Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe   National Geographic - March 31, 2011

Found at a site tied to myth, Greek tablet survived only by accident, experts say. Marks on a clay tablet fragment found in Greece are the oldest known decipherable text in Europe, a new study says. Considered "magical or mysterious" in its time, the writing survives only because a trash heap caught fire some 3,500 years ago, according to researchers. Found in an olive grove in what's now the village of Iklaina (map), the tablet was created by a Greek-speaking Mycenaean scribe between 1450 and 1350 B.C., archaeologists say.

In Vino Veritas: Wine Cups Tell History of Athenian Life   Live Science - January 12, 2011
Over centuries, the ancient Athenian cocktail parties went full circle, from a practice reserved for the elite to one open to everyone and then, by the fourth century B.C., back to a luxurious display of consumption most could not afford.

Pavlopetri - Underwater town breaks antiquity record   New Scientist - October 22, 2009
Pavlopetri -- the world's oldest known submerged town   PhysOrg - October 21, 2009

The world's oldest known submerged town has been revealed through the discovery of late Neolithic pottery.
The finds were made during an archaeological survey of Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast ...
Pavlopetri  Wikipedia

Mount Lykaion: Mythic Birthplace of Zeus Said Found   Live Science - February 10, 2009

Ancient Mass Graves, ''Baby Bottles'' Discovered    National Geographic - December 18, 2008

Gold Found Near Alexander Birthplace National Geographic - September 11, 2008

How the Battle of Actium Changed the World Live Science - March 28, 2008
Actium Wikipedia

Ancient Greek Outpost Discovered, Spectacularly Preserved Live Science - March 19, 2008

How the Greek Agora Changed the World Live Science - March 17, 2008

Skeleton may show ancient brain surgery MSNBC - March 11, 2008

Ancient graves, jewels unearthed in Greece MSNBC - March 10, 2008

3,000-Year-Old Tomb Found on Greek Island National Geographic - March 7, 2008

2,700-Year-Old Fabric Found in Greece MSNBC - May 9, 2007

Roman-Era Tomb, Theater Found on Greek Island National Geographic - April 7, 2007

Greece - Hera the wife of Zeus
Greek archaeologists find 2,200 year old Goddess Hera statue AP - March 1, 2007

Found in the walls of a city under Mount Olympus, home of Greece's ancient gods. The headless marble statue was discovered last year during excavations in the ruins of ancient Dion, some 50 miles southwest of Thessaloniki. Archaeologist Dimitris Pantermalis said the life-sized statue had been used by the early Christian inhabitants of the city of Dion as filling for a defensive wall. He said the 2nd century-B.C. find appeared to have originally stood in a temple of Zeus, leader of the ancient Greek gods, whose statue was found in the building's ruins in 2003. The statue of Hera stood next to that of Zeus in the temple, said Pantermalis, a Thessaloniki University professor who has headed excavations at Dion for more than three decades. "The statue represents a female form seated on a throne, and is made of thick-grained marble like the one of Zeus," he said. "It shows exactly the same technique and size, which led us to link the two statues beyond doubt."

Pantermalis said that, if confirmed, it would be the first time two statues of different gods have been located from a single temple in Greece. He said it was also possible that a statue of Athena, goddess of wisdom, could have stood in the temple of Zeus. He said he was hopeful that it might be found during future excavation.

Dion was a major religious center of the ancient Macedonians. Alexander the Great offered sacrifices there before launching his victorious campaign against the Persian Empire in the 4th century B.C. Excavations so far have revealed temples, theaters and a stadium, city walls, a hotel, baths and streets with an elaborate drainage system, as well as many statues. The area was first inhabited during the Iron Age, and survived into early Christian times, when it was the seat of a bishop.

Why Ancient Greek Statues are Always Nude Live Science - February 2, 2007

Ancient Coffin Depicts Scenes from Homer's Odyssey, Iliad Live Science - March 21, 2006

Greek tomb find excites experts BBC - February 12, 2006
Archaeologists in Greece say they are examining the largest underground tomb ever found in the country. A farmer had stumbled across the tomb carved into the rock near the ancient city of Pella, the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

Codex Sinaiticus Encyclopedia
Codex Sinaiticus - World's oldest Bible - March 2005 - Dallas News

New four-year project to digitally reunite the fragile texts and make them available to anyone with the click of a mouse. Evidence suggesting the latter is contained on the pages of the world's oldest Bible, the Codex Sinaiticus. The ancient Greek Bible, written between the 1st and 4th centuries A.D., has been divided since the mid-1800s after European and Russian visitors removed sections of it from a desert monastery in Egypt. But on Thursday, experts from Britain, Germany, Russia, Egypt and the United States launched a four-year project to digitally reunite the fragile texts and make them available to anyone with the click of a mouse.

"The Codex is so special as a foundation document and a unique icon to Christianity," said John Tuck, head of British Collections at the British Library in London. Unification of the manuscript, albeit digitally, "is a blockbuster in scholarship." Only a privileged few have ever been allowed to handle the original manuscripts. Scholars need access to determine, among other things, how far the modern Bible has veered in interpretation from the Codex. Parts of the project announced Thursday will include Christian texts written as few as 45 years after the death of Jesus Christ.

The manuscripts are so delicate that only four scholars have been granted access in the past 19 years to sections of the text housed in London, said Scot McKendrick, head of medieval and earlier manuscripts at the British Library in London But researchers and the general public will be able to examine the digitized texts in minute detail. Historical and explanatory notations will accompany the digitized text so that viewers can trace how changes were made and, more important, why.

"Obviously, the way the editing works ... is exceedingly interesting. What is the process leading to this or that correction? Whether it was merely editorial, or if they were following a theological lead" in altering the message, McKendrick said. Ray Bruce, a film director who is producing a documentary on the project, cited the Book of Mark as an example of how much the modern Bible has been altered from the Codex text. In the Codex, he said, the Book of Mark ends at chapter 16, verse 8, with the discovery that Christ's tomb was empty. But more modern versions contain an additional 12 verses with testimony from Mary Magdalene and 11 apostles referring to the resurrection of Jesus. "It shows how much this is a dynamic process of editing and adaptation," he said, but also raises questions about the influence man has had on texts regarded by Christians as divinely inspired.

Researchers and plunderers have particularly coveted the Codex because the texts were written so soon after the life of Jesus, and they are the largest and longest-surviving Biblical manuscript in existence, including both the Old and New Testament. In addition, the Codex contains two Christian texts written around 65 A.D., the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas.

Until the mid-1800s, the complete Codex was housed inside St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, Egypt. But the texts were broken up when visitors bribed, cajoled or deceived monks into letting certain sections be removed for further examination in Russia, Britain and Germany. "They were never returned," said Greek Orthodox Archbishop Damianos of Sinai. "The monastery felt a great injustice was done." He said disappearance of the texts led to upheaval in the monastery, and because of lingering resentment, the monks at St. Catherine's had been "a bit reluctant to respond positively" when asked to participate in the current project In particular, he singled out Britain for criticism because of what he described as the underhanded manner in which it obtained its texts and its longtime refusal to return them. Nevertheless, he said, the monastery agreed to join the digitization project.

Other parts of the manuscript that had been taken to Russia disappeared after the 1918 Bolshevik Revolution and were feared lost forever. They did not reappear until the mid-1940s and are now kept at the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. McKendrick said the Codex was originally produced on high-grade papyrus with state-of-the-art ink and pens - the best available at the time. Similarly, the new digitization project will use some of today's most advanced technology, he added. "So in a sense, we'll be matching 4th century cutting-edge technology with cutting-edge 21st century technology."

Greeks 'borrowed Egyptian numbers' BBC - September 2003