#iaa

Graffiti denouncing the IAA (International Automobile Show) which will take place in Munich, Germany from the 5th to 10th September.

Gong to quote the full article:

"Cargo from the remains of the oldest shipwreck to be found win the deep sea has been discovered n the eastern Mediterranean, Israeli archaeologists have sad.

Hundreds of intact amphorae - ancient storage jars - believed to be 3,300 years old were discovered 90km (56 miles) off the northern coast of Israel at a depth of 1,800m (5,905ft) on the sea bed.

Experts at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) say the discovery suggest sailors of the period were able to navigate the oceans by using celestial navigation - taking bearings from the sun and stars.

The wreck was found during a routine oil and gas survey.

According to the IAA, the shipwreck is the "first and oldest" to be found in the region and probably sank during a storm or as a result of a pirate attack.

This find reveals to us as never before the ancient mariners' navigational skills," Jacob Sharvit, head of the IAA's marine unit.

He added it showed our ancestors were capable of traversing the Mediterranean Sea "without a line of sight to any coast".

"From this geographical point, only the horizon its visible all around. To navigate they probably used the celestial bodies, by taking sightings and angles of the sun and star positions."

The cargo was spotted by robot submersibles belonging to the oil and gas firm Energean which was looking for potential new energy sources off the Israeli coast.

Cameras picked up "what seemed to be a large pile of jugs heaped on the seafloor", according to the company's Karnit Bahartan.

Only two of the amphorae - believed to have been used by the Canaanite people who lived in an area stretching from modern-day Turkey to Egypt - were removed using specially designed tools, so as not to disturb the remaining artefacts.

Dr Bahartan described there discovery as a "truly sensational find".

She said that only two other shipwrecks with cargo are known from the late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean Sea, both of which were found relatively close to the Turkish coast using normal diving equipment.

"Based on these two finds, the academic assumption until now was that trade in that time was executed by safely flitting from port to port, hugging the coastline within eye contact," Dr Bahartan said.

"The discover of this boat now changes our entire understanding of ancient mariner abilities.

"It is the very first to be found at such a great distance with no line of sight to any landmass," she said.

It Ain’t Aliens! - clothes 

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Early evidence of royal purple dyed textile from Timna Valley (Israel)

The samples originated from excavations at the extensive Iron Age copper smelting site of “Slaves’ Hill” (Site 34), which is tightly dated by radiocarbon to the late 11th–early 10th centuries BCE. 

While evidence for the important role of purple dyes in the ancient Mediterranean goes back to the Middle Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium BCE), finds of dyed textiles are extremely rare, and those from Timna are the oldest currently known in the Southern Levant. In conjunction with other observations of the very high quality of the Timna textiles, this provides an exceptional opportunity to address questions related to social stratification and organization of the nomadic society operating the mines (early Edom), the “fashion” of elite in the region during the early Iron Age, trade connections, technological capabilities, and more.

Image by Dafna Gazit,