The Times of Israel reports that a 1,200-year-old soap factory has been unearthed in the Negev Desert by a team of Israel Antiquities Authority researchers, with the assistance of local high school students. Archaeologist Elena Kogen-Zehavi said the large, pillared structure where the olive oil–based soap was made dates to the Islamic Abbasid period, after the Arab conquest of the region. Turning olive oil and the ashes of the saltwort plant into hard cakes of soap was a complicated process, she explained. First, the liquid mixture was cooked for about seven days, and was then transferred to a shallow pool, where the soap hardened for another ten days, until it could be cut into bars, which dried for another two months. So much soap could have been produced at the site, Kogen-Zehavi added, that it was probably exported to Egypt and other parts of the Arab world.
To read about how the ancient village of Ein Gedi endured from the seventh century B.C. to the Byzantine period, go to ” Letter from the Dead Sea: Life in a Busy Oasis .”

According to a statement released by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History , an international team of researchers analyzed satellite imagery and conducted field surveys to document hundreds of massive rectangular stone structures in northwestern Saudi Arabia, and discover more than one hundred additional structures.
Known as “mustatils,” the rectangular monuments are thought to have been constructed
by pastoralists for ritual use. Most of them consist of two large platforms connected by
long, low, parallel walls, and some locations have multiple structures built right next to
each other. Few artifacts have been found at the mustatils. Bones of wild animals and
what may have been wild aurochs or early domesticated cattle were found inside one of
the platforms. Charcoal from this site has been dated to 7,000 years ago, when the region was covered with grasses, dotted with lakes, and vulnerable to drought. Researcher Huw Groucutt explained that the very act of building mustatils probably helped to bond pastoralists living in such a challenging environment

According to a report in The First News , archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University and the Museum of the First Piast at Lednica used photogrammetry to map the bottom of west-central Poland’s Lake Lednica. Located between the city of Gniezno, site of the country’s first capital, and Poznań, the seat of the country’s first Christian bishop, the lake is remembered as the site of the Christian baptism of Duke Mieszko I, who ruled Poland from about 960 to 992. The study revealed the remains of wooden shore fortifications dated to the time of Mieszko I, and two medieval wooden bridges. Artifacts discovered under the remains of the bridges include an intact tenth-century sword and remains of its leather scabbard. X-rays revealed that the sword was decorated with a Christian symbol known as the Jerusalem cross. Two axes, a spearhead, arrowheads, crossbow bolts, a sickle, ceramics, and animal bones were also found. One of the axes, resembling a Scandinavian style, was inlaid with silver decorations.

BBC News reports that metal detectorist Mariusz Stepien discovered a hoard of Bronze
Age artifacts in southern Scotland. “I was over the moon, actually shaking with happiness,” Stepien said of the find. The archaeologists who excavated the site recovered an intact horse harness, complete with leather straps, rings, and buckles; a sword in its scabbard; chariot wheel axle caps; and a rattle pendant thought to have been hung from the harness for decoration. “There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artifacts and understand why they were deposited,” Emily Freeman of the Crown Office’s Treasure Trove Unit commented
https://www.archaeology.org/news/8947-200811-scotland-intact-harness

By: Rebecca Anne Proctor
5th August 2020 08:08 BST
Two powerful explosions at the Port of Beirut on early Tuesday evening left more than 70 people dead and over 4,000 injured. Initially, Lebanese state-run National News
Agency reported that a fire broke out near the Beirut Port. According to Lebanon’s Prime Minister, an investigation is underway concerning an estimated 2,750 tons of the
explosive ammonium nitrate that has been stored at the site for six years.
The damage rocked an already fragile Beirut to its core and wreaked havoc on the city’s
renowned art scene. Major art galleries, including Marfa Gallery, located close to
Beirut’s Port, and Galerie Tanit were completely destroyed. Galerie Tanit had hosted a
vernissage on Monday evening for the Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadiri’s solo exhibition
Remains of the Last Red Rose scheduled to be on view until 25 September. Opera
Gallery’s sleek Beirut branch, located in the city’s downtown district overlooking the
seafront, has also been decimated.
The blasts sent ripples of destruction throughout the city. Galerie Sfeir-Semler, located in the desolate district of Karantina, and Galerie Janine Rubeiz in the Raouché area, have also been damaged. “One of my employees is in intensive care and the gallery has been damaged,” said gallery owner Saleh Barakat. “We barely had the time to close the open vitrines to protect the artworks and are now in the hospital to be with our colleague.”

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/beirut-explosion

According to an ANSA report, a team of archaeologists from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities conducting rescue excavations on private land south of Cairo have uncovered black and pink granite statues and carved blocks dating to the reign of Ramesses II (r. ca. 1279–1213 B.C.). The finds include statues of the god Ptah, the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, and Hathor, the goddess of beauty and love who was also regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the symbolic mother of the pharaohs. Another sculpture depicts the pharaoh himself alongside two deities. Mostafa Waziri of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that carved limestone blocks dating to the Coptic period indicate later reuse of the site. Excavations will continue until the area has been surveyed entirely.

University of Oregon scientists are probing archaeological evidence for how indigenous peoples used sea otters, and their findings could help Alaskans confront growing numbers of the mammals and Oregonians who want to reintroduce them on the coast.

Before fur traders decimated sea otter populations from Alaska to Oregon, ancestors of at least one Alaskan indigenous population, the Tlingit, hunted the mammals for their pelts but probably not for food, according to a study by anthropologist Madonna Moss.
Her research, published in April in American Antiquity, took on questions about
traditional use by native populations amid calls to expand harvesting. Since their
reintroduction in the 1960s, the population of sea otters has spiraled.

Only Alaska Natives living along the coast are permitted under federal law to hunt sea
otters for subsistence and with little waste. They use the pelts for clothing, bedding, hats
and other regalia.

Some environmentalists have challenged the right of Alaska Natives to hunt sea otters
without eating their meat. Conservationists want to show that native populations regularly did so as part of their case for allowing larger-scale harvesting for consumption.

The idea comes amid rising tensions. Sea otters have altered ecosystems, making it more difficult for commercial fisherman to catch abalone, clams, Dungeness crabs, red sea urchins and other invertebrates the otters consume. From 1996 to 2005, the industry was reported to have experienced an economic loss of $11.2 million.

The research by Moss, however, speaks only for Tlingit ancestors. Numerous indigenous populations from Alaska to California hunted sea otters for thousands of years, Moss said. As sea otters recolonize their historic range through population growth or additional reintroduction, such as along the Oregon coast where the
mammals are rarely seen, she said, finding out whether other native populations ate sea otter meat is worthy of attention.?

Read more: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-explores-native-americans-sea-
otters.html

Exploration of a 1,300-year-old shipwreck just off the coast of Israel is offering new insights into life in the region at a time of transition from Byzantine to Islamic rule, according to a report from The Jerusalem Post. Researchers from the University of Haifa’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies began excavating the wreck in 2016. They have found that its cargo included more than 100 amphoras filled with products including olives, dates, figs, fish, pine nuts, grapes, and raisins. The researchers believe the ship made stops in Cyprus, Egypt, and possibly at a port along the coast of Israel before it sank. The size and richness of its cargo appear to contradict the generally accepted belief that commerce in the eastern Mediterranean was limited during the transition from Byzantine to Islamic rule in the seventh to eighth century A.D. The excavations have also turned up several Christian crosses and the name of Allah written in Arabic. “We do not know whether the crew was Christian or Muslim, but we found traces of both religions,” said University of Haifa archaeologist Deborah Cvikel. Given that the wreck occurred close to shore and that no human bones have been found, the researchers believe everyone on board survived the ship’s sinking