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Archaeologists Trace Artsakh’s Origins to 7th Century BC

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The archaeological excavation site at Karmir Blur

The archaeological excavation site at Karmir Blur

Archaeological excavations started at Karmir Blur site in 2015, and 281 mausoleums have already been discovered in a short period of time. What do the new findings reveal? 

YEREVAN (ArmRadio,am)—Armenians have had four viceroy seats, one of them in Artsakh. Archaeologists have discovered four viceroy bronze wands during excavations at Karmir Blur, archaeologist Hakob Simonyan, Deputy Head of the Research Center of Historical-Cultural Legacy under the Ministry of Culture, told reporters Thursday. He said the findings unearthed from the site shed light on the pages of Armenian history that others want to dispute.

The excavations that resumed in 2015 have revealed that back in the Urartian period Armenia was divided into provinces, each ruled by a viceroy. After the death of the latter the highest symbol of power – the scepter– has also been laid at the mausoleum.

“What’s most important is that it’s now proven that Artsakh was part of the United Kingdom of Van in the 8th to 7th centuries BC. The excavations come to refute all assertions that Artsakh has never been part of Armenia,” the archeologist said.

According to him, another importance of the findings is that they come to disperse the uncertainty regarding the origin of Urartians. “The Urartians were natives of the Ararat Valley,” he noted.

“I’m deeply confident that Urartu is an Armenian kingdom with its multi-layer population, where the Armenian element has been dominant,” Hakob Simonyan said.

A number of different interesting items have been unearthed during the expedition. These include jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, cufflinks, buttons), also as a whole arsenal of weapons.

The findings comprise a huge material for anthropological research. With DNA tests it’s possible to reveal the illnesses the locals suffered from, calculate their life expectancy, study their beliefs and rituals.

Scott.net report Hackers trace ISIS Twitter accounts to the British government

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main_hacker_against_isisBy Jasper Hamill

Scott.net report Hackers have claimed that a number of Islamic State supporters’ social media accounts are being run from internet addresses linked to the Department of Work and Pensions.

A group of four young computer experts who call themselves VandaSec have unearthed evidence indicating that at least three ISIS-supporting accounts can be traced back to the DWP’s London offices.

Every computer and mobile phone logs onto the internet using an IP address, which is a type of identification number.

The hacking collective showed Mirror Online details of the IP addresses used by a trio of separate digital jihadis to access Twitter accounts, which were then used to carry out online recruitment and propaganda campaigns.

At first glance, the IP addresses seem to be based in Saudi Arabia, but upon further inspection using specialist tools they appeared to link back to the DWP.

“Don’t you think that’s strange?” one of the hackers asked Mirror Online. “We traced these accounts back to London, the home of the British intelligence services.”

VandaSec’s work has sparked wild rumours suggesting someone inside the DWP is running ISIS-supporting accounts, or they were created by intelligence services as a honeypot to trap wannabe jihadis.

However, when Mirror Online traced the IP addresses obtained by VandaSec, we found they actually pointed to a series of unpublicised transactions between Britain and Saudi Arabia.

We learned that the British government sold on a large number of IP addresses to two Saudi Arabian firms.

After the sale completed in October of this year, they were used by extremists to spread their message of hate.

Comment: Always make sure to keep your terror-related doings one step removed! Saudi Arabia has always been the convenient middleman.

Although the DWP denied owning the IP addresses at first, Jamie Turner, an expert from a firm called PCA Predict, discovered a record of the sale of IP addresses, and found a large number were transferred to Saudi Arabia in October of this year.

He told us it was likely the IP addresses could still be traced back to the DWP because records of the addresses had not yet been fully updated.

The Cabinet Office has now admitted to selling the IP addresses on to Saudi Telecom and the Saudi-based Mobile Telecommunications Company earlier this year as part of a wider drive to get rid of a large number of the DWP’s IP addresses.

It said the British government can have no control over how these addresses are used after the sale.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The government owns millions of unused IP addresses which we are selling to get a good return for hardworking taxpayers.

“We have sold a number of these addresses to telecoms companies both in the UK and internationally to allow their customers to connect to the internet.

“We think carefully about which companies we sell addresses to, but how their customers use this internet connection is beyond our control.”

The government did not reveal how much money was made from selling the IP addresses to the pair of Saudi firms, because it regards this information as commercially sensitive.