What secrets of the ancient Greeks were revealed to scientists by the unusual island-pyramid of Daskalio

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Greek islands such as Crete and Santorini are famous for many beautiful things. There, stately white buildings line the slopes of the coastline, and donkeys can hardly make their way along paths that are inaccessible to cars. Tourists can take a break from sightseeing and contemplation of natural beauty in any of the delightful seaside taverns. The island of Daskalio is not particularly famous for all this. To the surprise of scientists, this is not an island with a hill at all, but a giant pyramid created during the very first pyramids of Egypt. What secrets of the ancient civilization does this unusual island keep?

Greece is considered the founding civilization of democracy. Its history goes back many thousands of years. The ancient Greeks left behind a lot of evidence of their former power. Archaeologists and historians have plenty to do as they search for evidence of how our modern world and its underlying philosophies have evolved.

About Dascalio

Daskalio Island, located off the coast of Keros Island, which is one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea. Dascalio was once part of Keros before the sea level rose.

Over the past almost six years since the beginning of excavations, archaeologists have discovered many artifacts, buildings and unusual sculptures. Researchers are completely immersed in the fascinating secrets of this small island in the Aegean Sea, about 200 kilometers from Athens. The island, of course, is not so famous and interesting to tourists, but, nevertheless, it is an incredibly vital place. The monumental structures found on the pyramidal island date back to earlier than the Minoan period and are about five thousand years old.

Secrets of Dascalio

The island is relatively small in size, but it contains a wealth of important historical and scientific data. They told scientists a lot about the origin of civilization in the area. According to experts, the community founded here is more than 4600 years old. The island itself is shaped like an Egyptian pyramid. Daskalio has the remains of intricate drainage systems and staircases, as well as other striking structures. All this proves that many thousands of years ago, the people who lived here were able to build such a complex society.

The pyramidal structure, which is hidden here under a layer of earth, looks like an ordinary earthen island with a hill from the side. In fact, it was built of white marble. Thousands of tons of it were delivered by ships here. This suggests that the ancient people were very skillful in transporting heavy stones by sea. There were no massive cargo ships back then. The marble was delivered in small wooden ships.

As part of the Keros-Cambridge project, archaeologists have been excavating Daskalio since 2015. A huge metalworking workshop was discovered here. In addition to smelting furnaces, researchers have found spearheads, axes, chisels, daggers, and more. All of this points to a community that has excelled in the incredibly complex and difficult craft of making tools and weapons. Among other things, raw materials were exported here from the mainland. The found workshops turned the historians' ideas about the ways of exchange. Also, these findings indicate that the beginnings of urbanization were already visible then.

According to Professor Cambridge and project co-director Colin Renfrew, all structures on Daskalio point to the extremely sophisticated skills of local builders and architects. The scientist says that he sees here a number of unusually complex architectural techniques, implemented in an absolutely wonderful and carefully thought-out way.

The origin and age of the architectural miracle

Dascalio is part of the Cyclades Islands, a group of small islands that experts believe date back to the early Bronze Age. This period existed between 3200 BC and 1050 BC. The island in particular dates back to around 2750 BC. Ruins, artifacts and other evidence found there indicate, according to scientists, that it is "the earliest marine sanctuary in the world."

Keros, the closest island to Daskalio, is uninhabited today. The remains of an ancient civilization were also found on it. Key structures indicate that the ancients knew a lot about complex architectural technologies. Keros was first explored and excavated in the 1960s. Since then, many important artifacts have been found on the island. Now experts have paid attention to the neighboring Daskalio. According to Professor Renfrew, there is a very clear feeling that the construction projects on Daskalio were led by a highly qualified architect with amazing construction acumen.

The exploration of the island of Daskalio transformed the scientific understanding of the Cycladic culture of the early Bronze Age. The early Greeks were much more advanced organizationally, technically and politically than scientists had previously assumed.

Greece is home to some of the earliest and most impressive archaeological sites in the world. Now the modern world has received fresh ideas and information about the highly developed ancient Greek society. Excavations on the island of Daskalio are still ongoing and scientists hope for new discoveries.

If you are interested in ancient history, read our article on how archaeologists have found an artifact in the biblical city that revealed the secret of the appearance of the first alphabet.