Archaeologists on Crete find skeleton covered with gold in 2,700-year-old grave

Jack Linthicum

2010-09-29 20:46:42 UTC

Post by Jack Linthicum
Looks like a big round hole in the "Dark Ages of Greece" concept.
Archaeologists on Crete find skeleton covered with gold in 2,700-year-
old grave
By The Associated Press (CP) – 2 hours ago
ATHENS, Greece — Greek archaeologists have uncovered an ancient
skeleton covered with gold in a grave on the southern island of Crete.
Excavator Nicholas Stampolidis says the grave dating to the 7th
century B.C. contained more than 3,000 pieces of gold foil. The tiny
ornaments, up to four 4 centimetres (1.5 inches) long, had been sewn
onto a lavish robe or shroud that has almost completely rotted away,
and initially wrapped the body of a woman.
Stampolidis told the AP Tuesday that the find, near the ancient town
of Eleutherna in central Crete, is unique in the Greek world.
The grave also contained a copper bowl, pottery, imported perfume
bottles, hundreds of beads made of amber, rock crystal and faience, as
well as a gold pendant in the form of a bee goddess.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gX5SVZzb...

Archaeologists on Crete find skeleton covered with gold foil in 2,700-
year-old grave

By Nicholas Paphitis (CP) – 1 day ago

ATHENS, Greece — Greek archaeologists have found an ancient skeleton
covered with gold foil in a grave on the island of Crete, officials
said Tuesday.

Excavator Nicholas Stampolidis said his team discovered more than
3,000 pieces of gold foil in the 7th-century B.C. twin grave near the
ancient town of Eleutherna.

Cemeteries there have produced a wealth of outstanding artifacts in
recent years.

The tiny gold ornaments, from 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 1.5 inches)
long, had been sewn onto a lavish robe or shroud that initially
wrapped the body of a woman and has almost completely rotted away but
for a few off-white threads.

"The whole length of the (grave) was covered with small pieces of gold
foil — square, circular and lozenge-shaped," Stampolidis told The
Associated Press. "We were literally digging up gold interspersed with
earth, not earth with some gold in it."

The woman, who presumably had a high social or religious status, was
buried with a second skeleton in a large jar sealed with a stone slab
weighing more than half a ton. It was hidden behind a false wall, to
confuse grave robbers.

Experts are trying to determine the other skeleton's sex.

The grave also contained a copper bowl; pottery; perfume bottles
imported from Egypt or Syria and Palestine; hundreds of amber, rock
crystal and faience beads; as well as a gold pendant in the form of a
bee goddess that probably was part of a rock crystal and gold
necklace.

"If you look at it one way up, it's shaped like a lily," said
Stampolidis, a professor of archaeology at the University of Crete who
has worked at Eleutherna for the 25 years. "Turned upside down, you
see a female figure holding her breasts, whose lower body is shaped as
a bee with wings. The workmanship is exquisite."

The ruins of Eleutherna stand on the northern foothills of Mount Ida —
the mythical birthplace of Zeus, chief of the ancient Greek gods. Past
excavations have discovered a citadel, homes and an important cemetery
with lavish female burials.

The town flourished from the 9th century B.C. — the dark ages of Greek
archaeology that followed the fall of Crete's great Minoan palatial
culture — and endured until the Middle Ages.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gX5SVZzbhOKVnPCa5pNoCvFIePew?docId=4661350