ancient Greece

Read the latest news and reports about ancient Greece on Newser.com

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Italy Might Be Seizing a Very Posh Bronze From US Museum

Country has been fighting in court for years with the J. Paul Getty Museum over 'Victorious Youth'

(Newser) - A European court on Thursday upheld Italy's right to seize a prized Greek statue from the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, reports the AP , rejecting the museum's appeal. The European Court of Human Rights determined that Italy's years-long efforts to recover the "Victorious Youth" statue...

Ancient Greeks Didn't Seem to Get Dementia


Ancient Greeks
Didn't Seem
to Get
Dementia
NEW STUDY
Feb 11, 2024 12:40 PM CST

Ancient Greeks Didn't Seem to Get Dementia

Findings bolster theories that cognitive decline is linked to modern lifestyle, environment

(Newser) - A new study that went deep into ancient Greek and Roman medical texts suggests that dementia was rare 2,000 to 2,500 years ago. HealthDay notes the analysis builds on the theory that modern cognitive decline is linked to lifestyle and environmental factors. The findings, published in Journal of ...

Evidence of 'New' Whale Behavior Found in Ancient Myth

Dismissed as inaccurate, old texts hold evidence modern scientists have missed: study

(Newser) - In 2011, researchers described what they thought was a new phenomenon. They'd observed humpback and Bryde's whales opening their jaws, then waiting for prey fish to swim into their waiting mouths, in what's been dubbed trap fishing, per Smithsonian . The practice has been observed at least a...

Scientists Closer to Solving Mysteries of Ancient Computer

Antikythera mechanism dates back 2K years, turned up in a shipwreck

(Newser) - Scientists say they've taken a huge step toward understanding how a remarkable device often referred to as the world's oldest computer actually worked. The 2,000-year-old "Antikythera mechanism" was a complex astronomical calculator used by the ancient Greeks, per the Guardian . But exactly how it would have...

'Incredible Find': World's Oldest Intact Shipwreck
'Incredible Find': World's
Oldest Intact Shipwreck
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 27, 2018 7:30 AM CDT

'Incredible Find': World's Oldest Intact Shipwreck

Likely a Greek trading vessel, it dates to 500 BC

(Newser) - "A ship surviving intact from the classical world, lying in over [a mile] of water, is something I would never have believed possible." Thankfully, lead investigator Jon Adams' expectations for a mapping project of the Black Sea have been upended along with our understanding of ancient shipbuilding and...

Epic Battle on Tiny Stone Could Change Greek History
Tiny Stone Holds
Unparalleled
Ancient Greek Art
In Case You Missed It
Nov 11, 2017 12:55 PM CST

Tiny Stone Holds Unparalleled Ancient Greek Art

'It's brought some people to tears'

(Newser) - The director of the British School at Athens tells the New York Times it's "a masterpiece of miniature art." The woman who discovered it had an even more profound reaction. "Looking at the image for the first time was a very moving experience," Shari Stocker...

Bones May Belong to Teen Sacrificed to Zeus

Giving credence to legends of human sacrifices in ancient Greece

(Newser) - An ancient legend tells of a man sneaking a human boy into an animal sacrifice to Zeus on Greece's Mount Lykaion and being turned into a wolf as punishment, the Washington Post reports. But despite Plato and others writing about ongoing human sacrifices, archaeologists have never been able to...

Aristotle's Lost Tomb May Have Finally Been Discovered

The philosopher died 2.4K years ago, but no one knew where he was buried

(Newser) - Nearly 2,400 years after his death, archaeologists believe they've finally found the tomb of Aristotle. Researchers made the discovery during a 20-year dig in the ancient Greek city of Stagira, reports Atlas Obscura . Aristotle was born there in 384 BC, but he died in a different city, Chalcis,...

Tablets in Ancient Grave Placed an Odd Curse

Greek curse-writer targeted owners of taverns

(Newser) - Talk about holding a grudge. Five lead tablets buried in the grave of a young Greek woman about 2,400 years ago bear curses against four tavern-keepers in Athens, LiveScience reports. Apparently, burying the tablets was thought to put the curses closer to gods who could fulfill them. "Cast...

This Stone May Be Key to Mysterious Yet Influential Ancient Culture

Little survives of the Etruscans, who helped shape ancient Rome and Greece

(Newser) - The Etruscans, a massively influential culture admired by both ancient Greeks and Romans, are largely a mystery to us today because much of their writing has perished, Ars Technica reports. That may change with a 500-pound slab of sandstone containing 70 letters and punctuation marks from the Etruscan language discovered...

Expedition Finds 'Ancient Shipwreck Capital of the World'

Archaeologists find 22 shipwrecks in less than two weeks

(Newser) - Teams from Greece and the US have made one of the biggest archaeological finds of the year, Discovery reports. While exploring Greece's Fourni archipelago, the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and RPM Nautical Foundation stumbled across what Smithsonian describes as an "artifact jackpot" and what Discovery says could...

Inside the Mystery of Alexander the Great's Dad

New study claims his dad wasn't buried where researchers thought

(Newser) - The bad news: The ancient tomb at Vergina believed to house Alexander the Great's father may in fact be the final resting place of someone else. The good news: King Philip II's tomb is just a few doors down, according to a new study—though not everyone is...

Fear of Zombies Stretches Back to Ancient Greece

In some cases, stones were placed on dead to keep them from roaming

(Newser) - The walking dead roamed ancient imaginations long before they found their way to your television , and the concept was far less fringe in ancient times. So say researchers inspecting 2,905 burials at the Greek colony of Kamarina in southeastern Sicily. Writing in the journal Popular Archaeology , University of Pittsburgh...

Ancient Greek Drinking Game Is Reborn

Kottabos involves hurling your wine at a target

(Newser) - What better place to re-create an ancient drinking game than a college campus? A teacher at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and her students kept up an ancient Greek tradition by playing kottabos, a game that involves hurling one's wine from a glass onto a target at the center...

Homer Wasn't 'a Person': Historian

Iliad , Odyssey were works of a culture, not a man: Adam Nicolson

(Newser) - When we think of The Iliad and The Odyssey, we shouldn't give credit to a single man, says a historian: "It's a mistake to think of Homer as a person," historian Adam Nicolson tells National Geographic . "Homer is an 'it.' A tradition. An...

Antikythera Mechanism Gives Up More Secrets

Device even more ancient than thought, experts say

(Newser) - The incredible Antikythera Mechanism , an astronomical calculator unlike anything else that appeared for the next 1,000 years, is a "device out of time," experts say—and they now have a better idea what time it is out of. The mechanism, which was apparently able to accurately predict...

New Evidence: Alexander the Great's Dad in Greek Tomb

Remains belong to Macedonian King Philip II, archaeologist says

(Newser) - Remains found in an ancient tomb at Vergina nearly 40 years ago belong to none other than Alexander the Great's father, Greek researchers say. Their evidence: The bones and cremated remains show signs of violence that jibe with the life of Macedonian King Philip II, a warrior who lost...

Greeks Unearth Biggest Ancient Tomb

Amphipolis site dates to time of Alexander the Great

(Newser) - Archaeologists in Greece are nearly ready to enter what they say is the biggest ancient tomb ever unearthed in the country. The tomb at the ancient site of Amphipolis in the Macedonia region, around 65 miles northeast of Thessaloniki, dates from around 300 BC—the time of Alexander the Great,...

Oldest Known Erotic 'Graffiti' Found in Greece

Phalluses, sexual boasting dating back to 5th century BC leave little to the imagination

(Newser) - Think phallic graffiti art exclusively belongs to the baseless present? Think again. An archaeologist has uncovered what the Guardian touts as the earliest erotic graffiti on the planet, found in Greece—and predating, in one case, even Athens' Acropolis . Since 2011 , Dr. Andreas Vlachopoulos has been directing fieldwork on the...

Poseidon's Ancient Wrath? Probably a Tsunami

Mythical event confirmed by modern seismologists

(Newser) - Herodotus tells it this way: As the Persians were charging toward a Greek town, the sea receded, and then mighty Poseidon sent a crushing wave down upon them, a "great flood-tide of the sea, higher than ever before." Now, modern scientists have found evidence that it actually happened,...

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>
Most Read on Newser