The smallest dwarf mammoth, standing at less than 4 feet (or about 1 meter) at the shoulders, was apparently discovered on the island of Crete. Reports claim that the findings could help yield insight as to how giant animals can shrink to tiny sizes over evolutionary time.
Palaeontologists have long argued whether the remains belonged to
curvy-tusked mammoths or straighter-tusked elephants. Teeth discovered
more recently in the same area in Crete now suggest the animal was in
fact a mammoth, Mammuthus creticus. A newfound foreleg bone suggests it
was the smallest mammoth known, standing only about 3 feet 8 inches
(1.13 m) high at the shoulders and weighing only approximately 680
pounds (310 kilograms), making it about the size of a modern baby
African or Asian elephant. Mammuthus creticusis the first evidence for extreme island dwarfism in mammoths.
Scientists say that dwarfism often happens to species of large animals when they get trapped on islands, including dinosaurs. They also believe that dwarfism helps giants survive within the limits imposed by islands.
Ancient Mediterranean dwarf elephants are especially extreme examples of island dwarfism. Over the course of less than 800,000 years - a short stint on an evolutionary scale - these dwarfs are thought to have descended from larger European elephants, weighing 100 times as much, which lived on mainland Europe.
Given the scant fossils and the uncertainty about Crete's environment during this period, not much is known about how this dwarf might have lived. Still, its teeth do suggest it browsed on shrubs as opposed to grass like woolly mammoths. Returning to where these fossils were found to excavate more specimens is likely to be tricky.
Many ancient Greek and Byzantine golden jewels began being sold to the best buyer on Thursday at Christie’s Auction House in London. On the first day of this "smelly" auction a Greek myrtle wreath dated from the Hellenistic Period was apparently sold for over £181,000. The seller is unknown, as is the buyer.
The wreath, which is dated in the Hellenistic period (circa 3rd-2nd century B.C.), is composed of four hinged gold bands which are rounded on the exterior and flat on the interior. Each one of these are decorated separately with long spear-shaped leaves with a central midrib, and adorned with fruit on delicate wire stems. They contain detailed filigree calyx, while the terminals are composed of beaded and twisted wire bands. It has a row of tongues with twisted wire borders, three acanthus leaves with serrated edges and two laurel leaves with beaded borders that have modern loops and an S-clasp closure.
Editor's Note - These items are priceless and no auction house in the world can place a
price tag on items that are dated over 2,500 years. The price is ludicrous if one considers the work, and the uniqueness of this piece. These items belong to the Greek state and not some rich "wanna-be" who wants to enrich his or her collection. Our nation has been looted enough!
Archaeologists of the Third Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities recently discovered an underground aqueduct in a rural area in Megara, which is said to have been constructed in the 6th century BC. The excavation formed the initial part of the main ancient water supply system and was reported to have been designed by ancient Greek hydraulic engineer Eupalinos who is from this area.
The aqueduct, was unearthed in the area known as Orkos and is comprised of a network of shafts, cisterns and conduits that took advantage of the ground's natural downward slant ending up in the city's central water reservoir built in the 5th century BC, known as Theagenes' Spring or Fountain.
The Fountain House, built by Eupalinos in the first half of the 5th century BC (circa 500 BC), probably stands in the same place where a century earlier (6th century BC) the tyrant Theagenes had constructed a smaller fountain house, and thus is known as Theagenes' Fountain (Spring).
The front side of the building was occupied by a portico with five Doric columns, and at the back of this was a narrow cistern for the drawing up of water. Two more large cisterns, separated by a parapet, were used for the collection of water. The roof was supported by 35 octagonal columns made of poros stone, while the walls were built of large limestone blocks in the isodomic system. (AMNA)
After a nail-biting auction held at Christie’s South Kensington in London, the famous cup of Spyros Louis fell into Greek hands once again and according to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation will now be on display for all Greek people at its Cultural center which should be complete by 2015. Just a short while ago, the Foundation announced that it acquired the Breal’s Silver Cup, (which was the first award given to Greece at the first modern Olympic Games that were held in Athens in 1896) for some 450,000 pounds following a very heated auction. In a press release, the Foundation announced that it will place the cup on display at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center but in the interim, it will work to find a suitable and temporary location for display.
The Philhellenism movement that developed in Europe in the 19th
century was decisive for the development of the 1821 Revolution and the
creation of the modern Greek state. Their ideals: Freedom, justice, a vision and a dream.
Today a new movement has inspired people from all over the world to declare that they too are Greek (We are all Greeks). Has anyone wondered why? What is
their aim?
Find out at the unique event titled Philhellenism: Then and Now which is an open discussion planned to take place on Sunday, May 20th on Aegina island. The event, which is being organized by the Aegina Active Citizens’ Association, is set to take place at the Aegina Folk Art Museum. Participants include Historian Thanos Veremis, Economist Thanos Contargyris, novelist/writer Pedro Olalla and coordinated by Professor in Communications at Panteio University Dimitris Potamianos. Through the introductory talks of the speakers and the contributions of the audience an attempt will be made to answer these questions.
If you are planning to do your Easter shopping in Athens this week, then stop by the Hatzikyriakio Childcare Institution's Easter Bazaar that set up shop at the Syntagma metro. Items on sale include candles, faux jewelry, clothes, clothes, books, sweets and lots and lots of goodies. The items have great prices and with every sale you would be contributing to a wonderful cause. The Hatzikyriakio Childcare Institution is one of the oldest childcare centers in Greece. It was founded in 1889 by Ioannis Hatzikyriakos and his wife Marigo with the mission to take care of the orphaned and homeless girls in Greece. It hosts girls from the age of 6, coming from families with serious social and financial problems and offers, in addition to accommodation, care and emotional support as well as great educational opportunities in order to learn how to live as adults in a modern society.
The Akrotiri archaeological site on the island of Santorini is scheduled to finally open its doors during Orthodox Easter Holy Week after being closed for more than six and a half years, just in time to welcome visitors for the 2012 Greek tourist season. The site closed its doors to the general public in 2005 just prior to its completion. Fortunately no damages were recorded to the
antiquities, however the incident claimed the life o a UK tourist from Wales, and injured two Slovenian tourists, two Americans, a German and a Greek citizen, three of which were said to be seriously hurt. As a result of this, the site was closed to visitors.
No worries though, the new roof is rock solid and very safe. It was constructed from sturdy stainless steel and wood. So if you are in Santorini this summer make the prehistoric settlement a MUST on your itinerary..
Akrotiri is named for a modern Greek village situated on a hill nearby. The name of the site in antiquity is unknown.
It was buried by the widespread Theran eruption in the middle of the second millennium BC (during the Late Minoan IA period); as a result, like the Roman ruins of Pompeii after it, it is remarkably well-preserved. Frescoes, pottery, furniture, advanced drainage systems and three-story buildings have been discovered at the site, whose excavation was started in 1967 by Spyridon Marinatos.
Wikipedia says that Certain historians hold this settlement, as well as the disaster that left it unknown to most of history, as the inspiration behind Plato's story of Atlantis, as mentioned in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias. Excavated artifacts have been installed in a museum distant from the site (Museum of Prehistoric Thera), with many objects and artworks presented. Only a single gold object has been found, hidden beneath flooring, and no uninterred human skeletal remains have been found. This indicates that an orderly evacuation was performed with little or no loss of life.
A temporary exhibition dealing with one of the most contemporary and sensitive issues and showcasing stolen artifacts that have been reacquired, titled "End to Antiquities Trafficking", is scheduled to open in April and run through September at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. A total of 170 artifacts from the Museum's collections, the 6th and 7th Ephorates of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities will be on display in the six sections of the exhibition, as well as archive material from the culture and tourism ministry's protection of cultural treasures directorate. The first section, titled "The Abduction of History", will feature a review of antiquities smuggling and illegal trafficking of cultural treasures from antiquity to the present, with the display of 101 artifacts of recent antiquities smuggling from Macedonia, coming most likely from an Archaic period cemetery. The showcase exhibits of the second section, titled "Antiquities without a Past", will be two stolen and retrieved gold wreaths: a golden wreath from a Thessaloniki Aristotelion University (AUTH) excavation at the Vergina archaeological site which will be on loan from the Archaeological Museum of Pella and a golden funerary wreath returned by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2007. Finally, the third section, titled "Lands without History", will feature five stolen Cycladic statuettes now in the Thessaloniki Archaeology Museum's collections. (AMNA)
Poets, writers, representatives from publishing houses, and people from the arts including musicians and dancers marched from the National Library to Syntagma square in Athens on Wednesday in an anti-austerity protest spreading hope to passers-by with verses of major Greek poets. Instead of the usual slogans against cuts on salaries and tax hikes imposed by the government, artists raised banners with verses of Odysseas Elytis such as "Make a leap faster than decay" or "If you can' t find spring, make it." Passers-by were also given copies of verses by poetry masters such as Dionysios Solomos (the author of the Greek national anthem) and students from the Greek National School of Dance performed short theatre plays. The overall aim of the march was to show people that they can overcome disappointment and anger and find hope to tackle current difficulties by paying homage to Greece's rich cultural heritage.
Artists from around the world are sending their own message of solidarity to the Greek people, in an event dedicated to the motto "We Are All Greeks" through comic design and art. The works of 32 distinguished foreign cartoonists are now being exhibuted at the Cacoyannis Foundation which has dedicated itself in diffusion of the masterpieces of Visual Arts. The exhibition titled "Solidarity: Value democracy and civilization" involves the participation of 32 cartoonists from France, Ireland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Romania, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina as well as other countries. The artists replied swiftly and positively to the call for action by the new movement "We are all Greeks" which began on the web and spread worldwide. The presentation, which will be held until Sunday, will then travel across Greece. The Michael Cacoyannis Foundation is a privately funded not-for-profit cultural institution based in Tavros-Athens, supervised by the ministries of Economy and Finance, Culture and National Education and Religious Affairs and was ratified by a 2004 Presidential Decree.
How To Get there
Buses:
049 (Piraeus-Omonia), Tavros stop
914 (Omonia – Lachanagora – Palaia Kokkinia), Tavros stop
One of the largest ancient theatres is that of Dodoni, the restoration of which has been mulled by the Culture Ministry for many decades. It is a fact that the Dodoni Theatre, near Ioannina in northwestern Greece, which was built in the 3rd century B.C., has suffered a large number of alterations as well as natural damages that have altered its initial form, with the main contributors being the extreme weather conditions prevailing in the area and changes made to the monument during the Roman era, in which the theatre was converted into an arena, as well as restorations made in 1960 which gave shape once again to the devastated monument, but not always in the best way. Moreover its opening to public and operation for approximately three decades added extra problems to the already existing ones.
However, since 2002, the monument has been closed to spectators, and after a plethora of studies, autopsies and recommendations for solutions to the major problem faced in restoring the Theatre, mainly the fragile ancient material, the Theatre is now undergoing restoration with the 'blessings' of the Central Archaeological Council, which gave the thumbs up for the project after inspecting the work carried out on one section of the Theater in a pilot stage. (ΑΜΝΑ)
The 21st annual Cairo International Children's Film Festival opens at the Cairo Opera House on March 23, with Greece as the guest country of honour and the participation of 60 countries. The guest personality at this year's Festival, which runs through March 30, is renowned Greek sociologist, children's books author and criminology professor at Reading University, Dr. Eugene Trivizas.
The opening ceremony will take place on March 23 at the Cairo Opera House's main hall. The competition section of the Festival contains 30 feature films for children up to 14 years of age (fiction), 30 short documentary and educational films and 55 cartoon films from around the world produced in the last two years.
Greek film screenings will include "The Child and the Tree" by Panagiotis Reppas and Eugene Trivizas, "The Children are Not Playing" by Angeli Andrikopoulou and Argyris Tsepelikas, and "The Village" by Stelios Polychronakis.
A dedication to Greek children's cinema will be held in the contest of the Festival, with a selection of 11 of the best Greek films for children of the last few years to be screened at several venues in the Egyptian capital, in collaboration with the Greek Center for Cinema, while workshops for children will also be held. While in Cairo for the Festival, Trivizas will meet with pupils of the local Greek Schools at a special event. (AMNA)
As we all know Greece, the cradle of European culture, is bankrupt, even though our leaders will not openly admit that. The public coffers have run out of funds for the arts and it does not look like they will receive any more funding from the state, nonetheless Greece's artists haven't stopped working. By grouping in teams, and playing in various locations Greek artists are trying to stay afloat and are now seeking novel ideas and venues to make a living. The rigid budget cuts will leave more suffering, and the last remnants in politics have been lost, and this has angered many of our rising talent. Some say that things have to change, and but add that this cannot allow people in their industry to give up. One such idea is the Blitz theater, where artists are allowed to basically "do what they want". The theater became a site for experiment and exchange, something that is very unique in Athens. In the middle of Greece's crisis the Blitz Theater Group is seeking a new type of theater, and trying to make its way through this difficult crisis.
Greek archaeologists lodged an appeal to their European counterparts (as well as decision makers) with the aim of defending Greece's cultural heritage amid cuts in the national budget to maintain sites that include those around the 2,500 year-old Acropolis in Athens.
The austerity packages and authoritarian measures that are currently tearing apart Greece and its monuments, are going to be imposed across Europe said the Association of Greek Archaeologists said in a statement. The association said that the budget of the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s archaeological service was slashed by nearly 35 percent, to no more than 12 million euros in 2011 and is going to drop further in 2012.
The associations' 7,000 ministry employees, including 950 archaeologists and 2,000 guards, are responsible for almost 19,250 archaeological sites and monuments around the country as well as 106 museums and collections of prehistoric, classical and Byzantine antiquities. They are also monitoring some 366 projects and hundreds of excavation works.
Two ancient artifacts, believed to have been the product of the illicit antiquities trade, were returned to Greece on Friday from the California-based Getty Museum. According to a state news report, the repatriated items were sections of a carved relief depicting two female forms - a prime example of sculpture produced by 5th-century-B.C. workshops in Attica - and a tablet dated to 430-420 B.C. with an inscription recording the religious calender of Thorikos, a small town in southeast Attica,
Both antiquities will briefly remain at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The carved relief will then be rejoined and returned to the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Museum in Athens, where it will be placed on display, and the tablet will be transferred to the Epigraphic Museum.
The repatriation was carried out following a memorandum of cooperation signed in September by Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos and the CEO of the J. Paul Getty Museum James Cuno on promoting scientific research, promoting Greece's cultural heritage and preventing the illegal trade in antiquities.(AMNA)
It was perhaps fitting that when workmen came across a haul of 1,400 ancient Greek silver coins, some 2,500 years old, they should do so in Rafah. A number of ancient Greek relics were discovered in southern Gaza Strip, a Hamas official in Gaza said Monday. “These pieces include pottery fragments, black basalt rocks and a piece painted with the Red Cross, in addition to the discovery of some walls and arches and a large number of ancient coins,” said Asa’ad Ashour, protection director in the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of the deposed Hamas government.
The Ministry had put its grip on the site of ancient ruins on the border town of Rafah after it was found by accident. The Ministry also launched a project to excavate and document “Tel Zo’rob” Archaeological site, when it found a long narrow basement under the ground end up with a large rock. “The site was discovered by workers by coincidence, so we came and put our grip on it because it’s considered an ancient ruins site,” said Ashour, adding that “it still requires a lot of hard work and exploration.” “It’s like a narrow passage located underground which is built in a sort of descending stairs, at the end of this passage is the border line with Egypt and we discovered some ancient letters on the rock,” he added
It is Carnival time! The "Apokria season" which started on the Sunday of Teloni and Fariséou and will end on on Sunday night with the burning of the Carnival King might be taking place at a time when Greece is going through a debt crisis, but this will in no way bring down the spirits of all Hellenes who are prepping up for a much needy three day weekend. Most are heading down to Patras for the carnival of carnivals to enjoy the grand parade with over 300,000 people, numerous floats, a chocolate war with 1,000,000 chocolates ready to be devoured and let us not forget loads and loads of Marodafni wine! Over 40,000 people are expected to participate in this year's event while it was reported that many of the unique characters that will decorate the floats this year include the characters of Nikolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and few other of our "troika friends". At the same time many other carnivals will be taking place all over the country in the run up to Lent Monday.
An exhibition entitled "Byzantium - Masterpieces from Greek Collections" is set to travel to the US in the autumn of 2013, where Americans will be able to view over 300 masterpieces from Greek museums (public and private collections) as well as get an up close feel on various archaeological finds from recent excavations. The event will first be displayed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, followed by the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. The aim of the exhibit is to familiarise the American public with the Hellenic civilization throughout the Byzantine era, and as such will cover the period 330 AD to 1453 AD otherwise known as the Byzantine era. This event will be enhanced by a second, equally significant, exhibition being prepared by the Greek government in collaboration with National Geographic magazine.
Greek artists will present their works, for the second consecutive year, at the Grand Palais des Beaux Arts, in the Champs Elysees in Paris. The exhibition, titled "Artistes Independants", will open on November 22 and run through November 27 and present works that focus mostly on the spirit of the times, such as biodiversity,
the presence of garbage, the miracle of the Greek landscape and nature,
visual poetry, erotism and exaggeration.
The "Artistes Independants" exhibition is a very old institution in France in which famous painters such as Toulouse Lautrec, Marc Chagall, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Braque and others have presented their works. The Greek pavilion will present paintings and sculptures by twenty artists who work and live in Greece and abroad.
The articles posted on HellasFrappe are for entertainment and education purposes only. The views expressed here are solely those of the contributing author and do not necessarily reflect the views of HellasFrappe. Our blog believes in free speech and does not warrant the content on this site. You use the information at your own risk.
Search This Blog
FUND RAISING CAMPAIGN
Our present funding campaign will run until the end of 2019. It is not pleasant for us to ask our readers to do so, but there is no other way we can raise funds. Keep in mind that no amount is too large or too small, every single penny counts. So please join us in this fight by keep independent information alive and "interest" free. Support independent and alternative media by making a donation to HellasFrappe.
Posts
