Greek treasures unearthed

2005-11-12 20:13

Athens - Archaeologists in Crete have found an important trove of archaeological treasures containing some of the earliest known examples of Greek writing, the ministry of culture said on Saturday.

It said the finds were excavated at a long-abandoned site on a hill overlooking the port of Chania in Western Crete, which has been identified with the Minoan city of Kydonia.

Among the discoveries was an amphora containing an intact text written in linear B, the language of the court at Mycenae where the legendary Agamemnon ruled.

Also found were two terracotta tablets containing texts in Linear A, an even older alphabet - used around 1 700 years before the common era - which has not yet been deciphered.

The ministry said the archaeologists found evidence of a violent fire believed to have destroyed a town on the site around 1450 BCE. Excavations uncovered traces of a road and two ceramic ovens from the Roman period.

In a statement, the ministry said the site would be turned into an open-air museum with European Union funds.

The researchers also found traces of a cemetery containing amphorae and funerary urns dating around the time the ancient Greeks set off to invade Sicily in the late fifth century BCE.

The vessels contained the bones of infants, indicating perhaps a high rate of infant mortality at that time.

- AFP