Kuwait's island of Failaka: Archaeologists have been uncovering a complex history extending back 4,000 years

More than 4,000 years of history in only 16 square miles

An aerial view of Kuwait’s Failaka Island shows four different sites representing thousands of years of civilization. (Courtesy Flemming Højlund, Kuwaiti-Danish Mission)

A forgotten sliver of land in the far north of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait’s Failaka Island is home now mostly to camels. Its only town is a sprawling ruin pockmarked with bullet holes and debris from tank rounds, and the landscape beyond seems empty and bleak. Even before Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait prompted its sudden evacuation, Failaka in the past century was little more than a quiet refuge for fishermen and the occasional Kuwaiti seeking relief from the mainland’s fierce heat. But just under the island’s sandy soil, archaeologists are discovering a complex history extending back 4,000 years, from the golden age of the first civilizations to the wars of the modern era.

The secret to Failaka’s rich past is its location, just 60 miles south of the spot where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers empty into the Gulf. From the rise of Ur, the world’s largest metropolis in the late third millennium B.C., until Saddam Hussein’s attack during the First Gulf War, the island has been a strategic prize. For thousands of years, Failaka was a key base from which to cultivate and protect—or prey on—the lucrative trade that passed up and down the Persian Gulf. In addition, there were two protected harbors, potable water, and even some fertile soil. The island’s relative isolation provided a safe place for Christian mystics and farmers amid the rise of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., as well as for pirates a millennium later.

Currently, archaeological teams from no less than half a dozen countries, including Poland, France, Denmark, and Italy, are at work on Failaka. Given the political volatility of neighboring nations such as Iraq, Iran, and Syria, the island offers a welcome haven for researchers unable to conduct their work in many other parts of the region. “I started encouraging teams to come in 2004,” says Shehab Shehab, Kuwait’s antiquities director. “And I want to encourage more.”

The oldest settlement on Failaka was long thought to have been founded in about 1800 B.C. by the Dilmunites, a maritime people who likely hailed from what are today’s Bahraini and Saudi Arabian coasts, and who controlled Persian Gulf trade. But on Failaka’s southwest corner, a team from Denmark’s Moesgård Museum has uncovered evidence that Mesopotamians arrived at least a century before the Dilmunites. The finds are centered on a recently unearthed Mesopotamian-style building typical of those found on the nearby Iraqi mainland dating from around 2000 B.C. The structure was later partially covered by a Dilmunite temple.

In the mythology of ancient Sumeria (modern Iraq), Dilmun is described as an Eden-like place of milk and honey. But by 2000 B.C., Dilmunites were leaving their homeland to become seagoing merchants and establish a powerful trading network that eventually stretched from India to Syria. Mesopotamian clay tablets refer to ships from Dilmun bringing wood, copper, and other goods from distant lands. By the nineteenth century B.C., Failaka had become a linchpin in the Dilmunites’ operations. At this point, after the Dilmunites had either ousted the Mesopotamians or merely succeeded them, there are no further signs of a Mesopotamian presence. The Dilmunites constructed a large temple and palace complex almost on top of the houses built by the earlier Mesopotamian residents. A French team that excavated the temple in the 1980s suggested that it was an oddity, possibly related to Syrian temple towers. But recent work by a team from the Moesgård Museum in Denmark points to a building remarkably similar to the Barbar sanctuary in Bahrain, considered the grandest Dilmun structure.

Failaka’s name is derived from the Greek word for outpost. But Alexander the Great, according to later classical authors such as Strabo and Arrian, gave Failaka the name Ikaros, since it resembled the Aegean island of that name in size and shape. French archaeologists working on the island in recent years have found several stone inscriptions dating to the fourth and third centuries b.c. mentioning the name Ikaros, as well as architecture and artifacts that reveal a bustling community with international ties during that period. The island’s accessible fresh water, easily defended coastline, and strategic location also attracted the attention of Alexander’s successors, who vied among themselves for control of regional trade routes. Antiochus I, who ruled the Seleucid Empire in the third century B.C., built a 60-foot-square fort around a well on Failaka. Inside the fortress compound, one small, elegant temple has Ionic columns and a plan that is quintessentially Greek, including an east-facing altar. This was no simple import, however, but a fascinating amalgamation of designs. The column bases, for example, are of the Persian Achaemenid style, similar to those in the capital, Persepolis, burned by Alexander’s troops in the fourth century B.C.

The center of Failaka is a low-lying swampy area that is now the province of mosquitoes and wandering white camels that belong to the Kuwaiti emir. But a millennium ago, this was a three-square-mile pocket of fertile and well-watered plain cultivated by a small community of isolated Christians in a region populated by Muslims. Previous French excavations revealed several villages and two churches, including a possible monastic chapel. A Polish team led by Warsaw-based archaeologist Magdalena Zurek is now busy excavating nearby sites to understand the extent of the settlements that flourished in the eighth and ninth centuries A.D., several hundred years after the faith inspired by Muhammad swept through the region. “We know nothing about Christians on Failaka,” says Zurek, who suspects that a third church lies near her current excavation of a modest farmstead.

The story of Failaka after the abandonment of the Christian villages remains shadowy. Currently archaeologists are turning their attention to several sites that sit along the northern shore of the island to probe the medieval and early modern periods. The most interesting is located on a high spot overlooking the gulf, facing Iraq. Nearly 30 years ago, a team from the University of Venice surveyed the site, pinpointing a village, called Al-Quraniya, that dates to at least as early as the seventeenth century A.D., and possibly several centuries earlier. In 2010, an Italian team led by Gian Luca Grassigli of the University of Perugia began intensive fieldwork there. The excavators have since uncovered an array of pottery, porcelain, glass bangles, and bronze objects, including nails and coins, dating to between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries A.D. The mound seems to have two large concentrations of building materials, and the archaeologists hope to make a detailed plan of the settlement in future campaigns. Deeper trenches may reveal evidence of earlier settlement, filling in the long gap between the abandonment of Christian villages and more recent times.

What is clear is that Failaka was still a notable outpost two millennia after Alexander. Just to the southeast of the village is a small square rock fort dating to about the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Some researchers believe that this structure was constructed by Portuguese soldier-merchants who did frequent business in the region. others suspect that Arab pirates built the base to attack the lucrative shipping lanes that led to wealthy Iraqi cities such as Basra or to ports along the Iranian coast to the east. In this era, european, Iranian, and chinese elites had a growing appetite for the gulf pearls that dominated the region’s economy. Pirates were a constant threat until the nineteenth century; British guns and diplomacy put an end to their raids.

Pirate hideout. (Courtesy Kuwaiti-Italian Mission)

The mainland of Kuwait is mostly harsh desert, with only a handful of significant ancient sites. Even the old town of Kuwait City, dating back two centuries, was long ago demolished to make way for skyscrapers. Thus Failaka is of prime importance to the country’s heritage. Recently, much of the island’s history was threatened by a plan to transform the barren land with its rocky coast into a major tourist magnet, complete with marinas, canals, spas, chalets, and enormous high-rise hotels and condominiums. In the wake of the global economic recession, however, the $5 billion project foundered, and was recently shelved. Shehab has moved into the resulting vacuum, lobbying hard to turn all of Failaka into a protected site in order to enable archaeologists to uncover, study, and preserve this small nation’s past.

The government already sets aside more than $10 million annually to cover the costs of foreign projects in Kuwait, and hopes to promote science as well as encourage heritage tourism. “Shehab’s dream is to create in Kuwait a kind of research center for Gulf basin archaeology,” says archaeologist Piotr Bielinski from the University of Warsaw, who is digging at a prehistoric site on the mainland just north of Kuwait City. And excavators on Failaka are making the most of this unique opportunity, exposing evidence of Mesopotamian merchants, religious structures representing three cultures and spanning more than 2,500 years, a pirate’s lair, and the remains of Failaka’s last battle, ample testimony to the island’s millennia-long endurance.

By ANDREW LAWLER

Fantasy Runs Rampant: An Artist’s Fantasy Villa and Garden Pay Witty Homage to Palladio and Friends

Artist Carlo Marchiori Creates His Dream House in Calistoga, California. Ηιs three-decade project looks as if it had evolved over centuries. Visions of the Veneto, Capri and pop Palladio animate five acres of Calistoga flatlands.

For those who pine to trip the light fantastic around Italy on a Grand Tour, Carlo Marchiori offers the most complete and witty instant classical education. The glories of Italian culture are portrayed throughout his wooded domain, Ca’Toga, on the banks of the Napa River in the rocky northern reaches of the Napa Valley.

“I started building my villa and the garden statues over thirty years ago, and I just never stopped,” said Marchiori, 61, who was born near Vicenza, Italy, Palladio’s stomping ground.

“My work is theatrical, but always with a wink,” Marchiori said. Rendered in the finest detail, each sculpture and column is then hacked and sanded and chipped to age it thousands of years.

Beyond gateposts topped with jaunty Pulcinello figures stands Marchiori’s handsome Palladian villa, along with a riverside amphitheatre worthy of Caesar, a nymphaeum with sparkling water from the local hot springs, and enough Corinthian columns and noble statues to repopulate the Roman Forum.

In silvery moonlight, with western hills as a backdrop, the rough concrete Doric temple in artist Carlo Marchiori’s garden looks as if it was hewn from Carrara marble. Fluted columns pose heroically on a crumbling foundation. Soaring high above are elaborate friezes and large stone fragments with the traditional entablature. There’s even a broken pediment. All that’s missing is the oracle.

Marchiori’s bravura living room murals were completed over several years. Through chilly winters, the artist painted every delicate flourish standing on a scaffold for hours each day. Every architectural detail—including door pediments—is painted.
Gods of antiquity are depicted en grisaille, a monochromatic technique that gives the appearance of carved Carrara marble.

Roman and Greek gods frolic around a glimmering pool. Stone heads and limbs lie artfully around, like Lord Elgin’s leftovers.
Perhaps most impressively, Marchiori has improvised all of his temples and grand architecture on “four bucks and courage”, using construction-site cast-offs, broken concrete sidewalks hauled from the nearby town of Calistoga, scraps of wood, flea market finds, road-side cast-offs, house paint, and broken tiles and architectural fragments from dismantled buildings.

“Palladio himself improvised,” noted Marchiori. “Often the noblemen who commissioned him wanted a very prestigious villa, but did not have the money. Veneto villa columns were not carved of solid marble, but built of cheap terrace cotta bricks and stone with layers of stucco.”

An ancient-looking stone grotto glows with the nacreous light of hundreds of abalone shells affixed to the walls. Open-mouthed, a dusty Arlecchino head munches weeds beside the villa. A cracked Pompeiian-style urn and stone plaques (OMNIA VINCIT AMOR) seem unearthed from an archaeological dig.

Carlo Marchiori, pictured above, with a new sculpture crafted from a moose horn and clay, has turned a former weed patch into a dreamscape. Using building site debris, terra cotta bricks, and fieldstone, he crafted a sunny piazza and fountains and ‘fragments’ of ancient monuments crafted in sculpted cement. A charming grotto with a domed ceiling was painted to look like a venerable relic from the Roman Empire. For a magical dinner party, Marchiori sets tables with candelabra and bounty from his garden. Flickering light in the grotto transports guests to another time, another place.

“I originally set out to create a country retreat, not an homage to Italy, but naturally I fell back on the historical architecture and the antiquities I grew up with,” he said. “I have a kind of sacred obsession to create. One column leads to another. I envision a temple, a fountain, a mythological beast, and I have an artistic greed to complete it.”

Marchiori’s magical territory was hard-won. He discovered post-purchase that his rocky acreage was full of black clay and laced with boron from the thermal activity that make hot springs and mud baths a popular attraction in Calistoga. Water for his vegetable garden must be filtered.

“I've trucked in tons of soil so that I can grow pomegranates, grape vines, pines, eucalyptus and roses,” said Marchiori. “That’s one reason I throw my energy into columns. They’re low-maintenance.”

Marchiori brings to his work fifty years of art studies, close observation of Italy’s greatest painters, passion, and his experience as a highly regarded decorative artist, in demand for grand projects around the world. He has completed large-scale murals for hotels such as the Bellagio in Las Vegas, and various Trump casinos and hotels. Recent projects also included a fantasy Tuscan landscape for a Pebble Beach elevator interior, grisaille panels for a Los Angeles house, and the elaborate ceiling of a villa in Napa’s Rutherford appellation.

All of his designs are crafted by hand, with help from a handful of workers and his partner, Tony Banthutham.

“I use only a cranky old concrete mixer, so larger pieces are cast in fragments and then fixed into place,” Marchiori said. “I design them in my head, scramble to figure out the correct proportions, and hope the foundations are strong enough. I keep the finishes loose and never add too much falala.”

A pair of ancient-looking pillar gateways to his riverbank garden were crafted from chipped and broken blocks of concrete dumped by a local building crew. Rustic acorn-shaped finials, which could have been lifted from Palladio’s Villa Barbaro in Treviso, were made with shards of roof tiles bought by the truckload from a local roofer.

“To give them a centuries-old look, I cracked them into even smaller chunks,” Marchiori said. “I use anything and everything to create the illusion of antiquity. I’m not a pedantic academic. ”

A twelve-foot high hollow head of Pan, his wild hair and open-mouthed visage pieced together from chunks of richly-hued fieldstone, juts from a wall in a tangle of vines.

“ I hope some birds make their nest inside this sculpture. I would love to see birds fly out of his mouth,” said the artist.

Marchiori said he also paints and stains and daubs the stones and concrete, tiles, metal pipes, and other building materials, to hasten the aging process.

“My goal is to make harmony out of chaos,” said the artist, with steam from the Old Faithful geyser floating in the distance. “ I am the opposite of those who paint their houses every two years and keep everything face-lifted. I don’t believe in ‘forever young’.”

Nature is his accomplice. Rain, sun, wind and valley dust add a convincing patina of centuries.

“After millions of brushtrokes, I have the euphoria of playing an art trick, turning rubble into gold,” he said.

Marchiori grew up in the Veneto town of Bassano del Grappa north east of Venice, and as a boy, roamed the region studying the villas and gardens of the surrounding countryside.
The classic proportions of Palladio’s architecture informed his eye from an early age. He headed to school over the Brenta Bridge, one of Palladio’s landmarks, and, in effect, studied Palladio’s work as he pedaled across on his bicycle.

Marchiori came to San Francisco in the late Sixties, by way of Japan, New Zealand, and Canada. His Edwardian house in the Haight Ashbury became a tourist stop after he painted a twenty-foot smiling tiger on the facade.

Disinterested with television, film, even computers, he throws his focus on his art. He seldom travels.

Marchiori spends his day painting, sculpting, shaping walls, preparing canvases, glazing his collection of ceramics, and carving plinths. He seems the perfect embodiment of Flaubert’s aphorism, ‘One should be regular and orderly in one’s life, so that one may be violent and original in one’s work.’

Recent projects includes a glamorous grotto with a chandelier of scallop shells that would be a sensation on Capri, and a small outdoor theatre crowned with shard-topped columns. In his Teatro degli Zanni, Marchiori dreams of presenting the Commedia dell’Arte slapstick plays of his childhood.

Marchiori’s list of projects is never-ending. There are molds to carve for a new series of Pompeiian ruins, Bellini-esque murals to complete, and a series of Corinthian column fragments to paint.

In a sense, Marchiori never left Italy. Or at least, Italy never left him.

Credits: All photography by California photographer, Adrian Gregorutti, published here with express permission. www.gregophoto.com

Herodotus' Error: Misreading the Hittite 'Karabel Rock Relief' as Egyptian

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BY DIMOSTHENIS VASILOUDIS

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The monument may have been mentioned by Herodotus in his history, where he identified the carved figure as the Egyptian pharaoh Sesostris and the hieroglyphics as Egyptian

The Hittite "Karabel" Relief, also known as the Karabel Hittite Rock Relief, is a rock-cut relief located in the Turkish province of Izmir, near the town of Torbal. This monument is known for its historical significance and the detailed depiction of a Hittite warrior, a powerful symbol of the Hittite Empire that flourished during the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant, from approximately 1600 to 1200 BC.

On the southern slope of a mountain, on the left side of the road, in the Karabel Pass of the Kemalpaşa-Torbal highway, is the location of substantial relief. It is 2.5 meters tall and around 1.5 meters broad. A man figure is shown standing, holding a bow and a spear in his right and left hands, respectively. The person is dressed in a tunic and a cone-shaped hat. Among experts, this alleviation is known as Karabel A. Three lines of an extremely worn-out Hieroglyphic Luwian inscription can just about be made out between the warrior's head and the spear. The lowest half of the relief sustained significant damage from the treasure hunters in 2017 and 2019.

The Karabel Relief, sketch of Charles Texier.

A Hittite Mystery Misinterpreted by Herodotus

The figure on the relief is believed to be the Hittite King Tarkasnawa (also known as Tarkondemos), based on an inscription in the Luwian language that was found near the relief. The figure is shown wearing a pointed hat and a short skirt, both characteristic of Hittite depictions of their rulers. In one hand, he holds a spear, while the other hand is raised in a gesture of worship or salute.

However, the Karabel relief has a curious connection with the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC. In his "Histories", Herodotus described a monument that he encountered on his travels through what is now western Turkey. He wrote that this monument depicted an armed warrior and was inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics.

This statement by Herodotus has caused some confusion among scholars, as the Karabel relief is clearly not Egyptian in style or script but Hittite. It appears that Herodotus made a mistake in his identification. This mistake may be due to his unfamiliarity with the Hittite Empire and its language, as it had already collapsed several centuries before his time and its history and culture were not yet widely known or studied.

Moreover, the script on the Karabel relief is not hieroglyphic but rather in a form known as Luwian hieroglyphs or Anatolian hieroglyphs, which is quite distinct from Egyptian hieroglyphics. Luwian hieroglyphs were used in the region during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, notably by the Hittite and Luwian civilizations. Therefore, Herodotus might have confused this with the more famous Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Thus, Herodotus's mistake provides us with an interesting example of the limitations and challenges of historical and archaeological interpretation, especially in times when knowledge about ancient cultures was still limited or obscured by time. It also reminds us of the often complex and nuanced nature of ancient interactions and influences and the role of modern archaeological and linguistic studies in helping to shed light on these historical riddles.

Herodotus may have made reference to the monument in his history, identifying the carved figure as Egyptian pharaoh Sesostris as follows:

"... in Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks, one on the road by which one goes from the land of Ephesus to Phocaia, and the other on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figure of a man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holding in his right hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, ... and from the one shoulder to the other across the breast runs an inscription carved in Egyptian hieroglyphics, saying, 'This land with my shoulders I won for myself."

(Herodotus II.106)

The Sardis-Ephesus route passes via Karabel Pass instead of the historic Sardis-Smyrna road, and it is important to take into account that the Ephesus-Phocai road is located much to the south. Herodotus' description was either inaccurate, or it's possible he was referring to a separate but related relief. The Torbal relief's recent discovery suggests that the area may have housed a number of other monuments of a similar nature. It goes without saying that the figure in the relief is not a ruler of Egypt. David Hawkins published the reading of the Karabel A inscription in 1998. Hawkins reads the inscription's three lines as follows:

Tarkasnawa, King of Mira (land).
[Son of] Alantalli, King of Mira land.
Grandson of ..., King of Mira land.

The reading of Alantalli is uncertain. In addition, even though the grandfather's name cannot be read, it has been hypothesized that it is Kupanta-Kuruntiya. Tarkondemos, who is seen in a few Boazköy seals, is also identified as Tarkasnawa by Hawkins reading. The Tarkasnawa reading has received widespread support from academics. The Hittite domain's vassal kingship of Mira was led by Alantalli, who is known to have lived during Tudhaliya IV's reign. As a result, his son Tarkasnawa should have lived during the reigns of Tudhaliya IV and/or Suppiluliuma II, placing the monument around the end of the 13th century BC.

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The Surrounding Area of the Misread Monument

North of the Karabel, a few hundred meters A relief included a related relief, two distinct hieroglyphic inscriptions, and another relief. Karabel B, Karabel C1, and Karabel C2 were the names given to the three of them, respectively. Sadly, between 1977 and 1982, when the adjoining road was being widened, these three engravings were completely obliterated. A standing male figure with a spear in his outstretched left hand and perhaps a bow on his right shoulder was likewise depicted on Karabel B. With the exception of the first character, which was possibly "King," the worn-out writing on the relief was unintelligible.

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Only a few meters to the north of Karabel B, the inscriptions C1 and C2 were found on the perpendicular surfaces of the same rock. The C1 inscription, which contained five Egyptian letters, was the best preserved. Hawkins' interpretation of Karabel A suggests that C1 could be partially translated as "King Tarkasnawa" (ASINUS-wa REX). The C2 inscription proved more difficult to read, but it may have contained the names of the kings Tarkasnawa and Alantalli on the first line of the three-line inscription.

Turkey: 'Temple of Zeus' Unearthed in Ancient Greek city of Magnesia

Archaeologists have been excavating Magnesia for decades. The ancient Greek city in Turkey’s Aydin province is home to two temples: one dedicated to Artemis, and the other, to Zeus.

Archaeologists found the entrance gate for the Zeus Temple in the ancient city Magnesia, located in Aydin’s Germencik district in western Turkey. The excavations that continue in the Ortaklar neighbourhood are being led by Associate Professor Gorkem Kokdemir of Ankara University Archaeology Department.

“I have been working on the Magnesia excavations for 23 years, since 1998,” Kokdemir tells TRT World. The excavations were being led by Professor Orhan Bingol, and when he retired, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism saw me fit for the job.”

According to Kokdemir, Magnesia was first dug up during the erstwhile Ottoman Empire’s reign. A German archaeologist, Carl Humann, in the 1890s, around 1891-1892, on behalf of the German government – who also dug in Bergama, and many other cities in western Anatolia - excavated Magnesia.

“He spends two years in Magnesia and digs up the Zeus Temple, the one we rediscovered and is now in the news, in the agora,” Kokdemir says on the phone. “It is significant because of architectural history. It is dated back to the 3rd century BC, one of the earliest temples of the Hellenistic period.”

Kokdemir adds that Humann “reveals the architectural elements of this temple and he takes about ten percent of the temple to Berlin. He takes many goods to Berlin such as sculptures and inscriptions, along with parts of the Zeus Temple. Today in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum there is on display the Zeus temple’s parts 5.5-6 metres tall, they have been completed with 90 percent imitation parts. You can see this temple when you go to the museum today.”

Kokdemir tells TRT World that the Zeus Temple is one of the most important sacred areas of Magnesia, one of the most important temples. “There is the Artemis sacred space there, there is also a sacred agora, the Zeus Temple is in the sacred agora. It is very significant, it is the second important cult [of Magnesia].”

“In ancient cities people worship not just one deity, they worship multiple gods or goddesses. In Magnesia the first deity is Artemis, and the second deity is Zeus,” he clarifies.

Kokdemir says the archaeological team is once more excavating the Zeus Temple to access the architectural information, to complete the missing information and to reintroduce the temple to archaeological literature: “It has been underground for a hundred years. It was only seen during Humann’s time and shortly after was buried under four metres of soil.”

The Magnesia excavation team expects to find 60 to 70 percent of the original materials of the Zeus Temple, planning to carry out a good restoration project and to revive it with five metres pillar height and seven-seven and a half metres including the roof and will make it a proper sight to visit.

Asked about the significance of Magnesia as a city, Kokdemir says it was set up about 2,400 years ago, in the 4th century BC. “Its most striking aspect is the temples built for gods and goddesses and the festivals and games organised for these deities.”

Of the structures in Magnesia, the Artemis temple is the biggest temple, which is open to visitors. Kokdemir says it is the fourth largest temple in Anatolia, following Ephesus’ Artemis Temple – one of the seven wonders of the world–, the Apollo Temple in Didyma, and the Artemis Temple in Manisa, in Sardes.

“The Artemis Temple in Magnesia was built by a prominent architect of its time, think of him like Sinan the Architect was to the Ottoman legacy, an architect of antiquity called Hermogenes. His masterpiece is the Artemis Temple,” Kokdemir enthuses.

Kokdemir notes another detail about the Artemis Temple. “In the 3rd century BC, 2300 years ago, there were games organised that were the equivalent of the most important games in the Mediterranean region, Delphi Apollo Games. A grand organisation. Participants from Italy, from Greece, from many points in Anatolia, from the islands, joined in these games that last five days. The games spoke of the significance of Magnesia and also helped the city grow and thrive.”

Kokdemir points out that there are still many places in Magnesia to be excavated. While they expect the Zeus Temple to be restored to its full glory in a couple of years contingent on funding, there is also the hippodrome with 50,000 capacity, he says. “We may have to wait for 15-20 years to completely experience the amazing city that is Magnesia, but it will be worth it.”

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

How does the 'Antikythera Mechanism' work?

The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek hand-powered orrery, described as the oldest example of an analogue computer used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance. It could also be used to track the four-year cycle of athletic games which was similar to an Olympiad, the cycle of the ancient Olympic Games. This artefact was among wreckage retrieved from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. On 17 May 1902 it was identified as containing a gear by archaeologist Valerios Stais. The device, housed in the remains of a 34 cm × 18 cm × 9 cm (13.4 in × 7.1 in × 3.5 in) wooden box, was found as one lump, later separated into three main fragments which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation efforts. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others. The largest gear is approximately 13 centimeters (5.1 in) in diameter and originally had 223 teeth. In 2008, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University used modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning to image inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. This suggests it had 37 meshing bronze gears enabling it to follow the movements of the Moon and the Sun through the zodiac, to predict eclipses and to model the irregular orbit of the Moon, where the Moon's velocity is higher in its perigee than in its apogee. This motion was studied in the 2nd century BC by astronomer Hipparchus of Rhodes, and it is speculated that he may have been consulted in the machine's construction. There is speculation that a portion of the mechanism is missing and it also calculated the positions of the five classical planets.

Derek J. de Solla Price (1922–1983) with a model of the Antikythera mechanism

The instrument is believed to have been designed and constructed by Greek scientists and has been variously dated to about 87 BC, or between 150 and 100 BC, or to 205 BC, or to within a generation before the shipwreck, which has been dated to approximately 70–60 BC. Later clockwork is known from the medieval Byzantine and Islamic worlds, but works with similar complexity did not appear again until the development of mechanical astronomical clocks in Europe in the fourteenth century.

All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are now kept at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, along with a number of artistic reconstructions and replicas to demonstrate how it may have looked and worked.

The largest gear in the mechanism, approximately 13 centimetres (5.1 in) in diameter.

The original mechanism apparently came out of the Mediterranean as a single encrusted piece. Soon afterward it fractured into three major pieces. Other small pieces have broken off in the interim from cleaning and handling, and still others were found on the sea floor by the Cousteau expedition. Other fragments may still be in storage, undiscovered since their initial recovery; Fragment F was discovered in that way in 2005. Of the 82 known fragments, seven are mechanically significant and contain the majority of the mechanism and inscriptions. There are also 16 smaller parts that contain fractional and incomplete inscriptions.

Many of the smaller fragments that have been found contain nothing of apparent value; however, a few have some inscriptions on them. Fragment 19 contains significant back door inscriptions including one reading "... 76 years ..." which refers to the Callippic cycle. Other inscriptions seem to describe the function of the back dials. In addition to this important minor fragment, 15 further minor fragments have remnants of inscriptions on them.

Operation

On the front face of the mechanism there is a fixed ring dial representing the ecliptic, the twelve zodiacal signs marked off with equal 30-degree sectors. This matched with the Babylonian custom of assigning one twelfth of the ecliptic to each zodiac sign equally, even though the constellation boundaries were variable. Outside that dial is another ring which is rotatable, marked off with the months and days of the Sothic Egyptian calendar, twelve months of 30 days plus five intercalary days. The months are marked with the Egyptian names for the months transcribed into the Greek alphabet. The first task, then, is to rotate the Egyptian calendar ring to match the current zodiac points. The Egyptian calendar ignored leap days, so it advanced through a full zodiac sign in about 120 years.

Front panel of a 2007 recreation.

The mechanism was operated by turning a small hand crank (now lost) which was linked via a crown gear to the largest gear, the four-spoked gear visible on the front of fragment A, the gear named b1. This moved the date pointer on the front dial, which would be set to the correct Egyptian calendar day. The year is not selectable, so it is necessary to know the year currently set, or by looking up the cycles indicated by the various calendar cycle indicators on the back in the Babylonian ephemeris tables for the day of the year currently set, since most of the calendar cycles are not synchronous with the year. The crank moves the date pointer about 78 days per full rotation, so hitting a particular day on the dial would be easily possible if the mechanism were in good working condition. The action of turning the hand crank would also cause all interlocked gears within the mechanism to rotate, resulting in the simultaneous calculation of the position of the Sun and Moon, the moon phase, eclipse, and calendar cycles, and perhaps the locations of planets.

The operator also had to be aware of the position of the spiral dial pointers on the two large dials on the back. The pointer had a "follower" that tracked the spiral incisions in the metal as the dials incorporated four and five full rotations of the pointers. When a pointer reached the terminal month location at either end of the spiral, the pointer's follower had to be manually moved to the other end of the spiral before proceeding further.

Virtual Reconstruction of the Antikythera Mechanism (VIDEO)

The Parian Chronicle: The Oldest Chronology of Ancient Greece

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BY DIMOSTHENIS VASILOUDIS

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The Parian Chronicle: A Glimpse into Greek Myth and History

The Parian Chronicle, or Parian Marble, is a fascinating testament to how the ancient Greeks viewed their past—a blend of the mythic and the historic. This article delves deep into this unique artifact, its history, and the tales it tells.

The Marble and Its Journey

The Parian Chronicle, inscribed on a stele, is a chronological table that charts the years from 1582 BC to 299 BC. It was discovered on the island of Paros in two main fragments. Sold in Smyrna in the early 17th century, the inscription made its way to Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and was deciphered and published in the Arundel Marbles, Marmora Arundelliana, by John Selden in London (1628–9). Notably, one of these sections has vanished, believed to have been lost during the tumult of the English Civil War.

Part of the Parian Marble, a chronicle of mythological and historical events in Greece from 1580 BC to 263 BC. There are 3 parts, one was lost in London during the English Civil war, one is kept the Ashmolean Museum, and one in the Archaelogical Museum of Paros, Greece.

Another fragment, the base of the stele containing the end of the text, surfaced in 1897. This portion of the inscription details events from 336/35 to 299/98 BC. The two prior fragments chronicled events spanning 1582/81–355/54 BC.

The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford houses one of these upper fragments, preserving events from the mythical, like the Flood of Deucalion, to the historical, such as the Trojan War. The shorter fragment from 1897 resides in the Archaeological Museum of Paros in Greece.

What's striking about the Parian Chronicle is its seamless integration of myths and legends with events that modern historians recognize as factual. To the Greeks, these stories were history; their myths were not mere tales but a representation of their past. As Peter Green once noted regarding the Parian Marble, the chronicle "uses chronological specificity as a guarantee of truth" and anchors the mythical past in historical time.

Chronicles of a Bygone Era: Tales from the Marble

1581 BC, Cecrops and the Birth of Athens: Before it was Athens, it was Cecropia, named after King Cecrops. The famous contest between Poseidon and Athena for the city’s favor, a defining moment in Athenian mythology, is curiously omitted from the Parian Chronicle.

1528 BC, Great Flood of Deucalion: The Great Flood of Deucalion recorded on the marble is a testament to the universal nature of flood myths. Much like Noah's Flood in the Bible, Deucalion’s Flood serves as a reminder of a divine reset—a cataclysmic event that reshapes civilization.

1520 BC, The Birth of 'Hellenes': Hellen, son of Deucalion, ascends to the throne of Phthiotis. From him, the name 'Hellenes' is born. While neighboring populations adopted this name, the Romans held on to the older term, "Graikos." Thus, in the West, the Greeks are still referred to as Greeks.

1294 and 1259 BC, Rise of Heroes: A period that witnessed the rule of legendary figures like King Minos of Crete and King Aegeas of Athens, Theseus, another iconic figure, assumed the Athenian throne in 1259 BC, laying the groundwork for democracy.

1256 BC, The Amazonian Invasion of Athens: A dramatic event sees the Amazons marching on Athens, only to be repelled by Theseus at the Hill of the Muses.

1218 BC, The Trojan War Starts: A decade-long war encapsulated love, heroism, and tragedy, culminating in the fall of Troy.

1209 BC: Troy is conquered

907 and 895 BC, The Dawn of Literature and Commerce: The appearance of the epic poet Homer was followed closely by Aegina minting silver coins, indicating the dawning of a historic age well-recorded and corroborated by multiple sources.

Detail from the shorter fragment base of the stele, found in 1897, that is in a museum on Paros. It contains chronicle entries for the years 336–299 BC.

The Parian Chronicle's Significance

While the Parian Chronicle bridges mythic tales and historical events, its precision from 895 BC onwards lends credibility to its earlier records. Whether one views the marble's earlier dates with skepticism or belief, its significance is undeniable. It provides invaluable insights into how the Greeks viewed their past, underscoring the interplay of myth, legend, and history in shaping a civilization's identity.

The journey of the Parian Marble—from its discovery to its current homes in the Ashmolean Museum and the Archaeological Museum of Paros—is symbolic of the enduring allure of ancient Greece. Its tales continue to captivate, offering a window into an era where heroes walked the earth, gods meddled in mortal affairs, and history was as much about epic tales as it was about kings and wars.

Ancient Greek ‘Pop Culture’ Discovery Rewrites History of Poetry and song

New research into a little-known text written in ancient Greek shows that ‘stressed poetry’, the ancestor of all modern poetry and song, was already in use in the 2nd Century CE, 300 years earlier than previously thought.

In its shortest version, the anonymous four-line poem reads “they say what they like; let them say it; I don’t care”. Other versions extend with “Go on, love me; it does you good”. The experimental verse became popular across the eastern Roman Empire and survives because, as well as presumably being shared orally, it has been found inscribed on 20 gemstones and as a graffito in Cartagena, Spain.

By comparing all of the known examples for the first time, Cambridge’s Professor Tim Whitmarsh (Faculty of Classics) noticed that the poem used a different form of metre to that usually found in ancient Greek poetry. As well as showing signs of the long and short syllables characteristic of traditional ‘quantitative’ verse, this text employed stressed and unstressed syllables. Until now, ‘stressed poetry’ of this kind has been unknown before the 5th century, when it began to be used in Byzantine Christian hymns.

Professor Whitmarsh, who is Director of Studies in Classics at St John's College, said: “You didn’t need specialist poets to create this kind of musicalized language, and the diction is very simple, so this was clearly a democratising form of literature. We’re getting an exciting glimpse of a form of oral pop culture that lay under the surface of classical culture.”

The poem is inscribed on a cameo on a medallion of glass paste. Photo credit: Aquincum Museum, Budapest.

The new study, published in The Cambridge Classical Journal, also suggests that this poem could represent a ‘missing link’ between the lost world of ancient Mediterranean oral poetry and song, and the more modern forms that we know today.

The poem, unparalleled so far in the classical world, consists of lines of four syllables, with a strong accent on the first and a weaker on the third. This allows it to slot into the rhythms of numerous pop and rock songs, such as Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B Goode’.

Whitmarsh said: “We’ve known for a long time that there was popular poetry in ancient Greek, but a lot of what survives takes a similar form to traditional high poetics. This poem, on the other hand, points to a distinct and thriving culture, primarily oral, which fortunately for us in this case also found its way onto a number of gemstones.”

Asked why the discovery hasn’t been made before, Whitmarsh said: “These artefacts have been studied in isolation. Gemstones are studied by one set of scholars, the inscriptions on them by another. They haven’t been seriously studied before as literature. People looking at these pieces are not usually looking for changes in metrical patterns.”

Whitmarsh hopes that scholars of the medieval period will be pleased: “It confirms what some medievalists had suspected, that the dominant form of Byzantine verse developed organically out of changes that came about in classical antiquity.”

In its written form (which shows some minor variation), the poem reads:

Λέγουσιν             They say

ἃ θέλουσιν         What they like

λεγέτωσαν         Let them say it

οὐ μέλι μοι         I don’t care

σὺ φίλι με           Go on, love me

συνφέρι σοι       It does you good

The gemstones on which the poem was inscribed were generally agate, onyx or sardonyx, all varieties of chalcedony, an abundant and relatively inexpensive mineral across the Mediterranean region. Archaeologists found the most beautiful and best-preserved example around the neck of a deceased young woman in a sarcophagus. The gem is now held in Budapest’s Aquincum Museum.

Whitmarsh believes that these written accessories were mostly bought by people from the middle ranks of Roman society. He argues that the distribution of the gemstones from Spain to Mesopotamia sheds new light on an emerging culture of ‘mass individualism’ characteristic of our own late-capitalist consumer culture.

Whitmarsh said: “The closest modern equivalent is probably a Quote T-shirt. When you have people across a huge empire eager to buy into things that connect them to centres of fashion and power, you have the conditions for a simple poem to go viral, and that’s clearly what happened here.”

The study points out that “they say what they like; let them say it; I don’t care” is almost infinitely adaptable, to suit practically any countercultural context. The first half of the poem would have resonated as a claim to philosophical independence: the validation of an individual perspective in contrast to popular belief. But most versions of the text carry an extra two lines which shift the poem from speaking abstractly about what ‘they’ say to a more dramatic relationship between ‘you’ and the ‘me’. The text avoids determining a specific scenario but the last lines strongly suggest something erotic.

The meaning could just be interpreted as ‘show me affection and you’ll benefit from it’ but, Whitmarsh argues, the words that ‘they say’ demand to be reread as an expression of society’s disapproval of an unconventional relationship.

The poem allowed people to express a defiant individualism, differentiating them from trivial gossip, the study suggests. What mattered instead was the genuine intimacy shared between ‘you’ and ‘me’, a sentiment which was malleable enough to suit practically any wearer.

Such claims to anticonformist individuality were, however, pre-scripted, firstly because the ‘careless’ rhetoric was borrowed from high literature and philosophy, suggesting that the owners of the poetic gems did, after all, care what the classical litterati said. And secondly because the gemstones themselves were mass-produced by workshops and exported far and wide.

Whitmarsh says: “I think the poem appealed because it allowed people to escape local pigeon-holing, and claim participation in a network of sophisticates who ‘got’ this kind of playful, sexually-charged discourse.

The poem preserved in a graffito from an upper-storey room in Cartagena Spain (2nd to 3rd century CE). Credit: José Miguel Noguera Celdrán

“The Roman Empire radically transformed the classical world by interconnecting it in all sorts of ways. This poem doesn’t speak to an imposed order from the Imperial elite but a bottom-up pop culture that sweeps across the entire empire. The same conditions enabled the spread of Christianity; and when Christians started writing hymns, they would have known that poems in this stressed form resonated with ordinary people.”

Whitmarsh made his discovery after coming across a version of the poem in a collection of inscriptions and tweeting that it looked a bit like a poem but not quite. A Cambridge colleague, Anna Lefteratou, a native Greek speaker, replied that it reminded her of some later medieval poetry.

Whitmarsh said: “That prompted me to dig under the surface and once I did that these links to Byzantine poetry became increasingly clear. It was a lockdown project really. I wasn't doing the normal thing of flitting around having a million ideas in my head. I was stuck at home with a limited number of books and re-reading obsessively until I realised this was something really special.”

There is no global catalogue of ancient inscribed gemstones and Whitmarsh thinks there may be more examples of the poem in public and private collections, or waiting to be excavated.

Amphipolis, Greece: The Construction of the Outer Shell of the Burial Monument at the Kasta Tomb Begins

The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports is proceeding with the construction studies of the outer shell at the burial monument of ‘Kasta Tomb’ and the visit routes to the archeological site.

The Central Archaeological Council unanimously gave its opinion on the approval of the architectural preliminary design for the construction of the outer shell between the precinct and the first partition wall adorned with the sculptures of the Sphinx at the burial monument at the tomb of Casta in Amphipolis, Macedonia, highlighting the surrounding area of ​​the monument, as well as the visit routes to the archeological site. The studies are a specialization of the approved architectural study of the Casta Tomb (December 2019).

The construction of the outer shell of the monument aims at:

• The permanent protection of this place, in which the porch and the roof are not saved, because of humidity and external weather conditions, as its walls have sensitive coatings and colors. For similar reasons, the Sphinx sculptures must be protected.

• The contribution to ensure stable temperature and humidity conditions, with the additional installation of electromechanical installation for the entire burial monument, including lighting and the possibility of air conditioning.

The shell was designed to refer to the geometry and dimensions of the ancient portico, without copying it, with completely abstract architectural features. The goal is its harmonious presence in the space in relation to the monumental ensemble, while serving functional needs, such as accessibility and viewing by the visitor.

The accessibility of the project to the disabled is also ensured, with a route from the entrance of the archeological site to the entrance of the burial monument. There will be a special mechanism for a small elevator, in contact with the external metal ladder.

Inside the monument, raised access floors are formed with steps, which lead to the glass floor, which will cover the pebbles of Area 1, while in Area 2, a perimeter corridor with glass floor will be constructed for the view of the Caryatids and the of the third room, where the mosaic of the "Persephone' s Abduction" is located.

The studies were divised by Michalis Lefantzis, Dr. Architectural Engineer of the Ministry of Culture, Head of Archaeological Works and Studies in the Ephorate of Antiquities of Athens and researcher / supervisor of the restoration work of the monument and member of the excavation team of the mound.

Kasta Tomb

The Kasta Tomb (Greek: Τύμβος Καστά), also known as the Amphipolis Tomb (Greek: Τάφος της Αμφίπολης), is an ancient Macedonian tomb that was discovered inside the Kasta mound (or tumulus) near Amphipolis, Central Macedonia, in northern Greece in 2012 and first entered in August 2014. The first excavations at the mound in 1964 led to exposure of the perimeter wall, and further excavations in the 1970s uncovered many other ancient remains.

The recently discovered tomb is dated to the last quarter of the 4th century BC. The tumulus is the largest ever discovered in Greece and by comparison dwarfs that of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, in Vergina. The excavation team, based on findings unearthed at the site, argued that the tomb was a memorial dedicated to the dearest friend of Alexander the Great, Hephaestion.

The Lion of Amphipolis, Greece : Discovery and Restoration

The Lion of Amphipolis (Greek: Λέων της Αμφίπολης) is a 4th-century BC tomb sculpture in Amphipolis, Macedonia, northern Greece. According to Oscar Broneer and archaeologist Dimitris Lazaridis, the first person excavating in the area in the 1960s, it was set up in honor of Laomedon of Mytilene, an important general of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon.

The finding of the monument is connected to the modern history of Macedonia in Greece, as the first parts of it were found initially by Greek soldiers during the First Balkan War that had camped in the area during 1912–13. They were followed by British soldiers a few years later in 1916, during World War I, who also discovered significantly large parts of the monument. The British tried to steal the pieces, but a Bulgarian attack prevented their plans.

In the early 1930s, during works for drying part of the Lake Kerkini nearby, there was a discovery of an ancient bridge and close to it within the mud of the river further, very large pieces of the marble lion. In 1937, and thanks to Lincoln MacVeagh, the US ambassador in Greece at the time, there was a private initiative along with support and funds from the Greek government to restore the Lion of Amphipolis, which eventually came to be in its current form. The whole process has been documented thoroughly by Oscar Broneer in his book The Lion of Amphipolis published in 1941.

Although in seated position, the lion is larger and bulkier than the one erected at Chaeronea and has a height of more than 4 meters in its main body. Taking into account the base, it is taller than 8 meters. The head has a width of 2 meters. Its craftsmanship shows a work of the 5th or first half of 4th century B.C. As to when it was erected, there is no agreement between experts as there is no mention of it in ancient sources.

There was recent speculation that the lion used to be on top of the Kasta Tomb. but this theory has now been discounted.

Kasta Tomb

The Kasta Tomb (Greek: Τύμβος Καστά), also known as the Amphipolis Tomb (Greek: Τάφος της Αμφίπολης), is an ancient Macedonian tomb that was discovered inside the Kasta mound (or tumulus) near Amphipolis, Central Macedonia, in northern Greece in 2012 and first entered in August 2014. The first excavations at the mound in 1964 led to exposure of the perimeter wall, and further excavations in the 1970s uncovered many other ancient remains.

Kasta tumulus – view from Amphipolis

The recently discovered tomb is dated to the last quarter of the 4th century BC. The tumulus is the largest ever discovered in Greece and by comparison dwarfs that of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, in Vergina. The excavation team, based on findings unearthed at the site, argued that the tomb was a memorial dedicated to the dearest friend of Alexander the Great, Hephaestion.

Kasta tumulus and Amphipolis location map.

Archaeologists Completed the Restoration Of Ancient Laodiceia's Theatre

Restoration works on the 2,200-year-old theatre in the ancient city of Laodiceia, located in southwestern Turkey, have been completed.

Professor Celal Simsek of the University of Pamukkale (ancient Hierapolis) and his archeological team have been working in ancient Laodiceia since 2003, managing to complete the restoration of the ancient theater (with capacity over 15,000 seats) within 15 years!

Noting that the team applied the restoration techniques of international criteria, he said, "This is the most extensive project whose restoration has been completed in such a short time."

A general view from the restoration of the theatre in the ancient city of Laodikea, Denizli,
western Turkey [Credit: Anadolou Agency]

Simsek added that 10 academics, a specialist architect, 12 archaeologists, four restoring personnel and 20 workers participated in the faithful project, managing to carry out the work thanks to the contributions by the South Aegean Development Agency and the metropolitan municipality of Denizli.

‘Laodicea’ on the Lycus

Laodicea on the Lycus (Greek: Λαοδίκεια πρὸς τοῦ Λύκου Laodikia pros tou Lykou; Latin: Laodicea ad Lycum, also transliterated as Laodiceia or Laodikeia) (modern Turkish: Laodikeia) was an ancient city built on the river Lycus (Çürüksu). It was located in the Hellenistic regions of Caria and Lydia, which later became the Roman Province of Phrygia Pacatiana. It is now situated near the modern city of Denizli, Turkey. In 2013 the archaeological site was inscribed in the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in Turkey.

It contained one of the Seven churches of Asia mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

The Cyclical Retaliatory Burnings Between Greeks and Persians: The Destruction of Athens and Persepolis

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By Dimosthenis Vasiloudis

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Following Persia's conquest of the cities of Ionia (on the Aegean coast of Minor Asia) around 540 BC, the Persian satrap in Sardis appointed local tyrants to control the region. That marked the start of a two-century-long chain of incidents and war retaliations between the Greeks and Persians.

One of the most pivotal chapters in the annals of ancient world history was the ongoing conflict between the Persian Empire and the city-states of ancient Greece, notably Athens. This animosity culminated in a series of wars known as the Persian Wars (499–449 BC), which left a lasting imprint on the societies of both cultures. Central to this narrative are the notorious retaliatory burnings: the destruction of Athens by the Persians and the subsequent destruction of Persepolis by the Greeks. These events shaped the course of ancient history and have become emblematic of the cyclical nature of retribution and vengeance in war.

In an effort to strengthen his authority, the tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, joined forces with the Persian satrap Artaphernes and launched an expedition to seize the Greek island of Naxos in 499 BC.

The mission was a failure, and Aristagoras decided to urge the entire Ionian region to rebel against the Persian king Darius the Great as he sensed his impending ouster as dictator.

The insurrection of Miletus was started by Aristagoras, who made the desperate decision to urge his own people, the Milesians, to rebel against their Persian overlords.

This marked the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which lasted from 499 BC to 493 BC and was followed by related uprisings in Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus, and Caria. These were uprisings by various Greek provinces in Asia Minor against Persian control.

The revolt was sparked by two Milesian tyrants, Histiaeus and Aristagoras, as well as the discontent of the Greek cities of Asia Minor with the tyrants assigned by Persia to rule them.

The Greco-Persian Wars began with the Ionian Rebellion, which was the first significant battle between Greece and the Persian Empire.

Location and main events of the Ionian Revolt.

The Ionians advanced in 498 BC with help from Athens' and Eretria's military forces. Aristagoras designated his brother Charopinus and another Milesian, Hermophantus, as generals instead of taking personal command of the army.

The Ephesians then led this force through the mountains to Artaphernes' satrapal city of Sardis. The Greeks managed to seize the lower city by surprising the Persians.

Nonetheless, Artaphernes maintained control of the citadel with a sizeable male force. Herodotus claims that a fire unintentionally started in the lower city and swiftly spread.

Being encircled by a burning city, the Persians in the citadel made their way out into Sardis' market, where they engaged the Greeks in combat and drove them back. Demoralized, the Greeks withdrew from the city and started to travel back to Ephesus.

The burning of Sardis by the Greeks during the Ionian Revolt in 498 BC.

According to Herodotus, when Darius learned about the burning of Sardis, he vowed to exact revenge on the Athenians (after enquiring as to who they were) and assigned a servant to remind him of his word three times every day: "Master, remember the Athenians."

The insurrection was finally put an end to by the Persian counteroffensive (497–495 BC), which brought all of Asia Minor securely back under Persian authority. At the end of 493 BC, the Persians' only remaining task was to wreak retribution on Athens and Eretria for aiding the uprising.

The nations of mainland Greece would continue to pose a serious danger to the integrity of Darius' empire until something was done about the Ionian Rebellion. So Darius started to plan the total conquest of Greece, starting with the obliteration of Athens and Eretria.

Achaemenid destruction of Athens

With Xerxes I's victory at the Battle of Thermopylae, the Achaemenid Army conquered all of Boeotia in 480 BCE. Thespiae and Plataea, the two cities that had resisted Xerxes, were taken captive and destroyed.

The Capture of the Acropolis by the Persians, Abbott, Jacob, 1803-1879 - History of Xerxes, published 1900.

The remaining Athenians were then evacuated to Salamis with the aid of the Allied navy because Attica was also vulnerable to attack. By erecting a wall, destroying the causeway from Megara, and establishing a defensive line across the Isthmus of Corinth, the Peloponnesian Allies effectively abandoned Athens to the Persians.

Sept. 480 BCE marked the first time Athens had fallen. After finally defeating the few Athenians who had fortified the Acropolis, Xerxes gave the order to set Athens on fire. The Old Parthenon and the Old Temple of Athena were destroyed, along with the Acropolis.

Those Persians who had come up first betook themselves to the gates, which they opened, and slew the suppliants; and when they had laid all the Athenians low, they plundered the temple and burnt the whole of the acropolis.

— Herodotus VIII.53

"Perserschutt," or "Persian rubble," refers to the numerous statue ruins destroyed by the Achaemenids.

The Achaemenids severely destroyed the statue known as "Nike (Victory) of Callimachus," which had been built close to the Older Parthenon in celebration of Callimachus and his triumph at the Battle of Marathon.

On top of an engraved column, a statue of Nike (Victory) in the shape of a female with wings is shown. It is 4.68 meters tall and constructed of Parian marble. Parts of the statue's body and hands, as well as its head, were never found.

A few statues were also taken by Xerxes, including the bronze statue of Harmodius and Haristogiton, popularly known as "the Tyrant-slayers," which Alexander the Great later found in the Achaemenid city of Susa.

Acropolis excavation pit where remains of Archaic statues were found, northwest of the Erechtheum.

Statue of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, Naples. Roman copy of the Athenian version by Kritios and Nesiotes

Themistocles used the Parthenon column drums for the North Acropolis wall so that Athenians would always be reminded of the agony caused by Persian atrocities against Greeks.

Acropolis North wall Older Partenon columns

Foundations of the Old Temple of Athena, in front of the Erechtheion, that was destroyed by the armies of Xerxes I in 480-479 BC.

Retaliatory burning of the Palace of Persepolis

After defeating the Persian Emperor Darius III (r. 336-330 BCE) at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BCE, Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) seized control of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great lifting Thais holding a torch, in the painting "The Burning of Persepolis" (L'incendie de Persepolis), by Georges Rochegrosse, 1890.

Following a drinking party and at the suggestion of Thais, an Athens-based hetaira (courtesan), Alexander marched to the Persian capital city of Persepolis after defeating Darius III. He looted the city's treasures and then burned the great palace and the surrounding city to the ground (according to several much later Greek and Roman accounts, including those of Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus Siculus, and Quintus Curtius Rufus).

When the king [Alexander] had caught fire at their words, all leaped up from their couches and passed the word along to form a victory procession in honour of Dionysus. Promptly many torches were gathered. Female musicians were present at the banquet, so the king led them all out for the comus to the sound of voices and flutes and pipes, Thaïs the courtesan leading the whole performance. She was the first, after the king, to hurl her blazing torch into the palace. As the others all did the same, immediately the entire palace area was consumed, so great was the conflagration. It was remarkable that the impious act of Xerxes, king of the Persians, against the acropolis at Athens should have been repaid in kind after many years by one woman, a citizen of the land which had suffered it, and in sport.

— Diodorus of Sicily (XVII.72)

The retaliatory burnings of Athens and Persepolis underscore the cyclical and devastating nature of warfare, where one act of destruction often leads to another. These events not only influenced the course of ancient history but also served as poignant reminders of the destructive capabilities of war and the enduring human instinct for retaliation. The ruins of the Acropolis and Persepolis, meticulously preserved, stand today as a testament to these monumental episodes of history, signifying the resilience of human societies in the face of conflict and devastation.

A two-millennia-old Coin Image of a Greek King end up being used on a Modern Afghan Banknote

Afghanistan’s Central Bank uses a coin of the Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides I as its seal and on their banknotes!

Let’s go back through Afghan and Greek history and find out how the modern Afghan notes use an image from a Greek hellenistic coin which was used in antiquity.

This is the seal of Da Afghanistan Bank, the central bank of Afghanistan established in 1939 (1318 in the Iranian/Afghan solar calendar). But alongside the name of the bank in Pashto, in Arabic script at the top and Latin script at the bottom, there’s a text in Ancient Greek, ‘ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ’, “Of the great king Eucratides.”

Eucratides was a Greek king of Bactria (roughly northern Afghanistan) in the second century BC (rough dates 170-145BC). What’s represented in the centre of the seal is in fact one of his coins, a silver tetradrachm of Eucratides with the same design.

The idea was to use the coin image as a way to signal improvement in Afghan image. The establishment of an Afghan central bank was part of a bigger project to modernize Afghanistan under the Musahibun regime of Zahir Shah (king of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973). Taking as its models European nations and “advanced” Islamic countries like Iran and Turkey, Afghanistan was giving itself the institutions of a developed state. Responding to the wave of nationalism in the world of the 1930s, in the words of Robert D. Crews in his excellent book Afghan Modern, “Afghans faced the test of demonstrating their right to belong in this world of nation states by articulating a national language, culture and past” (p.156). This could take the form of national financial institutions, and also of discriminatory policies against non-Muslims, especially Jews (dangerous notions of Aryan ancestry were also in the air). But a 2,000-year-old coin image, too, contradictory as it may seem, could symbolize progress in thirties Afghanistan.

The explanation of this lies in the archaeological work undertaken in Afghanistan in the previous two decades. Archaeology had properly begun in Afghanistan with the agreement between King Amanullah (another modernizer) and the French government in 1922 to establish the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA). By the late thirties, as Nile Green explains (“The Afghan discovery of Buddha: civilizational history and the nationalizing of Afghan antiquity,” International Journal of Middle  Eastern Studies 49 (2017), 47-70), the discoveries of French archaeologists at such sites as Begram and Hadda (of which the publications began to appear in numbers in the mid-thirties) were starting to secure the interest of the Afghan leadership. The National Museum of Afghanistan, which moved into its new premises in the administrative district of Darulaman in Kabul in 1931, was being turned, mainly by these French discoveries, into one of the richest collections in the world. In 1937, according to the French chargé d’affaires, “The excavations at Begram have been visited by several ministers … the king himself visited the exhibition mounted at the Kabul museum.”

We need to appreciate what a dramatic change this represented in Afghan attitudes to their past, an emphasis on pre-Islamic cultures, Buddhist as well as Greek, which superseded and sidelined Afghanistan’s Islamic heritage, hitherto the focus of Afghan historiography and national identity. This new emphasis was facilitated by the activities of DAFA, but it also represented Afghanistan’s attempt to align its own historical identity with what Green calls the “civilizational norms” of the developed world that it aspired to join. By highlighting its Greek heritage, Afghanistan could claim a share of the classical origins of Europe and the West. A state-owned bank represented civilization and modernity in the 1930s, but so did a coin with Greek writing on it.

Green’s article focuses on a key personality in these cultural developments, Ahmad Ali Kuhzad, an Afghan archaeologist who had worked with DAFA and subsequently in a series of Persian publications communicated the insights gained by the French into ancient Afghan history to the Afghan elite and beyond.

So that’s how Eucratides made it onto the seal of the State Bank, and it tells us a lot about Afghan aspirations in the 1930s.

1,800-year-old headless Greek Statue found at Turkey’s Metropolis site

In the ancient Greek classical city of Metropolis, located in western Turkey, archaeologists have unearthed an 1,800-year-old marble robed statue of a headless woman. 

Despite missing its head and both arms, the rest of the statue is well-preserved and depicts a woman wearing flowing draped clothing.

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Department of Excavation and Celal Bayar University have been jointly studying the ancient city for years.

Known as the “Mother Goddess City,” Metropolis was located 28 miles from the ancient port city of Ephesus and 25 miles from the modern Turkish city of Izmir.

To date, archaeologists working at the site have unearthed artifacts and structures from the classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Finds include a Roman palaestra (wrestling hall), mosaics, ceramics, a council building and a columned gallery.

Metropolis was built in the third century BC, when the region was under the control of the Seleucid Empire. It reached its golden age during the Hellenistic period and served as a center of religious power during the Byzantine Period.

Excavations at Metropolis have been ongoing since 1990, according to the Sabanci Foundation, a philanthropic group that has supported the work.

One of the most prominent features of the ancient city is a Hellenistic theater dated to the third century BC. Roman-era structures discovered during digs include a sports complex, homes, shops, baths, a public toilet, streets and roads.

Earlier this year, archaeologists working at the Metropolis site also announced the discovery of huge cisterns dated to the late Roman or early Byzantine period (around 284 to 750 AD).

Capable of holding a total of around 600 tons of water, the cisterns probably supplied water to a bathhouse in the city and met Metropolis’ overall need for water when it was subjected to sieges that made other sources unavailable.

Many of these finds are now on display at the Izmir Art and History Museum, Izmir Archaeology Museum and Selcuk Efes Museum.

Source: Smithsonian Magazine.

Pottery Shard May Show Missing Link to First Written Alphabet

By Patricia Claus

Early writing found on a 3,500-year-old pottery shard in Israel may represent the “missing link” in the development of the first alphabet, according to researchers who published their findings recently in Smithsonian magazine.

The inscription, which has been under study since it was first unearthed in 2018, makes researchers think that it means that a standardized script — essential in any true alphabet — arrived in Canaan earlier than previously thought.

The letters used resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs – but they are not true hieroglyphs.

The letters are now believed to be the very oldest writing ever recorded in the ancient land of Israel, forming the basis of writing systems that developed later in time.

Pottery shard showing early alphabetic language, found at Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

A report from the Jerusalem Post states that archaeologists unearthed the fragment as part of excavations that were undertaken at Tel Lachish in south-central Israel in 2018. The Tel Lachish archaeological site was once home to a large Canaanite city.

They were able to date the pottery shard using radiocarbon dating of grains of barley found alongside it, pinpointing its origin back to 1450 B.C., when the area was a center of Canaanite society. The archaeologists published their findings in the journal Antiquity.

Only six letters on two lines, the writing was inscribed millennia ago on the soft surface of a clay pot. Haggai Misgav, an epigraphist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was a co-author of the study, told interviewers from Haaretz, she believes that the first three letters spell out the word “ebed,” meaning “slave” or “servant.”

Oddly, the inscription was most likely part of a person’s name. According to archaeologists, a popular naming convention in ancient times combined “servant” with the name of a local god to show  the person’s devotion to that deity.

The second line on the shard is believed to be the word “nophet,” meaning “nectar” or “honey.”

Tel Lachish front gate in Israel. Tel Lachish may be the area where the first written alphabet may have developed. Credit: Wilson44691 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Missing link may connect Egyptian alphabetic inscriptions to later Canaanite writing

Because the text is short and incomplete, researchers have not yet definitively determined what the inscription says for certain. At this time it is also unknown whether the writing was meant to be read from left to right or right to left.

The researchers believe that the script represents a “missing link” connecting alphabetic inscriptions already discovered in Egypt and the Sinai peninsula with later writing originating from Canaan.

The writing uses an early version of the alphabet in which letters resemble the Egyptian hieroglyphs from which they evolved.

The new discovery appears to disprove a previous hypothesis which held that the alphabet only came to Canaan after Egypt came to rule the area.

Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Lead author Felix Höflmayer, an archaeologist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, told interviewers from the Jerusalem Post “In the Late Bronze Age, between 1550 and 1200 B.C., the region was under the Egyptian empire.

“The Egyptians imposed their administrative system and their own writing and many experts thought that the early alphabet might have been introduced in this context; but now we can see that it was already in use at least by the 15th century B.C., when there was not such a large-scale Egyptian domination.”

Because of its abundant water sources and fertile earth, early Canaanites flocked to the Tel Lachish area and a large city flourished there for much of ancient history, according to information from the Jewish Virtual Library.

The Canaanites established a fortified citadel there in approximately 2000 B.C. After a fire destroyed the city sometime around the end of the 12th century B.C., the area was rebuilt as an Israelite fortress-city which was part of the Kingdom of Judah.

Unfortunately, Tel Lachish was destroyed once again in an Assyrian attack in the year 701 B.C. Well-known to have been an important site since time immemorial, archaeologists have been digging there since the 1930s.

Benjamin Sass, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University who was not involved in the excavation and subsequent study of the shard, told interviewers that dating the barley discovered alongside the pottery fragment may not have pointed to an accurate date for the inscription itself, since the grain might have been harvested after the vessel was created.

“The data published so far makes (the team’s timeline) a possibility, but by no means a certainty,” he notes in an article in Live Science. 

Researchers already know for certain that the writing used by Canaanites eventually split into the alphabet that ancient Israelites employed to write the Hebrew Bible and another version of an alphabet used by Phoenicians.

After the collapse of the Bronze Age, around 1200 BC, alphabetic writing advanced and developed further, since the major powers around the Mediterranean collapsed, spurring small city-states to use their own, local languages more and more.

According to Lydia Wilson, who had written on the development of early languages in an earlier article in Smithsonian, variations of the alphabet that was used in Canaan therefore spread from what is now Turkey all the way to Spain — eventually going birth to the Latin alphabet used in western languages today.

Höflmayer told the Jerusalem Post “All alphabets have somewhat evolved from hieroglyphs, the Phoenician one, the Hebrew one, the Greek one, the Latin one and so on.

“Now we know that the alphabet was not brought to the Levant by Egyptian rule. Although we cannot really explain yet how it happened, we can say that it was much earlier and under different social circumstances.”

English Dictionary of Ancient Greek ‘spares no blushes’ with fresh look at crudity

Victorian attempts to veil the meanings of crude ancient Greek words are set to be brushed away by a new dictionary 23 years in the making. It is the first to take a fresh look at the language in almost 200 years and promises to “spare no blushes” for today’s classics students.

The late scholar John Chadwick first came up with the idea to update HG Liddell and Robert Scott’s 1889 dictionary, the Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, in 1997. An abridged version of a lexicon published in 1843, the Liddell and Scott had never been revised, and is packed with antiquated terms and modestly Victorian translations of the more colourful ancient Greek words. Despite this, it remains the most commonly used reference work for students in English schools and universities.

It was initially thought that Chadwick’s project would take five years, but Cambridge professor James Diggle, who was then chair of the advisory committee, said it soon became clear that the Intermediate Lexicon was “too antiquated in concept, design and content”, and the team would need to start afresh.

Diggle and his fellow editors then set out on the “Herculean task” of rereading most examples of ancient Greek literature, from Homer to the early second century AD. They then worked through the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet to create a modern guide for today’s students to the meanings of ancient Greek words and their development through the years. The lexicon is the first to be based on an entirely new reading of the Greek texts since 1843.

“At the outset of the project I undertook to read everything which the editors wrote. I soon realised that if we were ever to finish I had better start to write entries myself,” said Diggle.

“The moment of greatest relief and joy was when I was able to sign off the final proofs and say to the publisher, ‘It’s finished. You can print it.’ You can’t imagine what it was like, to realise that we had finally got there. I literally wept with joy.”

The completed Cambridge Greek Lexicon, which is being published by Cambridge University Press, runs to two volumes and features around 37,000 Greek words, drawn from 90 authors and set out across 1,500 pages.

The new dictionary’s editors “spare no blushes”, Diggle said, when it comes to the words that “brought a blush to Victorian cheeks”. The verb χέζω (chezo), translated by Liddell and Scott as “ease oneself, do one’s need”, is defined in the new dictionary as “to defecate” and translated as “to shit”; βινέω (bineo) is no longer “inire, coire, of illicit intercourse”, but “fuck”; λαικάζω (laikazo), in the 19th-century dictionary translated as “to wench”, is now defined as “perform fellatio” and translated as “suck cocks”.

Antiquated and offensive language also gets a makeover. While Liddell and Scott defined βλαύτη (blaute) as “a kind of slipper worn by fops”, in the Cambridge Greek Lexicon it is described as “a kind of simple footwear, slipper”; κροκωτός (krokotos) is no longer defined as “a saffron-coloured robe worn by gay women”, but as a “saffron gown (worn by women)”.

“Liddell and Scott could have claimed, in the words of Edward Gibbon, ‘My English is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the obscurity of a learned language,’” Diggle said. “We use contemporary English.”

The Cambridge Greek Lexicon also begins each entry with the rootmeaning of a word, a fundamentally different approach to the 19th-century lexicon, which started entries with a word’s earliest appearance in literature. “Take a word like πόλις, which will be familiar to many in its English form ‘polis’,” said Diggle. “Our article shows the variety of senses which the word can have: in its earliest usage ‘citadel, acropolis’; then, more generally, ‘city, town’ and also ‘territory, land’; and, more specifically, in the classical period, ‘city as a political entity, city-state’; also, with reference to the occupants of a city, ‘community, citizen body’.”

Professor Robin Osborne, chair of Cambridge’s classics faculty, said the department invested in the new lexicon in order to “make a contribution to the teaching of Greek over the next century”.

“This puts into the hands of students a resource that will enable them access to ancient Greek more securely and easily,” said Osborne. “It is hugely important that we continue to engage with the literature of ancient Greece, not as texts frozen in a past world, but which engage with the world in which we live.”

The Lexicon’s publisher at Cambridge University Press, Michael Sharp, said it was “one of the most important classics books we have ever published”, and “a milestone in the history of classics”.

Diggle, however, said he had no plans for further lexicographical ventures. “No, no, no, no, no,” he said. “I finished it with an enormous sense of relief and joy – for the last 15 years of it I did nothing else, it really dominated my life.”

Source: The Guardian

Greece’s First Underwater Museum Opens in Alonissos Island!

Greece’s first underwater archeological museum opens in August at the site of an ancient shipwreck off the uninhabited islet of Peristera, near Alonissos island.

Only a few weeks separate us from the moment when thousands of divers from Greece and all over the world will be able to dive in the first underwater museum in Greece, in Alonissos.

From June 1, amateur scuba divers and free divers will be able to visit, accompanied by diving centers, the famous shipwreck of amphorae of the 5th c. BC at the bottom of the islet of Peristera in Alonissos.

A fisherman was the first to see the ancient shipwreck in 1985 near the west rocky shore of Peristera, at a depth of 28 meters: a large merchant ship, probably Athenian, sank there around 425 BC. It was loaded with thousands of wine amphorae from Mendi (ancient city of Halkidiki) and Peparithos (today's Skopelos island), areas known in antiquity for their wine. The pile of amphorae, which extends to the bottom to a length of 25 meters, gives the feeling of the contour and the large dimensions of the ship. The shipwreck is one of the most important of classical antiquity. The excavation was carried out by the archaeologists and the staff of the Ephorate of Marine Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture, who today take care of the opening of the wreck to the public.

The impressive number of amphorae, the excellent condition of the wreck at -21 to -28 meters and the beauty of the exotic waters and the rich seabed of the area, located within the protected area of ​​the National Marine Park of Alonissos-Northern Sporades, make the ancient shipwreck of Peristera a destination that interests every experienced diver.

The first Underwater Museum in Alonissos in a few days will be a fact and awaits us all to share its secrets either on the enchanting seabed or above the water, with the help of virtual reality! Have a good dive!

Athens: Maintenance Works are in Progress in the Temple of Olympian Zeus

In December 2023, one of the columns of the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens will be completed, specifically the one that faces very serious problems, such that if no immediate intervention was made, the risk of significant damage was visible.

The column has been in a construction armature for days, as the other nine, who face fewer problems but also need immediate intervention. The restoration of these, along with the capitals and their entablatures of course should have proceeded by the same date, which marks the end of this programming period, as the project had been included in the Regional Operational Program since 2018.

However, the disembarkation of the entablatures and the clearer diagnosis of their condition will judge the course of the restoration work in the next programming period, as Greek Minister of Culture said, who carried out an autopsy on the monument.

"This is one of the largest architecture monuments, whose history goes back to the time of Peisistratos in the 6th century BC. to reach the years of Hadrian, the Roman emperor of the 2nd century AD. It is one of the largest monuments in the Mediterranean area, which presents serious problems", says Mrs. Mendoni. It should also be noted that these are important large-scale maintenance projects, carried out for the first time at the monument, which has been diagnosed with chronic problems of structural stability and deterioration of the wear of its material.

The project includes structural restoration work, maintenance work, limited excavation cleansings and earthworks, geotechnical study, seismic behavior study, monitoring study, recording of scattered architectural members, as well as control of mechanical strengths and analyzation of building materials. As part of the same program, archaeological research is being carried out in the area in front of the western precinct of the ancient sanctuary.

The financing cost of the project from the Operational Program "Attiki" 2014-2020 reaches the amount of 3.5 million euros. and as the governor of Attica George Patoulis, who was present at the autopsy, said, the Regional Administration will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Culture in the future.

Temple of Olympian Zeus is of Corinthian style, made of Pentelic marble and was one of the largest temples in the ancient world. It had two rows of 20 columns on the long sides and three rows of 8 columns on the narrow ones, 17 m high. It was constructed in the middle of a large rectangular enclosure with a propylon to the north. The nave housed two oversized ivory statues of Zeus and the emperor Hadrian that were worshiped there sharing the altar, while a number of statues and votive offerings adorned the courtyard.

Graphic Reconstruction of the Temple dedicated to Olympian Zeus.

 

British Museum Returns Looted Ancient Greek Statue to Libya

After a long legal battle, London’s British Museum returned last week a looted ancient Greek statue of the goddess Persephone to Libya which is estimated to be worth £1.5m ($2.1m).

British Museum finally returns looted ancient statue. Credit: Facebook/British Museum

According to a statement by the Libyan Foreign Ministry the recovery of Persephone statue took place at the headquarters of the Libyan Embassy in London, with a handover minute signed by the Libyan Acting Charge D’affairs and the spokesperson of the British Museum Peter Higgs.

The ancient Greek statue was taken from a world heritage site in Shahhat in 2012. The British Museum helped to identify and return the statue, as part of its efforts to combat illicit trade coming into the UK for potential sale, a spokesperson told Greek Reporter.

The piece was illegally excavated from a grave in the ruins of Cyrene, an important Hellenic city located in the north of what is now Libya, and then subsequently smuggled into the United Kingdom.

The four-foot marble relic is of a hooded woman believed to be a representation of the queen of the underworld, Persephone.

The statue dates from the third or fourth century BC, and Dr Peter Higgs, a curator of Greek sculpture at the British Museum, described it as “one of the best examples of its type and … extremely rare”.

A 2015 ruling ruled that the statue, which was in the possession of Jordanian national Riad al-Qassas, had been “misdeclared” on arrival to the UK as border officials believed it was worth £72,000 and originally Turkish.

The artefact was discovered in a west London warehouse by customs officials, before being handed to the British Museum as the court ruled on its ownership.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Cyrene was an important ancient Greek city

Cyrene, the ancient Greek and later Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya, was the oldest and most important of all five Greek cities in the region.

It gave eastern Libya the classical name of Cyrenaica that it has retained into modern times. Located nearby is the ancient Necropolis of Cyrene.

More than two thousand years ago, a group of Greeks from the island of Thira (also known as Santorini) headed south, searching for a new place to live. Their journey ended in the northern part of Africa, in modern-day Libya.

These Greek settlers established a new city, calling it Cyrene, which became prosperous and had trade ties with every Greek city in what is now the modern Greek mainland and islands.

It was one of the principal cities in the ancient Greek world, with its temples, tombs, agora, gymnasium and Cyrene Amphitheatre all thought to be inspired by the historic structures at Delphi.

The city became a Republic in 460 BC, following the political tradition that Athens had established.

Cyrene contributed to the intellectual life of the ancient Greek world through its renowned philosophers and mathematicians.

Cyrene’s ruins remain there as a reminder of the region’s rich past, which was shaped by Greeks and Romans alike.

Included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982, Cyrene today ranks among the List’s most neglected and endangered sites in the Mediterranean Basin, due to improper restoration and extensive looting of its Greek artifacts.

By Tasos Kokkinidis, Greek Reporter

Villa Kérylos: A Greek Classically Inspired House in French Riviera

Villa Kerylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, is a house in Ancient Greek Revival style built in the early 1900s by French archaeologist Theodore Reinach. It has been listed since 1966 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. A Greek word, kerylos means halcyon or kingfisher, which in Greek mythology was considered a bird of good omen.

The French archaeologist and statesman Théodore Reinach spent his family’s banking inheritance to live in exotic magnificence. In the early 1900s, he commissioned a house on a French Riviera peninsula with rooms frescoed in sea creatures and mosaicked with deities — all based on ancient buildings that he had documented on Delos island in Greece.

Mr. Reinach in 1913. He died in 1928.(Agence Meurisse/Bibliothèque nationale de France)

He commissioned Emmanuel Pontremoli, a French Architect and Archaeologist to foresee the building works. The project started in 1906 and took six years to complete. It then became their family home until 1967.

Quietly poised in the Southern Mediterranean town of Beaulieu Sur Mer lies his Greek style Villa Kérylos. The white and brick red shuttered villa is nestled in one of the prettiest areas in the south of France; directly on the tip of the Baie des Fourmis overlooking the Mediterranean sea. 

The entrance to the villa is right at the tip of the ocean. Reinach chose this coastal spot as it echoed the style of Greek temple locations. He also welcomes us eternally with the entrance floor inscription in ancient Greek ‘ΧΑΊΡΕ’ (chaíre, “hello; goodbye”, literally: "rejoice, be glad").

Surrounded by a pretty, formal garden and the water’s edge the property stands on three floors. From the basement of the building when it was a family home, there was access to a mooring and swimming directly in the sea.  Some areas are closed off and restricted due to the villa being listed, becoming a Museum in 1966 and a historical monument by the French Ministry of Culture. There is the opportunity to buy gifts and information in the entrance to the villa, and it probably takes an hour to walk around. 

The ground floor area of the house styled around an open peristyle courtyard which brought to life films I have watched that are now popular representing the Roman Empire and the dramas that belong to that period. It would make a fantastic film location. However,  it is now only open to the public with no opportunities for private parties or filming. 

The Greeks loved bathing, and this has defiantly not been overlooked, with sauna-like bathrooms and walk-in showers. It has the feel of a modern day spa, but even better. The first room is, in fact, a spa with a huge sunken bath adorned with grey and white marble languishing a golden-lit dressing area suggesting warmth and comfort. The features are unique; in another bathroom area, brass taps are opening to the mouths of lions with matching soap saucers and a plunging marble bath supported by the lion’s feet.

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Candles would have lit many of the rooms and together with their effects and the art adorning the walls it would have accelerated an atmosphere of sheer indulgence and luxury. The walls and floors mirror their beliefs with classical Greek motifs representing stories of the gods and mythical animals. This all adds to the fantasy world of the Classical period and creates an illusion of more space. 

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The attention to detail is just stunning. Nothing is overlooked; from the pretty tiled floors running throughout the villa to the star decorated ceiling. The ancient Greeks were fascinated by astrology,  reflected in their use of patterns and colour. The walls are delicately embellished with gardens of ancient olive trees and birds. The name Kerylos means Halcyon or kingfisher which in Greek mythology refers to a bird of good omen. 

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The main room overlooking the sea is large with high ceilings, perfect for the summer climate; elegant and formal leads off from the inner courtyard, the heart of the villa. 

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Some of the tapestries are still decorating the bedroom walls, and the embroidered original curtains remain intact. The Greeks were also inspired most of all by nature, and this too is echoed in the wall hangings and contrasted by the symmetrical design. 

The views throughout the villa are spectacular, and even on a cold, miserable day, there would be the inspiration. The first floor of the house is light and breezy with all the bedrooms adorned with frescoes representing heroic and imaginative stories.

It may have been cold in winter with no double glazing and all the marble but underfloor heating was incorporated, and with the Mediterranean climate this house would have been a palace and paradise home.  

by Kay Hare

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Egypt: The Colonnade Entrance Of Djoser Complex that Looks Like a Greek Dorian Temple!

There are many theories as to the origins of the Doric order in temples. One belief is that the Doric was inspired by the architecture of Egypt. With the Greeks being present in Ancient Egypt as soon the 7th-century BC, it is possible that Greek traders were inspired by the structures they saw in what they would consider foreign land.

Left: The Colonnade Entrance Of Djoser Complex in Saqqara, Egypt Right: Temple Of Apollo In Ancient Corinth, Greece

The funerary complex of Djoser (Zoser) is believed to have been built around the beginning of the 3rd Dynasty. It is a walled compound that is constructed from stone rather than the mud brick that was used before this time. The stones that are used are different from the huge stones used in the pyramids at Giza, in that they are small in size. Imhotep was the architect of this revolutionary wonder. He was later worshipped as a god for the remarkable craftsmanship in the complex. Imhotep translated into stone the early Egyptian architecture of mud-brick, wood and reeds. This is seen in many of the monuments that are in the complex.
The entire complex was once surrounded by an enclosure wall, that when complete, was about 600 yards (549m) long and 300 yards (274m) wide and rose to over 30 feet (9.1m). The wall is made of brick-size stones and is very impressive in its own right. Just the size alone would have made the wall an incredible project, but that is not the only thing impressive about this enclosure wall.

Funerary Complex of Djoser

The single entrance to the enclosure is the southernmost doorway on the eastern side of the wall (the only one of the 15 doorways which is not a false door) and leads to the entrance colonnade. 20 pairs of engaged columns, resembling bundles of reeds or palm ribs line the corridor. Between the columns are 24 small chambers, thought perhaps to represent the nomes of Upper and Lower Egypt, which may once have contained statues of the King or deities.

The exit point from the Hypostyle Hall and Enclosed Portico. View looking East from the Great Court.

The roof of the entrance colonnade was constructed to represent whole tree trunks. This is one of the places where the challenging experiment of copying natural materials in stone is most evident. The columns were not yet trusted to support the roof without being attached to the side walls and the small size of the stone blocks used in the construction reflects the fact that previous structures were built from mudbricks.

At the end of the entrance hall two false stone doorleaves rest against the side walls of a transverse vestibule which has been reconstructed. Several statue fragments were found in the entrance colonnade but the most important was a statue base (now in Cairo Museum) inscribed with the Horus name and titles of Netjerikhet and also with the name of a High Priest of Heliopolis and royal architect, Imhotep.

The columns themselves are engaged columns, but unlike later examples where the column is next to a wall (known as pilasters), here the side wall projects out creating bays between each set of columns (often referred to as niches) and are on both the South and North sides of the center asile in both the East and West Hypostyle Halls. Above these bays in the East and West halls, near the roof are horizontally oriented clerestory openings. The columns are 'proud' of these projecting side walls allowing their circular shape to return and engage the geometry of the wall. The circular columns are carved to resemble papyrus bundles and were painted green to resemble the plant. The side walls themselves also taper to ensure that they do not overlap the decorative papyrus relief, but are placed in a common staggered stacking pattern as is the back wall of the bay. The side wall joints are very small and precise and the surface is relatively smooth.

The Greek Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns. Originating in the western Doric region of Greece, it is the earliest and, in its essence, the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above.

Three Greek Doric columns

The Greek Doric column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, dropping straight into the stylobate or platform on which the temple or other building stood. The capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained.

When the three orders are superposed, it is usual for the Doric to be at the bottom, with the Ionic and then the Corinthian above, and the Doric, as "strongest", is often used on the ground floor below another order in the storey above.

Two early Archaic Doric order Greek temples at Paestum (Italy) with much wider capitals than later

Origins of the Doric Order

There are many theories as to the origins of the Doric order in temples. The term Doric is believed to have originated from the Greek-speaking Dorian tribes. One belief is that the Doric order is the result of early wood prototypes of previous temples. With no hard proof and the sudden appearance of stone temples from one period after the other, this becomes mostly speculation. Another belief is that the Doric was inspired by the architecture of Egypt. With the Greeks being present in Ancient Egypt as soon the 7th-century BC, it is possible that Greek traders were inspired by the structures they saw in what they would consider foreign land.

Finally, another theory states that the inspiration for the Doric came from Mycenae. At the ruins of this civilization lies architecture very similar to the Doric order. It is also in Greece, which would make it very accessible.

A faithful reconstruction of the Djoser’s Complex Colonnade Entrance as it was during the Hellenistic Period. Screenshots from the Assassin's Creed game by Ubisoft, called Origins. By Nikolay Bonev.