19-20 AVRIL 2015 NEWS: Loreauville - Kverkarhellir - Montpelier - Ica - Bedale - Chine -
INSTITUT SUPERIEUR D'ANTHROPOLOGIE
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FALL TERM : OCTOBER 2015
USA – Loreauville - Researchers with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Acadia Project may have gotten one step closer to finding the remains of Beausoleil Broussard and the progenitors of Cajun culture. During the winter, students involved in the project discovered a cemetery along the bank of Bayou Teche that they believe has potential historical significance. The team of 20 students who took part in the winter expedition searched a stretch of the Bayou Teche in Loreauville, looking for signs or remnants of campsites set up by Beausoleil Broussard and the first settlers. They used technology such as magnetometers — much like sophisticated metal detectors — to survey the ground without physically digging. When the magnetometers would go off, the team would dig. After surveying the area, Sheumaker said the team found stonewear like pots and pearlwear, but nothing that could be linked to Beausoleil Broussard. In 1765, Beausoleil Broussard led a group of 193 Acadians from their home in Nova Scotia to New Orleans. The colonial government in Louisiana allowed the Acadian families to settle on the Teche Ridge along the Bayou Teche, in Attakapa territory. Thirty-four of the original group died between the summer and winter of 1765, including Beausoleil Broussard. Rees and his group suspect yellow fever as the cause of those deaths. The Acadian camps and gravesites are believed to be located on the Teche Ridge, between St. Martinville and New Iberia, near Loreauville. Finding those gravesites and historically significant artifacts has taken on greater urgency as commercial development continues throughout the area. The fear is that the unknown gravesites and places where Cajun artifacts from 2½ centuries ago could be destroyed in the construction process. The New Acadia Project team will set out again in the summer to continue to search for Beausoleil Broussard.
ISLANDE - Kverkarhellir - Archaeologist Kristján Ahronson has concluded that Kverkarhellir, a manmade cave between waterfall Seljalandsfoss and farm Seljaland in South Iceland, was partly created around 800 AD, before the settlement of Iceland, which, according to sources, began in 874. Ahronson presented the results of his analysis of volcanic ash layers from around the cave, among other findings, covered in his book Into the Ocean, at the University of Iceland yesterday, RÚVreports.
USA – Montpelier - Reconstruction will begin on South Yard at James Madison's Montpelier after a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday afternoon. South Yard was where slave quarters and work buildings were located 200 years ago. The reconstruction of Montpelier's South Yard will happen in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the emancipation of slaves.
VIDEO = http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/Reconstruction-of-Slave-Quarters-to-Begin-at-Montpelier-300552241.html
PEROU – Ica - Rubén García, Ministry of Culture archaeologist, has a hunch that the recently rediscovered Ica geoglyph is not an authentic, ancient geoglyph, according to El Comercio. On Thursday the Ministry of Culture authorities were informed of a potentially unrecorded geoglyph in Ica resembling the divine entity recognized by the Paracas and Nazca cultures. Since the finding, archaeologist Rubén García has investigated the evidence and believes that the geoglyph does not present itself as a authentic geoglyph. He told El Comercio that there are certain characteristics out of line, such as the the technique used to create the geoglyph. The archaeologist believes the geoglyph is merely a copy. The technique used doesn’t fit the typical technique of geoglyphs in the region and the size of 7 × 4 meters is unusual for this artistic formation. The information continues to be passed around the Ministry of Culture and to various archaeologists involved in the subject. Their results will be known over the next few days.
ROYAUME UNI – Bedale - A search has been launched for information about the site of a mystery castle after archaeological excavations sparked renewed interest in a market town’s past. There has long been a theory that Bedale, which was originally granted a market charter in 1251 and was mentioned in the Magna Carta, had a castle, possibly standing somewhere near St Gregory’s Church and what was later to become Bedale Hall. It is mentioned on a map dated October 1918 of the Outlying Portions of the Bedale Hall Estate, but no trace has ever been found and there are no other known documents which mention it. Recent excavations along the route of a bypass for Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar revealed the site of a Roman villa dating back to the third or fourth century and following that dig the site is now being covered over.Aerial photography may identify old road systems from Eboracum - Roman York - and Cataractonium - Roman Catterick- into Bedale. There are remains of old bridge footings across Bedale Beck. Old field layouts, and of course other habitations might well be all around.,Aerial photography and geophysical work could bring other discoveries to light.
CHINE - China on Saturday started building of the mother vessel for a 11,000-meter manned submersible as part of the country's deep-sea research ambitions. The ship,"Zhang Jian", named after the founder of Shanghai Ocean University, is 97 meters long and 17.8 meters wide. It has a designed displacement of around 4,800 tonnes and a 15,000-nautical mile endurance ability. Designed to carry 60 people, the ship will be equipped with advanced laboratories, data processing and information centers and other devices. The "Zhang Jian" ship will serve the manned submersible "Rainbow Fish" which is capable of diving to a depth of 11,000 meters, and general ocean expedition missions, deep-sea engineering, rescue and salvage, underwater archaeology and film shooting, said Cui Weicheng, head of the Hadal Research Center at Shanghai Ocean University. The vessel will be delivered in June 2016. Chinese scientists will launch unmanned diving in the deepest area of the Pacific's Mariana Trench in 2016. They will launch manned diving in this area in 2019, with the Rainbow Fish submersible and other deep-sea devices. China's manned submersible Jiaolong reached its deepest depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012.