Ariadne?

September 5, 2024 9:28 AM

Although archaeologists have yet to thoroughly study Kastelli, its architectural similarities to the mythical maze, combined with evidence of ceremonial offerings and communal feasting found at the site, may suggest that it was part of the story’s origin [Smithsonian]
posted by HearHere (11 comments total)

Re Troy surviving for 4000 years: "Schliemann ... found nine cities, one on top of another, at the site of Hisarlik, which is now accepted by most scholars as the location of ancient Troy. However, he was unable to determine which of the nine cities had been Priam’s Troy, though he initially favored the second city from the bottom (Troy II)." (Eric Cline, italics mine)
posted by mittens at 9:57 AM on September 5 [3 favorites]

Ain Dara, a 3,000-year-old temple in northwestern Syria that some archaeologists identified as the biblical Solomon’s Temple in the 1980s

A very strange assertion given that Solomon's Temple would have been in Jerusalem... Wikipedia talks all about the similarities between Ain Dara and the Biblical description of Solomon's Temple, but surely this just tells us that the temple described in the Bible was a pretty normal temple for its time and place, not that the authors of the Biblical account forgot where their temple had been located?
posted by timdiggerm at 10:23 AM on September 5 [6 favorites]

I've read several books that suggested El Dorado was a fiction made up by the natives to get the Spanish to stop bothering them and go away.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 11:20 AM on September 5 [4 favorites]

Claiming that these sites "suggest" that they're connected to a significant piece of history, it feels like there's something reminiscent of every church having some saint's relics to encourage tourism/local pride.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:40 AM on September 5 [1 favorite]

I've read several books that suggested El Dorado was a fiction made up by the natives to get the Spanish to stop bothering them and go away.

I feel like telling foreigners who have come to your land in search of wealth that there's a city made of gold there would have the opposite effect.
posted by star gentle uterus at 11:42 AM on September 5 [2 favorites]

I think the strategy was to tell the foreigners that there's a city made of gold way over there, you can't miss it really, just keep going in that direction until you hit it...
posted by AdamCSnider at 12:34 PM on September 5 [7 favorites]

A very strange assertion given that Solomon's Temple would have been in Jerusalem... Wikipedia talks all about the similarities between Ain Dara and the Biblical description of Solomon's Temple, but surely this just tells us that the temple described in the Bible was a pretty normal temple for its time and place, not that the authors of the Biblical account forgot where their temple had been located?

Solomon is said to have gotten skilled artisans and materials from King Hiram to the north, and Ain Dara at minimum would have been in Hiram's sphere of influence.
posted by ocschwar at 12:55 PM on September 5 [2 favorites]

Minotaur, a ferocious creature...

Tell it to Borges
posted by BWA at 1:32 PM on September 5 [1 favorite]

Looking for more information on Kastelli, I found this article, and man, it must be hard to do construction in places like Greece. As the article notes, "construction work on Heraklion Airport in Kastelli has seen the discovery of no less than 35 archaeological sites." This particular one is being permanently protected and the radar put elsewhere, but I'm just imagining the architect of the site tearing their hair out as they have to redesign parts of it again and again.
posted by tavella at 2:07 PM on September 5 [1 favorite]

But so worth it. Imagine finding enough samples of Linear A to finally decipher it.

Then we'd know what the Linear A sample found in a Philistine site said.
posted by ocschwar at 5:56 AM on September 6 [1 favorite]

If the language itself is unknown, no amount of additional samples will make it understandable to us, unfortunately (unless they're conveniently multilingual themselves)!
posted by praemunire at 10:17 AM on September 6 [1 favorite]