This article contains some synopsis and excerpts from the two articles published in March and April 2019 in Nature Magazine and National Geographic. The links to the two articles are at the end of this article.

In April 2019, the cases of eight conservation scientists and researchers in Iran entered a critical
phase, while prominent wildlife scientists and NGOs around the world continue to rally in support of the scientists. The conservationists, from the Tehran-based Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), have been accused of using camera traps to spy—a claim which is completely false as given evidence by the scientists and being rebuffed on technical grounds by camera trap experts. The international conservationists who know the Iranian detained researchers describe them as dedicated team of environmentalists, researchers, and scientists whose work to conserve critically endangered Asiatic (Persian) cheetahs as critical and extremely important.
In mid-January 2018, PWHF founder Morad Tahbaz was arrested. On January 24 and 25, eight others associated with the organization were also arrested: Managing Director Kavous Seyed-Emami, Niloufar Bayani, Houman Jowkar, Taher Ghadirian, Sepideh Kashani, Amir Hossein Khaleghi, Abdolreza Kouhpayeh, and Sam Radjabi. Amnesty International documented a broader crackdown on environmental activists, citing 63 arrests in 2018, based on media reports.
Their jailing has been met with international condemnation by many organizations including the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Wildlife Fund, 132 leading conservationists, and the European Parliament speaking out.

Founded in 2008, PWHF operates with the permission of the Iranian government and in close cooperation with the Department of Environment and used to have a long-running relationships with UN agencies, international NGOs, and grassroots conservation groups. However, their website is no longer active today. The organization is primarily funded by in-country donors but receives technical assistance from international groups—standard procedure in the world of conservation.

The case has prompted an outcry from the international community. Reports that some
“detainees may not have adequate access to legal counsel and representation is deeply
troubling”, the United Nations Environment Programme said in a statement on 5 March. “We urge the Iranian authorities to ensure that [the researchers] are guaranteed a fair, transparent and independent trial,” it says.

Human-rights group Amnesty International released a similar statement on the same day. And a February letter to Iran’s president, 26 members of the European Parliament voiced concerns that the proceedings fall seriously short of fair-trial standards. Open letters signed by hundreds of conservationists were published shortly after the arrests last year.

One of conservationists arrested in January 2018, Dr. Kavous Seyed-Emami, a Canadian-Iranian scientist and academic, died under suspicious circumstances in Evin prison two weeks after his arrest. The authorities claimed that he had committed suicide and refused to release his body unless his family agreed to an immediate burial without an independent autopsy. Amnesty International has previously called on the Iranian authorities to conduct an impartial investigation into his death.

In March 2019, WCHV honored Dr. Emami posthumously for his life of dedication and hard work on behalf of Iran’s natural heritage and his tireless efforts devoted to conservation andpreservation in Iran. Professor Seyed-Emami was selected as the recipient of 2019 “Nowruz Award for Personality of the Year in the Field of Environment and Natural Heritage”. Conservation groups urge fair trial for jailed Iranian researchers
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01001-3
Jailed researchers trying to protect threatened cheetahs in Iran await verdict
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/03/iran-wildlife-conservationists-jailed/

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the ruins of an ancient fortress which is believed to be dating back to the 26th Dynasty, the last dynasty in which native Egyptians ruled before the Persians conquered the country in 525 B.C. Researchers from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities have uncovered parts of the mud-brick stronghold including the northeastern and southeastern towers at the Tell El-Kedwa site in North Sinai.

Archaeologists had originally excavated the site in 2008, but as the fortress is very large, it has taken them until this year to uncover more of its remains. The researchers believe
that since the location was ideal militarily, another military outpost was built on top of
the original remains of the first fortress. According to the Egyptian Supreme Council of
Antiquities the original fortress is believed to be one of the oldest fortresses discovered.

Archaeologists report that the walls of the older fortress are exceptionally thick, measuring nearly 23 feet (7 meters) in width. The excavation also uncovered an almost 280-foot-long (85 m) wall on the fortress’s southern side and the remains of houses within the western part of the fortress. One of these houses had an amulet with the name of King Psamtik I, who fought the Assyrians and reunited the country when he founded the 26th Dynasty. He died in 610 B.C.

In addition, the archaeologists revealed the presence of an ancient entrance to the fortress, in the form of a side gate on the northeastern side of the wall, and to the right of this entrance are the remains of the room that may have been occupied by guards who monitored the gate.

New discoveries made at the Klasies River Cave in South Africa’s southern Cape, where charred food remains from hearths were found, provide the first archaeological evidence that anatomically modern humans were roasting and eating plant starches, such as those from tubers and rhizomes, as early as 120,000 years ago.

The new research by an international team of archaeologists, published in the Journal of Human Evolution, provides archaeological evidence that has previously been lacking to support the hypothesis that the duplication of the starch digestion genes is an adaptive response to an increased starch diet. “This is very exciting. The genetic and biological evidence previously suggested that early humans would have been eating starches, but this research had not been done before,” says Lead author Cynthia Larbey of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. The work is part of a systemic multidisciplinary investigation into the role that plants and fire played in the lives of Middle Stone Age communities.

The interdisciplinary team searched for and analysed undisturbed hearths at the Klasies
River archaeological site. “Our results showed that these small ashy hearths were used for cooking food and starchy roots and tubers were clearly part of their diet, from the earliest levels at around 120,000 years ago through to 65,000 years ago,” says Larbey. “Despite changes in hunting strategies and stone tool technologies, they were still cooking roots and tubers.”

Professor Sarah Wurz from the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental
Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa (Wits
University) and principal investigator of the site says the research shows that “early
human beings followed a balanced diet and that they were ecological geniuses, able to
exploit their environments intelligently for suitable foods and perhaps medicines.”
By combining cooked roots and tubers as a staple with protein and fats from shellfish,
fish, small and large fauna, these communities were able to optimally adapt to their
environment, indicating great ecological intelligence as early as 120 000 years ago.
“Starch diet isn’t something that happens when we started farming, but rather, is as old as humans themselves,” says Larbey. Farming in Africa only started in the last 10 000 years of human existence. Humans living in South Africa 120 000 years ago formed and lived in small bands.”

“Evidence from Klasies River, where several human skull fragments and two maxillary
fragments dating 120 000 years ago occur, show that humans living in that time period
looked like modern humans of today. However, they were somewhat more robust,” says
Wurz.

Klasies River is a very famous early human occupation site on the Cape coast of South
Africa excavated by Wurz, who, along with Susan Mentzer of the Senckenberg Institute
and Eberhard Karls Universit?t Tübingen, investigated the small (c. 30cm in diameter)
hearths. The research to look for the plant materials in the hearths was inspired by Prof Hilary Deacon, who passed on the Directorship of the Klasies River site on to Wurz. Deacon has done groundbreaking work at the site and in the 1990’s pointed out that there would be plant material in and around the hearths. However, at the time, the micro methods were not available to test this hypothesis.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
University of the Witwatersrand

By Michael Price
When José Capriles arrived in 2008 at the Cueva del Chileno rock shelter, nestled on the
western slopes of Bolivia’s Andes, he didn’t know what he would find within. Sweeping
aside layers of fresh and ancient llama dung, he found the remains of an ancient burial
site: stone markers suggesting a body had once been interred there and a small leather
bag cinched with a string. Inside was a collection of ancient drug paraphernalia—bone
spatulas to crush the seeds of plants with psychoactive compounds, wooden tablets inlaid
with gemstones to serve as a crushing surface, a wooden snuffing tube with a carved
humanoid figure, and a small pouch stitched together from the snouts of three foxes.
Now, more than a decade later, Capriles—an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State
University in State College—and colleagues have discovered that the 1000-year-old bag
contains the most varied combination of psychoactive compounds found at a South
American site, including cocaine and the primary ingredients in a hallucinogenic tea
called ayahuasca. The contents suggest the users were well versed in the psychoactive
properties of the substances, and also that they sourced their goods from well-established
trade routes.
“Whoever had this bag of amazing goodies … would have had to travel great distances to
acquire those plants,” says Melanie Miller, lead author of a new study on the discovery
and a bioarchaeologist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. “[Either
that], or they had really extensive exchange networks.”
Nearly every culture on Earth has dabbled with consciousness- and perception-altering
substances. Indigenous groups from Central and South America have used hallucinogens
such as peyote and psilocybin mushrooms during rituals and religious ceremonies for
thousands of years. Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of items that provide a
glimpse into these ancient practices, but few are as complete as the Bolivian find.
In 2010, Miller joined the team to help chemically analyze the items, which had been
nearly perfectly preserved in the arid conditions of the 4000-meter-high mountains.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the outer bag was made around 1000 C.E. Next, Miller
carefully unwound the fox snout pouch and emptied its dust and debris onto a piece of
aluminum foil. Using a technique frequently used in modern illicit drug testing called
liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, she and her fellow researchers hunted
for chemical signatures in the sample. They identified at least five psychoactive
substances: cocaine, benzoylecgonine, bufotenine, harmine, and dimethyltryptamine.
Harmine and dimethyltryptamine are the main ingredients in ayahuasca, used
ceremonially for centuries by indigenous South Americans. Miller says their presence
alongside the snuffing tube and tablet may mean that people inhaled these chemicals long
before they were brewed into a beverage.

The mixture’s origins also offer clues to the trade routes of the people who occupied the
high plains. Several of the compounds come from the plant genus Anadenanthera—also
known as vilca, cebil, or yopo—which grows widely through South America, but not in
this region of the Andes. Similarly, the likely source of the harmine is a lowland
Amazonian species.
Miller says it’s possible that the mixture of compounds was unique to the region. The fact
that at least two of the ingredients are known to be used in tandem in ayahuasca raises the
possibility that this shaman was selecting plant combinations for specific mind-altering
effects , they report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“Maybe they were mixing multiple things together because they realized when they’re
combined, they have a whole different set of experiences,” Miller says.
When indigenous South Americans began to brew ayahuasca is still a major mystery,
says Christine VanPool, an anthropologist at the University of Missouri in Columbia who
wasn’t involved in the work. She’s intrigued by the idea they may first have discovered
its properties by inhaling its key compounds. Shamans “say they’ve had [ayahuasca] for a
very long time. So in some ways, I wasn’t surprised,” she says. But because
archaeological evidence has been lacking, the new find is “exciting.”
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/archaeologists-find-richest-cache-ancient-
mind-altering-drugs-south-america

According independent archaeologists have uncovered part of a cemetery thousands of
years old near Egypt ’s famed pyramids on the Giza plateau near Cairo .

The cemetery houses burial shafts and tombs of top officials. The most significant artefact uncovered was a limestone statue of the tomb’s owner, his wife and his son dating back to the fifth dynasty (2465-2323 BC), officials said.

Ashraf Mohi, head of the archaeological site, said it was known that the cemetery had
been reused extensively in the Late Period (664-332 BC), as archaeologists found painted
and decorated wooden anthropoid coffins, and wooden and clay funerary masks from that
period.

Egypt has touted a series of archaeological finds recently, hoping such discoveries will
spur tourism , which suffered a major setback during the unrest that followed the 2011
uprising.

By resolution 59/26 of 22 November 2004, the UN General Assembly declared 8–9 May
as a time of remembrance and reconciliation and, while recognizing that Member States
may have individual days of victory, liberation and commemoration, invited all Member
States, organizations of the United Nations System, non-governmental organizations and
individuals to observe annually either one or both of these days in an appropriate manner
to pay tribute to all victims of the Second World War.
The Assembly stressed that this historic event established the conditions for the creation
of the United Nations, designed to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,
and called upon the Member States of the United Nations to unite their efforts in dealing
with new challenges and threats, with the United Nations playing a central role, and to
make every effort to settle all disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the Charter
of the United Nations and in such a manner that international peace and security are not
endangered.

Article submitted by Amail Imani.

According to sources coming from Iran, the ancient city of Izeh, in Khuzestan Province, has reported that unskilled workers, without any official or proper permits and under false pretenses to repair and to restore, have damaged priceless ancient lion monuments that go back to thousands of years. They have caused damage to these artifacts and we suspect, it was intentional. We can say this almost with certainty based on the previous modus operandi of the Islamic regime’s contentious attitude towards any prehistoric Persian artifacts. Hence, it leaves us no doubt that this scheme could also be another well planned and well thought out plan to purge Persian history. Previously, these ancient lions have been broken or stolen across Iran, and the Cultural Heritage Organization has always been negligent and indifferent about this issue.

The Lions in Iran have been symbols of royalty, majesty and strength of the Persian Empire for thousands of years. It is part of the fabric and identity of Persian culture. A symbol of the greatness, of courage, and of power. Stone and Earth sculptures and pictures of lions on inscriptions, paintings, and even on the wall, can be seen in every city in Iran. These lions were built in our most historical periods, especially before Islam, and before the Islamic Revolution, most of them remain healthy because the Iranian people maintained great interest and an affinity towards the Lion symbol.

Historically and culturally speaking, the Lion and the Sun have existed as potent mythological symbols of Iran for thousands of years

By Amanda Borschel-Dan
An extremely rare 1,600-year-old gold coin of the Byzantine emperor who made Jews
second-class citizens in the Land of Israel has been discovered — ironically, near a new
trail built in commemoration of the Sanhedrin he abolished. It is the first time this coin
has been found in Israel, according to an Israel Antiquities Authority press release
published on Tuesday.
In February, four trekking teens stumbled upon the coin while orienteering in the fields
alongside the Zippori stream in the Galilee. The high schoolers, Ido Kadosh, Ofir Sigal,
Dotan Miller and Harel Grin, immediately discerned that this was no run-of-the-mill coin
and alerted their geography and history teacher Zohar Porshyan, who contacted the Israel
Antiquities Authority.
The ninth graders received a certificate of commendation from the IAA at the Haemeq
Hama’aravi High School in Kibbutz Yifat in the Jezreel Valley. The coin has been
transferred to the State Treasuries.
The obverse of the solidus — a solid gold coin with a weight of approximately 4.5 grams
that was minted in the later Roman Empire/early Byzantine era — depicts Emperor
Theodosius II; its reverse is illustrated by the goddess Victory holding the Staff of the
Cross.
According to IAA numismatic expert Dr. Gabriela Bijovsky, “The gold coin is
a solidus minted by the emperor Theodosius II in Constantinople (now Istanbul) around
420–423 CE. Similar coins are known from the Eastern Byzantine empire, but this is the
first of its type discovered in Israel.”
Emperor Theodosius II (401-450) began his reign over Byzantium, the eastern part of the
Roman Empire whose capital was in Constantinople, as a 7-year-old. His name is
enshrined in the Codex Theodosianus or Theodosian law code, which is a set of laws
published in 438 that collected and redacted the thousands of imperial laws of the
sprawling empire.
Unfortunately for the Jews of the era, who had enjoyed relative freedom, the codex
officially demoted their status.

Rare 1600-year-old gold coin depicting the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II discovered
in February 2019 by pupils alongside the Zippori stream in the Galilee. (Nir
Distelfeld/Israel Antiquities Authority)
Although the coin depicts the goddess Victory, Theodosius was a defender of the
Christian faith and promoted Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the official religion of the
empire. As such, the rights and privileges of Jews were circumscribed. They were barred
from military and civil service — aside from the thankless profession of tax collector —
and  and no new synagogues could be constructed.
In an even more resonant blow, the emperor’s codex also diverted the taxes paid to the
head of the Sanhedrin, which led to the eventual abolishment of the Jewish legal council.
Gamaliel VI (400–425) was the final holder of the office of Nasi.

The image of the goddess Victoria holding the Staff of the Cross on the 1600-year-old
gold coin discovered by pupils in February 2019. (Nir Distelfeld/IAA)
“The emperor Theodosius II abolished the post of the ‘Nasi,’ the Head of the Sanhedrin
Council, and decreed that the Jews’ financial contributions to the Sanhedrin be
transferred to the Imperial Treasury,” said Yair Amitzur, IAA chief archaeologist of the
Sanhedrin Trail.
“The Sanhedrin Trail initiated by the IAA tells the story of the Jewish leadership in the
Galilee at the time of the Mishnah and the Talmud in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
It is symbolic that the gold coin discovered adjacent to the Sanhedrin trail reflects the
period of dramatic events when the Sanhedrin ceased to function in the Galilee, and the
center of Jewish life transferred from the Galilee to Babylon,” said Amitzur.

The Haemeq Hamaaravi high school pupils who found the unique 1,600-year-old
Byzantine era gold coin in February 2019. (Suzi Frenkel/IAA)
The high schoolers showed archaeologist Nir Distelfeld, the IAA’s anti-theft inspector,
where the valuable coin was discovered.
“It is uncommon to find single gold coins as they were very valuable, and people took
care not to lose them. I commend the pupils and their teacher for their good citizenship,”
said Distelfeld.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/1600-year-old-gold-coin-of-emperor-who-abolished-
sanhedrin-discovered-by-pupils/