Aboriginal settlement in Australia was no accident but the result of large-scale migration by skilled maritime explorers, research shows.

Experts have made the finding using wind and ocean current modelling, similar to that deployed in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

A now submerged string of islands between Australia and Timor and Roti. This kind of imagery has been used to pinpoint likely routes between the islands and the Australian mainland.

The process was designed to simulate likely routes between the islands of Timor and Roti and more than 100 now-submerged islands off the Kimberley coast.

“There’s always been a lot of speculation about how Aboriginal people made it to Australia and a lot of people have argued that people might have made it here by accident,” study co-author and James Cook University archaeology Professor Sean Ulm said.

“We’re talking multiple boats, not just one boat blowing off course … reflecting the population in the mainland South-East Asian area.”

Scores of historical artifacts have been unearthed in Dohuk province in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, according to Hassan Ahmad Kasim, director of Dohuk University’s archeology department.

Speaking at a Monday press conference, Kasim said German and Iraqi archeologists had discovered numerous items — some of which are thought to date back as far as 5000 BC — in the town of Semel.

According to Kasim, many of these artifacts bear writing in the Akkadian, Sumerian and Hurrian languages.

Located near the Turkish border, Iraq’s Dohuk province currently hosts roughly 700 different archeological sites.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180521-artifacts-dating-to-5000-bc-discovered-in-iraqs-dohuk/

The remains of a child, estimated to have been about three years old, and two older people have been found during archaeological excavations in Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv, and archaeologists believe that they may have been killed during a Goth assault almost 1800 years ago.

The discovery was made at a site near a road tunnel close to the current headquarters of the Plovdiv metropolitanate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The child had been shot with an arrow. The cause of the death of the two older people was not immediately clear because the remains had been heavily damaged by fire. The burnt skeletons were found in unnatural poses. Still on the wrist of one was a beautiful bracelet.

With the remains were found, close to one, a few coins, and close to the other, a statuette, believed to depict Aphrodite.

The head of the archaeological dig, Elena Bozhinova, told local media that she and her team were of the opinion that the triple killing and the torching of the family home happened during the Gothic assault on Philippopolis, as Plovdiv was then known, in the year 251. In that assault, the city was almost completely destroyed by fire.

Bozhinova said that burnt buildings from this period were often found, but it was rare to come across human remains.

She described the site as exceptional. After the discovery of the main street and fragments of a giant arch, the foundations also were found. These showed that the portal building had been very large, she said.

The foundations were at a level even below that of the ancient main street that had led to the city’s East Gate.

Bozhinova said that it was hoped to accurately date all the structures once the coins and ceramics found at the site had been processed. The archaeological team had found 280 coins, not counting the store of coins found near one of the skeletons, she said.

Work at the site is continuing.

DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE—Reno, NV (May 14, 2018): To learn about the rise and fall of ancient European civilizations, researchers sometimes find clues in unlikely places: deep inside of the Greenland ice sheet, for example.
Thousands of years ago, during the height of the ancient Greek and Roman empires, lead emissions from sources such as the mining and smelting of lead-silver ores in Europe drifted with the winds over the ocean to Greenland – a distance of more than 2800 miles (4600 km) – and settled onto the ice. Year after year, as fallen snow added layers to the ice sheet, lead emissions were captured along with dust and other airborne particles, and became part of the ice-core record that scientists use today to learn about conditions of the past.
In a new study published in PNAS, a team of scientists, archaeologists and economists from the Desert Research Institute (DRI), the University of Oxford, NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research and the University of Copenhagen used ice samples from the North Greenland Ice Core Project (NGRIP) to measure, date and analyze European lead emissions that were captured in Greenland ice between 1100 BC and AD 800. Their results provide new insight for historians about how European civilizations and their economies fared over time.
Read more:
https://popular-archaeology.com/article/lead-pollution-in-greenland-ice-shows-rise-and-fall-of-ancient-european-civilizations/

Archaeologists working on a site on a private property in the centre of Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv have found a stone with an inscription praising Roman Emperor Diocletian, who was in power from 284 to 305 CE.
In unofficial translation, the inscription reads: “To our master, the most devout Gaius Valerius Diocletianus, a happy, invincible Augustus. Dedicated by the sublime Emilius Alexander, governor of the province of Thrace, devoted to his divinity”.
Archaeologist Elena Bozhinova of Plovdiv’s Regional Archaeological Museum told local media that the inscription had been on a massive block, “probably a pedestal of a very large statue, perhaps the emperor on a horse”.
In time, however, this act of brown-nosing the imperial boss would have a less splendid place. In mediaeval times, the stone was recycled to be used as a part of a wall. Sic transit gloria mundi, and all that.
Emilius Alexander was rather keen on letting various emperors know how enthusiastic he was about them. Other inscriptions dedicated to emperors have been found at the Augusta Trayana site in Stara Zagora, and in the early 20th century, at the village of Voden.
Emperor Diocletian was born, in humble circumstances, in the year 244 in Salona, in what today is Croatia. As emperor, he conducted a number of successful military campaigns, though two of his campaigns were doomed to failure – one, an edict against inflation, the other, a notoriously brutal campaign from 303 to 311 against Christians. Thirteen years after Diocletian’s death, one of his successors, Constantine, became the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Not only that, Diocletian’s mausoleum was converted into a Christian church, the cathedral of St Domnius, which still stands today in the Croatian city of Split.
Diocletian abdicated in 305, on the grounds of ill-health, and retired to his native Dalmatia. He died at the age of 66 in Aspalathos, today’s Split
Archaeologists working on a site on a private property in the centre of Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv have found a stone with an inscription praising Roman Emperor Diocletian, who was in power from 284 to 305 CE.
In unofficial translation, the inscription reads: “To our master, the most devout Gaius Valerius Diocletianus, a happy, invincible Augustus. Dedicated by the sublime Emilius Alexander, governor of the province of Thrace, devoted to his divinity”.
Archaeologist Elena Bozhinova of Plovdiv’s Regional Archaeological Museum told local media that the inscription had been on a massive block, “probably a pedestal of a very large statue, perhaps the emperor on a horse”.
In time, however, this act of brown-nosing the imperial boss would have a less splendid place. In mediaeval times, the stone was recycled to be used as a part of a wall. Sic transit gloria mundi, and all that.
Emilius Alexander was rather keen on letting various emperors know how enthusiastic he was about them. Other inscriptions dedicated to emperors have been found at the Augusta Trayana site in Stara Zagora, and in the early 20th century, at the village of Voden.
Emperor Diocletian was born, in humble circumstances, in the year 244 in Salona, in what today is Croatia. As emperor, he conducted a number of successful military campaigns, though two of his campaigns were doomed to failure – one, an edict against inflation, the other, a notoriously brutal campaign from 303 to 311 against Christians. Thirteen years after Diocletian’s death, one of his successors, Constantine, became the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Not only that, Diocletian’s mausoleum was converted into a Christian church, the cathedral of St Domnius, which still stands today in the Croatian city of Split.
Diocletian abdicated in 305, on the grounds of ill-health, and retired to his native Dalmatia. He died at the age of 66 in Aspalathos, today’s Split

Hidden writing on fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been discovered by researchers using advanced imaging technology originally developed for NASA.
The pieces of manuscript, many of which appear blank to the naked eye, are being analysed for the first time since they were unearthed by archaeologists in the 1950s.

One fragment had letters written in an ancient Hebrew script which could belong to an unknown text. Others have been matched to the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, a section of the Great Psalms Scroll containing Psalm 147, and a text in the Temple Scroll giving instructions for how to conduct services.

The fragments, roughly around 1.5cm by 1cm in size, were presented during an international conference held in Jerusalem to mark the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the scrolls.

“Usually scholars are dealing with Dead Sea Scrolls materials after they’ve been cleaned and treated. These fragments were never cleaned and treated,” said Oren Ableman, a researcher at the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Using an infrared microscope connected to a computer, he sifted through a box of fragments recovered from Cave 11 in 1956.
“With the very first fragment, I saw a letter and knew there was something there. That was the initial moment of excitement,” Mr Ableman said.
The fragments were then photographed using multispectral imaging as part of the decade-long project to digitise the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Mr Ableman believes one piece with paleo-Hebrew writing dates back to the late Second Temple period.

“What was exciting about this particular fragment is that I could tell that the handwriting was not identical to other fragments of this type of script,” he said.
“That leads me to believe we are dealing with a manuscript that we didn’t know about.”

The Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1946 in caves at Wadi Qumran in the West Bank.
In February last year archaeologists discovered a new cave containing potter, broken scroll storage jars and one blank parchment
independent.uk

World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated on May 01, 2018. 2018 is an important transition year in the history of World Migratory Bird Day – unifying the planet’s major migratory bird corridors, or flyways: the African-Eurasian flyway, the East Asian-Australasian flyway, and the Americas flyways. Celebrated from now on twice a year, on the Second Saturday in May and in October, WMBD aims to reach out to a broader audience and amplify its message for bird conservation. As a new global platform that unifies efforts worldwide, WMBD will be reinforcing education and awareness-raising about the need to protect migratory birds and their habitats – at all different levels, in all parts of the world.

Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during the Second World War, 8-9 May 2018. 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.

Archaeologists in the city of Kyustendil in Western Bulgaria have unearthed a Late Antiquity / Late Roman building which is believed to have been the residence of the Early Christian bishop of the large Ancient Roman city of Pautalia.

The predecessor of today’s Bulgarian city of Kyustendil, Pautalia, originally an Ancient Thracian settlement known for its mineral water springs, was an important Roman, and then Early Byzantine city.

In the Middle Ages, during the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680 – 1018) and Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 – 1396/1422), it was also a major city.

While Roman Era Pautalia had a much larger fortified area, in the Early Byzantine period, a smaller fortress was constructed on the Hisarlaka Hill towering above what is today Kyustendil (the Pautalia – Hisarlaka – Velbazhd Fortress).

Pautalia was initially part of the Roman province of Thracia (Thrace) but after the administrative reform it became part of the province of Dacia Mediterranea, and was the third largest city in it, after Serdica (today’s Bulgarian capital Sofia) and Naissus (today’s Nis in Serbia).

The large building which is believed to have been the residence of the Early Christian bishop of Pautalia has been discovered during rescue excavations near Kyustendil’s Art Gallery “Vladimir Dimitrov Maystora”, the Bulgarian National Television reports.

See more:  Archaeology in Bulgaria