Saturday 11 June 2011

The Ancient Puzzle With No Solution


When archaeologists unearthed a treasure trove of Bronze Age artefacts they must have thought they had hit the jackpot. However, on closer inspection, the find seemed more like an ancient jigsaw puzzle with no solution - thousands of broken figurines, none of which fit together. Now researchers believe the mysterious figurines, which were crafted and then deliberately broken, are evidence of a Bronze Age ritual.

It is thought the mysterious rite took place about 4,500 years ago on the Aegean island of Keros, recently excavated by the Cambridge-Keros project. Led by Professor Colin Renfrew from the University of Cambridge, the team found a single piece of each smashed statuette had been taken to Keros and buried in shallow pits.

2 comment(s):

Anonymous said...

This sounds like the idea for a great short novel -- an unexpected prequel to the situation at hand.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I'm wrong, but a lot of these look like buttocks. Are you sure they are shards of one piece or separate pieces of multiple fertility figurines?