Archaeological discovery yields surprising revelations about Europe's oldest city

Heritage Daily ^ | January 6, 2016 | heritagedaily

[SunkenCiv]

The discovery suggests that not only did this spectacular site in the Greek Bronze Age (between 3500 and 1100 BC) recover from the collapse of the socio-political system around 1200 BC, but also rapidly grew and thrived as a cosmopolitan hub of the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. Antonis Kotsonas, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of classics, will highlight his field research with the Knossos Urban Landscape Project at the 117th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies. The meeting takes place Jan. 7-10, 2016 in San Francisco.

Kotsonas explains that Knossos, "renowned as a glorious site of the Greek Bronze Age, the leader of Crete and the seat of the palace of the mythical King Minos and the home of the enigmatic labyrinth," was the prosperous epicenter of Minoan culture. Scholars have studied the city's Bronze Age remains for more than a century, but more recent research has focused on the urban development of the city after it entered the Iron Age -- in the 11th century BC -- following the Bronze Age collapse of the Aegean palaces...

"No other site in the Aegean period has such a range of imports," Kotsonas says. The imports include bronze and other metals -- jewelry and adornments, as well as pottery. He adds that the majority of the materials, recovered from tombs, provide a glimpse of the wealth in the community, because status symbols were buried with the dead during this period.

[Mr Rogers]

Agree with the sentiments, but I'm not sure the she-beast is up to Snake Goddess standards - NOT that I want to find out: