The 5,000-year-old Pavlopetri, Greece, is considered to be the oldest submerged Lost city in the world

The city of Pavlopetri, underwater off the coast of southern Laconia in Peloponnese, Greece, is about 5,000 years old, and one of the oldest submerged Lost city (oldest in Mediterranean sea). 

The name Pavlopetri (“Paul’s and Peter’s”, or “Paul’s stone”) is the modern name for the islet and beach, apparently named for the two Christian saints that are celebrated together; the ancient name or names are unknown.

Discovered in 1967 by Nicholas Flemming and mapped in 1968 by a team of archaeologists from Cambridge, Pavlopetri is located between the Pavlopetri islet across the Elafonisos village and the Pounta coast.

The coast, the archaeological site as well as the islet and the surrounding sea area are within the region of the Elafonisos Municipality, the old “Onou Gnathos” peninsula (according to Pausanias). It is unique in having an almost complete town plan, including streets, buildings, and tombs.

Originally, the ruins were dated to the Mycenaean period, 1600–1100 BC but later studies showed an older occupation date starting no later than 2800 BC, so it also includes early Bronze Age middle Minoan and transitional material.

 It is now believed that the town was submerged around 1000 BC  by the first of three earthquakes that the area suffered. The area never re-emerged, so it was neither built-over nor disrupted by agriculture.

Although eroded over the centuries, the town layout is as it was thousands of years ago. The site is under threat of damage by boats dragging anchors, as well as by tourists and souvenir hunters.

The fieldwork of 2022was largely to map the site. It is the first submerged town digitally surveyed in three dimensions.Sonar mapping techniques developed by military and oil prospecting organisations have aided recent work.

The city has at least 15 buildings submerged in 3 to 4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft) of water. The newest discoveries in 2009 alone cover 9,000 m2 (2.2 acres).

As of October 2009, four more fieldwork sessions are planned, also in collaboration with the Greek government as a joint project. Those sessions will do excavations.

Also working alongside the archaeologists (from the University of Nottingham) are a team from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, who aim to take underwater archaeology into the 21st century.

They have developed several unique robots to survey the site in various ways. One of the results of the survey was to establish that the town was the centre of a thriving textile industry (from the many loom weights found in the site). Also many large pitharis pots (from Crete) were excavated, also indicating a major trading port.

Archaeologists Hunting For Cleopatra’s Tomb Uncover a “Geometric Miracle” Tunnel

Underneath a temple in the ancient ruined city of Taposiris Magna on the Egyptian coast, archaeologists have uncovered a vast, spectacular tunnel that experts are referring to as a “geometric miracle”.

During ongoing excavations and exploration of the temple, Kathleen Martinez of the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and colleagues uncovered the structure 13 meters (43 feet) below the ground. The 2-meter tall tunnel had been hewn through an incredible 1,305 meters (4,281 feet) of sandstone.

Its design, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, is remarkably similar to the 1,036-meter Tunnel of Eupalinos – a 6th century BCE aqueduct on the Greek island of Samos. Often referred to as a marvel of engineering, the conduit was unprecedented in design and construction in its day.

While the Taposiris Magna tunnel isn’t without equal, its engineering is nonetheless just as impressive.

Parts of the Taposiris Magna tunnel are submerged in water, though putting aside its resemblance to the Eupalinos Tunnel, its purpose is currently unknown.

Martinez, who has been working in Taposiris Magna since 2022 in search of the lost tomb of Cleopatra VII, believes that the tunnel could be a promising lead. Previously, the excavations have yielded clues that seem to point to the famous queen and the last of the Ptolemies.

Taposiris Magna was founded around 280 BCE by Ptolemy II, the son of Alexander the Great’s renowned general and one of Cleopatra’s forebears (she herself ruled from 51 BCE until her death by suicide in 30 BCE).

The temple, the team believes, was dedicated to the god Osiris and his queen, the goddess Isis – the deity with whom Cleopatra courted a strong association. Coins bearing the names and likenesses of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great have been found there, as well as figurines of Isis.

Burial shafts containing Greco-Roman burials have also been found in the temple. It’s possible that – if they’re to be found there at all – Cleopatra and her husband Mark Antony may have been interred in similar tombs.

It’s too early to tell if the new tunnel could lead to these long-lost tombs, but future work could yield more information.

The next stage will be exploring the nearby Mediterranean sea. Between 320 and 1303 CE, a series of earthquakes hit the coast, causing part of the temple to collapse and be swallowed by the waves.

In addition, excavations had previously revealed a network of tunnels stretching from Lake Mariout to the Mediterranean.

Whether or not the tombs are found, a thorough excavation of these ruins could tell us more about the mysterious ancient city. The tunnel has already yielded some treasures: pieces of pottery, and a rectangular block of limestone.

As then-Minister for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said 13 years ago, “If we discover the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, it will be the most important discovery of the 21st century. If we did not discover the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, we made major discoveries here, inside the temple and outside the temple.”

2,200-Year-Old Stunning Mosaic In Ancient Greek City Of Zeugma

In the ancient Greek town of Zeugma, it actually located in Turkey, three new mosaics have been discovered.

The mosaics dating from the 2nd century BC are exceptionally well preserved, but they’re still as beautiful as the first day.

In addition, in Dacia (presumably Romania) there are two ancient cities named Zeugma and one in modern Gaziantep province of Turkey.

It was considered one of the largest trading centers in the Eastern Roman Empire in Turkey and prospered till the third century when it was completely destroyed and then struck by an earthquake by a Sassanid king

However, to this day, Zeugma yields a trove of archaeological wonders with 2000-3000 houses in remarkably good condition. Excavations started in 2022 and have continued to this day.

The fact that the city was destroyed and then also hit by rubble created a sort of rubble barrier, which protected it from future treasure hunters or building material scavengers.

To make things even more interesting, Zeugma was completely underwater until recently, when a project to excavate the area received funding from a number of sources, and the past could finally be uncovered.

There are still many things left to be found in Zeugma, but for now, these mosaics look simply superb. Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin and the head of the excavations, Professor Kutalmış Görkay uncovered them at a press conference.

“There are still unexcavated areas. There are rock-carved houses here. We have reached one of these houses and the house includes six spaces. We have also unearthed three new mosaics in this year’s excavations,” he said.

Görkay emphasizes that now, the project will reach its most important stage – conservation. Indeed, modern archaeology is not about finding things, it’s about preserving them for the future, and understanding the different aspects of ancient life.

“From now on, we will work on restoration and conservation. We plan to establish a temporary roof for long-term protection. We estimate that the ancient city has 2,000-3,000 houses. Twenty-five of them remain underwater.

However, while they are talking about preservation, the mayor and chief archaeologist don’t seem to really care about it that much.

They displayed extreme carelessness as mayor of Gaziantep and her staff amounted to 13 people who stepped on the 2,000-year-old mosaics that measure up to 10 square meters in size.

That’s right, while they are talking about the importance of preserving these finds, they are actually walking on 2,200-year-old mosaics.

The Theopetra Cave and the Oldest Human Construction in the World

The Theopetra Cave is an archaeological site situated in Meteora, in the central Greek region of Thessaly. As a result of the archaeological excavations that have taken place over the years, it has been revealed that the Theopetra cave was inhabited by human beings as early as 130,000 years ago.

In addition, evidence of human habitation in the Theopetra Cave can be dated without interruption from the Middle Palaeolithic to the end of the Neolithic period.

This is significant, as it allows archaeologists to have a better understanding of the prehistoric period in Greece.

The Theopetra Cave is located on the north-eastern slope of a limestone hill, some 100 m (330 feet above the valley), overlooking the remote village of Theopetra, and the river Lethaios, a tributary of the Pineios River, flows nearby.

According to geologists, the limestone hill was formed between 137 and 65 million years ago, corresponding to the Upper Cretaceous period. Based on archaeological evidence, human beings have only begun to occupy the cave during the Middle Palaeolithic period, i.e. around 130,000 years ago.

The cave itself has been described as roughly quadrilateral in shape with narrow niches on its edge and covers an area of around 500 sq meters (5380 sq ft). The Theopetra Cave has a wide aperture, which enables the light to penetrate easily into the interior of the cave.

The archaeological excavation of the Theopetra Cave began in 1987 and continued up until 2022. This project was directed by Dr Nina Kyparissi-Apostolika, who served as the head of the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleography when the excavations were being carried out.

It may be mentioned that when the archaeological work was first conducted, the Theopetra Cave was being used by local shepherds as a temporary shelter in which they would keep their flocks.

It may be added that the Theopetra Cave was the first cave in Thessaly to have been archaeologically excavated, and also the only one in Greece to have a continuous sequence of deposits from the Middle Palaeolithic to the end of the Neolithic period.

This is significant, as it has allowed archaeologists to gain a better understanding of the transition from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic way of life in mainland Greece.

Several interesting discoveries have been made through the archaeological study of the Theopetra Cave. One of these, for instance, pertains to the climate in the area when the cave was being occupied.

By conducting micro-morphological analysis on the sediment samples collected from each archaeological layer, archaeologists were able to determine that there had been hot and cold spells during the cave’s occupation. As a result of these changes in the climate, the cave’s population also fluctuated accordingly.

Another fascinating find from the Theopetra Cave is the remains of a stone wall that once partially closed off the entrance of the cave. These remains were discovered in 2022 and using a relatively new method of dating known as Optically Stimulated Luminescence, scientists were able to date this wall to around 23000 years old.

The age of this wall, which coincides with the last glacial age, has led researchers to suggest that the wall had been built by the inhabitants of the cave to protect them from the cold outside. It has been claimed that this is the oldest known man-made structure in Greece, and possibly even in the world.

A year before this incredible discovery was made, it was announced that a trial of at least three hominid footprints that were imprinted onto the cave’s soft earthen floor had been uncovered.

Based on the shape and size of the footprints, it has been speculated that they were made by several Neanderthal children, aged between two and four years old, who had lived in the cave during the Middle Palaeolithic period.

In 2022, the Theopetra Cave was officially opened to the public, though it was closed temporarily a year later, as the remains of the stone wall were discovered that year.

Although the archaeological site was later re-opened, it was closed once again in 2022 and remains so due to safety reasons, i.e. the risk of landslides occurring.

2,100-year-old burial of woman lying on bronze ‘mermaid bed’ unearthed in Greece

Archaeologists have unearthed the ancient burial of a woman lying on a bronze bed near the city of Kozani in northern Greece. It dates to the first century B.C. 

Depictions of mermaids decorate the posts of the bed. The bed also displays an image of a bird holding a snake in its mouth, a symbol of the ancient Greek god Apollo.

The woman’s head was covered with gold laurel leaves that likely were part of a wreath, Areti Chondrogianni-Metoki, director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Kozani, told Live Science in an email. The wooden portions of the bed have decomposed. 

Gold threads, possibly from embroidery, were found on the woman’s hands, Chondrogianni-Metoki said. Additionally, four clay pots and a glass vessel were buried alongside the remains. No other people were buried with her. 

Archaeologists are now analyzing the skeleton to determine the woman’s health, age when she died and possible cause of death.

The artifacts found with her suggest that she likely came from a wealthy background, and may have belonged to a royal family.

“We do not know much about the history of this area [during the first century B.C.],” Chondrogianni-Metoki told .

Thousands of years ago, Kozani was near an important city called Mavropigi (the site is now a village) that housed a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo, Chondrogianni-Metoki said.

Historical records show that during the first century B.C., Roman control and influence in Greece was on the rise. The Romans destroyed the city of Corinth in 146 B.C. and sacked Athens in 86 B.C.

In 48 B.C. a crucial battle in northern Greece known as the Battle of Pharsalus saw the army of Julius Caesar defeat a force led by Pompey; the victory resulted in Caesar becoming the de facto ruler of Rome. 

It’s unclear when exactly in the first century B.C. this woman lived or if she would have witnessed or heard of any of those historic events. The woman’s remains are currently housed at the Archaeological Museum of Aiani in Greece.

 contacted scholars not affiliated with the research for further insights on the discovery, but none were available to offer comment at the time of publication.

The bronze bed burial was found in 2021. In 2022, another bed burial was found in a nearby cemetery that had an elderly man buried on the remains of a bed made of iron and wood. That burial dated to the fourth century B.C.

Her 3,000-Year-Old Bones Showed Unusual Signs of Wear. It Turns Out, She Was a Master Ceramicist

Back in 2022, archaeologists at Eleutherna—an ancient city-state located on the Greek island of Crete—discovered a woman’s skeleton that showed unusual signs of wear.

As Michael Price writes for Science magazine, in comparison to the other females at the site, the muscles on the right side of her body were notably developed, while the cartilage on her knee and hip joints was worn away, leaving the bones smooth and ivory-like.

Initial analysis of the woman’s remains, as well as the pottery found in similar graves at the Orthi Petra burial site, indicated that the approximately 45 to 50 year old lived between 900 B.C.. and 650 B.C. By this point in Crete’s history, the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations—rivals best known for the labyrinthine palace complexes that inspired the classic Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and the gold mask of Agamemnon, respectively—had long since collapsed, ushering the region into a tumultuous period later dubbed the Greek Dark Ages.

Despite determining these demographic details, researchers were unable to ascertain why the woman’s bones showed such unique signs of wear.

The team, led by Adelphi University anthropologist Anagnostis Agelarakis and site excavator Nikolaos Stampolidis, created digital and physical models that allowed them to judge the physical effects of routine tasks such as spinning wool, planting and harvesting crops, weaving on a loom, and bread baking, but none of the actions yielded a match.

Then, as Cara Giaimo reports for Atlas Obscura, the team chanced upon a master ceramicist who lived near the Eleutherna site. The woman demonstrated how she created her large artisan vases—describing the sets of muscles used and subsequent strain experienced—and provided researchers with a key breakthough in the frustrating case.

Her movements and the physical toll exacted by the process, Giaimo writes, closely mirrored that of her 3,000-year-old predecessor.

“Constantly flexing her leg to turn the kick wheel would have worn out her joints,” Science’s Price notes, while “repeatedly leaning to one side of the spinning clay to shape and sculpt it would have developed the muscles on that side of her body.”

The researchers confirmed their hypothesis with the help of medical imaging and anatomical models, according to Archaeology’s Marley Brown, and concluded the woman must have been a master ceramicist, honing her craft over a lifetime of arduous physical labor.

These findings, which were first reported at a May conference hosted by the Museum of Ancient Eleutherna, mark the first time researchers have identified an expert female ceramicist working in the world of ancient Greece.

It makes sense that such a figure should emerge in Eleutherna, Brown writes, as the city-state has long been associated with powerful women. In fact, archaeologists previously unearthed the graves of four priestesses in the same Orthi Petra site where the master artisan was found.

Agelarakis explains that the find is, therefore, somewhat “unsurprising given the importance and privileged social position of the Eleuthernian matriline.”

In an interview with Atlas Obscura’s Giaimo, Agelarakis states that the team’s research represents.

He concludes, “It signifies that women … held craft specialization roles in antiquity, which I think is very important.”

7,000-Year-Old Forest and Footprints Uncovered in the Atlantis of Britain

The surge and flood of the North Sea have uncovered an archeological mystery of the Britain past – the remains of hunter-gatherers chasing wildlife through a long-lost wood. An ancient woodland, dating more than 7,000 years and submerged under the sand for centuries, is slowly uncovered by the ocean.

Tree stumps and felled logs, which have been preserved by peat and sand, are now clearly visible along with a 650 feet (200 meters) stretch of coastline at Low Hauxley near Amble, Northumberland.

Studies of the ancient forest, which existed at a time when the sea level was much lower and Britain had only recently separated from what is now mainland Denmark, have revealed it would have consisted of oak, hazel and alder trees.

The forest first began to form around 5,300 BC but by 5,000 BC the encroaching ocean had covered it up and buried it under the sand. Now the sea levels are rising again, the remnants of the forest are becoming visible and being studied by archaeologists.

Rather than a continuous solid landmass, archaeologists believe Doggerland was a region of low-lying bogs and marshes that would have been home to a range of animals, as well as the hunter-gatherers which stalked them.

But the relatively rapid change in the surrounding environment would have gradually confined animals and humans in the region to Europe and the UK as the bogs and marshes became flooded, making them impassable.

Doctor Clive Waddington, of Archaeology Research Services, said: ‘In 5,000 BC the sea level rose quickly and it drowned the land. The sand dunes were blown back further into the land, burying the forest, and then the sea receded a little.

The sea level is now rising again, cutting back the sand dunes, and uncovering the forest. The forest existed in the late Mesolithic period, which was a time of hunting and gathering for humans.

In addition to tree stumps, archaeologists say they have uncovered animal footprints, highlighting the diverse wildlife which would have roamed the ancient Doggerland forest. 

Dr. Waddington, who says evidence has been discovered of humans living nearby in 5,000 BC, added: ‘On the surface of the peat we have found footprints of adults and children.

‘We can tell by the shapes of the footprints that they would have been wearing leather shoes.

‘We have also found animal footprints of red deer, wild boar, and brown bears.’ 

A similar stretch of ancient forest was uncovered in 2014 near the village of Borth, Ceredigion, in Mid Wales after a spate of winter storms washed away the peat preserving the area.

Peat is able to preserve trees and even the bodies of animals so well because it is so low in oxygen, effectively choking the microbes which break down organic matter, so preserving their organic contents for thousands of years.

But in coastal regions where ancient forests have been long preserved in peat, such as in Wales and Northumberland, the rising seas are washing away this layer and exposing remnants from Britain’s past.

Archaeologists unearth a 3,500-year-old warrior’s grave in Greece

Archaeologists in Greece have made a rare and exciting discovery – an ancient unlooted tomb with the remains of an unknown warrior and a huge hoard of treasure.  The Greek Ministry of Culture announced that it is the most important treasure to have been discovered in 65 years.

The Ministry of Culture announced the finding today, revealing that two US archaeologists, Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker from the University of Cincinnati, made the discovery while excavating the 3,500-year-old Palace of Nestor on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula.

The Palace of Nestor, located at the top of the hill of Epano Englianos, near Pylos, is the best preserved Mycenaean Greek palace discovered. It once consisted of a two-storey building with reception rooms, baths, workshops, store rooms, and an established sewage system.

The tomb, which measures 2.4 meters in length and 1.5 meters in width, was discovered on the site of the palace complex.

However, it had been placed there many years before the palace was built. Surprisingly, the tomb had not been looted in antiquity, unlike most of the other Mycenaean-era tombs found to date.

Inside the tomb, archaeologists discovered the remains of a wooden coffin containing the skeleton of an unknown warrior, aged between 30 and 35 years old. 

Next to him were his weapons – a bronze sword with a gold and ivory handle and a gold-hilted dagger.

Considering his place of burial and the treasures he was buried with, he is believed to have been a person of great importance.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the treasures also included gold rings, an ornate string of pearls, 50 Minoan seal stones carved with imagery of goddesses, silver vases, gold cups, a bronze mirror, ivory combs, an ivory plaque carved with a griffin, and Minoan-style gold jewellery decorated with figures of deities, animals, and floral motifs.

Many of the artefacts found in the tomb have been traced to Crete, the island upon which the Minoan civilization arose.

James C. Wright, the director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, told the New York Times that the finding of the tomb “will help scholars understand how the state cultures that developed in Crete were adopted into what became the Mycenaean palace culture on the mainland.”

Archaeologists now plan to carry out a DNA analysis on the warrior’s remains to try to determine his origin.  They also plan to carry out radiocarbon tests on the plant material recovered from the tomb, which may allow more accurate dating of the burial.