Volunteers try to extinguish the fire outside a military base at the village of Varnava , north of Athens, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. A large wildfire north of Athens is threatening homes as it sweeps through pine forest for a second day, uncontained due to high winds. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A brush fire in central Greece has helped authorities discover a hoard of illegally excavated antiquities.

The Greek culture ministry said Friday that firefighters trying to extinguish the blaze found about 200 artifacts, some as much as 2,800 years old, in plastic bags hidden under bushes.

The discovery was made Thursday in the countryside between the villages of Livanates and Megaplatanos, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) northwest of Athens. A ministry statement said most of the pottery and metal objects were unharmed by the fire, while some bore traces of smoke.

Authorities are trying to establish who excavated and hid the artifacts, some of which had been cleaned and undergone basic repairs on the spot.

Under Greek law, all ancient artifacts found in the country are state property.

https://apnews.com/99f715070e644e159e5bfa640552e096

New knowledge helps researchers understand how Greenland’s ice sheet responds to warming.

A tiny clue found in ancient sediment has unlocked big secrets about Greenland’s past and future climate.

Just beyond the northwest edge of the vast Greenland Ice Sheet, Northwestern University researchers have discovered lake mud that beat tough odds by surviving the last ice age. The mud, and remains of common flies nestled within it, record two interglacial periods in northwest Greenland. Although researchers have long known these two periods — the early Holocene and Last Interglacial — experienced warming in the Arctic due to changes in Earth’s orbit, the mix of fly species preserved from these times shows that Greenland was even warmer than previously thought.

This information could help researchers better gauge Greenland’s sensitivity to warming, by testing and improving models of climate and ice sheet behavior. Those models could then improve predictions of how Greenland’s ice sheet, which covers 80 percent of the Arctic country and holds enough ice to equal 20 feet of global sea level, might respond to human-made global warming.

“Northwest Greenland might feel really remote, but what happens to that ice sheet is going to matter to everyone in New York City, Miami and every coastal city around the world,” said Yarrow Axford, the study’s senior author and an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern. “One of the big uncertainties in climate science remains how fast the Earth changes when it gets warmer. Geology gives us an opportunity to see what happened when the Earth was warmer than today.”

Published June 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study included contributions from collaborators at Dartmouth College.

People might be surprised to see how today’s frigid Greenland looked during the last two interglacial periods. Today, northwest Greenland hovers in the 30s and low 40s Fahrenheit and weathers snowstorms in summer. But average summer temperatures in the

early Holocene (8,000 to 11,000 years ago) and Last Interglacial (116,000 to 130,000 years ago) climbed well into the 50s.

During the Last Interglacial, global sea levels increased by 15 to 30 feet, largely due to thinning of Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets. But now Northwestern’s team believes northern Greenland’s ice sheet experienced stronger warming than previously thought, which could mean that Greenland is more responsible for that sea-level rise.

Layers of time

To measure these ancient temperatures, researchers look to ice cores and lake sediment cores. Because ice and lake sediment form by an incremental buildup on annual layers of snow or mud, these cores contain archives of the past. By looking through the layers, researchers can pinpoint climate clues from eons ago. Finding lake sediments older than about 10,000 years, however, has been historically very difficult in Greenland.

“The classic thing that glaciers do is slide,” Axford said. “So when the ice sheet grows larger, all this wonderful geology gets scooped up and spat out into the oceans.”

But Axford’s team found an area where this wasn’t the case.

The climate in northwest Greenland houses the perfect conditions to preserve the sediments within a small lake that Axford’s team affectionately calls “Wax Lips Lake” because of its shape.

“During the last ice age, the ice sheet there was just thin enough, and the atmosphere was just cold enough that the ice sheet froze to the ground instead of melting at its base and sliding,” said Jamie McFarlin, a Ph.D. student in Northwestern’s department of Earth and planetary sciences, who led the study. “It grew on top of itself and preserved most of the geology below.”

“The ice gently tip-toed over this spot instead of plowing over it,” Axford added.

After taking a two-meter-long tube of sediment from Wax Lips Lake’s lakebed, McFarlin combed through the layers to investigate those from the early Holocene and Last Interglacial periods. It was then that she noticed a mix of lake fly species, called chironomids, that suggested a warmer climate during both periods. Especially surprising: The Last Interglacial period swarmed with another type of insect known as the phantom midge. Although phantom midges have been reported in low abundance in northern climates, one would have to travel 1,000 miles south to Canada’s Labrador province to find phantom midges at comparable abundance to the Last Interglacial in northwest Greenland.

“As far as we know, it’s never been found in Greenland. We think this is the first time anyone has reported it in ancient sediments or modern lakes there,” Axford said. “We were really surprised to see how far north it migrated.”

The bigger picture

Discovering this mix of insects means northwest Greenland’s average July during the last two interglacial periods most likely climbed above 50 degrees and possibly into the high 50s during the Last Interglacial. This confirms controversial geological records constructed from ice cores taken nearby, which also indicated significant warming during these time periods.

“Other records have shown that northern Greenland’s climate was much warmer than people expected during those periods, and those results received justified skepticism,” Axford said. “Now we have an independent record that confirms that when the Arctic warmed in the past, there was especially strong warming in northern Greenland.”

This data will help the broader scientific community further hone climate and ice sheet models used to project future changes.

“This is the kind of ground-truthing that we need to get really accurate climate models and projections,” said Magdalena Osburn, an assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern, who coauthored the study. “We’re finding that, in some cases, models don’t include temperatures that are warm enough for this part of the world.”

There is one caveat. Well-known changes in Earth’s orbit caused warming during the early Holocene and Last Interglacial periods. Today, warming stems from human-made sources and is happening much faster than warming during those interglacial periods. That means there is a chance that Earth might not respond to current-day warming in the same way.

“Past climate is our best analog for future warming, and our results hint that land at these very high latitudes in the Arctic may warm even more than predicted in the coming century,” Axford said. “But nothing in Earth’s past is a perfect analog because what’s happening today is totally unprecedented.”

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (awards 1108306 and 1107411), an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, the Geological Society of America and the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern.

Source: Northwestern University

Earlier this month, the Egypt’s antiquities ministry announced that new radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, bringing a disappointing end to years of excitement over the prospect having hidden rooms or chambers behind the tomb.

The recent work was performed by an Italian team of experts who conducted extensive studies with ground-penetrating radar that showed the tomb did not contain any hidden, man-made blocking walls as was earlier suspected. Professor Francesco Porcelli of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented the findings at an international conference in Cairo earlier in the month (May 2018).

In 2015, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed, after analysis of high-definition laser scans, that queen Nefertiti’s tomb could be concealed behind wall paintings in the famed boy king’s burial chamber. At the time, the suggestion created a great deal of interest. In fact, two previous scans by Japanese and American scientists had proved inconclusive, but the latest ground-penetrating radar data is conclusive and allows no doubt on any such hidden chambers.

The Egypt’s ministry of antiquities has been gradually moving King Tut’s belongings to a new museum outside Cairo near the Giza Pyramids to undergo restoration before they are put on display. The transfer of the priceless belongings has become a particularly sensitive issue. It has been reported by some news outlets that in 2014 the beard attached to the ancient Egyptian monarch’s golden mask was accidentally knocked off and then poorly reattached with an epoxy glue compound, sparking uproar among archaeologists. It has been reported that the first phase of the new museum, including King Tut’s halls, will be completed by the end of this year but the date for the museum’s “soft opening” has yet to be decided. The museum currently hosts more than 43,200 artifacts of which over 4,500 belong to King Tut alone, and its grand opening is planned for 2022.

During the fourth International Tutankhamun Conference in Cairo Professor Porcelli presented the findings of his team which includes the most extensive radar survey of the site to date. The meeting was attended by a wide range of Egyptologists and archaeologists from the world over.

http://www.fasticongressuum.com/single-post/2018/01/19/The-4th-International-Tutankhamun-GEM-Conference—05-06-07052018-Cairo-Egypt

The news that park ranger, Rachel Masika Baraka was killed by the kidnappers after an ambush in the Virunga National Park, saddened many environmentalists but was not shocking. The 25-year-old ranger is the eighth to be murdered at the park just this year. The kidnapping happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) section of the park when Gorillas also injured a Congolese driver and kidnapped two Britons. All three were released a little later. The three people were held when their vehicle was ambushed in Virunga National Park early this month (May 2018). The Britons who were released later paid tribute to the “excellent support” they had received and said they would not comment any further.

The Park director Emmanuel de Merode stated that Ranger Baraka’s life was tragically cut short in service to Virunga National Park. She was one of the park’s 26 female rangers and was highly committed, showing true bravery in her work.

Virunga National Park covers some 3,000 sq miles (7,800 sq km) that stretches in three countries Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. The park, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, is home to critically-endangered mountain gorillas, lions, elephants and hippos.

Every year tourists travel to Rwanda and Uganda as the two most favorite places to hike up through lush hiking trails to see the world famous mountain Gorillas. While these two countries offer daily hiking tours protected by armed park rangers, the tourists in eastern DRC have been warned against traveling to the area (on the DRC side). A number of news outlets have reported that tourists are sometimes left very vulnerable as a result of trying to travel independently without escorted transport, and the risk of kidnap or injury as a result of armed or criminal activity are high.

This incident highlights the dangers and challenges park rangers face every day in order to protect tourists and at the same time create a way for them (tourists) to see these amazing UNESCO national parks and the protected animals in their own habitats.

This undated photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, shows parts of a huge red brick building dating back to the Greco-Roman period, in the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbia province, north of Cairo, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities via AP)

CAIRO — Egyptian archeologists say they have discovered parts of a huge red brick building dating back to the Greco-Roman period north of Cairo.

The Antiquities Ministry says Wednesday the building was found in the Sa El-Hagar archeological site in Gharbia province.

It says archeologists found a gold coin depicting King Ptolemy III, who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C. and was an ancestor of the famed Cleopatra. It says the coin was made during the reign of King Ptolemy IV in memory of his father.

This undated photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, shows a gold coin, depicting King Ptolemy III, who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C. and was an ancestor of the famed Cleopatra, that was found in the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbia province, north of Cairo, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities via AP)

The ministry says archeologists have unearthed other artifacts in the area, including pottery vessels, terracotta statues, bronze tools and a small statue of a ram.

Egypt hopes such discoveries will spur tourism, which has suffered from political turmoil following the 2011 uprising.

The Associated Press

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN—CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A study of ancient mound builders who lived hundreds of years ago on the Mississippi River Delta near present-day New Orleans offers new insights into how Native peoples selected the landforms that supported their villages and earthen mounds – and why these sites were
The study, reported in the Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, also offers a timeline of the natural and human events that shaped one particular site, said University of Illinois anthropology professor Jayur Mehta, who conducted the work with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Elizabeth Chamberlain while both were at Tulane University in New Orleans.
The site, now known as Grand Caillou, is one of hundreds of mound sites in coastal Louisiana, Mehta said. (Watch a video about the research and history of the site.)
“Louisiana is incredibly important in the history of ancient mound-building cultures,” he said. “In what is now the United States, earthen monument and mound construction began on the Louisiana coast.”

This undated photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, shows parts of a huge red brick building dating back to the Greco-Roman period, in the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbia province, north of Cairo, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities via AP)

This undated photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, shows parts of a huge red brick building dating back to the Greco-Roman period, in the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Gharbia province, north of Cairo, Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities via AP)

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.