Mythical or Real? Part 4

This week, we look into a famous temple and an infamous labyrinth.

6. Ain Dara (Solomon’s Temple), Syria – 1000 BCE

Armed conflict destroyed Ain Dara in northwestern Syria in 2018. In the 1980s, some archaeologists had identified it as the 3,000-year-old temple mentioned as Solomon’s Temple in the Bible. The ancient site shared more features with the temple described in the Book of Kings than any site uncovered before or since. It included walls carved in reliefs of lions and cherubs, a courtyard paved in flagstones, a monumental staircase guarded by sphinxes, and a multistory hallway. Even its location—on a raised platform overlooking a city—echoes the temple’s depiction in the Bible.

Although the bombing and plundering of the site prevents archaeologists from finding any more evidence of its history, some of its most important artifacts can be seen at the National Museum of Aleppo.

 

7. Kastelli (Minotaur’s Labyrinth), Greece – 2000 BCE

While building a new airport on the island of Crete, workers uncovered something unexpected. With a central circular building surrounded by eight stone rings intersected by walls, the site resembled the style of tomb constructed by the Minoan civilization around 2000 to 1700 BCE. But to anyone familiar with Greek mythology, it also looked like the Minotaur’s labyrinth.

The Minotaur was a ferocious creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man who was trapped in a maze built by the Greek architect Daedalus. Every seven years, Athens sacrificed seven young men and seven young women to the monster until Theseus, a prince of the city, volunteered to kill the creature. Marking his route with a ball of thread, Theseus made his way through the labyrinth, murdered the beast, rescued the not-yet-dead victims, then followed the thread back to safety.

Although archaeologists are still studying Kastelli, its architectural similarities to the mythical maze, combined with evidence of ceremonial offerings and communal feasting that was found at the site, suggest that it was part of the story’s origin.

Kastelli is not open to the public, but Knossos, the ancient palace that was previously believed to be the site of the Minotaur’s labyrinth, is.

Mythical or Real? Part 3

 This week, we explore an abandoned Norse settlement in North America and a ‘Lake of Gold’ in South America.

4. L'Anse Aux Meadows (Vinland), Newfoundland – 1000 CE

For a long time, explorers searched for evidence of Vinland, a place described in the 13^th century Greenlanders’ Saga as having lush meadows, teeming salmon and wild grapes. If the legend was true, the site was briefly settled by Leif Erikson and his crew around 1000 CE. That would make it the first place “discovered” by Europeans in the New World. That settlement preceded the arrival of Christopher Columbus by almost 500 years. When they found evidence of Norse-designed sod-walled buildings on the far north coast of Newfoundland in Canada in the 1960s, archaeologists were hopeful that, at long last, Vinland had been found.

Soon, they identified European artifacts; a bronze cloak pin, a spindle whorl, a gilded fragment of brass, and a place for smelting and working iron. Scholars were convinced that they’d stumbled upon the fabled Vinland. They still continue to study the long-held secrets of this site today. It is called the L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, and it includes reconstructions of the original dwellings where Vikings lived (on-and-off) for about twenty years.

 

5. Lake Guatavita (El Dorado), Colombia – 1541 CE

Spanish conquistadors first described a mythical South American kingdom of unfathomable riches ruled by El Rey Dorado in 1541. According to what they said, this chief’s initiation rites included covering himself in gold dust and ceremonially dropping treasure into the center of a sacred lake. In the centuries that followed, explorers searched for the kingdom of “El Dorado” throughout Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil, but never found it. Eventually, they gave up.

But that doesn’t mean the story is completely false. Juan Pablo Quintero-Guzman, an archaeologist and the curator at Colombia’s Museum of Gold, says that “All lakes in the Muisca territory were places of offering.” He believes that similar rituals were carried out in some lakes but that Lake Guatavita was, from 600 to 1600 CE, the place where this ritual was performed the most often.

For the past 400 years, numerous artifacts have been pulled from Lake Guatavita. These artifacts include tumbaga (an alloy of gold and copper), emeralds, human-like clay vessels, hair, cotton, and animal skulls. Quintero-Guzman has evidence that rituals were taking place at the water’s edge, possibly at a temple or a ceremonial site intended for making offerings. His findings do not definitively prove that Lake Guatavita was the site spoken of by the conquistadors, but they do not contradict the possibility, either. At least for now, the chiefdom of Guatavita seems to be the most likely origin of the myth.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/nine-mythical-places-archaeologists-think-may-have-actually-existed/ar-AA1pZfYc?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=81421580eeb740c9bf0eb1832cd5508b&ei=66