Fascinated with the history of life, archeologists continue to explore the unknown, finding all kinds of ancient objects, structures, and even creatures. From tools made by people in ancient Mesopotamia to artifacts of the ancient Anasazi people, the world is full of treasures that reveal stories of the past. Greece is an especially rich place for archeological discoveries — with ruins standing in plain sight amidst modern-day buildings and forgotten relics hidden underneath — and excavations have been ongoing since the early 19th century.
During the first century of research expeditions in Greece, archeologists uncovered many famous historical and literary sites. One of the first places they delved into was the ancient city of Corinth, which is home to the Fountain of Peirene that, as legend tells it, was created by the mythical Pegasus. However, a plethora of stunning discoveries have been made in the country since then, some of which have left the archeological community and public in awe.
The Antikythera mechanism
In 1900 and 1901, sponge divers came across a shipwreck full of ancient items, such as jewelry and marble statues, in the waters near Greek island Antikythera. The most treasured of them all has become known as the Antikythera mechanism, the oldest-known mechanism to use gear and pulley materials. It’s the only complex artifact of ancient Greek technology that has ever been found, demonstrating astronomical knowledge that historians didn’t think capable of ancient societies.
At first glance, it looks like a piece of rubble, but closer inspection reveals clock-like, triangular-toothed gears and a protractor-like ring sectioned into degrees. Scientists were puzzled about what the Antikythera mechanism was until the 1970s and 1990s, when X-rays showed that the 2,000-year-old bronze device could accurately replicate the paths of the moon, five planets, and the sun. However, CT scans were taken in 2006 and captured more details of how the mechanism worked, including hidden epitaphs.
Researchers have continued to study the more than 80 fragments of the Antikythera device, and a paper published in 2021 in Scientific Reports refers to it as “a mechanical computer of bronze gears that used ground-breaking technology to make astronomical predictions, by mechanizing astronomical cycles and theories.” The authors added, “Solving this complex 3D puzzle reveals a creation of genius — combining cycles from Babylonian astronomy, mathematics from Plato’s Academy and ancient Greek astronomical theories.”
The prehistoric city of Akrotiri
Excavations on the southwestern tip of Santorini island (also known as Thera) have been ongoing at the Akrotiri archeological site since Greek archeologist and professor Spyridon Marinatos started digging there in 1967. Located on a promontory — a raised landmass that juts into a body of water — it’s one of the world’s best preserved prehistoric sites (covered by modern roofing), remaining a stunning example of a sophisticated culture that prospered more than 3,500 years ago during the Bronze Age in the Cyclades of the Aegean archipelago.
Archeologists have been analyzing artifacts from Akrotiri ever since and have determined that the area was first inhabited during the Late Neolithic Period and the settlement was built in the Early Bronze Age. After expanding throughout the middle and late periods, it transformed into an urban center for the Aegean archipelago and traded with societies on the Greek mainland and with those of Cyprus, the Dodecanese islands, Egypt, and Syria. Also, the infrastructure of the about 50-acre city was planned well, and it had a complex sewage system.
However, the inhabitants of Akrotiri were abruptly driven from their homes when an earthquake occurred, either during the 1620s B.C. or later in 1500 B.C. Soon after, there was a catastrophic volcanic eruption on the island, covering the city in ash and pumice, preserving everything there for thousands of years, similar to the Pompeii victims whose DNA revealed their true identities.
Bronze Age tomb of a wealthy Mycenaean warrior
Like the real-life tomb discovered under an Indian Jones filming location, graves can hold a lot of mystery, intrigue, and answers for the archeology community. After leading a team on excavations in Greece’s Pylos region for more than two decades, University of Cincinnati archeologists Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker found the tomb of a rich Mycenaean warrior who lived during the middle of the Bronze Age — about 3,500 years ago — in 2015. It was one of the most amazing examples of prehistoric wealth unearthed in mainland Greece in 65 years.
The tomb was just a little more than 200 yards from the Palace of Nestor and marked with a stone formation and some olive trees. Following six months of digging, the archeologists uncovered the remains of a man now dubbed the Griffin Warrior, who they estimated was 30 to 35 years old when he died. On and alongside him were over 2,000 artifacts, including a bronze 3-foot long sword with an ivory hilt, fine gold jewelry, six ivory combs, nine gold and silver cups, more than 50 carved seal stones, and more than 1,000 precious stone beads.
Many of the warrior’s belongings were made in Crete, presenting evidence against the belief that the Mycenaeans (from mainland Greece) and Minoans (from the island of Crete) were competing cultures rather than interconnected. Plus, the sheer amount of artifacts found is rare for Mycenaean tombs since grave robbers have left very little at other excavated sites.
The mythical city of Tenea
In October 2018, renowned Greek archeologist Eleni Korka was excavating in the small modern village of Chiliomodi and unearthed the lost city of Tenea. Knowledge of the city was limited to myths and historical texts, including that it was built by captives of the Trojan War around 1100 B.C. For a long time, archeologists suspected that Tenea was located between the ancient cities of Corinth and Mycenae based on the description of second-century Greek geographer Pausanias and the 1846 discovery of the well-preserved marble Kouros statue. The city was difficult to find, though, because it was literally buried.
The discovery of Tenea came after Korka chanced across an ancient sarcophagus (which aren’t only resting places for the dead in ancient Egypt) in 1984 and sought permission from the Greek Ministry of Culture to conduct more digs. In 2013, she received permission, and initial excavations revealed dozens more sarcophagi, clearly indicating that they had found an ancient cemetery, and many had valuable objects inside. After taking the search farther north, they found an ancient road that led to a ruined Roman mausoleum.
Eventually, they came across an organized residential area with homes, a 500-square-meter bathhouse, and clay water pipes. The buildings featured preserved clay, marble, and stone floors. All of the findings suggest that the city was populated by wealthy people for centuries, potentially as far back as late Mycenaean times. Continued digging has revealed public buildings and shops, as well as Roman-period artifacts — jewelry, metal bathing prep tools, painted vases, and votive figurines — and more than 2,000 coins mostly from the fifth and sixth centuries. Rare silver coins were found in 2024, this time from the late 600s B.C. to the 330s B.C.
A jewelry-filled shrine to an ancient Greek hero
Archeologists believe they found the ancient city of Rypes near the modern-day town of Aigio and at the Trapeza plateau archeological site in the Peloponnese peninsula. This discovery is significant because it was home to the Pelasgi, whom ancient Greek authors describe in legends and texts as indigenous settlers who inhabited parts of the mainland and Aegean archipelago before the Greek tribes arrived. Additionally, the city’s inhabitants were involved in the founding of the ancient colony Croton, one of the first Greek colonies in Italy.
The most stunning part of this discovery, though, was the identification of a Rypes building (dubbed building C) as a heroön — a type of monument or shrine erected in honor of an important figure or hero. Hiding under the collapsed conglomerate and limestone superstructure, archeologists found Pentelic marble statues (made from Mount Pentelicus rock) of a youthful male and crouching lions. Inside were well-preserved cist tombs, a sarcophagus, and the earliest and most intact Corinthian architecture related to ancient funerary traditions.
The tombs and sarcophagus contained some amazing artifacts of their own — mainly intricately designed gold jewelry. Alongside a necklace with lion-engraved closures, rings, and earrings with a lion motif, one of the most interesting pieces is a solid earring of a naked cupid with wings, a wreath in the left hand, and a scepter in the right hand. Plus, there were funerary coins, an iron stele (a sort of gravestone), and iron buttons with some surrounding cloth. These objects strongly indicate that the buried here were of high social status and very wealthy.
