ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND MARBLE GODDESS
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[ October 1st 2005 ]

Archaeologists excavating a 5,000-year-old town on the island of Crete have unearthed two life-sized marble statues of the Greek Goddesses Athena and Hera, Associated Press reports this morning. Both works have been dated between the second and fourth centuries, during the period of Roman rule.

According to AP, Gortyn, the Roman capital of Crete, was first inhabited around 3000 B.C., and was a flourishing Minoan town between 1600-1100 B.C. It prospered during classical and Roman times, and was destroyed by an Arab invasion in A.D. 824.

Archaeologists have so far discovered fortifications, temples, baths, a stadium and an early church of St. Titus on the island and will use the findings to chronicle Roman settlements as part of ongoing research.