there have been hundreds of thousands of archaeological finds in greece over the last 3000 years but which ones are the most startling the most curious the most mysterious here is our top 10 list of the most shocking archaeological finds in ancient greece number 10 the decapitated head of hermes athens 2020 a very troublesome and year of adversity a repair to a city sidewalk spits forth the giant stone head of hermes the greek god known as the messenger the massive head bears the god hermes’s signature swirling beard scornful lips

and blank pupil a size walked on for centuries in the bustling city of athens the head lay four feet below the pavement on fashionable iolo street what was it doing there all of this time apparently the relic was repurposed as a wall to support water pipes there’s a bit of a mystery here who would be arrogant enough and sacrilegious enough to debase a sacred statue in this way in ancient athens statues of hermes were placed at crossroads to protect travelers spartan invaders in 404 bc may have chopped the head off of the body which

begs the question where’s the rest of the statue a discovery like this shows how even during scary circumstances the country of greece is the gift that just keeps on giving up spectacular sometimes spooky treasures number 9 the athenian curse jar it’s 2006. american archaeologist marcy handler digs deep beneath the athens agora the central marketplace of ancient greece she unearths a 2 300 year old jar containing a dismembered chicken and a coin a death curse along with the names of 55 targeted people is scratched on its

surface the ritual enacted is almost identical to the binding the enemy spells that is still practiced by witches today the head and legs of the chicken in the jar were pierced with nails to cause bad luck or injure the targets the words we bind were scratched beside the 55 names to paralyze the enemy and keep them from acting the coin was payment to the spirits for carrying out the curse the existence of the scary athenian curse jar proves what we have always suspected that sympathetic magic using animal sacrifice

was practiced in ancient greece with a vengeance number 8 brain surgery in the byzantine era it’s 20 20. a team of anthropologists investigating the polio castro dig and dasos are stunned by a fine that compels them to ask the question how did byzantine doctors become such expert brain surgeons the team discovers 10 skeletons 4 women and 6 men who were successfully treated for head trauma and then went on to die a natural death one skull in particular dated from the 4th century a.

d bears the scar of a neurosurgery so incredibly complex that the team from adelphi university thought it surpasses today’s medical knowledge of the human brain once again scientists have been provoked by the possibility that ancient doctors may have been tutored by wiser beings from above or even somehow visited by more advanced physicians from the far future number seven the theopetra cave in thessaly it’s 130 000 years ago and you live in a 5 380 foot limestone cave with 43 other neolithic humans during the middle paleolithic period

your tribe cultivates wheat barley olives and wild pear about 11 of your diet consists of deer wild boars bears hares and badgers but you also keep sheep goats cattle and pigs you are definitely a carnivore your home is the thea petra cave in thessaly data from 2020 shows that it is the oldest human dwelling known to men remains at the site under excavation since 1987 show that neolithic peoples were lovers of dogs honey and jewelry the cave has been around since before the last ice age and in fact this weatherproof warm cavern boasts the

world’s first movable wall allowing early humans to shut out the cold number 6 the broken goddess idols from karos it’s 2750 bc sometime during the early bronze age you’re on a pilgrimage to the holy hill side known as cavos you disembark from a boat at keros island and ascend the hillside to 7 000 square feet of holy ground you see hundreds of spouting fountains lined with doll-sized figurines and marble drinking cups you are there to be healed by a goddess but to this day archaeologists do not know her name

in 1976 archaeologists stumbled on kaavos only to find crack dry fountains shattered cups and broken figurines were strewn everywhere for the next 20 years thousands of headless goddess figures would be cherry picked by tourists and sold on the black market to this day nobody really understands the meaning of these mutilated figurines that ranged from being tiny to the size of a small child what natural or hostile force deliberately smashed cavos to pieces is a mystery number five the golden treasures of mycenae

mycenae 1876 the german archaeologist schlaemann discovers a grave circle beneath the city hoarding the largest single deposit of gold ever found in history the grave called circle a contains jewelry weaponry and a death mask weighing 33 pounds in 1952 a greek archaeology team of archaeologists discovered more breathtaking valuables in an area called circle b many of these items were made from exotic materials such as amber glass ostrich egg silver and ivory the sheer opulence of its contents of these two graves brings up the question

about who owned them mycinenes were considered to be quite poor up until the 16th century when they finally beat the cretans that ruled them and built their own citadels there have been many theories as to who stowed their gold in such a remote rural place with one of the suspects being agamemnon the greek leader of the trojan wars however the world may never know for sure number four nestor’s cup the year is 1950.

an english archaeologist rummages through the human remains at pithakausei an ancient greek colony on the isla finding an ancient cracked ceramic cub decorated with black geometric designs the inscription on the side reads i am nestor’s cub good to drink from whoever drinks this cup empty straight away desire for beautiful crowned aphro fighty will cease him these lines are adjusting reference to nestor the legendary king of pillows in homer’s the iliad the king drinks from this cup to cure his impotence and make the ladies want

him aside from being the ancient equivalent of a coffee mug with a joke on its cup is significant for being the first example of known writing in the greek alphabet number three the hydroulas of dion it’s 1992 the ancient city of dion where the temple of dionysia stands is finally drained after a decade of flooding archaeologists searching the area find an array of copper tubes they are awed by the rarity of this find it is an intact water organ it is also known as hydraulis as the sound is driven by pressurized water

originally built in 3 bc by stastibius this precursor of the modern church organ featured a keyboard with 40 pipes it was an interesting instrument as it had a bit of a mind of its own once activated it played long notes with one tone until the sound collapsed with the disappearance of water pressure so it was more of a coral noise maker rather than an instrument number two the breath of apollo at delphi it is the 8th century bc fumes fill the air from the natural springs bubbling beneath the temple of apollo at delphi the poet virgil

describes of the delphian priest as pythia as she entered a trance neither her face nor hue went untransformed her wild heart grew large with passion taller to their eyes sounding no longer mortal she prophesied what was inspired from the god breathing near uttering words that not be ignored the god-breathing near was said to be apollo himself in 1892 a french team of archaeologists investigated the hot springs beneath the temple of apollo and found that it emanated ethylene gas ethylene gas causes loss of inhibitions

delusions and euphoria is it possible that the prophecies of pithia were simply the rantings of a woman who was under the influence or was she truly the divine channeler of apollo and finally number one the antikythera mechanism the first computer it’s the year 1900 a sponge diver trained in the art of holding his breath dives 55 feet into the mediterranean he discovers a roman wreck clinging to the sides of an undersea cliff near the island of antikythera he brings up rusted segments of what today is described as the first computer

in 1976 explorer jacques cousteau sunk his famous submarine called the diving saucer into the sea’s dark depths and filmed the wreck cousteau’s footage was later used in 2013 by a greek underwater antiquities team to finally find the rest of the mechanism’s parts and bring them to the surface the antikythera mechanism is one of antiquity’s true head scratchers it was assembled into a navigational astrolabe made of brass plates that interlock with gears mysterious figures from an unknown possibly extraterrestrial culture are

etched all over its exposed faces incredibly the antikythera mechanism is as accurate and precise as today’s navigational calculators nobody knows how the ancient romans happened to gain this technology that demonstrates such a sophisticated understanding of math and the cosmos more shocking archaeological discoveries await us the city to watch in the near future is athens greece as the refurbishing of its roads and infrastructure is unearthing all kinds of antiques such as the head of hermes that just accidentally popped

up from underneath a sidewalk ancient greece has often been described as one massive ongoing excavation project other areas of the country continue on with digs that were paused by the untimely circumstances promising to reveal more mysteries and treasures