2 000-year-old tombs unearthed

2007-04-21 14:35

Athens - Archaeologists in northeastern Greece have unearthed eight tombs containing the remains of men and women who lived over 2 000 years ago, along with an assortment of jewellery, weapons and agricultural tools, the Greek culture ministry said on Friday.

The tombs dating from the fifth to third centuries BC were dug into rock, likely covered with stone slabs and probably lay alongside an ancient road, the ministry said in a statement.

They were discovered near a freeway between the cities of Salonika and Edessa during road construction.

Prior excavation in the same area has already unearthed three farms dating from Roman to Hellenistic times, and a fourth from the Early Christian era.

Northern Greece was extremely rich in antiquities, being the seat of the Macedonian Empire that stretched from the Balkans to Egypt and India at its peak in the fourth century BC under Alexander the Great.

But many such sites are often found to have been looted.

- AFP