Macedonia, Greece: Statue of the Imperial Period Unveiled in a Salvage Excavation in the City of Veroia

In the center of ancient, but also of modern Veria, in Macedonia, Greece, very close to the visitable archeological site of Agios Patapios, in a rescue excavation of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Imathia, in one of the few non-reconstructed plots of the city, an unexpected find came to light on Friday 17 December: a marble statue almost one meter (about 3/5 of the natural) that dates back to imperial period, when Veria, as the seat of the Macedonian Commonwealth and the official city of the imperial cult, was the first city of Macedonia, the center of political and cultural developments in the region and at the same time an axis of cohesion and a point of reference of the ancient Macedonian traditions.

With a chlamydia thrown around his left shoulder and wrapped around his arm, the naked young man with the athletic body emerges from the volume of the marble, recalling classic patterns, images of statues related to Apollo or Hermes. It is the work of a very skilled craftsman who, however, obviously never finished. For unknown reason, the sculptor, although he had advanced a lot in the elaboration of the main aspects, reaching an almost final stage, decided to abandon the effort unfinished.

This fact makes the small statue especially valuable for the study, not only of the style, but mainly of the production techniques of these works, exact copies or even more free repetitions of famous originals and helps us to approach the Veroia school of sculpture from a completely different point of view, which appears with particularly recognizable features already in the Hellenistic years and reaches its apogee at the time of the great prosperity of the city, when the Antoninians and the 'Philalexander' Severus reigned (2nd-beginning of the 3rd century AD).

The excavation on the plot continues.

The Roman imperial period is the expansion of political and cultural influence of the Roman Empire. The period begins with the reign of Augustus (r. 43 BC – AD 14), and it is taken to end variously between the late 3rd and the late 4th century, with the beginning of Late Antiquity. Despite the end of the "Roman imperial period", the Roman Empire continued to exist under the rule of the Roman emperors into Late Antiquity and beyond, except in the western empire, over which the Romans' political and military control was lost in the course of the 5th-century fall of the western Roman empire.

The 'Nile Mosaic of Palestrina': A Hellenistic Depiction of River Nile's Route to the Mediterranean

Among its extraordinary collection of regional archaeology, the National Archeological Museum in Palestrina preserves a magnificent piece that stands apart from the rest: an ancient mosaic depicting a vivid scene of the flooding river Nile.

The Nile mosaic of Palestrina is a late hellenistic floor mosaic depicting the Nile in its passage from the Blue Nile to the Mediterranean. The mosaic was part of a Classical sanctuary-grotto in Palestrina, a town east of Ancient Rome, in central Italy. It provides a glimpse into the Roman fascination with ancient Egyptian exoticism in the 1st century BC, both as an early manifestation of the role of Egypt in the Roman imagination and an example of the genre of "Nilotic landscape", with a long iconographic history in Egypt and the Aegean.

The mosaic, with an arch-headed framing that identifies its original location as flooring an apse in a grotto, features detailed depictions of Ptolemaic Greeks, Aethiopians in hunting scenes, priests performing rituals in their magnificent temples, and various animals of the Nile river. It is the earliest Roman depiction of Nilotic scenes, of which several more were uncovered at Pompeii. The figures are often labeled in Greek characters and the entire scene may represent a vivid map of the Nile as it flows from the highlands of Ethiopia to the delta in the Mediterranean Sea. A consensus on the dating of the work is slowly emerging. Paul G. P. Meyboom suggests a date shortly before the reign of Sulla (ca. 100 BC) and treats the mosaic as an early evidence for the spread of Egyptian cults in Italy, where Isis was syncretised with Fortuna. He believes Nilotic scenes were introduced in Rome by Demetrius the Topographer, a Greek artist from Ptolemaic Egypt active ca. 165 BC. Claire Préaux emphasises the "escapist" nature of the fantastic scenery.

The Nile Mosaic and its companion piece, the Fish Mosaic, were apparently still to be seen in the Italian city of Palestrina, ancient Praeneste, in the 15th century. When first noticed shortly before 1507 by Antonio Volsco, a humanist in the circle of Pomponio Leto, the mosaics were still in situ among the vestiges of Sulla's sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia. At that time the town was owned by the Colonna family of Rome, whose palazzo in Palestrina occupied a section of the ruins.

The mosaic may have been indicated in a well-known passage in Pliny's Natural History concerning mosaic floors in Italy:

Mosaics came into use as early as Sulla's régime. At all events there exists even today one made of very small tesserae which he installed in the temple of Fortune at Palestrina.

Volsco added that these were "arranged in the pattern of a picture". Maurizio Calvesi, in identifying Francesco Colonna as the author of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, identifies passages in Hypnerotomachia depending on Pliny that were enriched by direct experience of the mosaics themselves.

In the 17th century, Palestrina passed to the Barberini family, who between 1624 and 1626 removed most of the mosaic from its setting, without recording the overall composition, and, after further movements and damage, put it on exhibition in the Palazzo Barberini in Palestrina, where it remains. The mosaic was restored and repaired on numerous occasions, but careful watercolors of the sections were made for Cassiano dal Pozzo before the initial restoration in the opificio of St. Peter's.

Helen Whitehouse's rediscovery of the long-lost watercolors enabled a reconstruction of the surviving segments in a more meaningful way although much remains uncertain about the original composition. The mosaic has been a major feature of the Museo Nazionale Prenestino in Palazzo Barberini, Palestrina (not the one in Rome) since 1953.

Ptolemaic Egypt: Ancient Egypt Under Greek Rule

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was an Ancient Greek state based in Egypt during the Hellenistic Period. It was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and lasted until the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. Ruling for nearly three centuries, the Ptolemies were the longest and most recent Egyptian dynasty of ancient origin.

Alexander the Great conquered Persian-controlled Egypt in 332 BC during his campaigns against the Achaemenid Empire. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, his empire quickly unraveled amid competing claims by the diadochi, his closest friends and companions. Ptolemy, a Macedonian who was one of Alexander's most trusted generals and confidants, won control of Egypt from his rivals and declared himself pharaoh. Alexandria, a Greek polis founded by Alexander, became the capital city and a major center of Greek culture, learning, and trade for the next several centuries. Following the Syrian Wars with the Seleucid Empire, a rival Hellenistic state, the Ptolemaic Kingdom expanded its territory to include eastern Libya, the Sinai, and northern Nubia.

Plan of Alexnadria. Alexander's chief architect for the project was Dinocrates, who used the Hippodamian grid plan.

To legitimize their rule and gain recognition from native Egyptians, the Ptolemies adopted the title of the pharaoh and had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress; otherwise, the monarchy rigorously maintained its Hellenistic character and traditions. The kingdom had a complex government bureaucracy that exploited the country's vast economic resources to the benefit of a Greek ruling class, which dominated military, political, and economic affairs, and which rarely integrated into Egyptian society and culture. Native Egyptians maintained power over local and religious institutions, and only gradually accrued power in the bureaucracy, provided they Hellenized. Beginning with Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Ptolemies began to adopt Egyptian customs, such as marrying their siblings per the Osiris myth, and participating in Egyptian religious life. New temples were built, older ones restored, and royal patronage lavished on the priesthood.

Ptolemaic Royal Palace, Assassin's Creed Origins

The early Ptolemies were careful to maintain the distinction of its population's three largest ethnicities: Greek, Jewish, and Egyptian. At first, Egyptians were probably the plurality of residents, while the Jewish community remained small. Slavery, a normal institution in Greece, was likely present but details about its extent and about the identity of slaves are unknown. Alexandrian Greeks placed an emphasis on Hellenistic culture, in part to exclude and subjugate non-Greeks.

Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 60 meters (200 ft) wide, intersected in the centre of Alexandria

The law in Alexandria was based on Greek—especially Attic—law. There were two institutions in Alexandria devoted to the preservation and study of Greek culture, which helped to exclude non-Greeks. In literature, non-Greek texts entered the library only once they had been translated into Greek. Notably, there were few references to Egypt or native Egyptians in Alexandrian poetry; one of the few references to native Egyptians presents them as "muggers." There were ostentatious religious processions in the streets that displayed the wealth and power of the Ptolemies, but also celebrated and affirmed Greekness. These processions were used to shout Greek superiority over any non-Greeks that were watching, thereby widening the divide between cultures.

Library of Alexandria, Assassin's Creed Origins

From this division arose much of the later turbulence, which began to manifest itself under the rule of Ptolemy Philopater (221–204 BC). The reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon from 144–116 BC was marked by purges and civil warfare (including the expulsion of intellectuals such as Apollodorus of Athens), as well as intrigues associated with the king's wives and sons.

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Alexandria was also home to the largest Jewish community in the ancient world. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (the Torah and other writings), was produced there. Jews occupied two of the city's five quarters and worshipped at synagogues.

The Great Synagogue of Alexandria, Assassin's Creed Origins

Religion

When Ptolemy I Soter made himself king of Egypt, he created a new god, Serapis, to garner support from both Greeks and Egyptians. Serapis was the patron god of Ptolemaic Egypt, combining the Egyptian gods Apis and Osiris with the Greek deities Zeus, Hades, Asklepios, Dionysos, and Helios; he had powers over fertility, the sun, funerary rites, and medicine. His growth and popularity reflected a deliberate policy by the Ptolemaic state, and was characteristic of the dynasty's use of Egyptian religion to legitimize their rule and strengthen their control.

The Serapeion of Alexandria, Assassin's Creed Origins

The cult of Serapis included the worship of the new Ptolemaic line of pharaohs; the newly established Hellenistic capital of Alexandria supplanted Memphis as the preeminent religious city. Ptolemy I also promoted the cult of the deified Alexander, who became the state god of the Ptolemaic kingdom. Many rulers also promoted individual cults of personality, including celebrations at Egyptian temples.

Worshipers of God Serapis, Assassin's Creed Origins

Ptolemaic Egypt was highly stratified in terms of both class and language. More than any previous foreign rulers, the Ptolemies retained or co-opted many aspects of the Egyptian social order, using Egyptian religion, traditions, and political structures to increase their own power and wealth.

As before, peasant farmers remained the vast majority of the population, while agricultural land and produce were owned directly by the state, temple, or noble family that owned the land. Macedonians and other Greeks now formed the new upper classes, replacing the old native aristocracy. A complex state bureaucracy was established to manage and extract Egypt's vast wealth for the benefit of the Ptolemies and the landed gentry.

Statue of Alexander the Great, Assassin's Creed Origins

Greeks held virtually all the political and economic power, while native Egyptians generally occupied only the lower posts; over time, Egyptians who spoke Greek were able to advance further and many individuals identified as "Greek" were of Egyptian descent. Eventually, a bilingual and bicultural social class emerged in Ptolemaic Egypt. Priests and other religious officials remained overwhelmingly Egyptian, and continued to enjoy royal patronage and social prestige, as the Ptolemies' relied on the Egyptian faith to legitimize their rule and placate the populace.

Map of the Ptolemaic Empire in red at its height, via New York University Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

Although Egypt was a prosperous kingdom, with the Ptolemies lavishing patronage through religious monuments and public works, the native population enjoyed few benefits; wealth and power remained overwhelmingly in the hands of Greeks. Subsequently, uprising and social unrest were frequent, especially by the early third century BC. Egyptian nationalism reached a peak in the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator (221–205 BC), when a succession of native self-proclaimed "pharaoh" gained control over one district. This was only curtailed nineteen years later when Ptolemy V Epiphanes (205–181 BC) succeeded in subduing them, though underlying grievances were never extinguished, and riots erupted again later in the dynasty.

Get to know the Scale Model of Ancient Olympia at the New 'Athens Olympic Museum'

The project “Ancient Olympia: Common Grounds” is a collaboration between the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and Microsoft, which is harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to digitally preserve and restore the site of Ancient Olympia for future generations.

Athens Olympic Museum hosts this fascinating mixed reality exhibition in the Events Hall at Level 0 and invites you to digitally navigate and explore Ancient Olympia, as it stood in its glory more than 2,000 years ago. Go back in time and stop in 173 A.D.; navigate around the various sights and digital monuments; listen to the sounds of the Ancient Games and become part of their history.

You can find also a new scale model (3D model optimizing, 3d printing & assembly) for the mixed reality exhibition by Hellas3D.

In parallel, explore in detail the historical monuments of Ancient Olympia in full 3D mode on the Web, using the desktops available in the hall. Share your thoughts with voice or text messages to reflect the mutual beliefs and the ways people are interconnected by our common history and events. 

You can download the App for mobile devices https://olympiacommongrounds.gr/explore in order to enjoy a unique augmented reality experience, which brings monuments to life at real - world scale. 

More information here: https://athensolympicmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/ancient-olympia-common-grounds/

Astrolabe of Ptolemy: An Ancient Greek 'GPS' that Measured the Movement of the Stars

Ptolemy’s invention of the astrolabe (1st c. AD) is an excellent astronomical instrument that depicted the celestial sphere and was used to measure the longitude and latitude of the observed stars from any part of the earth and vice versa as a locator and to measure the distance between the sun and the moon.

Like the Antikythera Mechanism, which as been called the world’s first computer, the astrolabe was the fruit of the genius of ancient Greek thinkers. An early astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic civilization by Apollonius of Perga between 220 and 150 BC, but it was often attributed to Hipparchus.

The Greek scientist Ptolemy of Alexandria, who lived from 85 to 165 AD, created the “Planisphaerium,” which dealt with the problem of mapping figures from the celestial sphere onto a plane, by a method now known as ‘stereographic projection’, that preserves circles.

Ptolemy’s astrolabe consisted of seven concentric modular rings.

The 7th ring (the outer one) was fixed at the level of the meridian and had four signs that defined the horizontal and the vertical.

The 6th was calibrated and rotated freely at the level of the meridian with the points 0o and 90o representing the equator and the pole respectively and was positioned in the direction of the earth axis.

The 5th was turning in the direction of the sun.

The 4th was hinged on the earth axis and watched the daily rotation of the stellar sphere.

The 3rd was calibrated and hinged to the previous one at a distance of about 66th from the poles. It was placed in the positions of the ecliptic, bore the names of the zodiac signs and was used to read the longitudes of the stars.

The 2nd was calibrated, rotated around a vertical axis at the level of the ecliptic and used to read the latitudes of the stars.

God Dionysus in Mycenaean Linear B Script: Confirmation of Dionysus's early worship in Mycenean Greece

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By Dimosthenis Vasiloudis

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Emerging from the shadows of antiquity, the Mycenaean Linear B script serves as the oldest deciphered form of Greek, dating back to approximately 1450 BCE. Its origins trace back to the enigmatic Linear A of the Minoan civilization, but unlike its predecessor, Linear B’s code was cracked in the mid-20th century by the indefatigable efforts of British architect and cryptographer Michael Ventris. Primarily an administrative tool, Linear B was used for managing transactions and inventory, offering an illuminating lens into the economic, societal, and religious aspects of the Mycenaean civilization during the Late Bronze Age.

The first half of the 20th century saw the "orthodoxy" of the belief that Dionysus was a superfluous non-Greek god placed "very recently" (about 750 BC) into the Greek pantheon due to Erwin Rohde's book Psyche. This "orthodoxy" was somewhat contested by a number of fascinating archaeological finds made between the 1920s and 1970s. The first was the reaction to the word "Di-wo-nu-so" on three Linear B tablets with Pylos dates (about 1300 BC).

John L. Caskey uncovered a significant archaeological discovery at the shrine of St. Irene of Kea, which demonstrates continued religious activity extending back to the 13th century BC. The earliest known dedication to this shrine names Dionysus as the worshipped deity. Another Linear B inscription (KH Gq 5) discovered during the Agia Aikaterini square excavation on Chania's Kastelli hill is a noteworthy illustration of Late Minoan III B1 Zeus and Dionysus worship. It describes the sacrifice of honey to the gods Zeus and Dionysus as well as the existence of a Zeus sanctuary at Kydonia.

These findings showed that Dionysus was not a new god when the Iliad was composed around 750 BC, and that the practice of Dionysian worship was probably previously known to the Greek-speaking population of the Mycenaean Period. Even so, it seems as though he was familiar with the Greek-speaking populations, despite our insistence that he wasn't Greek.

Etymology

Throughout antiquity, Zeus (genitive Dios) has been associated with the dio- prefix in Ancient Greek, and the name's variations appear to refer to an initial *Dios-nysos.

The origin of the second element, -nūsos, is unknown. Although Pherecydes of Syros had proposed nũsa as an archaic term meaning "tree" by the sixth century BC, it is possibly connected to Mount Nysa, the birthplace of the deity in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads). The Nysiads are given their names on a vase made by Sophilos (nusae). According to Kretschmer, the word "nusē" (daughter in law or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. snus) is a Thracian word with the same meaning as "nýmphē," a word related to "nuos" (daughter in law or bride). He proposed that Dionysus is the "son of Zeus" because the male form is (nūsos). Dionysus, according to Jane Ellen Harrison, means "little Zeus." The name's pre-Greek origin has been proposed by Robert S. P. Beekes since all efforts to determine its Indo-European origins have been met with skepticism.

Detail View of Sophilos Dinos Depicting Dionysus, this is the oldest known image of the God. (around 570 BC)

Recent research suggests that Dionysus was one of the first gods to be named in mainland Greek culture. Nothing is known about the particular religion that Dionysus may have practiced at the time, and the majority of available material focuses only on his name. In addition to the connotations of Zeus and oxen, the names Eleuther and Eleutheros have etymological ties to the Latin term Liber Pater, suggesting that this may have been another name for Dionysus. According to Károly Kerényi, these cues suggest that the main worship of Dionysus and important stories persisted even in the thirteenth century BC.

At Knossos in Minoan Crete, men were regularly given the name "Pentheus," which refers to a figure from later Dionysian myth and also means "suffering." Kerényi asserted that giving a child such a name suggests a profound religious connection—possibly as an epithet of Dionysus himself, whose mythology represents a god who must experience suffering before conquering it. Pentheus suffers at the hands of Dionysus' followers in later stories, and according to Kerényi, this suggests a deep religious connection. According to Kerényi, the expression "man who suffers" presumably first applied to the god and then, as the story progressed, just to certain individuals. Sophilos, an Attic potter, uncovered the earliest known image of Dionysus and his name in about 570 BC.

Dionysus was already regarded as more than merely a wine-related god, as evidenced by the iconography found on ceramics from the seventh century. He was associated with marriage, death, sacrifice, and sexuality, and he had a well-established retinue of dancers and satyrs. A frequent motif in these early portrayals was the transformation of the god's worshipers into hybrid creatures, generally represented by both domesticated and wild satyrs, representing the end of civilizational life and the return to nature.

The Sophilos Dinos, British Museum.

New discovery: Marble Heads from Hellenistic and Roman Era were Unearthed in the ancient city of Knidos (Photos)

New discovery: marble heads from Hellenistic and Roman time were unearthed during excavations in the ancient city of Knidos, Turkey. One of them shows Tyche.

Tyche (Ancient Greek: Τύχη Túkhē, 'Luck', Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. Increasingly during the Hellenistic period, cities venerated their own Tychai, specific iconic versions of the original Tyche. This practice was continued in the iconography of Roman art, even into the Christian period, often as sets of the greatest cities of the empire.

Knidos or Cnidus was a Greek city in ancient Caria and part of the Dorian Hexapolis, in south-western Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. It was situated on the Datça peninsula, which forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus, now known as Gulf of Gökova. By the 4th century BC, Knidos was located at the site of modern Tekir, opposite Triopion Island. But earlier, it was probably at the site of modern Datça (at the half-way point of the peninsula).

'Wanax': The Mycenaean Greek Word for Supreme (Military-Religious) Ruler-King of the Palace

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By Dimosthenis Vasiloudis

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The Mycenaean Linear B script, a precious linguistic legacy dating back to around 1450 BCE, provides a rich historical record of the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean civilization in ancient Greece. This intriguing syllabic writing system, an evolution of the enigmatic Linear A used by the Minoan civilization, represents the earliest deciphered form of Greek. Thanks to the groundbreaking work of British architect and cryptographer Michael Ventris in the 1950s, Linear B opened up a hitherto unknown window into the intricacies of Mycenaean administrative, economic, and socio-religious practices. Its complexity and the important role it played in documenting everyday affairs attest to the advanced nature of the civilization that created and utilized it.

An ancient Greek word for "tribe chief, lord, or (military) leader" is anax (Greek: ἄvαξ; from earlier ϝάναξ, wánax). It was also carried over from Mycenaean Greece and is one of the two Greek names that are generally interpreted as "king," the other being Basileus. Homeric Greek makes notable use of it, including for Agamemnon. Anassa, or "queen," is the feminine form (from wánassa, which comes from *wánakt-ja).

Archaic inscription [...]Ι ϜΑΝΑΚΤΙ ([...]i wanakti, "to the king") on ceramic fragment, here shown upside down; a warrior bearing a spear and mounted on a horse is also depicted.

The word anax, which is represented in Linear B script in Mycenaean Greek as wa-na-ka and in the feminine form as wa-na-sa (later ἄνασσα, ánassa), derives from the stem wanakt- (nominative *ϝάνακτς, genitive ϝάνακτος). Eastern Greek dialects (such as Ionic Greek) deleted the digamma, which was pronounced /w/, fairly early on, even before the Phoenician script was adopted. Other dialects kept the digamma until well after the classical era.

The Sanskrit word vanij, which means "trader," has been used to equate the Greek title to that of Indra, but it was originally employed as a title in the Rigveda. If so, the word might have sprung from Proto-Indo-European *wen-a-, which roughly translates as "carrier of spoils" (compare the etymology of lord, "giver of bread"). Robert Beekes contends that the phrase is most likely from the pre-Greek substrate and that there isn't a clear IE derivation.

Mycenaean civilization was distinguished by the construction of palaces and walled villages during the Mediterranean Bronze Age. It is generally acknowledged that the wanax in the Mycenaean social structure serves as a king, although he has a number of tasks that go beyond administrative responsibilities. With the decline of Mycenaean society during the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the name "wanax" is thought to have finally changed into the homeric term "anax." Basileus would take on the Greek title of king, which is thought to have been a subordinate position during the Mycenaean era, comparable to chieftains and regional authorities.

As the pinnacle of Mycenaean culture, the wanax presided over a powerful hierarchical state government that was centralized, a pattern that was widespread in the Bronze Age Mediterranean and Near East. Because of this hierarchical comparison to a king, many of the wanax's responsibilities had to do with governance, conflict resolution, diplomacy, economics, and religion.

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.