Rare ancient jewels found

[SoCalDem]

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_422842.html

Aug 29, 2009
Rare ancient jewels found

ATHENS - ARCHAEOLOGISTS on the Greek island of Crete have unearthed the 2,900-year-old tomb of three women buried with jewels of surprisingly advanced skill, culture officials said on Friday.

The tomb in the ancient town of Eleutherna, near the modern city of Rethymno in northern Crete, held gold necklaces and medallions decorated with lion heads and the forms of ancient gods, excavation supervisor Nikos Stambolidis said.

'The jewels are of a style that appeared in the Hellenistic Era (many centuries later),' said Stambolidis, director of the Cycladic Museum in Athens.

'We had no knowledge that this level of craft existed earlier,' he told AFP.

The elaborate nature of the tomb indicates that its three occupants, two of whom were adolescents, were likely priestesses or princesses.

snip

[KittyWampus]

1. ARG! Where are pictures?

[calimary]

2. Yeah, really!

I'm drooling already and I don't even know what I'm drooling about!

[SoCalDem]

3. I have looked and so far there are none..

:(

[Texasgal]

4. yeah... pics would be nice.

Damn. :(

[SoCalDem]

5. Maybe they will post some later.. I'll check back

there were only two reports so far, and neither had a pic of the gems:(

[SoCalDem]

6. Here's a link to the archaeological dig where they were found..

http://www.archaeology.org/onsite/crete/voyage-to-crete-day-nine

[Texasgal]

7. wow!

That's very cool!!!

Your so sweet to research, all off us lazy asses wanna see pics! :P

[bleever]

8. Darn, I thought this would be about Senate Dems finding their testicles.

Still, very interesting.

[originalpckelly]

9. So Barbara finally decided to give them back to G.H.W. Bush?

[bleever]

10. Here's one pic,

though it doesn't show much:



"Stampolidis examines some of the season’s most important finds from the burial shown in Photo 3, including a jar whose handle is braided like a woman’s hair and a piece of finely worked gold still encrusted with dirt (and fragments of one of the women’s bones), awaiting cleaning and conservation."

[UTUSN]

11. Why are they always so surprised at how "advanced" the ancients were?!1

Their brain was as evolved as ours, no? And they had nothing but time to work the crafts.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. I'm more surprised how advanced we aren't