4,000-year-old temple discovered in Cyprus

I can't believe this has not been posted here at ATS! It is a few day's old but I think it is an important story:

The following is from

Worldview

MSNBC


NICOSIA, Cyprus - An Italian archaeologist claimed Friday to have discovered Cyprus' oldest religious site, which she said echoes descriptions in the Bible of temples in ancient Palestine.

Maria Rosaria Belgiorno said the 4,000-year-old triangular temple predates any other found on the east Mediterranean island by a millennium.

"For sure it's the most ancient religious site on the island," she told The Associated Press from her home in Rome. "This confirms that religious worship in Cyprus began much earlier than previously believed."

But authorities on the island say they cannot confirm her claim before further study.

"That the site is dated to around 2,000 B.C. is certain, but the interpretation that it's a temple or a sacred site has yet to be confirmed," Cyprus Antiquities Department official Maria Hadjicosti told state radio.

The 200-sq.-meter (2,150-sq.-foot) building was discovered last year outside Pyrgos, a village near the south coast, where previous digs unearthed a settlement dating to 2,000 B.C. that included a perfumery, winery and a metal workshop.

Belgiorno, who heads an Italian archaeological mission in Cyprus, initially disclosed the find to English-language The Cyprus Weekly.

She said evidence points to a monotheistic temple with a sacrificial altar that resembles Canaanite places of worship described in the Bible.



For more information about this story follow this link: Temple

I think the reporter may have gotten the village name wrong. There is a Kato pyrgos on Cyprus but I'm unaware of a village called just Pyrgos. I believe they have left off part of the name.

Pyrgos means tower or castle/fortification, and there are lot of ruins that one can call that. I suspect it's named after one of the Bzyantine/Venetian towers that were built to deal with Arab slave raiders.

The name should be 'XXXXX' pyrgos or the tower of XXXXX.

First temple? Probably not, that would probably go to the Kalavasos-tenta dig done by Ian Todd from 1979 to 1984.

It could also be near the district/neighborhood of Pyrgos in Limassol.

If I'm right on the name being spelled wrong/missing a part (not that uncommon when moving Greek letters to English) this new discovery may be in the same area as Kalavasos.

[edit on 1/4/09 by Hanslune]

reply to post by tsrk30


Here's the antiquities page on the official Pyrgos website.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Yep that's the Limassol Pyrgos