Thanks to Dave for alerting me to this very strange and somewhat garbled article in The Independent — by David Keys, one of our more gullible archaeological journalists:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/ancient-greece-archaeology-keros-aegean-sea-bronze-age-dhaskalio-bible-pyramids-crete-milos-a8997666.html
I have no ideas how serious or well-founded this may be — it may just be the latest hoax from a group of researchers desperate for some headlines.......
Will do some research and report back......... in the meantime, if anybody out there knows more, and would like to share info, please post your comments.
Giant marble pyramid-shaped island complex rising from sea uncovered, revealing secrets of ancient Greece’s origin
Exclusive: Thousands of years of history being unlocked in the Aegean isles which could provide groundbreaking knowledge of ancient civilisations.
Extracts:
Archaeologists now believe that, in order to construct the complex, early Bronze Age Greeks embarked on at least 3,500 maritime voyages to transport between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes of shining white marble from one Aegean island to another.
Each return voyage would have required up to 24 crew members to paddle for around five hours.
“It is by far the largest prehistoric marine transport operation that has ever come to light anywhere in the world,” said Dr Julian Whitewright, a leading maritime archaeologist at the University of Southampton.
“It demonstrates quite clearly just how important, and integral to their culture, seafaring was to these early Bronze Age Aegean people.”
The voyages – totalling around 45,000 miles – allowed the architects to construct what is thought to have been a huge religious sanctuary consisting of up to 60 marble buildings, which were constructed specifically to glisten in the sun.
..........the architects “terra-formed” the pyramid-shaped island “mini-mountain”, known in recent centuries as Dhaskalio (possibly just meaning “islet”), to create around 1,000m of artificial terracing, arranged in six “steps” on its steep slopes.
These roughly six-metre wide terraces appear to have been built specifically to accommodate all the buildings. The summit itself was not initially built on – but instead had a small, probably sacred, open area where votive offerings may have been deposited.
Well, whatever the genuine level of astonishment at these discoveries, presumably they will do much to stimulate tourism and thus assist the ailing Greek economy.
ReplyDeleteWithout wishing to appear sceptical or worse (since we haven't yet properly understood nor digested the claims made thus far), I would nevertheless be very surprised if we do not hear swiftly from various and sundry archaeologists of the "Stonehenge as a Unifying Construction from Orkney to Wessex" persuasion, who will seek to find parallels with these Aegean diScoveries of around 2,600 B.C. But I am aware of the reputation of Southampton University for studying maritime archaeology.
ReplyDeleteWell, let’s see what emerges in the way of properly scrutinised evidence in a journal thatn be trusted to use proper peer review.......
ReplyDelete