* Astronomy

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has announced the country's top six archaeological discoveries of 2009. Among them are the Neolithic Ruins at Dongshan Village in eastern Jiangsu province. The site has evidence of the earliest Chinese civilization ever found.
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Khirbet Qeiyafa is a forgotten Biblical site. This is most surprising in view of its massive fortifications of megalithic stones which still stand to a height of 2-3 m, and its strategic geopolitical location.
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Scotlands foremost amateur archaeologist, Tam Ward of Biggar Archaeology Group, was guest speaker at the November meeting of Lanark and District Archaeological Society.
The subject of Tam's talk was about the excavation work at Howburn Farm, near Elsrickle, which turned out to be the most important dig in Scotland this year.

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The remains of a Minoan-style wall painting, recognisable by a blue background, the first of its kind to be found in Israel, was discovered in the course of the recent excavation season at Tel Kabri. This fresco joins others of Aegean style that have been uncovered during earlier seasons at the Canaanite palace in Kabri.

"It was, without doubt, a conscious decision made by the city's rulers who wished to associate with Mediterranean culture and not adopt Syrian and Mesopotamian styles of art like other cities in Canaan did. The Canaanites were living in the Levant and wanted to feel European" - Dr. Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa, who directed the excavations.

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Archaeological site, Tel Kabri is located in the western Galilee, five km east of Nahariya and the Mediterranean coast, spreading over an area of 130 acres. Some scholars maintain that it is not a single prominent mound formed over many generations but rather a complex of sites from different periods, scattered over a considerable area. The most prominent feature of the site now known as Tel Kabri is the rampart surrounding it. This rampart, marking the northern limit of the Middle Bronze Age settlement, lies southwest of the ruins of Dharat et-Tell, one of three small Arab villages that existed in the area before 1948. An ancient agricultural terrace runs east to west across this part of the mound where the cemetery and water tower of Kibbutz Kabri stand today. In the southwestern section of the site are the ruins of et-Tell, close to the 'Ein Shefa (Mafshuh) spring, which today is linked to the National Water Carrier. On the southeastern part of the rampart, south of the 'Ein Giah spring, lie the ruins of a third Arab village, en-Naher. Landmarks in this village are the house of Afifi and the Turkish water mill.
Evidence of Late Neolithic occupation was found mainly in Area B, and also around the 'Ein Giah spring and beneath the Bronze Age strata at Dharat et-Tell, near the 'Ein Shefa spring. In the Early Bronze Age a more substantial settlement developed around the 'Ein Shefa Spring. The Middle Bronze Age occupants utilised the higher area to build a city that became an important center in the region. In the Iron Age and Hellenistic period the occupation of the site shifted to the southwestern sector where there was a fortress whose remains exhibit material culture closely associated with Phoenicia. During the Roman to Ottoman periods, the local inhabitants preferred to live on the hill that lies northeast of the ancient settlement. In modern times two Arab villages (et-Tell and en-Naher) were built on the southernmost ruins of the Middle Bronze Age enclosure.

Latitude:    33° 0'33.70"N, Longitude:   35° 8'23.31"E