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Greek hiker finds 6,500-year-old pendant
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-17 08:34
A Greek hiker found a 6,500-year-old gold pendant in a field and handed it
over to authorities, an archaeologist said Thursday.
An undated handout picture showing a
6,500-year-old gold jewel that has been picked up in a northern Greek
field by a hiker who handed it over to authorities, an archaeologist said
in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki on Thursday, Feb. 16,
2006. [AP] | The flat, roughly ring-shaped
prehistoric pendant probably had religious significance and would have been worn
on a necklace by a prominent member of society.
Only three such gold artifacts have been discovered during organized digs,
archaeologist Georgia Karamitrou-Mendesidi, head of the Greek archaeological
service in the northern region where the discovery was made, told The Associated
Press.
"It belongs to the Neolithic period, about which we know very little
regarding the use of metals, particularly gold," she said. "The fact that it is
made of gold indicates that these people were highly advanced, producing
significant works of art."
She said the pendant, measuring rough 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 inches, was picked up
last year near the town of Ptolemaida, about 90 miles southwest of the northern
city of Thessaloniki. Karamitrou-Mendesidi is to present the artifact at a
three-day archaeological conference that opened Thursday in Thessaloniki.
Greek police confiscated a hoard of 33 similar pieces of hammered gold
jewelry from smugglers in 1997.
The woman who found the pendant did not want a reward and wished to remain
anonymous, Karamitrou-Mendesidi said.
Similar finds have been excavated in modern Turkey and the Balkans,
particularly in Bulgaria.
Around 4500 B.C., when the pendant was made, Greece's early Neolithic farming
settlements were consolidating into structured trading centers with a developed
knowledge of metalworking.
In November, archaeologists announced the discovery of two prehistoric
farming settlements dating back as early as 6000 B.C. in the Ptolemaida region.
The settlement digs uncovered burial sites, clay and stone figurines of
humans and animals, pottery and stone tools.
Another 25 prehistoric settlements have been found in the
area.
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