These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago

Archaeologists in southern Italy announced last week that they unearthed two helmets, fragments of weapons and armour, bits of pottery and the remains of a possible temple to Athena at an archaeological excavation of the ancient Greek city of Velia, reports Frances D’Emilio for the Associated Press (AP).

Researchers, who have been working the site since last July, announced in a translated statement that they believe that these artefacts are linked to a major maritime battle that changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean nearly 2,500 years ago.

Ancient Greeks may have left the items behind after the Battle of Alalia. Between 541 and 535 BCE, a fleet of Phocaean ships—who had set up a colony, Alalia, on the island of Corsica—set sail on the nearby Tyrrhenian Sea to fend off attacks from neighbouring Etruscan and Carthaginian forces, per the statement.

Though the Greeks emerged victoriously, the costly sea battle ultimately spurred the Phocaean colonists to leave Alalia and establish a colony closer to other Greek settlements along the southern coast of Italy.

Settlers from Phocaea sailed for the mainland and purchased a plot of land that would eventually become Velia, according to the Guardian.

Initial studies of the helmets reveal that one was designed in the Greek Chalcidian style, while the other helmet resembles the Negua headpieces typically worn by Etruscan warriors, per ANSA. 

The archaeologists suggest Greek soldiers might have stolen these helmets from conquered Etruscan troops during the Battle of Alalia, per the statement.

In another major find, researchers also unearthed several brick walls that date to Velia’s founding in 540 B.C.E. and may have once formed a temple to the mythical Greek goddess of war and wisdom, Athena, as Angela Giuffrida reports for the Guardian.

Measuring about 60 feet long by 23 feet wide, the walls were likely constructed in the years just following the Battle of Alalia, says Massimo Osanna, the archaeological park director and head of Italian state museums, per Italian news agency ANSA.

The archaeologists say the Phocaeans may have offered the enemy armour as a tribute to the goddess.

“It is, therefore, possible that the [Phocaeans] fleeing from Alalia raised [the temple] immediately after their arrival, as was their custom, after purchasing from the locals the land necessary to settle and resume the flourishing trade for which they were famous,” says Osanna in the translated statement. “And to the relics offered to their goddess to propitiate her benevolence, they added the weapons snatched from the enemies in that epic battle at sea.”

Located near the structure, the team found fragments of pottery inscribed with the Greek word for “sacred,” several pieces of bronze and metal weapons and bits of what appears to be a large, decorated shield.

Researchers plan to clean and analyze the artefacts in a laboratory for further study, where the director says they hope to find more information, particularly on the helmets.

She says in that statement that there may be inscriptions inside of them, something common in ancient armour, that could help trace the armour’s history, such as the identity of the warriors who wore them.

The World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Has Been Discovered at the Bottom of Black Sea

The oldest intact shipwreck ever has been found resting on the bottom of the Black Sea. Protected by the oxygen-free water at the seafloor, the ship has been sitting undisturbed since 400 B.C., researchers from the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP) announced Tuesday.

It is a Greek vessel that looks like something the mythical hero Odysseus could have sailed — literally.

According to the researchers, a very similar vessel is painted on the side of the British Museum’s “Siren Vase,” which depicts Odysseus chained to the mast of his ship as it sails past the sweet-voiced sirens.

“A ship, surviving intact, from the Classical world, lying in over 2 kilometres [1.2 miles] of water, is something I would never have believed possible,” University of Southampton archaeologist Jon Adams, leader of the Black Sea MAP, said in the statement. “This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world.”

Fascinating find

The ship was discovered in the fall of 2017, on the third of three survey trips to the Black Sea. Led by Adams, Lyudmil Vagalinsky of the Bulgarian Academy of Science and Kalin Dimitrov of the Center of Underwater Archaeology in Bulgaria, the research team surveyed 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometres) of the seabed during all three seasons.

The investigations turned up more than 60 shipwrecks, including some previously reported to date back to the Ottoman and Byzantine empires.

The Black Sea has only a narrow connection to the Mediterranean Sea, so it drains poorly. And the Black Sea is fed by fresh water from the surrounding land, which floats on top of the saltier water closer to the bottom.

This salty layer is extremely low in oxygen, which keeps wood-eating microbes away from shipwrecks on the seafloor. For that reason, even centuries-old ships look as if they went down yesterday. 

The Greek vessel sits about 1.2 miles (2 km) deep.

The researchers used radiocarbon dating to show that the wreck dates back more than 2,400 years. The ship rests on its side, its mast and prow clearly visible and unbroken.    

Rising waters

The main goal of the Black Sea MAP is to understand changes that have occurred since the last ice age when the sea was much lower.

Because the area has been a hub of civilization, the shipwrecks at the bottom form time capsules, revealing who used the sea for commerce and how they built their vessels.

The researchers have also excavated a settlement on the Bulgarian side of the sea near the Ropotamo River.

The site tells a story of the Black Sea as melting glaciers raised sea levels and forced humans to adapt. In the lowest layers of the excavation, about 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) below the current seafloor, are timbers and hearth fragments from a Bronze Age settlement, the researchers previously reported. But by the Byzantine era (A.D. 330 -1453), the site was inundated, and ceramics revealed that people used the spot as a safe harbour.

By the Ottoman era (A.D. 1299-1920), the spot was a deeper anchorage for trading vessels.

5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece

Archaeologists surveying the world’s oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some 5,000 years ago — at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.

These remarkable findings have been made public by the Greek government after the start of a five-year collaborative project involving the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and The University of Nottingham.

As a Mycenaean town, the site offers potential new insights into the workings of Mycenaean society. Pavlopetri has added importance as it was a maritime settlement from which the inhabitants coordinated local and long-distance trade.

The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project aims to establish exactly when the site was occupied, what it was used for and through a systematic study of the geomorphology of the area, how the town became submerged.

This summer the team carried out a detailed digital underwater survey and study of the structural remains, which until this year were thought to belong to the Mycenaean period — around 1600 to 1000 BC.

The survey surpassed all their expectations. Their investigations revealed another 150 square metres of new buildings as well as ceramics that suggest the site was occupied throughout the Bronze Age — from at least 2800 BC to 1100 BC.

The work is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team led by Mr Elias Spondylis, Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture in Greece and Dr Jon Henderson, an underwater archaeologist from the Department of Archaeology at The University of Nottingham.

Dr Jon Henderson said: “This site is unique in that we have almost the complete town plan, the main streets and domestic buildings, courtyards, rock-cut tombs and what appear to be religious buildings, clearly visible on the seabed. Equally, as a harbour settlement, the study of the archaeological material we have recovered will be extremely important in terms of revealing how maritime trade was conducted and managed in the Bronze Age.”

Possibly one of the most important discoveries has been the identification of what could be a megaron — a large rectangular great hall — from the Early Bronze Age period. They have also found over 150 metres of new buildings including what could be the first example of a pillar crypt ever discovered on the Greek mainland. Two new stone-built cist graves were also discovered alongside what appears to be a Middle Bronze Age pithos burial.

Mr Spondylis said: “It is a rare find and it is significant because as a submerged site it was never re-occupied and therefore represents a frozen moment of the past.”

The Archaeological coordinator Dr Chrysanthi Gallou a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Nottingham is an expert in Aegean Prehistory and the archaeology of Laconia.

Dr Gallou said: “The new ceramic finds form a complete and exceptional corpus of pottery covering all sub-phases from the Final Neolithic period (mid 4th millennium BC) to the end of the Late Bronze Age (1100 BC).

In addition, the interest from the local community in Laconia has been fantastic.

The investigation at Pavlopetri offers a great opportunity for them to be actively involved in the preservation and management of the site, and subsequently for the cultural and touristic development of the wider region.”

The team was joined by Dr Nicholas Flemming, a marine geo-archaeologist from the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton, who discovered the site in 1967 and returned the following year with a team from Cambridge University to carry out the first-ever survey of the submerged town.

Using just snorkels and tape measures they produced a detailed plan of the prehistoric town which consisted of at least 15 separate buildings, courtyards, streets, two-chamber tombs and at least 37 cist graves.

Despite the potential international importance of Pavlopetri, no further work was carried out at the site until this year.

Through a British School of Archaeology in Athens permit, The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project began its five-year study of the site with the aim of defining the history and development of Pavlopetri.

Mysterious Ancient Greek ‘Phaistos Disc’ in LOST language finally decoded to reveal sexy secret

Gareth Owens, linguist, archaeologist, and Erasmus Program Coordinator at the Cretan Institute of Technology, has unveiled a new study that allegedly solves 99 per cent of the mystery of the ancient Phaistos disc.

The researcher has devoted 30 years to trying to unravel the mystery of one of the most mysterious artefacts in history.

Owens was able to identify some of the symbols in other religious artefacts discovered in Crete and utterly believes that the inscriptions on the disc describe a religious hymn to a Minoan goddess. 

Has the mystery of the Phaistos Disc been solved 100 years after it was discovered?

The Phaistos disc was found in the ruins of the Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete more than 100 years ago. For decades, scientists have been unable to understand the inscriptions on the artefact or its true purpose.

Most of the success so far has been in its dating. Experts believe that it was made in the second millennium BC.

Scientists call the Phaistos disc one of the greatest mysteries of archaeology.

The overwhelming majority of scientists consider it to be authentic, but there are those who doubt it. The diameter of the disc is about 15 centimeters, on both sides, it is covered with mysterious symbols applied to the surface in a spiral.

For many years of research, scientists have not been able to decipher the language in which the mysterious inscriptions were executed. So far, it has only been established that its symbols are not part of any known alphabet, ancient or modern.

Gareth Owens, in turn, believes that he was able to decipher the mysterious symbols. To do this, he and his team used the method of comparative linguistics, that is, they compared incomprehensible symbols with “related” languages ​​from the Indo-European language family. As a result, scientists came to the conclusion that the disc contains a religious text dedicated to a certain goddess of love – Astarte.

Owens is absolutely convinced that the inscriptions on the disc present a religious text. He was able to identify similar signs and words in other religious inscriptions in the sacred mountains of Crete.

Words similar to those found on the disc have previously also been found on Minoan ritual objects that were used as offerings to the gods.

Therefore, Owens suggests that the Phaistos Disc is a hymn to Astarte, the goddess of love.

In addition, according to the archaeologist-linguist, the inscriptions on the different sides of the disc are not a single whole. He suggests that a hymn to the Minoan goddess Astarte was written on one side, and a dedication to the pregnant mother goddess on the other.

Talking about the importance of the text, Owens reminds us that Astarte was not only the goddess of love. She was also revered as the goddess of war and mountains. It is interesting that she was “born” in the East.

It is believed that her cult to Crete was brought from ancient Mesopotamia. Then, Astarte went to Cyprus, where she gradually became known as Venus.

Mysteries Of Ancient ‘Computer’ Found In Greek Shipwreck Solved By Scientists

Archaeologists claim to have solved the mysteries behind an ancient Greek “computer” that shouldn’t even exist. Known for its hidden relics archaeological treasures, Greece has offered great insights into a world long lost.

In fact, some of the earliest advances in understanding space and the position of Earth around the sun were made in ancient Greece. 

The very first astronomical calculator was also built in ancient Greece. This “computer” has continued to stun scientists and archaeologists alike.

Known as the Antikythera Mechanism, the 2,000-year-old Greek hand-powered orrey is a mechanical model of the solar system. It’s also considered the world’s oldest analogue computer.

World’s oldest “analogue computer”

Using the Antikythera, Greek scientists used to track eclipses and astronomical positions. In addition, they used to trace the cycle of the Olympic Games (yes, the same ones we all have now).

The Antikythera Mechanism was first found in ruins of a shipwreck in 1901 off the coast of Greek island Antikythera (hence its name). A year later, it was identified as carrying gear by archaeologist Valerios Stais.

At first sight, the Antikythera Mechanism appeared as a hunk of corroded metal that “no one knew quite what to do with.”

In conversation with BBC, Professor Tony Freeth of the University College London said that “it was not recognised at all as being anything interesting when it was discovered, it was just a corroded lump about the size of a large dictionary.”

Using its bronze gear and calculative prowess, ancient Greeks used the Antikythera Mechanism to assess the cycle of the cosmos.

It is now kept in a museum in Athens – split into 82 fragments. But nobody really knew what it was for until Professor Freeth put it under the magical lens of x-ray.

Besides thousands of text characters in Greece, scientists discovered certain cogs that made the computer function. It could predict eclipses, follow the motion of the moon among a series of things.

Roman-Period Statue Unearthed in Southern Greece

On Thursday, December 16, an important find came to light at the market of ancient Epidaurus. This is a life-size marble female statue of very good quality.

The statue was found intact, with the exception of the arms, which were extra, and the head, which probably broke during its fall, leaving in its place the inserted mortar for fixing it.

This year the excavation period was over, but the heavy rainfall of the previous days, showed a small part of the back of the statue. in the area of ​​the precinct, where the works have not yet proceeded to deeper layers.

In consultation with the Head of the Ephorate Alkisti Papadimitriou and with staff of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Argolida, the area was immediately excavated, under the supervision of the civil engineer of the Ephorate Ev. Kazolia and the excavator of the site V. Lambrinoudaki.

The statue represented a woman wearing a tunic and a robe.

The robe was fastened to the left shoulder and arm, from where it hung with rich folds.

One end of it passed behind the back, under the right armpit and was thrown sideways back, over the left shoulder.

In place of the right arm, surfaces that retain the ligaments from additional parts, indicate that the figure made the gesture of discovery , that is, the lifting of the robe with the right hand outwards and upwards, which was typical of married women in antiquity. , and with which the Health, wife or daughter of Asclepius was often depicted.

A first assessment places the work in imperial Roman times. The statue was transferred to a warehouse in the Asclepieion for storage, cleaning and maintenance.

A systematic excavation has been carried out at the site since 2015 by a research team of the University of Athens with the financial support of the Ioannis S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation.

Near the theater of the ancient city (“small theater of Epidaurus” today), which was located in the ancient market, an important building of Krini has been discovered and connected to it an enclosure of the 4th BC. ai., which in Roman times acquired a new form with the addition of a portico on the west and a vaulted building on their north side.

Evidence has emerged that encourages the identification of this complex with the mosque of Asclepius mentioned by Pausanias in the city of Epidaurus.

Archaeology breakthrough: 3,600-year-old ‘time capsule’ exposes ancient disaster

The time capsule was preserved by the volcanic eruption of Santorini that rocked the Mediterranean and changed the course of history. It now may be the first instance of physical remains unearthed from among one of the tens of thousands of people who likely perished.

The international team of researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In it, they presented evidence of a catastrophic tsunami that followed the eruption of Thera, in modern Santorini, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, some 3,600 years ago.

The volcanic eruption of Santorini is still regarded as one of the most devastating eruptions in human history.

It was rated at a seven or an eight on the volcanic explosivity index, which marks it as a “super-colossal” explosion that only occurs once in thousands of years.

Volcanoes of this size have smoke plums to reach 25 kilometres in height and spread over hundreds of kilometres.

Some researchers have compared the volcano to the detonation of millions of Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.

Scholars also believe that the traumatic memory caused by this eruption may also be responsible for many of humanities’ myths and legends.

They believe that the Bronze age ever, occurring in 1600 BC, could be seen in Plato’s allegory of the sunken city of Atlantis, which was composed more than a thousand years later.

The devastation of the event has also been linked to the biblical Ten Plagues, as volcanic eruptions frequently cause hailstorms, unending darkness, and moist atmospheres well suited for locusts.

The researchers have been excavating at the archaeological site of Çesme-Bağlararası, which is located in the popular resort town of Çesme on Turkey’s Aegean coast and more than 100 miles north-northeast of Santorini.

Archaeologists have been digging in the area since 2009 at a site that appeared to be a thriving coastal settlement that occupied almost continuously from the mid-third millennium to the 13th century BC.

Aside from some well-preserved buildings and roads that were previously uncovered, the researchers found a lot of artefacts that were in a pretty damaged shape.

A Corinthian Helmet from the Battle of Marathon found with the warrior’s skull Inside

The Corinthian helmet type is one of the most immediately recognisable types of helmet, romantically associated with the great heroes of Ancient Greece, even by the Ancient Greeks themselves who rapidly moved to helmet types with better visibility, but still depicted their heroes in these helmets.

In modern portrayals of Ancient Greek warriors, it is always the Corinthian type that is depicted, although often modified to suit the look desired – for instance in one movie the helmet was modified to expose more of the face of the actor.

 It was a helmet made of bronze which in its later styles covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth. A large curved projection protected the nape of the neck. Out of combat, a Greek hoplite would wear the helmet tipped upward for comfort.

This practice gave rise to a series of variant forms in Italy, where the slits were almost closed since the helmet was no longer pulled over the face but worn cap-like.

Although the classical Corinthian helmet fell out of use among the Greeks in favour of more open types, the Italo-Corinthian types remained in use until the 1st century AD, being used, among others, by the Roman army.

This helmet was excavated by George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown, on the Plain of Marathon in 1834, according to letters from Sutton dated 2 & 20 August 1826.

2,500 years earlier, on the morning of September 17, 490 BC, some 10,000 Greeks stood assembled on the plain of Marathon, preparing to fight to the last man. Behind them lay everything they held dear: their city, their homes, their families. In front of the outnumbered Greeks stood the assembled forces of the Persian empire, a seemingly invincible army with revenge, pillage and plunder on its mind.

The two sides faced each other directly, waiting for the fight to start. The Athenians stalled for days, anticipating reinforcements promised by Sparta. But they knew they could not wait for long.

The Persians, expecting as easy a victory as they had won against enemies so many times before, were in no hurry.

The Greeks, knowing the time for battle had come, began to move forward. Ostensibly, they advanced with focus and purpose, but beneath this firm veneer, as they looked on a vastly larger enemy — at least twice their number — many must have been fearful of what was to come.

The Persian archers sat with their bows drawn, ready to loose a barrage of arrows that would send fear and confusion through the Greek ranks. Eventually, though, the infantry on both sides engaged in battle. Moving towards each other and perhaps with the Greeks running the final 400 metres whilst undoubtedly under fire from the Persian archers, the two armies clashed.

A few hours later the bloody battle ended. Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield, and it is unknown how many more perished in the swamps. The Athenians lost 192 men and the Plataeans 11.

One final legend of Marathon and one which has carried its name up to the present day is Herodotus’ account of a long-distance messenger (hēmerodromos) named Phidippides.

He was sent to enlist the help of the Spartans before the battle and he ran to Sparta, first stopping at Athens, a total distance of 240 km (a feat repeated by an athlete in 1983 CE).

Later sources, starting with Plutarch in the 1st century CE, confuse this story with another messenger sent from Marathon after the battle to announce victory and warn of the Persian fleet’s imminent arrival in Athens.

In any case, it was from this second legend that a race – covering the same distance as the 42 kilometres between Marathon and Athens – was established in the first revival of the Olympic Games in 1896 CE to commemorate ancient Greek sporting ideals and the original games at Olympia.

Fittingly, the first marathon race was won by a Greek, Spiridon Louis.