Complex engineering and metal-work discovered beneath ancient Greek 'pyramid'

Guardian UK ^ | Thursday, January 18, 2018 | Maev Kennedy

[SunkenCiv]

More than 4,000 years ago builders carved out the entire surface of a naturally pyramid-shaped promontory on the Greek island of Keros. They shaped it into terraces covered with 1,000 tonnes of specially imported gleaming white stone to give it the appearance of a giant stepped pyramid rising from the Aegean: the most imposing manmade structure in all the Cyclades archipelago...

Archaeologists from three different countries involved in an ongoing excavation have found evidence of a complex of drainage tunnels -- constructed 1,000 years before the famous indoor plumbing of the Minoan palace of Knossos on Crete -- and traces of sophisticated metalworking...

Earlier excavations by the team from the University of Cambridge, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades and the Cyprus Institute have uncovered thousands of marble Cycladic sculptures -- the stylised human figures which inspired western artists, including Pablo Picasso -- and which appear to have been deliberately broken elsewhere and brought to the island for burial.

Maintaining as well as constructing the settlement would have taken a huge communal effort. The now-deserted slopes of Dhaskalio were once covered with structures and buildings, suggesting that 4,500 years ago it was one of the most densely populated parts of the islands -- despite the fact that it could not have been self-sufficient, meaning that most food, like the stone and the ore for metal working, had to be imported...

Excavated soil reveals food traces including pulses, grapes, olives, figs and almonds, and cereals, including wheat and barley. Evi Margaritis of the Cyprus Institute said: "Much of this food was imported: in the light of this evidence we need to reconsider what we know about existing networks to include food exchange."

[Pelham]

I figure Moloch is about to make a big comeback.

Maybe Obama could get a retirement gig as the High Priest.

[dp0622]

I’m sure he pushed abortion overseas.

I’m not thrilled being me when I die, i’d HATE HATE HATE to be obama.

Though I’d like to watch.

[SunkenCiv]

In the jewel-bright Aegean Sea, a small Greek island holds an ancient mystery. 4,000 years ago, Dhaskalio was a promontory connected to its larger neighbor, the island of Keros. On this pyramid-shaped hill stood a sanctuary where visitors brought intentionally broken statues. A complex of buildings and terraces grew built with many tons of marble quarried on another island. Water conduits ran through the complex, advanced engineering for the age. In the 3rd millennium BC, Keros was becoming one of the Greece's first urban centers. But what made the sanctuary sacred in the first place is yet to be discovered.

On a Greek Island, Clues to a Mysterious Civilization | National Geographic | Published on January 21, 2018

• Sprawling Greek monuments built 4,500 years ago on 'the world's oldest maritime sanctuary'... [2018]
• Normand Hammond [2008]
• Shattered clues for solving Greek island's riddle [2006]
• Experts Prepare Excavation on Greek Island [2006]
• Early Bronze Age Settlement on Daskalio "Exceptionally Important" [Greece Is]
• Marble Pyramid Island Uncovered, Revealing Origins of Ancient Greece [Greek Reporter]