Ancient Gold Greek Wreath Discovered in Subway Dig
For most workers employed to dig tunnels around the world, the work day is fairly dull and predictable. This made the discovery of a tomb and the gold wreath within all the more exciting for Greek workers in early February. The team excavating and mining out a tunnel to expand the subway system in Thessloniki broke through into a large, rectangular space at the beginning of the month. Within this tomb lay a decomposed body wearing a beautiful gold wreath.
Early Hellenistic Era
Fox News reports that researchers have set the creation of the wreath in the 3rd Century, B.C. This was the first major artifact found during the expansion of the tunnel through the area known as the West cemetery. When workers were still tunneling in the Sintrivani area, they passed through the East cemetery and had to continue through over 700 discovered tombs. Those tombs yielded another four gold wreaths of similar style and age. In total, these clearing teams have discovered nine golden head dresses from the Early Hellenic period over the past five years of working to expand the subways.
A Boon To Researchers
The expansion to bring a better subway system to Thessloniki has been quite fruitful for researchers at the country’s nationally funded museums and history centers. Approximately 23,000 artifacts from time periods ranging from pre-Hellenistic eras to late medieval times have been discovered during this project alone, according to Discovery News. Cleaning, cataloging and studying the artifacts will take years, but may yield a lot of new information about how ancient and medieval Greeks lived their lives.
Jessica K for Raymond Lee Jewelers, premiere fine jewelry and luxury watch boutique and buyer.
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