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Abstract. Cultural Heritage (CH) resources are partial, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and subject to ongoing updates and revisions. The use of semantic web technologies associated with 3D graphical tools is proposed to improve access, exploration, exploitation and enrichment of these CH data in a standardized and more structured form. This article presents the monitoring work developed for more than ten years on the excavation of the Xlendi site. Around an exceptional shipwreck, the oldest from the Archaic period in the Western Mediterranean, we have set up a unique excavation at a depth of 110m assisted by a rigorous and continuous photogrammetry campaign. All the collected results are modelled by an ontology and visualized with virtual and augmented reality tools that allow a bidirectional link between the proposed graphical representations and the non-graphical archaeological data. It is also important to highlight the development of an innovative 3D mobile app that lets users study and understand the site as well as experience sensations close to those of a diver visiting the site.

This research was conducted as part of the TUBITAK-CNRS bilateral cooperation with the grant number of 114Y723 during 2015-2017. The researches were further funded by ECCOREV (CNRS (ACIGoL project), the LABEX OT-MED (Bilat project) and by the ANR (MRSEI, ACIGoL project). The long coring of Acgol (core 3) was funded by ALKM Company due to the Acgol Drilling Project signed between Cahit Helvac (DEU) and the ALKM and SODAS Companies. We are grateful to the companies of ALKM and SODAS, particularly to the courtesy of their respective owner and Mr Cihat Kora who permitted us to access and work on the Acgol Core-3. Moreover, Mr Huseyin unlu, the general director of ALKM Company during the coring, Mr. unal Ark director of ALKM and Mr. Mahmut Eser, the correspondent of the core is greatly appreciated as well as Mr. Serdar Salanc, the general director, and Mr. Necati Demirer the director of SODAS Cardak Plant. We thank Dahvya Belkacem for having extracted the pollen from the series of Acgol and Kocaba. We thank Michelle Leydet for storing our pollen data in EPD. We thank Alain Tonetto and the Platform for Analytical Technological and Imaging Research (PRATIM), from Aix Marseille University, for the confocal photographies of the pollen. Finally, we would like to thank Dr Chenglong Deng (Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports) and the reviewer, Dr Li Quan, for very pertinent remarks, which helped to improve the manuscript significantly. Cereals are a central resource for the human diet and are traditionally assumed to have evolved from wild grasses at the onset of the Neolithic under the pressure of agriculture. Here we demonstrate that cereals may have a significantly longer and more diverse lineage, based on the study of a 0-2.3 Ma, 601 m long sedimentary core from Lake Acgol (South-West Anatolia). Pollen characteristic of cereals is abundant throughout the sedimentary sequence. The presence of large lakes within this arid bioclimatic zone led to the concentration of large herbivore herds, as indicated by the continuous occurrence of coprophilous fungi spores in the record. Our hypothesis is that the effects of overgrazing on soils and herbaceous stratum, during this long period, led to genetic modifications of the Poaceae taxa and to the appearance of proto-cereals. The simultaneous presence of hominins is attested as early as about 1.4 Ma in the lake vicinity, and 1.8 Ma in Georgia and Levant. These ancient hominins probably benefited from the availability of these proto-cereals, rich in nutrients, as well as various other edible plants, opening the way, in this region of the Middle East, to a process of domestication, which reached its full development during the Neolithic. TUBITAK-CNRS bilateral cooperation [114Y723]; ECCOREV (CNRS (ACIGoL project)); LABEX OT-MED (Bilat project); ANR (MRSEI, ACIGoL project); ALKM Company

Neanderthals occurred widely across north Eurasian landscapes, but between ~ 70 and 50 thousand years ago (ka) they expanded southwards into the Levant, which had previously been inhabited by Homo sapiens. Palaeoanthropological research in the first half of the twentieth century demonstrated alternate occupations of the Levant by Neanderthal and Homo sapiens populations, yet key early findings have largely been overlooked in later studies. Here, we present the results of new examinations of both the fossil and archaeological collections from Shukbah Cave, located in the Palestinian West Bank, presenting new quantitative analyses of a hominin lower first molar and associated stone tool assemblage. The hominin tooth shows clear Neanderthal affinities, making it the southernmost known fossil specimen of this population/species. The associated Middle Palaeolithic stone tool assemblage is dominated by Levallois reduction methods, including the presence of Nubian Levallois points and cores. This is the first direct association between Neanderthals and Nubian Levallois technology, demonstrating that this stone tool technology should not be considered an exclusive marker of Homo sapiens. Results - Non‑metric traits of the EM 3869 specimen. - Crown dimensions of EM 3869. - Enamel‑dentine junction (EDJ) shape of EM 3869. - Root proportions and taurodontism in EM 3869. - The stone tool assemblage. Discussion Methods - NHMUK PA EM 3869 - External morphology. - X‑ray microtomography. - Data processing - 3D lateral crown tissue proportions. - Geometric morphometric analyses. - Volumetric bifurcation index (VBI) of the roots. - Lithic analyses.

International audience; This article describes the ceramic and saddle quern cargoes recorded on a Phoenician shipwreck found off Xlendi Bay, Gozo, dated by the finds to 700-650 BC. The ceramics are divided into three main groups: Tyrrhenian-style amphoras, Phoenician-Punic western amphoras, and large ollas. Discussion of the likely provenance of each type allows preliminary proposals concerning the ship’s route. The extent of the site and an estimate of the total cargo is used to give the approximate size and capacity of the vessel. The mixed nature of the cargo elicits consideration of Phoenician maritime trade networks in the 7th century BC.

Despite frequent historical documents on shipping and trade routes in the Caspian Sea since early historical dates, the maritime archaeological evidence remains largely undiscovered. Exposing a shipwreck in southwest corner of the Caspian Sea at the shoreline of Qoroq village in Guilan Province of Iran provides an opportunity to study some frames of historical maritime activities in southern Caspian coasts. Sedimentological and geophysical, archaeological, and historical investigations were conducted to detect the age of the shipwreck, its probable origin and the impacts of environmental changes on preservation, exposing and damaging the ship. The results showed that the ship was broken down along its longitudinal axis and the remains were distributed along the shore where they are buried by coastal sediments. Pinus sylvestris is the tree species used in building the ship and the Caucasus Mountains was considered as a timber supply area. A combination of radiocarbon data and historical evidence showed that the ship's construction date is mostly back to mid-18th century. It seems that the ship sunk in a high energy environment. Deposition of various types of sediments inside and around of the shipwreck suggests that the ship was dragged from the high energy environment to the current location. The hydrodynamics of the coastal area along with rapid Caspian sea-level changes were mostly responsible for preservation as well as exposing the ship. International audience

The Messinian salinity crisis was an extraordinary event that resulted in the deposition of kilometre-thick evaporite sequences in the Mediterranean Sea after the latter became disconnected from the world's oceans. The return to fully and stable marine conditions at the end of the crisis is still subject to debate. Three main hypotheses, based on geophysical and borehole data, onshore outcrops and climate simulations, have been put forward. These include a single-stage catastrophic flood, a two-step reflooding scenario, and an overspill of Paratethyan water followed by Atlantic inflow. In this study, two research questions are addressed: (i) Which event marked the termination of the Messinian salinity crisis? (ii) What was the sea level in the eastern Mediterranean Sea during this event? Geophysical data from the western Ionian Basin are integrated with numerical simulations to infer that the termination of the crisis consisted of a single-stage megaflood following a sea level drawdown of 1900 m. This megaflood deposited an extensive sedimentary body with a chaotic to transparent seismic signature at the base of the Malta Escarpment. Fine, well-sorted sediments are predicted to have been deposited within the thicker sections of the flood deposit, whereas a more variable distribution of coarser sediments is expected elsewhere. The north-western Ionian Basin hosts evidence of episodic post-Messinian salinity crisis slope instability events in the last ~1.8 Ma. The largest of these emplaced a >200 km3 deposit and is associated with failure of the head of Noto Canyon (offshore SE Sicily). Apart from unravelling the final phase of the Messinian salinity crisis and the ensuing stratigraphic evolution of the western Ionian Basin, our results are also relevant to better understand megafloods, which are some of the most catastrophic geological processes on Earth and Mars. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. The article is based upon work from COST Action CA15103 “Uncovering the Mediterranean salt giant” (MEDSALT) supported by ( COST European Cooperation in Science and Technology ). We are indebted to the CUMECS-2, CUMECS-3 and CIRCEE-HR shipboard parties, captains, crew and technicians for their assistance during data collection. The oceanographic surveys were possible following permits issued by the Italian and Maltese authorities. SPECTRUM (now TGS) are kindly acknowledged for providing access to their seismic reflection data. The use of CROP seismic profiles has been licensed to OGS by CNR, Banca Dati CROP ( www.crop.cnr.it ). The authors would also like to thank Emerson Paradigm for the use of the OGS academic licenses of the ECHOS and Geodepth processing software, and IHS Markit for the OGS license of the Kingdom software. DS is funded by EMODnet Bathymetry, which is financed by the European Union under Regulation 508/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund . This work was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN/FEDER, EU) under Grant SEDRETO CGL2015–70736-R . J.D.d.M.E. was supported by the PhD scholarship BES-2016-079117 (MINECO/FSE, EU) from the Spanish National Programme for the Promotion of Talent and its Employability (call 2016). This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 765256 (SaltGiant ITN). Peer reviewed