Excavations restarting at İkiztepe in northern Turkey

İkiztepe ancient site, which was discovered by archaeologists in 1940 in the Black Sea city of Samsun's Bafra district, is being excavated for 36 years and nearly 11,550 artifacts have been unearthed so far. This year's archaeology excavations has restarted in the region and will continue until Sept 10.

Excavations at İkiztepe, which have continued in the Black Sea province of Samsun’s Bafra district since 1974, are being carried out in the area again this year.

İkiztepe was discovered in 1940 by archaeologists who carried out excavations in the Dündartepe region around Samsun.

Many artifacts from the early Bronze Age (3000-2000) and the Hittite period (1900-1800 BC) have been unearthed so far during the excavations led by the Istanbul University Archaeology Department’s Professor Önder Bilgi.

“This year’s excavations, which have continued in İkiztepe for 36 years, will end on Sept. 10,” said Bilgi, adding that they finished works in one area last year and searched for layers of the early Bronze Age period.

“The number of findings that have been unearthed in İkiztepe reached nearly 11,550. Last year’s excavations were carried out at Hill One and have ended. This year’s excavations continue on a slope that we call İkiztepe. A team of 34 people, including five students and three expert anthropologists, is working there. Last year significant artworks were found, revealing the cultural development in the region. We also had a chance to profile the layers of the early Bronze Age. Two furnaces and two graves have been unearthed so far,” Bilgi said, adding that the archaeology excavations shed light on the cultural history of the central Black Sea.

Settlements until 1700 BC

During the excavations, which had been carried out at the ancient site, traces of Caolithic period (between 5000-4000 BC) were found, which revealed that the settlement existed there until 1700 B.C.

A tumulus from the Hellenistic period (330-39 BC) was found as well as a number of artworks and remnants from the early Bronze Age. Weapons, furnaces, symbols, jewelry and stone tablets found during the excavations show that the people of İkiztepe played an important role in the development of the Anatolian art of mining. It is known that they used a mixture of copper and arsenic in metal objects, and it is estimated that they obtained copper from the Merzifon region and arsenic from Gümüşhacıköy in present-day Amasya.

The most interesting findings unearthed during the excavations are skulls, which underwent surgical operation. In the graveyard on the highest hill in the ancient site, dating back to 2300-2100 BC, eight out of the 690 skeletons had skulls with traces of surgical operation. These skulls have archaeological importance since they are the only ones unearthed in Anatolia. They also show that people who lived there did not have the characteristics of Mediterranean people but of southern Russians and Bulgarians.

Some of the findings from the İkiztepe excavations are being displayed at the Samsun Archaeological and Ethnography Museum.

Source from Great site : http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

Archaeological dig concludes

A six-week-long archaeological excavation recently concluded in downtown Hastings near the Highway 61 bridge.

The site was once home to the St. John’s hotel and a neighboring saloon. Both were destroyed by one of the largest fires in Hastings history, the Christmas fire of 1899.

Crews from Two Pines Resource Group found evidence of the fire, uncovering brick rubble and burned wood and ash. The hotel was rebuilt and stood on the site until 1983. Many artifacts from the site’s time as a hotel were uncovered, including broken fragments of bottles, dishes and glassware. Crews also found old coffee beans, fish bones, animal bones and egg shell fragments.

Two Pines also found a number of interesting personal artifacts, ranging from a small China cat, marbles, tobacco pipes, combs and buttons at the site.

“The overall integrity of the site was just so good,” said Michelle Terrell of Two Pines. “A lot of times, people think that, especially in a rural area like Hastings, how can things survive as well, and as long, as they do?”

Crews were at the site from May 17 to June 30. They are now busy cleaning and identifying the thousands of artifacts collected.

A complete report detailing the findings will be finished next year. A local display of some of the artifacts from the project is planned.

“There was just so much interest from the community (while crews were at the site),” Terrell said. “We’d like to do something local so everyone can see the artifacts. I think you’ll be able to see some interesting things.”

It will take a few months for the team to complete its work, so any such exhibit is a ways off yet.

“We’re still working our way through the analysis,” Terrell said.

One member of the Two Pines team is combing through the various bones that were found so as to determine what animal they came from. That will help archaeologists determine what sorts of resources were being used to feed guests at the hotel and patrons of the saloon. Thus far, the obvious bones were found, including those from cows, pigs and chickens. There were bones from fish, deer and ducks.

Two Pines conducted a preliminary archaeology dig in 2008 to see what lay below the surface. They found the foundation of the hotel building and a few artifacts. That led federal, state and local agencies to agree the remains were historically significant and should undergo further archaeological investigation prior to construction of the new bridge.

Source: http://www.dglobe.com

Archaeologists Find Ancient Hammurabi-Like Law Code in Israel Clay Tablet

Archaeologists have uncovered for the first time in Israel fragments of a law code that resemble portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi.

The code was found on two fragments of a clay tablet, and is between 3,700 and 3,800 years old, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said today in an e-mailed statement.

The fragments “refer to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters, bringing to mind similar laws in the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code of the 18th century B.C. that were found in what is now Iran over 100 years ago,” the statement said. “The laws also reflect, to a certain extent, biblical laws of the type ‘a tooth for a tooth’.”

The discovery opens an interesting avenue for investigation of a connection between Biblical law and the Code of Hammurabi, according to Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, who is preparing the law code fragments for publication. The style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, he said.

The tablet, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, was discovered in Hazor, in the north of Israel. Words that have been deciphered include “master,” “slave” and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for “tooth.”

The two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest body of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents found dealt with subjects including the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute, and a text of multiplication tables.

The Hazor archaeology excavations are under the direction of Amnon Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckerman of the Hebrew University. Previous excavations were directed at the site by Yigael Yadin in the 1950s and 1960s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net

Source : http://www.bloomberg.com

Archaeology: Excavations on St. Ivan island reveal potential relics from John the Baptist

Archaeology Excavations on Saint Ivan island, the largest of five Bulgarian islands in the Black Sea, have unearthed an exquisite marble reliquary incorporated into the church’s altar, the historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National History Museum and minister without portfolio in charge of Bulgarians abroad, told Focus news agency on July 28 2010.

He suggested that the reliquary might hold the relics of John the Baptist.

Once the island was converted to Christianity, a monastical complex was built between the 5th-6th century on top of the ruins of the old Roman temple, including the Basilica of the Mother of God. Around the 7th-9th century, the basilica was abandoned only to be reconstructed in the 10th century.

The Monastery of John the Forerunner and the Baptist grew into an important centre of Christianity in the region. Archaeological research was carried out after 1985 for a a period of two years, which revealed a royal residence, a library, part of the fortified wall with the gate and several monastic cells.

Kazimir Popkonstantinov, an archaeologist professor is overseeing the archaeology excavations on the island. Dimitrov said that the reliquary will be opened for the media in a few days after the "necessary religious ceremonies are carried out".

St. Ivan is the largest Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, with an area of 0.66 square kilometres just off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast near Sozopol, a town rich in history and a popular tourist destination, and is separated by a strait several hundred metres long from the small neighbouring St. Peter Island. It is 920m from the Stolets peninsula, the location of Sozopol's Old Town.

Archaeologists Discover 2,400-Year-Old Weapons and Tools in Valencia

The hilt of an eagle-shaped sword dated from 4th Century B.C. and made of iron is pointed at by one one of the archaeologists working at an archeology excavation in the site of La Bastida de les Alcusses in Moixent, Valencia, during its presentation at Archeological Museum of Valencia, Spain 28 July 2010. Five sets of iron weapons belonging to Iberian warriors, and dated from 4th B.C. were found at the site of Bastida de Les Alcusses two weeks ago and presented, among others, by director of Prehistory Museum of Valencia, Helena Bonet (not seen) on 28 July 2010. EPA/MANUEL BRUQUE.

VALENCIA.- The finding of a set of useful weapons for warriors from 2400 years ago in La Bastida de les Alcusses located in Moixent (Valencia) has confirmed this excavation as "the peninsular town of reference to study the Iberian period."

This has been assured by the delegate of the department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Salvador Enguix, the director of the Museum of Prehistory of Valencia and co-director of the excavation campaign, Helena Bonet, and archaeologist and co-director of the excavation at La Bastide Alcusses, Jaime Vives-Ferrandiz, have presented at a press conference the details of the findings announced yesterday by the county.

Excavations have recovered over 60 iron objects in a small area of the western entrance to the village of La Bastida, including weapons, rods and nails belonging to the jamb of a door, the experts explained.

Archaeological excavations in the Iberian settlement of La Bastida de les Alcusses of Moixent have been indertaken this year in the West Gate. This entry to the town had already been excavated in 1998 but the evidence of the existence of an older entry at this point has led to the excavation this year.

In this set, stand out outfits - set of weapons and tools - for warriors located in the village. There are, Helena Bonet said, five sets of weapons, belonging to as many Iberian warriors from 2,400 years ago, which are the "most spectacular" find and enable to document "a unique ritual in Iberian Archaeology consisting of the intentional deposition of five complete sets of iron weapons, food offerings and ceramic vases, all burned together with wood and iron structures of the door and sealed under a layer of earth. "