elementos de esta milenaria civilización. El programa se complementa con visitas guiadas por la Sala de Egipto, que alberga la colección de objetos más importante que se exhibe en México.



Actividades en agosto



Las actividades tendrán lugar durante todo agosto en las instalaciones del MNC, el museo más antiguo del país —ubicado en el corazón del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México (calle Moneda 13)—, y el único del territorio nacional dedicado a mostrar la diversidad cultural del orbe.



Martes a las 16:00 horas.



El 7 de agosto abrirá el ciclo literario Egipto y el buen gobierno, donde se discutirán las formas de regir en aquel país; se analizarán obras como Enseñanzas para Merikara o El campesino elocuente, lo mismo que escritos del gobernante Mohammed Ali, en torno a la creación de los califatos impulsados por él. Tendrá lugar todos los martes a las 16:00 horas.


Miércoles a las 17:00 horas


Se realizará el ciclo de conferencias Egipto visto desde diferentes perspectivas, con la participación de cuatro egiptólogos

Mohamed Zabady, especialista en Letras Hispanas por la Universidad de El Cairo, dictará el 8 de agosto la conferencia Vida contemporánea de Egipto, mediante la cual ofrecerá —desde su óptica joven, literaria e intelectual— una explicación de la actual revolución de su país.

Egipto visto a través de las industrias culturales, título de la segunda conferencia, será dictada el 15 de agosto por Juan Javier Gómez, ilustrador y animador profesional, especialista en egiptología.

La penúltima conferencia, programada para el 22 de agosto, estará a cargo de Antonio Valcárcel, egresado de la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia y maestro en Historia Antigua por la Universidad de Granada, quien disertará en torno al tema de Akhenatón y el monoteísmo.

La última conferencia se impartirá el 29 de agosto, y versará sobre Los cánones artísticos y la iconografía, que dictará el arqueólogo Gerardo Taber.



Conviértete en arqueólogo


El Museo Nacional de las Culturas impartirá talleres donde niños y adultos podrán convertirse en arqueólogos que descubren máscaras y huesos enterrados en las antiguas tumbas egipcias, los participantes conocerán en una experiencia lúdica el método para hacer exploraciones, también analizarán jeroglíficos, contarán historias sobre sarcófagos y pintarán emulando a los antiguos artistas egipcios. Estas actividades se efectuarán todos los sábados y domingos de agosto a las 12:00 horas.



Cine egipcio



Proyectarán películas todos los jueves a las 15:00 horas; antes de cada proyección se impartirá una conferencia sobre distintos aspectos de esta civilización.



•El 2 de agosto se impartirá la conferencia La medicina y la magia en el antiguo Egipto, y la película The Egyptian (1954) de Michael Curtiz
•El 9 de agosto:  ponencia La momificación y los rituales funerario y el filme The Mummy, de Karl Freund (1932)
•El 16 de agosto: la plática El mito de la maldición de los faraones y la cinta The Awakening, de Mike Newe (1980)
•El 23 de agosto: La egiptomanía y la proyección de Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec, de Luc Besson (2010)
•El 30 de agosto: la charla La construcción de las pirámides de Guiza y la película Land of the Pharaohs, de Howard Hawks (1955).




Recorridos especiales por la sala de Egipto: La vida en las dos tierras, Reino de Horus y Reino de Osiris, guiados por el curador y arqueólogo Gerardo Taber. A partir de una introducción de la dualidad vida-muerte, se podrá la idiosincrasia de los antiguos egipcios, desde la etapa Predinástica (5500-3200 a.C.) hasta el Periodo Romano (30 a.C. – 640 d.C.).


La sala dedicada a la cultura egipcia exhibe 160 piezas originales, que datan de 4500 a.C. a 200 d.C.; entre los objetos más significativos que puede disfrutar el visitante está el único sarcófago egipcio original que se exhibe al público en México, cuya antigüedad es de 3,200 años; así como una colección de vasijas funerarias y paletas cosméticas de 7,000 años, que destacan por ser las piezas más antiguas del museo.

 Cultura y Entretenimiento
Martes, 31 de Julio de 2012 08:03

Redactor: Margarita Vega
http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=32655&Itemid=26

Decomisan dos sarcófagos egipcios en aduana de Laredo

Entre las dos piezas aseguradas se encontraban, además, una máscara de madera con ojos de alguna piedra preciosa y la figura de una mujer de pie con estuco pintado sobre lino.

Nuevo Laredo • Personal de la aduana de Laredo, Texas, aseguró dos sarcófagos egipcios que se comprobó que son auténticos, en tanto se llevan a cabo las investigaciones para verificar su legal importación a Estados Unidos y su posible retorno a Egipto.
De acuerdo con un comunicado de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP, por sus siglas en inglés), la incautación de las dos piezas se realizó en el Puente Mundial de Comercio que utilizan Laredo, Texas, y Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, para sus operaciones comerciales.
El envío de los sarcófagos incluía algunas antigüedades también auténticas, originarias de Egipto, y que se investiga sin han sido sacadas de ese país de manera ilegal, por lo que se solicitó el apoyo de agentes de seguridad interna para investigar la posibilidad de un robo de piezas antiguas de Egipto.
El director adjunto de puerto en Laredo, José Uribe, dijo que por la falta de documentación de quienes pretendían importarlos a Estados Unidos, dichas piezas arqueológicas podrían ser embargadas.
"Este decomiso refleja el buen trabajo colaborativo entre oficiales de la CBP, especialistas en importación y Seguridad Interna (HSI), para garantizar la aplicación de la legislación de Estados Unidos y protección de bienes culturales", expresó.
Entre las dos piezas aseguradas se encontraban, además, una máscara de madera con ojos de alguna piedra preciosa y la figura de una mujer de pie con estuco pintado sobre lino.
El Ministerio Egipcio de Estado para Antigüedades hace ya gestiones para el regreso de los sarcófagos a Egipto, por ser el país que reclama su legítima propiedad al considerarlas tesoro nacional.
En tanto, la aduana americana seguirá con el proceso de decomiso para un eventual retorno al país de Oriente Medio.

 http://tamaulipas.milenio.com/cdb/doc/noticias2011/4bebf627c557d45f6c373222dfbaf5f3

U.S. border patrols find rare artifacts

Daniel González



At a conservation center in Tucson, archaeologists are studying several ancient Native American pots discovered earlier this year deep in the remote desert mountains of southern Arizona.
The archaeologists believe the pots are hundreds of years old but still haven't determined their exact age or who made them. That could take a year or more.
But what they do know is that the discovery of the pots was a rare and unusual find.

The reddish-brown pots, which likely stored water and food, were intact when they were found in mountainous alcoves of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which lies just north of the U.S.-Mexico border and west of the Tohono O'odham Reservation. Most of the ancient pottery found these days are shards.
Sitting on the surface in sandy soil, they had been undisturbed since they were carefully placed there by human hands.
What's more, the pots were discovered not by archaeologists digging through ruins, but by U.S. Border Patrol agents looking for signs of illegal immigrants hiding in the mountains.
"This is a one of a kind, for sure, these pots," said Mario Escalante, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers most of southern Arizona.
The discovery may have prevented the artifacts from falling into the hands of illegal pot hunters known to loot artifacts from Native American sites and sell them on the black market, said Sue Walter, chief of interpretation at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Won't reveal location

The pots were discovered as a result of Border Patrol agents increasingly trekking into remote reaches of the Arizona desert searching for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers trying to evade beefed-up border security, Escalante said.
Agents found the first vessel, a large pot 18 inches wide, in February in a mountainous area of the park.
In March, less than a month later, agents found three more clay vessels -- two pots and a bowl -- inside another alcove in the same area.
Border Patrol and National Park Service officials won't divulge any details about the area where the pots were found. They don't want to attract illegal pot hunters trying to find more artifacts.
About 95 percent of the 330,688-acre Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is designated wilderness.
"These particular pots were found in a very remote area. They are areas we don't get to on a regular basis. It was a real stroke of luck," said Connie Gibson, the park's archaeologist and cultural-resources program manager.
There are "thousands and thousands of alcoves" in the park, and the pots "apparently sat there undisturbed for hundreds of years, possibly a thousand years," she said.
Archaeologists believe the first pot found by Border Patrol agents was an olla used for holding water.
It was found partially buried in the soil in a little depression, Gibson said.
The three other artifacts were found clustered together inside a second alcove. They were two pots about 12 inches wide and one small bowl, Gibson said.

Cultural crossroads

The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is known for the multi-armed cactuses that resemble organ pipes, or giant hands emerging from the ground, fingers reaching for the sky.
The area was once a major cultural center and crossroads for the Hohokam, the prehistoric people who occupied the land that is now central and southern Arizona.
But the park is also a popular corridor for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs because of its extremely remote location and desolate mountains, which provide opportunities to evade law-enforcement officials.
In August 2002, National Park Service Ranger Kris Eggle was shot and killed while chasing members of a drug-cartel hit squad who fled into the United States after committing a string of murders in Mexico, according to park officials. The park's visitor center was later renamed in honor of Eggle.
A 2003National Geographic article labeled the park "the most dangerous" in the U.S.
The illegal cross-border activity forced the National Park Service to close 97 percent of the park, leaving only the visitor center and the campground open to the public, said Walter, the park's chief of interpretation.
But the addition of more Border Patrol agents, fencing, technology and other security measures has allowed the park to gradually reopen more areas, she said.
About 50 percent of the park is now open to the public, she said.

'Fine balance' displayed

Illegal immigrants often hide in caves, said Escalante, the Border Patrol spokesman.
That is what prompted agents from the Border Patrol's Ajo station to examine the area while on a foot patrol, Escalante said.
The pots' reddish-brown color made them blend in with the soil, making them difficult to detect inside the alcoves, Border Patrol officials said.
The agents recognized that the objects were some sort of Indian artifacts, Escalante said.
The agents took pictures of the pots without disturbing the area, then reported the discoveries later to supervisors, Escalante said.
The agents' foresight showed "fine balance between conducting law enforcement activities and preserving our nation's historical natural resources," Jack Jeffreys, the Ajo station's patrol agent in charge, said in a statement.
After a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation, who trace their ancestors to the Hohokam, conducted a ceremony, National Park Service archaeologists removed the pots and transported them to the Western Archaeological and Conservation Center in Tucson, which is administered by the National Park Service.
The center, which is not open to the public, contains more than 24,000 artifacts found on national parks and monuments in the western region.
Sue Wells, the center's museum curator, was reluctant to talk about the pots for fear of stirring interest from pot hunters.
Pot hunting is illegal on state and federal land, and looters face stiff penalties, she said.
"It is a bad idea to plant in people's minds," she said.
Archaeologists at the center are still trying to identity the pots, Wells said. She did not know how long that could take.
Finding intact pots is very unusual, said Patrick Lyons, associate director and head of collections at the Arizona State Museum. "It might be every 10 years."
The discovery is significant because pottery can tell us "lots and lots of things about ancient people," he said.
Through residue analysis, archaeologists can often determine what was cooked or stored in pots, revealing information about the diets of ancient people, he said.
For example, in 2009, University of New Mexico archaeology professor Patricia Crown concluded that cocoa had been brought to the American Southwest as early as about A.D. 1100 after finding traces of the ingredient for making chocolate in clay shards from drinking cups found in Chaco Canyon, ancient ruins in western New Mexico.
That discovery indicated that people living in the American Southwest 900 to 1,000 years ago had contact with people living thousands of miles away in Central America.
"Pretty amazing stuff," Lyons said.
Studying the pots' clay can also tell archaeologists important information about where they were made.
That's because pots found in one place may not have been made by the people who inhabited that area, Lyons said.
"There was a lot of exchange of pottery in the prehistoric era and that marks relationships between different groups of prehistoric people," he said.
He said the pots likely belonged to various groups of prehistoric tribes based in the area where they were found, including the Hohokam and the Tohono O'odham.
But determining who made them is difficult even if they look similar to other pots found in the same area.
Ancient people from different groups often traded pots, he said. Ancient people also copied pots from other cultures. They also carried pots with them when they migrated to new areas, Lyons said.
"We investigate all of those possibilities using different kinds of scientific techniques," Lyons said.
As for the pots found by the Border Patrol agents, archaeologists are still in the process of trying to identity them, Wells said.
That could take several more months or longer, she said. Eventually, however, the pots could go on display at a museum, she said.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/07/25/20120725border-patrols-ancient-pottery.html#ixzz22CPZDIl4

Ancient ritual platforms discovered in Iranian hill

Archaeologists have excavated ancient ritual platforms dating back to Iron Age in Jeyran hill located in the Iranian province of North Khorasan.

Concerning their specifications, the platforms discovered in Iran are unique, said deputy head of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) for cultural heritage affairs in North Khorasan as well as team leader Ali Akbar Vahdati.

He also noted that similar platforms have been unearthed in several Middle Asian countries such as Turkmenistan so far.

The studies demonstrate that the platforms do not yield the area as a residential sector, Vahdati explained.

The experts suggest that people, inhabited the region about 1500 years ago, used the place for ritual ceremonies and paid tribute to these platforms.

While a number of graves have also been found in the area, archaeologists believe the ancient inhabitants of the region used to put their dead in open space, then buried them after performing rituals.

FGP/PKH


http://www.presstv.ir/detail/252236.html

Colosseum in Rome is leaning, officials say

Experts say ancient building has started to tilt, with south side 40cm lower than north, and may need urgent repairs

 Reuters in Rome
guardian.co.uk,Monday 30 July 2012 12.22 BST


The ancient Colosseum in Rome is slanting about 40cm lower on the south side than on the north, and authorities are investigating whether it needs urgent repairs.
Experts first noticed the incline about a year ago and have been monitoring it for the past few months, Rossella Rea, director at the 2,000-year-old monument, said in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, another of Italy's most popular attractions, was reopened in 2001 after being shut for more than a decade as engineers worked to prevent it from falling over and to make it safe for visitors.
Rea has asked La Sapienza University and the environmental geology institute IGAG to study the problem and report back in a year.
Tests have begun to observe the effects that traffic on nearby busy roads may have on the monument.
Prof Giorgio Monti, from La Sapienza's construction technology department, said there might be a crack in the base below the amphitheatre.
"The slab of concrete on which the Colosseum rests, which is like a 13-metre-thick oval doughnut, may have a fracture inside it," he told the newspaper.
He said intervention could be necessary if the concerns are confirmed, along the lines of stabilisation work carried out in Pisa, but he said it was too early to judge what kind of intervention would be most suitable.
The Colosseum – famous for hosting bloody gladiator fights in the days of the Roman empire – attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists and is usually packed with visitors.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/30/colosseum-rome-leaning-officials-say?INTCMP=SRCH

Archaeologists from Bonn discover in Mexico the tomb of a Maya prince

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Cup provided key clue

Archaeologists from the Department of Anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn have been excavating for the past four years together with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History in the Maya city of Uxul in Campeche, Mexico. The aim of the excavation project under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nikolai Grube and Dr. Kai Delvendahl is to investigate the process of centralization and collapse of hegemonic state structures in the Maya Lowlands using the example of a mid-sized classic Maya city (Uxul) and its ties to a supra-regional center (Calakmul). Research at Uxul, located close to the border with Guatemala, is being funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Since 2011, excavations have concentrated on the royal palace complex, which is located directly south of the main plazas in the center of Uxul. The palace extends 120 x 130 meters and consists of at least eleven individual buildings which surround five courtyards. "The palace complex was built around 650 AD, a time when the neighboring ruling dynasty from Calakmul was extending its influence over large areas of the Maya Lowlands," explains Professor Grube. In 2011, six sculpted panels were discovered during excavations of the southern stairway of the largest building of the group, Structure K2. Four of these panels depict kings from Calakmul, playing ball. The similarities in the layout of the centers of Calakmul and Uxul and especially of the main palace complexes in the two cities let the researchers to suggest that Uxul, originally a smaller independent kingdom, may have been temporarily ruled and inhabited by members of the Kaan Dynasty of Calakmul. Through recent excavations in several of Uxul´s central buildings, the changes in the physiognomy of the city´s center can be linked directly to the time of military and political expansion of the Kaan Dynasty during the reign of Yukno´m Ch´een II, in the first half of the 7th century. However, the influence subsided after 705 AD, and there is a strong likelihood that a local ruling family came back to power for a few generations. At the start of the 9th century, Uxul was almost completely abandoned.
Richly furnished tomb "During this year´s excavation below one of the southern rooms of Structure K2, we have discovered a richly furnished tomb, which can be dated to the time right after the influence of Calakmul in Uxul had ended" explains Dr. Delvendahl. The walls of the crypt are made of rough stone and the chamber was covered with a corbel vault, typical for the Maya culture. In the interior of this tomb chamber which dates back about 1,300 years, the remains of a young man were discovered who was buried on his back with his arms folded. Deposited around him were four ceramic plates and five ceramic vases in an exceptionally preserved state, some of which were decorated with spectacular paintings and moldings. A unique plate, painted in the famed Codex-Style, was covering the skull of the deceased.
Vessel with dedication may point to the identity of the deceased "On one of the vases, there was a simple dedication, written in elegantly molded hieroglyphics, which read: '[This is] the drinking vessel of the young man/prince'. Also a second molded vessel appears to mention a young man or prince" says Professor Grube. Although these references are not definite clues as to the identity of the departed, the location of the tomb and the absence of certain status markers, such as jade jewelry, would indicate that the deceased was a young male member of the ruling family who was not in direct line for the throne. A possible date on one of the vessels corresponds to the year 711 AD; therefore the death of the young prince and the construction of his tomb can be dated back to the second or third decade of the 8th century. The exceptionally preserved ceramics in particular make this tomb one of the most significant discoveries of its kind in the entire Maya Lowlands.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/uob-afb073012.php

 

What Vikings really looked like

Were Vikings really dirty savages who wore horned helmets, or did they look like we do today? Here’s what the experts say.

 By: Irene Berg Sørensen


There’s no shortage of myths about the appearance of our notorious Viking ancestors.
To find out more about these myths, ScienceNordic’s Danish partner site, videnskab.dk, asked its Facebook readers to list their favourite myths about what the Vikings looked like.
We have picked out five myths from the resulting debate and asked researchers to help us confirm or bust these myths.
Armed with this information, our graphic designer then took a shot at drawing some examples of our infamous forefathers, which you can see in our picture gallery.
The five myths are:

1. Vikings were dirty and unkempt
2. Vikings wore horned helmets
3. Vikings looked like we do today
4. Vikings’ clothing style was admired throughout the world
5. Vikings’ appearance was marked by battle wounds

MYTH 1: Vikings were dirty and unkempt

Unwashed, rough warriors with froth hanging out of the corners of the mouth. Popular culture portrays the Viking as a somewhat filthy person


But that’s unlikely to be true:

Historians also use the famous Bayeux Tapestry as a source when trying to determine what the Vikings looked like. The tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

“Several archaeological finds have revealed tweezers, combs, nail cleaners, ear cleaners and toothpicks from the Viking Age," says Louise Kæmpe Henriksen, the curator at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.
The finds suggest that cleanliness meant a lot to the Vikings. Written sources from medieval England also back up this view. In his chronicle from 1220 – a couple of centuries after the Vikings had ravaged England – John of Wallingford described the Vikings as well-groomed heartbreakers:
”They had also conquered, or planned to conquer, all the country’s best cities and caused many hardships for the country’s original citizens, for they were – according to their country’s customs – in the habit of combing their hair every day, to bathe every Saturday, to change their clothes frequently and to draw attention to themselves by means of many such frivolous whims. In this way, they sieged the married women’s virtue and persuaded the daughters of even noble men to become their mistresses,” wrote Wallingford.
There are, however, sources that paint a contrasting picture:
“The Arab ambassador IBN Fadlan, who met a group of Vikings on the Volga, described them as the filthiest of Allah’s creatures,” says Henriksen.
“But the Arabs were Muslims and came from a culture where people were supposed to bathe before each of their five daily prayers, whereas the Vikings may only have bathed once a week.”

Vikings with neat beards and reverse mullets

It wasn’t enough just to be clean. The hair also had to be styled right

From picture sources we know that the Vikings had well-groomed beards and hair. The men had long fringes and short hair on the back of the head," she says, adding that the beard could be short or long, but it was always well-groomed. Further down on the neck, the skin was shaved.
Two sources support this view:
One is a three-dimensional carved male head on a wagon in the Oseberg ship burial mound in Norway. The man’s hair is well groomed and he has an elegant long moustache and a chin beard that reaches up to his moustache, but apparently not out to the cheeks.
The second source is an anonymous Old English letter in which a man admonishes his brother to follow the Anglo-Saxon practice and not give in to ‘Danish fashion with a shaved neck and blinded eyes’. Blinded eyes probably meant a long fringe.
The women’s hair was usually long. It was probably tied into a knot on the back of the head, and the knot may have been decorated with coloured tape, which was braided into the hair. The women also wore a bonnet or a scarf around their heads.

MYTH 2: Vikings wore horned helmets

When you see a Viking in cartoons, games or in movies, he’s often depicted with a horned helmet on his head. But real Vikings did not wear these horned helmets.
It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that people started drawing Vikings wearing horned helmets because the villains in a popular Wagner opera wore such helmets.

Weapons reveal Vikings’ wealth

Researchers can make estimates about a Viking’s social standing based on the weapons he brought to his grave. Small axes and knives were tools for everyone, but only the elite could afford lances and swords.
"You needed to have a high ranking in society to be buried with a sword,” says Viking weapon expert Peter Pentz, a curator at the Danish National Museum.
“A more ordinary Viking could be buried with his axe or knife, but we cannot say whether the axe and the knife had been used as weapons or as tools. Grave finds have revealed numerous small axes, which might just as well have been used for felling trees as for killing.”
The small axe was a tool that could be carried in a belt just like a knife, but the sword is unlikely to have served any other purpose than to kill.
“The sword was associated with an entirely different prestige. In grave finds that’s a clear indication that we’re dealing with a warrior,” says Pentz.

It’s actually more difficult to determine the gender of a skeleton from the Viking era. The men’s skulls were a little more feminine and the women’s skulls a little more masculine than what we’re seeing today.

Lise Lock Harvig

The Vikings also used bows, arrows and sharp spears as weapons. For protection they used a round shield, which was lined with leather. These shields were sometimes painted and decorated with simple patterns.
Those who could afford it also used a chain mail to protect the torso.

MYTH 3: Vikings looked like we do today

Many of videnskab.dk’s Facebook readers said they imagine that Vikings looked more or less exactly like we do today.
This is true to a certain extent, but there are some subtle differences and a small mystery that is yet to be solved.
The Vikings’ anatomy was very similar to ours, except that the ancient Danes were 8-10 cm shorter, on average, than we are today.
Louise Kæmpe Henriksen believes that Viking bodies were generally marked by the hard work they had to put in every day as peasants.
“It’s probably fair to assume that they have been more muscular than we tend to be today, but their appearance was also marked by their hard work. Osteoarthritis was, together with dental problems, a common complaint,” she says.

Blue and red were popular colours throughout the Viking Age. In general, they all wore colourful clothes with patterns and sewn-on ribbons.

Ulla Mannering

The Vikings had access to a variety of foods from around the world because they had travelled far and wide as tradesmen and as warriors.
Nevertheless, their nutrition was generally poorer than today. The children experienced slower growth and didn’t grow to be as tall as children do today, explains anthropological archaeologist Lise Lock Harvig of the Department of Forensic Medicine at the University of Copenhagen, who studies skeletons from ancient tombs.

Viking women had masculine faces

The skeletons reveal another difference between us and the Vikings: men’s and women’s faces were more similar in appearance in the Viking Age than they are today.
“It’s actually more difficult to determine the gender of a skeleton from the Viking era,” says Harvig. “The men’s skulls were a little more feminine and the women’s skulls a little more masculine than what we’re seeing today. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all skeletons from the Viking period, but generally it’s quite difficult to determine the gender of a Viking Age skeleton.”
She explains that Viking women often had pronounced jawbones and eyebrows, whereas in the men, these features were more feminine than what archaeologists are accustomed to when trying to determine the gender of ancient skeletons.

Danish Vikings were redheads

The skin on the skeletons has looked much like it does on most of today’s Danes. Genetic studies have shown that even back then there was a healthy mix of blonds, redheads and dark-haired people – just like today.
There were, however, more blond Vikings in northern Scandinavia in the area around Stockholm, while there were more redheads in western Scandinavia, which Denmark belongs to.

Facts

The Viking Age spanned the late 8th to 11th centuries, where the Vikings lived as farmers, tradesmen and warriors who went on raids.
In the early stages of this period, the regular Viking man fulfilled several roles at the same time, but later on in the Viking era, the community became more specialised, with some focusing on being skilful farmers, while others mainly functioned as warriors.

But not everyone in Viking society was of Scandinavian descent:
”There was a mixture even back then because other cultures came to Denmark,” says Harvig.

Dubgaill vs finngaill

Louise Kæmpe Henriksen mentions a little mystery that has popped into the discussion about the appearance of the Vikings.
In the Irish annals, Danish and Norwegian Vikings are described as ‘dark-skinned’ and ‘beautiful blondes’ respectively – the contemporary Irish ‘dubgaill’ and ‘finngaill’.
According to Peter Pentz of the Danish National Museum, there is an ongoing debate within scientific circles about the exact meaning of these words.
Historians have traditionally interpreted the dark and fair Vikings as Danes and Norwegians, respectively. But this interpretation has recently been challenged by researchers David N. Dumville and Clare Downham. They argue that neither of the two terms describes Viking ancestry. ‘Finnegaill’ could have been used to describe those Vikings who had been in Ireland over long periods, while ‘dubgaill’ was used for newly-arrived rival groups of Vikings.

MYTH 4: Vikings’ clothing style was admired throughout the world

Some of videnskab.dk’s Facebook readers believe that the Vikings’ clothing style was admired throughout the world.

Facts

When archaeologists determine the gender of a skeleton, they compare the width of the pelvis with features in the skull, so they can be as certain as possible.
But the researchers’ experience is that this is particularly difficult to ascertain when it comes to our notorious Viking ancestors.

And sure enough, several sources, including an old drawing, give positive descriptions of their clothing.
”The Anglo-English king Cnut the Great is portrayed on an English drawing from the 1030s as an erect, well-groomed and elegantly dressed man with pointy shoes, socks with ribbons, trousers and a knee-length tunic and a cloak slung over one shoulder,” says Henriksen.
Scientists know that Vikings valued colours and patterns and that fashion changed over time, from region to region. But exactly what the Viking outfits looked like remains a mystery.

What we know is based on fragments of clothes

Most of the Vikings' clothes have rotted away and disappeared by the time archaeologists excavate their tombs, says Ulla Mannering, an archaeologist at the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research at the National Museum.
"The picture we have is quite fragmented because it’s based on objects and textiles that are preserved in the tombs,” she says. “In some cases it can be quite difficult to reconstruct the clothes. Besides, it’s not certain that the clothes they wore when they were buried were the same as they would wear any other day."
Researchers do know for sure though that there was a difference between men’s and women’s costumes.

Women’s clothing

The women usually wore long dresses or skirts which went down to the feet. Archaeologists have found numerous belt buckles in women's graves, located on the skeleton’s shoulders. This indicates that the women wore so-called harness dresses, which were held together with a strap over each shoulder. Other findings show that women also wore dresses with built-in sleeves.

Facts

Vikings’ average height
Men: 171 cm
Women: 158 cm
Source: Lise Lock Harvig

The clothes were double-layered. On the inside, Viking women wore a linen base – a sort of petticoat, which was soft and had a cooling effect. The outer clothes were usually made from wool, which is a warm, but also a durable material.

Men’s clothing

The men wore the same materials as the women. The inner layer usually consisted of a linen kirtle – a long shirt which the men pulled over their heads. Outside, the typical Viking man wore a woollen coat.
Like today’s men, Viking men wore trousers. These could be either short or long, and they were usually sewn in the style of pantaloons. These trousers only reached down to the men’s knees.
Men usually wore a hat whereas women could choose between a small hat and a scarf.

Vikings knew of colours and luxury

Scientists know that the Vikings liked colours.
"Blue and red were popular colours throughout the Viking Age. In general, they all wore colourful clothes with patterns and sewn-on ribbons," says Mannering, adding that archaeologists have come across examples of colours covering the entire colour palette.
The Vikings have also known about luxuries such as silk and sewn-on ribbons with silver and golden threads. But only a few members of the elite have been able to wear these exclusive fabrics, which were imported from around the world.

MYTH 5: Vikings’ appearance was marked by battle wounds

The muscular Vikings sometimes worked as farmers, and other times they were in battle.
The scientists cannot say, however, how much of the Vikings’ physical appearance has been characterised by wounds and lesions from fights, since superficial cuts or a missing eye cannot be detected on an ancient skeleton.
“But in male skeletons, we have found examples of sword wounds in the hip, which the man has survived,” says Harvig. “It’s not as if all of them have lesions, but it’s not uncommon either.”
She says it’s likely that the Vikings walked around with ugly scars. They didn’t have the modern methods of treating wounds and injuries that we have today.
So perhaps the image of an average Viking, as portrayed in the above picture gallery, only needs to be spiced up with a scar or two and that should bring us pretty close to a portrayal of what Vikings really looked like.
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Read this article in Danish at videnskab.dk

Brewing Stone Age beer

Beer enthusiasts are using a barn in Norway’s Akershus County to brew a special ale which has scientific pretensions and roots back to the dawn of human culture.

By: Asle Rønning

Jørn Kragtorp (left) and Manfred Heun brew beer from the primitive wheat known as einkorn. Here they are adding a malt of einkorn, ready to start the brewing process. (Photo: Asle Rønning)

The beer is made from einkorn wheat, a single-grain species that has followed humankind since we first started tilling the soil, but which has been neglected for the last 2,500 years.
“This is fun − really thrilling. It’s hard to say whether this has ever been tried before in Norway,” says Jørn Kragtorp.
He started brewing as a hobby four years ago. He represents the fourth generation on the family farm of Nedre Kragtorp in Aurskog-Høland, Akershus County.
Part of the barn has been refurnished as a meeting room, but space was also allotted for small-scale beer production.

Prehistoric beer

In the past year this brewing has become more scientific after Kragtorp teamed up with a rural neighbour, Manfred Heun, a plant geneticist and a professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB).
“This is experimental. We’re trying to brew prehistoric beer,” explains Heun.
Heun has conducted research on einkorn wheat for years and came up with the idea of brewing ale here in Norway from malt made of the ancient grain.
Einkorn may have been the first cereal to be cultivated by the original Stone Age farmers.

Original farmers

Manfred Heun, who is an expert on einkorn genes, has helped trace the origin of the domesticated form of einkorn to the highlands in Southeastern Turkey.
A wild einkorn that's genetically similar to the domesticated strain still grows in this region. This region is also considered by many to be the cradle of agriculture, with indications that farming started here 10,000 years ago.
Einkorn might have played an important role in the transition from a hunter-gatherer society to agriculture in this part of the world.

When the wort is ready it smells good. Jørn Kragtorp gives it a whiff. (Photo: Asle Rønning)

Perhaps the wish to brew beer for celebrations and ceremonies was a prime motivation for raising grain. This would put the brewing at Nedre Krogtorp into a very long perspective.

In Scandinavia

Six thousand years after people pioneered agriculture in the Near East, it spread to most of Europe. Einkorn was a part of this slow-rolling agricultural revolution together with other cereals from the Middle East and Turkey.
It’s known that einkorn was raised as a crop in the south of Scandinavia during the region’s Bronze Age (1700 - 500 BC). Scientists aren’t sure, however, whether einkorn was cultivated in Norway.
In any case this cereal has fallen into disuse for the past 2,500 years as other kinds of wheat were developed which gave bigger yields.
The beer now being brewed among the patches of forest and fields in inner Akershus County could be the first made from einkorn in this country – at least since the Bronze Age.

Imported malt

Bronze Age methods are not used in the brewing process. It’s brewed like any beer.
“Now it’s most common to brew beer from barley. But you can make it from all kinds of grains, from corn, rice and wheat,” explains Jørn Kragtorp.
Malt, made of sprouted grain, is always the starting point. In this case the einkorn malt was imported from Germany.
It’s ground up and warm water is added for half an hour while the temperature is closely monitored. The process is called mashing and the sweet liquid this produces is called the wort. This is filtered and boiled for just over an hour before it's all allowed to cool.

Devil in the detail

Then yeast is added, which starts the fermentation and sugar is converted to alcohol. The beer these hobby brewers make from einkorn is a pale ale.
Kragtorp explains that einkorn, or other wheat varieties, have different characteristics than barley and these can complicate things when the wort is made.

Einkorn beer brewed on a hobby basis at Hemnes has won acclaim from near and far. (Photo: Asle Rønning)

“Using pure wheat malt is challenging,” he says.
The brewers have experimented with various combinations.
The minor details make beer brewing exciting. Small alterations in room temperature, the amount of time used in yeasting and additives such as hops can all have a big impact on the final product.
“It’s a life-long learning process,” says Kragtorp.

Protein rich

Heun is an eager einkorn enthusiast.
“Einkorn is the healthiest thing you can imagine,” he says, referring to its high content of protein and other nutrients.
“And it tastes good too,” he adds.
Those who are lucky enough to have tasted the light and pale einkorn ale, which cannot be bought in stores, all seem to agree.
Einkorn beer from inner Akershus County has been sent in for expert academic evaluation to Munich – a city where beer is famously appreciated, and it has received the stamp of approval.
This autumn, attempts could be made to produce the beer from malt based on Norwegian-grown einkorn. Experimental crops of the ancient cereal have been planted in Aurskog-Høland and it will be exciting to see how the harvest turns out.

 http://sciencenordic.com/brewing-stone-age-beer

Ancient workshop unearthed in northern Iran

Iranian archeologists have unearthed remains of an ancient workshop during excavations in the historical city of Gaskar in the northern province of Gilan.

The second phase of archeological excavations yielded the 1200-year-old structure along with a collection of tiles from the Islamic era.

Archeologists say the workshop had probably been part of a two-storey building with brick walls and two large rooms.

Remains of a kiln and divisions of the structure’s internal space suggest it had been a public place used as a workshop of some kind.

The Islamic tiles discovered during the excavation project bear human figures and are among the most important archeological finds from the Islamic era in the region.

“Recent excavations also yielded new sections of the structures discovered during previous projects including parts of a brick wall believed to have been the entrance to a public bath,” head of the archeology team Vali Jahani told CHN.

“The interesting thing about the building is that its floor was made with bricks and then covered with tiles,” he added.

Gaskar is located 55 kilometers to the provincial capital of Rasht and is now covered with the heavy forest of Haft Daghanan.

Archeological excavations have yielded many sites and artifacts in northern Iran over the past decade.

One of the most famous archeological sites in Iran’s Gilan Province is Marlik near the city of Roudbar. Thttp://presstv.com/detail/2012/07/30/253523/northern-iran-yields-ancient-workshop/he site of a royal cemetery, and artifacts found at this site date back to 3,000 years ago.

Archeologists unearth extraordinary human sculpture in Turkey

A beautiful and colossal human sculpture is one of the latest cultural treasures unearthed by an international team at the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) excavation site in southeastern Turkey. A large semi-circular column base, ornately decorated on one side, was also discovered. Both pieces are from a monumental gate complex that provided access to the upper citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 BC).
"These newly discovered Tayinat sculptures are the product of a vibrant local Neo-Hittite sculptural tradition," said Professor Tim Harrison, the Tayinat Project director and professor of Near Eastern Archaeology in the University of Toronto's Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. "They provide a vivid glimpse into the innovative character and sophistication of the Iron Age cultures that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean following the collapse of the great imperial powers of the Bronze Age at the end of the second millennium BC."
The head and torso of the human figure, intact to just above its waist, stands approximately 1.5 metres in height, suggesting a total body length of 3.5 to four metres. The figure's face is bearded, with beautifully preserved inlaid eyes made of white and black stone, and its hair has been coiffed in an elaborate series of curls aligned in linear rows. Both arms are extended forward from the elbow, each with two arm bracelets decorated with lion heads. The figure's right hand holds a spear, and in its left is a shaft of wheat. A crescent-shaped pectoral adorns its chest. A lengthy Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription, carved in raised relief across its back, records the campaigns and accomplishments of Suppiluliuma, likely the same Patinean king who faced a Neo-Assyrian onslaught of Shalmaneser III as part of a Syrian-Hittite coalition in 858 BC.
The second sculpture is a large semi-circular column base, approximately one metre in height and 90 centimetres in diameter, lying on its side next to the human figure. A winged bull is carved on the front of the column and it is flanked by a sphinx on its left. The right side of the column is flat and undecorated, an indication that it originally stood against a wall.
"The two pieces appear to have been ritually buried in the paved stone surface of the central passageway through the Tayinat gate complex," said Harrison. The complex would have provided a monumental ceremonial approach to the upper citadel of the royal city. Tayinat, a large low-lying mound, is located 35 kilometres east of Antakya (ancient Antioch) along the Antakya-Aleppo road.

The presence of colossal human statues, often astride lions or sphinxes, in the citadel gateways of the Neo-Hittite royal cities of Iron Age Syro-Anatolia continued a Bronze Age Hittite tradition that accentuated their symbolic role as boundary zones, and the role of the king as the divinely appointed guardian or gate keeper of the community. By the ninth and eighth centuries BC, these elaborately decorated gateways, with their ornately carved reliefs, had come to serve as dynastic parades, legitimizing the power of the ruling elite. The gate reliefs also formed linear narratives, guiding their audiences between the human and divine realms, with the king serving as the link between the two worlds.
The Tayinat gate complex appears to have been destroyed following the Assyrian conquest of the region in 738 BC, when the area was paved over and converted into the central courtyard of an Assyrian sacred precinct. These smashed and deposited monumental sculptures also include a magnificently carved lion that was discovered last year and Hieroglyphic Luwian-inscribed stelae (stone slabs or pillars used for commemoratives purposes). Together these finds hint of an earlier Neo-Hittite complex that might have once faced the gateway approach.
Scholars have long speculated that the reference to Calno, identified as one of the "kingdoms of the idols" in Isaiah's oracle against Assyria (Isaiah 10:9-10), alludes to the Assyrian devastation of Kunulua (i.e., Tayinat). The destruction of the Luwian monuments and conversion of the area into an Assyrian religious complex may represent the physical manifestation of this historic event, subsequently memorialized in Isaiah's oracle.

###

TAP is an international project, involving researchers from a dozen countries, and more than 20 universities and research institutes. It operates in close collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Turkey, and provides research opportunities and training for both graduate and undergraduate students. The 2012 season was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the J.M Kaplan Fund, which provided support for the creation of a conservation program, and the University of Toronto.

 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/uot-aue073012.php

Guerreros de Xian: La guardia del emperador

imagen de AP



Fundó el Imperio Chino y murió temeroso del otro mundo.
Por eso Qin Shihuang se hizo enterrar junto a un enorme ejército de barro.
Tras veinte siglos bajo tierra comenzó a emerger en excavaciones arqueológicas.
Con el reciente hallazgo de 120 nuevas figuras, el batallón crece.
Pero el misterio sobre su origen continúa.
Dolors Folch


El descubrimiento, hace un mes, de más de cien nuevos guerreros de terracota equipados con caballos y carros de guerra en las fosas de Xian confirma la magnitud numérica de este ejército enterrado, corrobora los vivos colores originales de las estatuas y aporta como novedad el primer escudo de tamaño real de la excavación. Hasta ahora no habían aparecido cascos ni escudos, cuando nos consta que ambos eran habituales en los ejércitos de la época: quizá fuera para destacar que por su valor los guerreros no los necesitaban, o quizá se tratara más de un ejército desfilando que de un ejército en formación de batalla. Pero este descubrimiento obliga también a replantearse algunos de los enigmas básicos que se ciernen sobre esta tumba: ¿por qué el primer emperador chino, Qin Shihuang, se hizo enterrar con todo un ejército?, ¿cómo se consiguió realizar una obra de esta magnitud?, ¿por qué se perdió la memoria de todo ello a poco de un siglo de haberse construido?, ¿por qué se descubrió en plena Revolución Cultural?, ¿por qué el Estado chino no hace excavar el túmulo que encierra la tumba del primer emperador?

Aunque en el panorama mundial son varias las tumbas imponentes pertrechadas con magníficos tesoros, no todas ellas, ni mucho menos, corresponden a personajes de primera magnitud histórica: la de Tutankhamon es un ejemplo de ello. Pero la del primer emperador, sí: él cambió la historia de China unificando todos sus reinos en un único imperio y dotándolo de una uniformidad en la escritura, los pesos, las medidas, y las unidades administrativas que garantizasen su continuidad.

Conquistó, construyó y legisló, y se consideró siempre a sí mismo como un gobernante cósmico tan capaz de unificar los reinos como de controlar el mundo de los espíritus: al igual que quiso, y consiguió, reordenar el mundo en que le tocó vivir, el emperador aspiró a gobernar también sobre un más allá en el que pululaban millones de espíritus insatisfechos clamando venganza. Los chinos, que no creen en el Dios justiciero y creador que la herencia judía legó al Mediterráneo, han vivido siempre en un mundo poblado por los espíritus malignos de aquellos que han tenido una mala muerte y yacen sin enterrar o sin las honras fúnebres apropiadas. Dado el número de ejércitos a los que había masacrado –las crónicas afirman que en una ocasión exterminó 450.000 soldados del reino de Zhao– y el número de reclutas propios a los que había hecho morir en combate, Qin Shihuang necesitaba un ejército para poderse mover con comodidad en el airado mundo de los muertos, que llegarían sin duda por el Este, procedentes de la gran llanura central donde se habían asentado los reinos recién conquistados. Es por ello que el ejército de terracota estaba situado en el flanco oriental del gran complejo funerario, y que su formación estaba orientada hacia el Este. También es por ello por lo que se optó por hacer un ejército de terracota en lugar de sacrificar a soldados reales: era la única manera de poder tener un ejército completo. Y de que este agrupara a los sujetos de mayor calidad: la estatura media de los guerreros es de más de 1,80 metros, muy por encima de la media real de la población china. Y es por ello también que la proporción de altos cargos militares, claramente distinguibles por su altura –uno de ellos mide 1,97–, su barba poblada, sus tocados distintivos y los adornos que lucen en la espalda y en el pecho, es muy baja: probablemente, los altos comandantes reales fueron enterrados en vida para garantizar mejor la eficacia del conjunto, ya sea en la cámara funeraria aún sin excavar o en fosas adyacentes.

Una tumba así no tiene ningún precedente conocido en la historia de China y nada preparaba para la tumba de Qin Shihuang: ni su volumen, ni su similitud con personas reales. En China, a diferencia de Occidente, la escultura figurativa era prácticamente inexistente.

Si la tumba se pudo realizar no fue por la existencia de precedentes artísticos, sino por la práctica bien establecida de un trabajo modular. No se trata solo de una práctica laboral de producción en cadena: toda la cultura china gravita en torno a la estandarización de pequeños módulos construidos por separado y capaces de articularse en innumerables combinaciones. Así es como funciona la escritura china, en la que unas pocas docenas de trazos básicos se combinan para formar decenas de miles de caracteres; así es como organizan su arquitectura tradicional de madera, en la que un número limitado de formas de vigas se ensamblan entre ellas para sostener un edificio, y así funcionan sus manuales de pintura, en los que se describen pormenorizadamente las pinceladas necesarias para dibujar una roca, un árbol o una nube.



La tumba de Qin Shihuang revela una práctica establecida de fabricación en cadena y control de calidad: una estricta organización del trabajo que sí tenía precedentes. La arcilla se preparaba en talleres locales: sabemos el nombre de 87 maestros de talleres, con cada uno de los cuales trabajaban una docena de personas, ya que estaban obligados a estampar su nombre en las piezas que entregaban. Una vez amasada la arcilla, la estructura básica de todas las esculturas era la misma: los pies y las piernas se elaboraban de forma maciza para proporcionar estabilidad al cuerpo central, que se encajaba en la parte superior de las piernas. Las manos, brazos y cabezas se producían separadamente y se añadían en el último momento: se han identificado ocho tipos básicos de caras, sobre las que luego se aplicaba una placa fina de arcilla que permitía individualizarlas. Una vez ensamblados y retocados los módulos básicos, las piezas se cocían enteras.

Poco después de la muerte del emperador, todo el conjunto –que probablemente quedó inacabado por su muerte repentina y los disturbios que acabaron con su imperio en pocos años– fue sometido a una destrucción masiva y deliberada. China se hundió en una guerra civil, y uno de los contrincantes, Xiang Yu, perteneciente a la antigua nobleza que el primer emperador había destruido, se ensañó a conciencia con todo el recinto: no solo se trataba de un saqueo, sino de destruir el universo de los vencidos y eliminar así su poder sobre los vivos. Provistas de antorchas, las huestes de Xiang Yu entraron sin duda en la fosa uno, donde se alineaban, a cinco metros bajo tierra, unos 6.000 guerreros, organizados en una vanguardia frontal en triple fila tras la cual se levantaban 38 hileras de soldados de a pie y 160 carros de combate. Los intrusos merodearon por los corredores de suelo pavimentado, paredes recubiertas de madera y techos sostenidos por vigas: el conjunto se incendió y los techos se derrumbaron sobre las estatuas. Pero ello no basta para explicar su omisión en todas las historias siguientes. El primer emperador tuvo un cronista, Sima Qian, que escribió una historia general de China un siglo después del hundimiento del imperio Qin, y que estaba familiarizado con todo lo relacionado con él: de hecho, no es solo su mejor fuente, es la única. Pero Sima Qian, que recorrió China buscando testimonios orales sobre el periodo Qin, y que era un historiador tan sistemático como escrupuloso, capaz de describir en detalle la disposición de la cámara funeraria enterrada bajo el túmulo, no hace ni la más leve alusión al ejército de terracota. Es inverosímil que no se enterara de nada. La construcción había implicado un enorme movimiento de tierras y la presencia masiva de condenados a trabajos forzados –el mismo Sima Qian menciona 700.000 asignados a la construcción del mausoleo– organizados por miles de administradores. La unificación de pesos y medidas guarda, sin duda, relación con la necesidad de proveer de comida a centenares de miles de convictos que levantaron tanto la Gran Muralla como el mausoleo.

Durante 36 años, los trabajos se hicieron a cielo abierto, en un paisaje por el que se acarreaban miles de figuras de terracota de soldados y caballos de tamaño natural. Una vez cocidas, en hornos de cerámica inmensos, debían trasladarse hasta los corredores de las fosas que permanecían abiertas. ¿Cómo es posible que Sima Qian, que describió vivamente las hileras de condenados con la cabeza rapada y pintada de rojo que transitaban por China, no recogiera nada del inmenso espectáculo que debía de ser esta excavación? Lo más probable es que sí lo hiciera y que el texto original contuviera una descripción, pero que la dinastía que sucedió a los Qin, la de los Han, hiciera censurar el fragmento en el que aparecía el ejército subterráneo, por temor al retorno de Qin Shihuang. Un silencio temeroso habría sepultado casi de inmediato la memoria del ejército de sombras con que el temido emperador debía reinar desde el más allá. No hay duda de que los Han manipularon en otros apartados el texto original del historiador. Todo el capítulo dedicado al emperador que fue su coetáneo y su verdugo fue retirado y reemplazado por otro que aparece repetido en otra parte del texto: es lógico sospechar que también manipularan el fragmento dedicado a la tumba del emperador. A fin de cuentas, en una época en la que el papel aún no existía (del libro de Sima Qian solo se hicieron dos copias, y una se destruyó), el texto era muy fácil de manipular.

En un ámbito muy local, sin embargo, los terrenos donde ahora se alza el imponente Museo de Lintong que alberga los guerreros tenían ya un nombre que ahora resulta sugerente, Campo de los Espíritus, debido a los fragmentos de cuerpos de arcilla que habían ido emergiendo del subsuelo a medida que se sucedían los trabajos en superficie. Al menos, cinco tumbas Han del siglo II después de Cristo y veinte tumbas Ming del siglo XV han aparecido entre las filas de guerreros. Ya en el siglo XX, la presión demográfica obligó a una creciente excavación de pozos, y alguna vez había aparecido alguna cabeza o algún cuerpo entero. El destino de las piezas, consideradas espíritus, dependía del talante del que las encontraba: en alguna ocasión acabaron azotadas por obstruir el pozo, en otras se encontraron relegadas a un oscuro templo. Este parece haber sido el destino de dos sirvientes arrodillados desenterrados en 1948 y 1956, uno de los cuales sería destruido después, con saña, junto otros dioses varios, en las vorágines sucesivas del Gran Salto Hacia Delante y la Revolución Cultural. La simpatía de Mao por el primer emperador le había hecho firmar un decreto protegiendo la zona en 1961, pero la disposición solo afectaba al túmulo visible. Nada permitía sospechar entonces la extensión del complejo funerario: 56 kilómetros cuadrados.

Hasta que, en 1974, los hermanos Yang tropezaron, a poco de empezar a taladrar un pozo, con una capa de tierra de dureza inusitada: acababan de topar con uno de los muros que separan los corredores donde se alinean los guerreros del emperador. Cuando, tras recoger centenares de puntas de flecha de bronce, extrajeron un cuerpo entero, decidieron alertar a las autoridades locales, que emprendieron inmediatamente una prospección arqueológica. Los resultados dejaron boquiabierto al país y entusiasmaron a Mao. El momento era políticamente correcto, y el descubrimiento se convirtió en primera noticia mundial y en un reclamo turístico para el que no se escatimaron recursos. Desde entonces, los descubrimientos se suceden año tras año. Para el Estado chino actual es el punto de partida de la China imperial, de la que la República Popular se considera legítima sucesora.

Aun así, el túmulo de 515 metros de norte a sur, y 485 de este a oeste que contiene la cámara funeraria enterrada a más de 30 metros de profundidad sigue sin excavar. Sima Qian relató que la cámara, con multitud de objetos preciosos, se edificó sobre una base que simulaba los grandes ríos de China y bajo una cúpula en la que se reproducía el cielo, todo ello veteado de mercurio. Aunque el túmulo siga intacto, las mediciones a las que se le ha sometido –en 1980 y 2003– han revelado una acumulación inusual de mercurio en su centro: ello prueba tanto la veracidad de la descripción de Sima Qian como la permanencia de una estructura interna que ni se ha hundido ni ha sido saqueada. Los estudios hidrológicos han demostrado también que la inundación de la cámara se evitó con la construcción de un dique subterráneo que desvió las aguas y que hoy en día sigue funcionando correctamente. Es muy probable que la cámara contenga víctimas humanas, entre ellas, los cien funcionarios que menciona Sima Qian, los altos comandantes que escasean en la formación, así como sirvientes y operarios. Quizá por eso tarden tanto en excavarlo: tantos muertos empañarían la magia del monumento. Lo que es seguro es que los chinos no quieren correr ningun riesgo –lo que les obliga a procedimientos lentísimos–, ni quieren tampoco aceptar ayuda extranjera –dado que han convertido esta tumba en el símbolo de su nación.

Los chinos intentan ahora desentrañar por sí solos los misterios: una tecnología avanzadísima con sensores remotos les permite fotografiar con detalle los monumentos y objetos que aún protege la tierra en espera de que las innovaciones tecnológicas les permitan por fin excavarla con seguridad. Ahora sabemos, además de la descripción de Sima Qian, que la cámara funeraria que se encuentra bajo el túmulo mide 80 metros por 50 y tiene forma de pirámide truncada invertida. La rodea una muralla de 145 metros por 125, de 15 metros de anchura y 30 de altura. Claro está que todo esto también lo saben los ladrones: nueve de ellos fueron detenidos hace poco, tras haber descubierto un túnel de 30 metros que conectaba con el mausoleo y haber introducido en él cables para tener electricidad y aparatos para bombear el aire de la tumba.

Con el paso de los años, el conocimiento que se tiene del primer emperador y de su breve dinastía es cada vez más matizado, alejándose de los durísimos clichés que los confucianos le habían asignado: la comparación entre el código de los Qin –recuperado en una tumba– y el de sus sucesores, los Han, muestra sin lugar a dudas que estos fueron más sus continuadores que sus destructores. En la China actual, las valoraciones negativas sobre el primer emperador se centran en el hecho de no haber sabido conservar el imperio, no en el de haberlo creado.






http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2012/07/28/actualidad/1343491048_081487.html

Paisley Caves yield 13,000-year old Western Stemmed points, more human DNA

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EUGENE, Ore. -- (July 12, 2012) -- Archaeological work in Oregon's Paisley Caves has found evidence that Western Stemmed projectile points -- darts or thrusting spearheads -- were present at least 13,200 calendar years ago during or before the Clovis culture in western North America.
In a paper in the July 13 issue of Science, researchers from 13 institutions lay out their findings, which also include substantial new documentation, including "blind-test analysis" by independent labs, that confirms the human DNA pulled earlier from human coprolites (dried feces) and reported in Science (May 9, 2008) dates to the same time period.
The new conclusions are based on 190 radiocarbon dates of artifacts, coprolites, bones and sagebrush twigs meticulously removed from well-stratified layers of silt in the ancient caves. Absent from the Paisley Caves, said the project's lead researcher Dennis L. Jenkins of the University of Oregon's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is diagnostic evidence of the Clovis culture such as the broad, concave-based, fluted Clovis projectile points.
The radiocarbon dating of the Western Stemmed projectiles to potentially pre-Clovis times, Jenkins said, provides new information in the decades-old debate that the two point-production technologies overlapped in time and may have developed separately. It suggests that Clovis may have arisen in the Southeastern United States and moved west, while the Western Stemmed tradition began, perhaps earlier, in the West and moved east.
One example, he said, is the discovery of Clovis points below Western Stemmed points at Hell Gap, Wyo. While this example suggests that Clovis was older in that location than Western Stemmed, the new Paisley Caves evidence indicates that Western Stemmed are at least the same age as Clovis (about 12,800-13,000 years old) in the northern Great Basin of Oregon -- about 1,000 miles west of Hell Gap.

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At least three other Western sites -- Cooper's Ferry in Idaho and Nevada's Smith Creek Cave and Bonneville Estates Rockshelter -- also contain only Western Stemmed points in deposits of this age.
"From our dating, it appears to be impossible to derive Western Stemmed points from a proto- Clovis tradition," Jenkins said. "It suggests that we may have here in the Western United States a tradition that is at least as old as Clovis, and quite possibly older. We seem to have two different traditions co-existing in the United States that did not blend for a period of hundreds of years."
The origin of humans in the Americas has long suggested early migration out of Siberia and eastern Asia, very possibly across a temporary land bridge between Russia and Alaska. In more recent years, Jenkins' UO colleague Jon Erlandson has been building evidence -- a lot of it emerging from the Channel Islands off California -- of a Late Pleistocene sea-going people following a "kelp highway" from Japan to Kamchatka, along the south coast of Beringia and Alaska, then southward down the Northwest Coast to California. Kelp forests are rich in seals, sea otters, fish, seabirds, and shellfish such as abalones and sea urchins.
The new paper doesn't address the routes early migrants may have taken, but the additional evidence found in the DNA of the coprolites continues to point to Siberia-east Asian origins. Again, as in 2008, the human mitochondrial DNA -- passed on maternally -- was from haplogroup A, which is common to Siberia and found, along with haplogroup B, in Native Americans today.
DNA cannot be directly dated with radiocarbon technology. Instead, researchers extracted components of the diet eaten by the early inhabitants and washed potentially contaminating carbon out of the coprolites with distilled water. The digested fibers and carbon fraction were then radiocarbon-dated separately and the results compared.
The only significant aging difference in 12 such tests involved a camelid coprolite (ice-age llama) that was dated through its contents to about 14,150 years ago, while its water-soluble extract was dated to 13,200 years ago. This sample was found below a mud lens that contained one of the Western Stemmed points and human coprolites dated to between 13,000 and 13,200 years ago.
The meticulous methodology used, Jenkins said, was done to address criticism that the 2008 findings may have been compromised by contamination, such as the leaching of later DNA from humans by water and rodent urine downward through the caves' many layers. The new evidence indicates this form of contamination is not a good explanation for the pre-Clovis human DNA.
"We continued to excavate Paisley Caves from 2009 through 2011," the authors wrote in Science. "To resolve the question of stratigraphic integrity, we acquired 121 new AMS [accelerator mass spectrometry] radiocarbon dates on samples of terrestrial plants, macrofossils from coprolites, bone collagen and water soluble extracts recovered from each of these categories. To date, a total of 190 radiocarbon dates have been produced from the Paisley Caves."
The UO's archaeological field school, operated by the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, returned to the Paisley Caves, under Jenkins' direction, in 2002 to test conclusions made by UO anthropologist Luther Cressman. Based on discoveries of artifacts he found in the caves in 1938-1940, Cressman claimed he'd found evidence of Pleistocene occupation by humans. That claim, based on technologies at the time, was not readily accepted. He died in April 1994, still claiming that he had proven his case.
The Paisley Caves are in the Summer Lake basin near Paisley, about 220 miles southeast of Eugene on the east side of the Cascade Range. The complex includes eight westward-facing caves, all wave-cut shelters, on the highest shoreline of pluvial Lake Chewaucan, which rose and fell in periods of greater precipitation during the Pleistocene, or last glacial period.
"Following the recession of lake waters, the caves began to accumulate different kinds of terrestrial sediments," said co-author Loren Davis, an archaeologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis. "The caves contain a series of deposits that were created by the combination of wind, gravity, water-borne and biological processes. Archaeological evidence suggests that humans visited the cave many times, leaving behind material traces in the form of stone tools, lithic chipping debris, organic craft items, food wastes and even coprolites. These cultural materials were entombed largely as they were left behind as sediments continued to accumulate."
The archaeological field school is a program of the UO's Museum of Natural and Cultural History, which was established in 1936 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly as the official repository for state-held anthropological collections.
"Oregon is a unique place, with a special geomorphology and rich cultural history," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation at the UO. "The research conducted by professor Jenkins and his team helps to tell the story of early human migrations into North America and demonstrates how the UO's long-running summer archaeological field school continues to provide research and training opportunities for students and yield important scientific results 76 years after its founding."

###

The National Science Foundation (grant 0924606), Danish Research Foundation, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, UO archaeological field school, UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, Oregon State University Keystone Archaeological Research Fund, Bernice Peltier Huber Charitable Trust and University of Nevada, Reno, Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit were primary funders of the fieldwork.

The 18 co-authors with Jenkins and Davis on the study were: Thomas W. Stafford of University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Stafford Research Laboratories in Colorado; Paula F. Campos of the University of Copenhagen and the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra in Portugal; Bryan Hockett of the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada; George T. Jones of Hamilton College in New York; Linda Scott Cummings and Chad Yost of the PaleoResearch Institute in Colorado; Thomas J. Connolly of the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History; Robert M. Yohe II and Summer C. Gibbons of California State University; Johanna L.A. Paijmans and Michael Hofreiter of the University of York in the United Kingdom; Brian M. Kemp of Washington State University; Jodi Lynn Barta of WSU and Madonna University in Michigan; Cara Monroe of WSU and the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Maanasa Raghaven, Morten Rasmussen, M. Thomas P. Gilbert and Eske Willerslev of the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
Sources:
Dennis L. Jenkins, senior staff archaeologist, UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, 541-346-3026, djenkins@uoregon.edu, and Loren Davis, associate professor of archaeology, Oregon State University, 541-737-3849, loren.davis@oregonstate.edu


 http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-07/uoo-pcy070312.php

Two ancient sites to get a boost

The organization in charge of an ambitious plan to overhaul the Greek capital’s image as an archaeological destination has offered its expertise to help promote the archaeological site of Knossos on Crete.
The Unification of the Archaeological Sites of Athens said on Friday that it will be coordinating an international competition for zoning proposals on how best to open up the entire site of the Bronze Age center of the Minoan civilization to visitors, who are currently restricted mainly to the palace complex and are unable to see other antiquities on the site.
“The archaeological site of Knossos is the second most visited site in Greece” with an average of 1 million visitors a year, said UASA president Dora Galani. “It is extremely rich in findings and is spread over a large expanse, characteristics that have not been fully maximized as tourists only visit the palace complex. At a short distance from the palace though, there are a lot of interesting monuments, which most people are ignorant of.”
Proposals for the tender are expected to be submitted to the Ministry of Culture by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, in northern Greece, the Neolithic lakeshore settlement of Dispilio in Kastoria is to receive an injection of European Union funding for the restoration of its outer fortifications at a time when state resources for archaeological projects have all but dried up.
Funds worth 650,000 euros will be channeled via the National Strategic Reference Framework in what is the third of a total of four projects at the site. The restoration of the fortifications follows the reconstruction of a scene from daily life during Neolithic times at the settlement, as well as the creation of an area to teach excavation techniques to archaeology students.
According to official figures, Dispilio draws some 60,000 visitors a year.
“Compared to southern Greece, Macedonia, which is celebrating the centenary of its liberation from Ottoman rule, has fallen behind in promoting its archaeological heritage,” said Western Macedonia Regional Governor Giorgos Dakis. “We have to speed up now to make up for lost time.”

 http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_13/07/2012_452040

Belmonte desentierra la historia (Asturias)

Las excavaciones arqueológicas en Vigaña descubren asentamientos de varias épocas que contribuyen a comprender la evolución del poblamiento en Asturias

 Asturias es un paraíso cultural. El grupo de investigadores liderado por la historiadora y arqueóloga Margarita Fernández Mier está excavando en los alrededores de Vigaña, en Belmonte de Miranda, desde el 1 de julio, para poder comprender y documentar una serie de asentamientos que van desde la época romana hasta la Alta Edad Media. «Excavamos en Vigaña porque hay yacimientos de varios tipos que permiten entender la historia de Asturias», explica. Estos trabajos los comentan in situ todos los viernes de julio con excursionistas que salen a las once de la mañana de la Oficina de Turismo de la capital del concejo. Por las tardes, en el edificio sociocultural, importantes investigadores ofrecen conferencias.


Estarán en Vigaña hasta finales de mes; previamente, han realizado prospecciones en la zona «para luego decidir dónde excavar», detalla. Ahora mismo se encuentran con dos catas abiertas, una en un prado y otra en un bosque en el que ya antiguamente los vecinos sabían que había un castro. Llevan tres años trabajando en la tesis de Fernández Mier y ya han realizado investigaciones en Cea (León) y en Vigaña, donde, el pasado año, encontraron, bajo un hórreo, vestigios de ocupación desde el siglo VII hasta hoy.


Las catas se encuentran en zonas de cultivo medieval y moderno; por esa razón, los más mayores del pueblo conocen la existencia del castro, que, con anterioridad a la Guerra Civil, probablemente se encontraba al descubierto. En la primera cata, en la pradería, han encontrado evidencias de estructuras domésticas, «probablemente anteriores a los romanos», valora Fernández Mier.


Todo lo que recaban en la excavación, como muestras de polen, piedras y huesos, se envía al laboratorio de la Universidad de León, que lo examina. También remiten materiales a Napóles, donde se realiza un análisis de isótopos que permite conocer qué se cultivaba.


El proyecto de Vigaña forma parte de una investigación en red con otras universidades españolas, como la Complutense de Madrid, País Vasco y Salamanca y otras europeas, de Islandia, Italia, Inglaterra y Noruega. Todos los científicos pondrán en común los resultados en una monografía en lengua inglesa.


En las excavaciones del castro han podido conocer «un hábitat de hace unos 3.000 años, donde vivían grupos castreños de la cornisa cantábrica que se movían habitualmente», comenta Daniel González, uno de los investigadores, quien añade que, en un momento dado, «se produce un cambio cultural y social, y estos grupos comienzan a establecerse en castros estables, que son las primeras aldeas». De ese tiempo se sabe que «el clima era más o menos parecido al de ahora» (en época romana, fue más cálido) y deducen que existía más vegetación arbórea. Los constructores del castro «aprovechaban el terreno para la monumentalizar la edificación, con muros y zanjas», explica González

 http://www.lne.es/occidente/2012/07/14/belmonte-desentierra-la-historia/1270380.html

Signos de envejecimiento prematuro en niños tepanecas

De confirmarse, serían los primeros restos óseos prehispánicos que presentan este tipo de enfermedad

El predio de la avenida Aquiles Serdán 671, en la delegación Azcapotzalco, en donde arqueólogos de la Dirección de Salvamento Arqueológico (DSA) del INAH realizan labores de rescate desde hace tres meses, sigue arrojando evidencias sobre los habitantes y las actividades que se desarrollaron en un barrio de comerciantes tepanecas que tuvo su esplendor hace 700 años, casi dos siglos antes del dominio del imperio mexica en el Valle de México.
Los restos de estructuras arquitectónicas, instrumentos musicales, restos de cerámica, algunos sellos, figurillas femeninas asociadas a la fertilidad, y vasos vinculados a Tláloc y Quetzalcóatl, así como malacates y agujas de cobre, que sugieren que los habitantes de ese barrio se dedicaron a la actividad textil, se han ido recuperando en este predio donde estaba planeaba la construcción de un conjunto habitacional.
“Todavía nos falta mucho terreno por trabajar. Llevamos abierta la mitad del terreno”, aseguró ayer el antropólogo Jorge Arturo Talavera González, de la dirección de Antropología Física del INAH, durante un recorrido por el sitio.

El investigador destacó que entre los 17 entierros hallados, en posición sedente, debido a que fueron amortajados con un fardo, tres adultos y 14 niños, destacan los entierros 7 y 9, ambos de individuos infantiles que pudieron padecer el síndrome de envejecimiento prematuro.
“Encontramos dos niños que, por las evidencias óseas, muy probablemente tengan el síndrome de Hutchinson-Gilford, que es el síndrome de envejecimiento. Presentan la cabeza muy grande, los huesos muy largos y delgados y tienen un desarrollo anormal de la dentadura”, dijo el investigador, quien aseguró que esta es la primera vez que se hallan restos óseos que presenten este tipo de enfermedad.
“Si los estudios dan positivo, sería la primera vez que sale este padecimiento en una población prehispánica”, comentó.
Pero además de las evidencias que puedan arrojar los estudios biomédicos y de genética a los que serán sometidos, el antropólogo señaló que también valdría la pena estudiar cómo eran vistos por la sociedad, pues en esa época los ancianos tenían una jerarquía social importante.
Por ahora, los entierros prehispánicos están siendo estudiados en el sitio para conservar el contexto en que fueron hallados, explicó el investigador. “Se hallaron al interior de fosas o sistas en la tierra. Y están llenos de objetos asociados, como cajetes, malacates y agujas. Por ejemplo, un individuo infantil presentó una máscara que asemeja a un murciélago, todos ellos depositados en fardos funerarios para mantener su posición sedente”, dijo.
El investigador también señaló que la mayoría de los entierros corresponden a niños, pero no se descarta que al ir explorando el terreno se encuentren más depósitos funerarios de adultos. “Estamos hablando de sólo una parte de estos entierros, quizá en los otros extremos podamos encontrar más individuos adultos”, comentó Talavera González, quien asegura que la importancia de estos hallazgos radica en que pocas veces se tiene la oportunidad de excavar un barrio de comerciantes de tantos años de antigüedad.
Alejandra Jasso Peña, arqueóloga encargada del rescate, comentó que este espacio pudo ser uno de élite, que fue parte de un conjunto cívico-ceremonial, lo cual se deduce por la cercanía de la Capilla de San Simón, edificada durante la Colonia sobre una plataforma prehispánica.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/cultura/69299.html

• 

¿Es el yacimiento de Arbo uno de los más antiguos de España?

Arranca la tercera campaña, que incluye la datación absoluta de los restos paleolíticos y podrían retrasar sus fechas hasta los 500.000 años
LA VOZ

El yacimiento arqueológico de Arbo podría ser uno de los más antiguos de España. Comprobarlo es parte del objetivo de la tercera campaña de trabajos en la zona de O Cabrón que se realizan por parte del Instituto de Estudos Miñoranos. Los restos, que están valorados en unos 300.000 años de antigüedad, podrían superar los 500.000 cuando finalicen las pruebas de Resonancia Paramagnética Electrónica que prevén este año. Estos trabajos arrojarían una datación absoluta de los instrumentos encontrados, que de confirmarse podría ubicar el yacimiento de O Cabrón entre los más antiguos de la pensínsula ibérica.

Los trabajos se dearrollan en los laboratorios de Geocronología del Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana de Burgos y son financiados gracias a la ayuda del Concello de Arbo.

En paralelo a estas investigaciones, los voluntarios bajo la dirección del arqueólogo Eduardo Méndez Quintas se desarrollarán durante diez días en el municipio. Se realizarán trabajos de excavación en los diferentes niveles de ocupación del terreno. El espacio fue ya excavado con anterioridad y arrojó inicialmente piezas más antiguas. «Todo parece indicar que estamos una ocupación recurrente del este lugar por parte de grupos diferente un mismo tipo de homínido, homo heildelbergensis o homo neanderthal arcaicos», explica Méndez Quintas.

Otro de los objetivos es recuperar un mayor grupo de materiales arqueológicos para ampliar los conocimientos de las habilidades motrices y cognitivas de estos grupos humanos. Como en los años anteriores, también se desarrollarán actividades de divulgación de forma paralela como jornadas de puertas abiertas, experiencias de elaboración o uso de artefactos y conferencias.

 http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/vigo/2012/07/13/yacimiento-arbo-antiguos-espana/00031342195309936388660.htm#.UAB6tiuz6_s.facebook

Archaeologists Discover Bulgarian Herculaneum

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, speaking in an exclusive interview for the online edition of the Bulgarian 24 Chassa (24 Hours) daily.
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 told 24 Chassa 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.
The team is currently working in the southern part of the fortress, where, as Hristov reports, a large number of finds had been discovered in a small area because the construction had been very dense.
"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.
The excavations on cape Akin are under the patronage of NIM in partnership with the Archaeology Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS, and the History Museum in Burgas, and are financed by the Via Pontica program for which Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, slated funds. Students from the Sofia University are taking part in the digs.

 http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=141220

Hristov and his team demand a ban on all construction in the area in order to preserve the precious discoveries.
The terrains west from Chernomorets are still untouched by construction, and very picturesque, but private individuals have claimed already ownership on the lands.

Tags: archaeologists, Discovery, Bulgarian, Bulgaria, Herculaneum, Black Sea coast, underwater district, Byzantine, fortress, Chernomorets, Akin, Akra, Krimna, Bozhidar Dimitrov, NIM, Ivan Hristov, BAS, Archaeology Institute, Via Pontica
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It is owned by M3 Communications Group, Inc., and is part of the long-term web business experience of the team of the largest PR company in Bulgaria. Founded in Sofia in 2008, OCMG unites websites with a wide range of topics in its portfolio, generating long-standing interest, and attracting a large number of users. » Web site

mobilebulgaria.comnovinite.comnovinite.bgdoctoronline.bgprogramata.tv

Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria

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