- Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:08 pm
#2821
Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe
A clay tablet over 3,000 years old that is considered Europe’s oldest readable text has been found in an ancient refuse pit in southern Greece, a US-based researcher claimed on Tuesday, April 5.
Click on the image to read more:
An undated handout photo shows a clay tablet over 3,000 years old that is considered Europe's oldest readable text has been found in an ancient refuse pit in southern Greece. The sun-dried tablet was found near the hilltop village of Iklaina in the western Peloponnese peninsula. AFP/CHRISTIAN MUNDIGLER
The tablet, an apparent financial record from a long-lost Mycenaean town, is about a century older than previous discoveries, said Michael Cosmopoulos, an archaeology professor at the University of Missouri-St Louis.
”On one side it has a list of names and numbers, on the other a verb relating to manufacture,” Cosmopoulos told AFP by email.
”It is the oldest tablet from a stratified deposit from the Greek mainland, and consequently from Europe,” he said.
The sun-dried tablet was found near the hilltop village of Iklaina in the western Peloponnese peninsula, surviving purely by accident when the refuse pit was set on fire and baked the clay.
National Geographic
A clay tablet over 3,000 years old that is considered Europe’s oldest readable text has been found in an ancient refuse pit in southern Greece, a US-based researcher claimed on Tuesday, April 5.
Click on the image to read more:
An undated handout photo shows a clay tablet over 3,000 years old that is considered Europe's oldest readable text has been found in an ancient refuse pit in southern Greece. The sun-dried tablet was found near the hilltop village of Iklaina in the western Peloponnese peninsula. AFP/CHRISTIAN MUNDIGLER
The tablet, an apparent financial record from a long-lost Mycenaean town, is about a century older than previous discoveries, said Michael Cosmopoulos, an archaeology professor at the University of Missouri-St Louis.
”On one side it has a list of names and numbers, on the other a verb relating to manufacture,” Cosmopoulos told AFP by email.
”It is the oldest tablet from a stratified deposit from the Greek mainland, and consequently from Europe,” he said.
The sun-dried tablet was found near the hilltop village of Iklaina in the western Peloponnese peninsula, surviving purely by accident when the refuse pit was set on fire and baked the clay.
National Geographic
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