Ancient Treasure Trove Uncovered

Ananova ^ | 12-18-2002

[blam]

Ancient treasure trove uncovered

Archaeologists have found a 2,700-year-old temple which contains objects from across the ancient world.

Gold and silver figures, jewellery and shells from throughout the Mediterranean were gathered in one place on the small Greek island of Kithnos in the Aegean Sea.

The finds suggest the temple was for a female god.

Many of the objects were originally from Egypt, Italy and Phoenicia which is now Lebanon and Israel.

The ancient city was founded during the 10th century BC and abandoned four centuries later, said Alexander Mazarakis-Ainian, over seeing the dig. He is an associate professor at the University of Thessalia in Larissa in central Greece.

The temple was probably destroyed by an earthquake later.

"We knew it was a place of worship ... but we did not except to find so many objects inside. We thought it would have been disturbed," said Mr Mazarakis-Ainian.

"The importance of the discoveries is not so much the valuable objects ... it is the conditions of the find, the fact that they were found untouched," Mazarakis-Ainian said.

Some of objects date back to the Minoan era, around 1,600 BC. They may have been offered at the temple as relics, Mr Mazarakis-Ainian said.

Story filed: 12:17 Wednesday 18th December 2002

[gcruse]

Unlooted? Now, that's a find!

[william clark]

Senator Clinton did not respond to requests for comment.

[ErnBatavia]

Kithnos.....I'd like to visit.

[r9etb]

Cool. If nothing else, the variety and geographic range of the artifacts reveals the existence of significant trade and information exchange over a fairly wide area. I wonder if/when they'll find artifacts from farther east.

It might also suggest that the worship of this particular goddess had a pretty wide geographical distribution -- which to me says that the civilization of the region was sophisticated enough to include "missionaries".

[Irene Adler]

Catch the PC reference to a "female god"? We can't say "goddess" anymore than we can say "actress" these days. And what about the terms "BC" and "AD"? Gone, gone, gone. Way too Christian and Western.

[Irene Adler]

Actually, they DO use the term "BC" in this article which is odd given the reference to a "female god".

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Female god? No longer is goddess to be used? You beat me to it. That really jumped out. Infact, I stopped reading the article right there and then. PC is a bunch of crap. I refuse to use it in my speech or when writing. I live in a banana republic that doesn't believe in PC.

[gcruse]

Female god is PC? I guess I need to update
my 'touchy, touchy' file. ;)

[SunkenCiv]

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[RJL]

The finds suggest the temple was for a female god.

A golden armored breast plate or ...?

[t_skoz]

you and me both...

regards from Rochester

[SunkenCiv]

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