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.

New findings from the 3,500-year-old tomb of a bronze age warrior

The discovery, in the words of one of the archaeologists who uncovered it, was “the find of a lifetime.” The tomb of a Bronze Age warrior left untouched for more than 3,500 years and packed to the brim with precious jewellery, weapons and riches has been unearthed in southwestern Greece, according to researchers at the University of Cincinnati.

The shaft tomb, about 5 feet deep, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, was uncovered in May by a husband-and-wife team from the university. But the find was kept under wraps until an announcement Monday by Greek authorities.

Sharon Stocker and Jack Davis began excavating the site near the modern-day city of Pylos, Greece, in May. They were working near the Palace of Nestor, a noted destination in Homer’s “Odyssey.” That site was uncovered by famed University of Cincinnati archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1939.

Stocker and Davis initially thought they might have stumbled upon a Bronze Age home just outside the palace, but as they continued digging, they uncovered one bronze piece after another.

“That’s when we knew,” Stocker told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview from Greece, where she is still working.

What she and a team of dozens of researchers uncovered were incredible riches in a rare solo grave of a Mycenaean warrior who was buried several centuries before the rise of classical Greek culture.

Here’s a sampling of what they uncovered:

Solid gold jewelry and precious stones on his right

Four solid gold rings, carved with intricate designs, were found in the tomb near the warrior’s remains. The researchers say this is more than has been found in any other single burial in all of Greece.

More than 1,000 precious stone beads were also uncovered, many of them with holes drilled in the centre for stringing together. The beads were made of carnelian, amethyst, jasper, agate and gold, researchers say. Some may have even been sewn to a burial shroud of woven fabric, a tiny square of which survived 35 centuries in the grave.

A solid-gold chain necklace, more than 2 feet long with pendants on either end, was also found near his neck.

Weapons on his left

A 3-foot sword with a handle made of ivory and overlaid in gold lay at the warrior’s left chest. Underneath it was a dagger that was decorated with gold using an intricate technique that resembles embroidery.

Other weapons, made of bronze, including a slashing sword and spearhead, were found at his legs and feet, and the remnants of a bronze suit of armour were found on top.

Stone seals with intricate designs and carvings

Dozens of seal stones, which were decorated with detailed etchings in the Minoan style, were found to the left and right of the warrior’s skeleton. About the size of a quarter, the seal stones depicted goddesses, lions and bulls, and men jumping over a bull’s horns, a common sport in the Minoan civilization.

Beauty essentials: combs and a mirror

Six fine-toothed ivory combs, mostly intact and about 6 inches long, were uncovered in the grave. They were intricately decorated and accompanied by a bronze mirror with an ivory handle. Stocker says it’s significant that the warrior was buried alone, and that jewels, combs, and a mirror accompanied him.

It was extremely rare for a person to be buried alone, Stocker says, and archaeologists uncovering group graves in the past have had trouble determining which objects are associated with which remains, male or female. “In the past, people have wondered if you could divide finds along gender lines. Did the beads go with women? Did the combs go with women and the swords with the men?” Stocker told The Times.

“Since it’s only one burial, we know that all these objects went with this man.”

A rich person’s cups, bowls and jugs – made with bronze

Most graves from this era were packed with ceramics and another stoneware, Stocker says. But piled on top of the jewels and weapons were vessels, bowls and basins made strictly of bronze, some ringed with gold and silver trim.

Some of the bronze vessels, once round, had been flattened by centuries of earth weighing down on them.

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“This guy was really, really rich,” Stocker says. His bones indicate he was “strong, robust … well-fed,” she says. He may have been royalty or even the founder of a new dynasty at the Palace of Nestor. (A conqueror may not have wanted to be buried in a communal grave with generations of the previous dynasty, Stocker says).

The man, who was 30 to 35 years old when he died, could have been a warrior who led a raiding party to the nearby island of Crete and whose loot was buried with him. Or even a trader who acquired the goods through commerce.

“We don’t know his name, and we don’t really know anything else about him,” she says.

Bronze Age swords and sets of bounties Unearthed in Greece

The first period of this year’s excavation in the Trapeza plateau, eight kilometres southwest of Aegio, was completed, bringing to light, among other things, valuable sets of gifts and bronze swords. The place is identified with Rypes, a city that flourished in early historical times and participated in colonization, founding Croton in great Greece.

The excavation focused on the research of the Mycenaean necropolis, which develops on the southwestern slope of the plateau and is located on the ancient road that led to the citadel of historical times. 

The tombs are chambered, carved into the soft sandy subsoil. Their use was long-lasting and intensive, already during the first palace period of the Mycenaean world, in parallel with the prosperity of the great centres of Mycenae, Tiryns and Pylos. 

Significant reuse of the tombs dates back to the 12th century BC, when the tombs were reopened and repeatedly while being a place of burial customs and complex ritual practices until the end of the Bronze Age, during the 11th century BC.

The excavation at the necropolis yielded valuable sets of gifts consisting of vases, a number of seal stones and all kinds of beads and voices from various materials – glass, faience, gold, corneol, mountain crystal – composing necklaces and ornate jewellery in the shape of jewels, in trade relations with the eastern Aegean and Cyprus.

The chamber of tomb 8, in the shape of a rectangle, which was investigated this year, presented a complex stratigraphy. In the first layer of tombs of the 12th c. BC, three burials were investigated by country, decorated with pseudo-mouthed amphorae. 

The bones of the older tombs had been removed and placed with respect and great care in two superimposed piles at the back of the chamber in contact with the walls of the tomb. At the top of these excavations, three written clay alabasters and an amphora date these first burials to the early palace period (14th century BC).

Among the bones and offerings that accompanied these ancient burials, glass beads and cornaline, a clay horse figurine, was placed an exceptionally preserved bronze sword. 

At the base of the pile of bones, two more intact bronze swords were also found, which also save part of their wooden handles. The three swords belong to different types, Sandars D and E, and date back to the heyday of the Mycenaean palace period. 

The presence of these weapons, as well as the long spears of the same chronological period found during the excavation in neighbouring tombs in the necropolis of the Bank, is particularly important. It is distinguished from the other necropolises of Achaia by emphasizing the direct dependence of the local community on the powerful palace centres. 

The weapons are products of the palace workshops, perhaps of Mycenae, thus in line with the Epic and the mythological tradition handed down to us. 

According to it, Achaia belonged to the kingdom of Agamemnon and the conqueror of Mycenae gathered in neighbouring Aigio the most valuable men in order to discuss how the campaign against the Priam state should be carried out.

The location of the Mycenaean settlement of Trapeza is still not clear enough. 

Probably, during the early cycle of use of the necropolis, the settlement was located on a hill, about 100 meters south of the Bank. 

This year, in parallel with the research in the Mycenaean necropolis, the excavation of part of the settlement, revealed part of a building, perhaps a mansion. It is a wide rectangular room with a hearth in the centre and typical pottery that dates back to the 17th century. e.g.

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The systematic excavation at Trapeza Aigio, ancient Pollutants, is led by Dr. Andreas G. Vordos, archaeologist of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Achaia. 

Elisabetta Borgna, Professor of Aegean Archeology at the University of Udine, participates in the interdisciplinary research program of the Mycenaean necropolis and the prehistoric settlement with a group of students from the Universities of Udine, Trieste and Venice, as well as postgraduate students.

The main sponsor of the excavation at the Bank of Egialia, ancient Pollutants, is the AG Foundation. Leventis. The excavation work is also supported by Olympia Odos SA.