1 . A waterworks maintenance team discovered a possible one-of-a-kind Roman road in a field in Worcestershire that may date back 2,000 years.

If asked to name a place where you might make a once-in-a-lifetime archaeological (考古的) discovery, your mind may go to the pyramids of Egypt or the peaks of the Andes...not a field in Worcestershire. But a field in Worcestershire is exactly where workmen recently discovered what is thought to be a Roman road up to 2,000 years old！

The road was discovered during routine (常规的) waterworks maintenance by Severn Trent. Archaeological experts from Wychavon District Council were called to the scene and immediately recognised the find’s significance.

Wychavon District Council’s archaeology officer Aidan Smyth said, “When I first saw it, it took my breath away. If proven to be from the first century AD, it would be beyond rare.”

Experts say it is constructed in a traditional Roman technique, with similar roads only being found in Rome and Pompeii. Ruts (车辙) in the stones show that it was used by carts for a long time. A team from Historic England is expected to investigate further to determine the exact origin of the structure.

This is actually not the first significant historical discovery in Worcestershire. A number of possible forts have been suggested in Worcestershire since the 1950s, and Worcestershire is thought to possibly have been the site for the Roman town of Vertis.

It is too early to say without 100 per cent certainty that the road is Roman, but even if it is a road in the Middle Ages, it will still be a nationally significant discovery. If it is indeed a first-century Roman road, then it is the only one of its kind in Britain.

Over 2,500 pieces of cultural relics dating back up to 2,200 years were unearthed in Guang zhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, local authorities said Friday. The cultural relics were unearthed at     1     construction site near Zhongshan Liu Lu (Road), Yuexiu District (区).     2     (cover) a total area of 2,400 square meters, the site used to be a commercial center of Guangzhou in ancient times. Besides, many important archaeological discoveries     3     (find) nearby up to now.     4     (prepare) the land for further development, Guangzhou Municipal Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology started an excavation(挖掘) project there from May to December this year, uncovering an amazing number of     5     (history) remains and cultural relics. The unearthed objects     6     (main) include pottery, porcelain, bronze and iron wares,     7     date from the Han Dynasty (202 BC - AD 220) to the early 20th century, according to Cheng Hao, an official with the institute. Remains of 196 pits, 57 wells, 43 pools and three roads were also among the discoveries.

The     8     (ruin) of a large Song Dynasty (960-1279) building, which belonged to the upper class was     9     highlight of the excavation, Cheng said.

“The excavation outcomes are     10     great significance for understanding the changes of the history and geography in Guangzhou’s urban areas,” Cheng added.

3 . Researchers in Norway say they have found what they believe is the world’s oldest runestone (符文石)—a stone with ancient writing on it.

Runes are the characters in several Germanic letters. These characters were used in northern Europe from ancient times until the change to the Latin letters. The origin of runic writing is unclear. The Norwegian researchers say the writing on the runestone could be up to 2,000 years old.

The runestone is square and flat. The runes carved into it may show the earliest example of recorded words in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic writings ever found” and “the oldest runestone ever found in the world”.

Kristel Zilmer is a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part. Zilmer said, “This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone.”

Runes have been found on stones and on home goods. Older runes have been found on other objects, also, but not on stones. The oldest known runic writing is on a hair tool made from bone. Zilmer said that the ancient writer might have used a knife or needle to make the runes.

Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters, the stone has several kinds of writings. Not all of them make sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug”—which could be the name of a person or family but not sure.

There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, named Svingerud stone after where it was found.

The Museum of Cultural History is going to hold a public showing of the runestone for a month. The museum holds Norway’s largest collection of historical objects, from ancient times to the modern day.

6 . A seven-word sentence was discovered on a 3,700-year-old comb (梳子),which is likely the oldest known sentence written in letters,according to a new study. The sentence is in Canaanite (迦南语),which is the source (来源) of later letter systems in European languages.

The comb was first discovered in 2016 in Israeli. However,it wasn’t until 2021 that a researcher from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem first noticed the words when checking the photo of the comb. The researchers were not able to directly date the comb. They believed it dated from around 1700 BC based on comparison of the letters with those on pottery (陶器) with a known age.

Garfinkel,a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,said,“The Canaanites invented the letters. Nowadays every person in the world can read and write using the letter system. This is really one of the most important achievements of humankind. When you are writing in English,you’re really using Canaanite.”

Small groups of Canaanite letters discovered on broken pieces of pottery before did not leave much room for further research on the lives of the Canaanites. But this find of a sentence written in the first letter-based language opens up the debate about the history during the ancient time period.

Garfinkel said,“The sentence was found on an ivory comb in the ancient city’s palace and temple area,which could suggest that only wealthy men were able to read and write.” The earliest writing system started around 5,000 years ago,which relied on hundreds of pictographs (象形文字) to represent words,ideas and sounds. Canaanites were the first to use letters in their writing system. “It shows that even in the most ancient times there were full sentences,which further suggests that Canaanites stood out among the early civilizations in their use of the written word.”

URUMQI-After packing some naan bread and    1     dented water bottle, Shan Zhizheng and his wife start up their motorcycle and head off to a cultural relic site,     2     (break) the silence that envelops the valley.

It’s a round trip of around 150 kilometers and    3     (they) starting point is the pastoral and farming landscape of Wenquan county in Bortala,Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region(维吾尔自治区).

    4     (know) as “a museum without walls”, Wenquan county is home to nearly 260 cultural relic sites under    5     (variety) levels of protection, including tombs, cliff paintings and    6     (ruin),    7     provide materials for researching the history of ancient northern nomads and tribes, according to the county cultural relic protection bureau.

Shan and his wife, Yuan Qin, are responsible for protecting one particular relic site that    8     (cover) about eight square kilometers. Once a week, the couple patrols more than 200 ancient tombs dating back     9     between the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220).

Their relic protection routine usually includes walking around the site to look for footprints and motorcycle tracks, keeping records of the tombs,     10     updating the local cultural relic authorities in a timely manner.

A great number of artifacts from eight tombs    1     (unearth) from an archaeological site in Hunan province several months ago. According to the provincial institute of heritage and archaeology, these artifacts, including pottery pieces and bronze    2     (knife), are believed    3     (date) back as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).

Six Eastern Han Dynasty tombs are brick tombs, three of    4     might have had owners from the same family, said Chen Bin,     5     member of the archaeological team of the tomb complex under the institute.

It is also the first time that archaeologists    6    (discover)a trench(战壕)4.5meters west of the back chamber of the largest tomb,     7     (measure) about 0.9 meters in width,     8     (approximate)15 meters in length and about 0.1 meters in depth.

“This excavation(挖掘)is    9     great significance to further understanding the funeral customs of people in southern Hunan, as well as the levels of    10     (economy)development and cultural exchanges during the period,” Chen said.