The 1,600-year-old mosaic floor of a synagogue at Tiberias Archaeological Park in northern Israel has been badly damaged by vandals, who scratched part of the floor and hammered a hole in it, smashing tiles into dust. The mosaic and rock walls were also spray painted with graffiti. “It was the best of Jewish art of its time, of the late Roman and early Byzantine period,” said Uzi Dahari, deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

A tomb slab thought to be early evidence of the presence of Jewish culture on the Iberian Peninsula has been excavated from the site of a Roman villa. Dated to about 390 A.D., the slab is inscribed in Hebrew with the name “Yehiel,” and other letters yet to be translated. It is the earliest-known archaeological evidence for a Jewish resident in Portugal, and the only Jewish artifact to have been discovered in a Roman villa, according to Dennis Graen of Friedrich Schiller University, Jena.

A hepatitis B virus known as the genotype C2 sequence has been found in the sixteenth-century mummy of a child from Korea. Scientists from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Seoul National University were able to map the entire ancient hepatitis B viral genome, which is thought to have been common in Southeast Asia. The information could help researchers understand how the virus evolved and originally spread.

Archaeologists working with UNESCO and the Jamaican National Heritage Trust are submitting Port Royal to the World Heritage List. The British city was a busy port of 7,000 people in the sixteenth century, known as the “wickedest city on Earth,” where pirates could find rum, women, and repairs for their ships. Two-thirds of Port Royal was submerged in 1692 by an earthquake and tsunami. The archaeologists are working to make the site a sustainable tourist attraction in order to assist the people of a nearby fishing village.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

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