Neolithic town unearthed near "entrance to underworld"

The large underground cave may have been seen as the entrance to the mythic Greek underworld, and the ancient town is thought to have been an important ritual and settlement complex during the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age.

Excavations at the cave at Alepotrypa in southern Greece suggest that the Greek concept of the underworld, on display at Hierapolis, may have originated in the Neolithic period. The entrance to the cave collapsed 5,000 years ago, preserving evidence that Neolithic people lived there, and that others made pilgrimages there from afar to bury their dead.

Millsaps College archaeologist Michael Galaty, who works at the site with a team led by Greek archaeologist Giorgos Papathanassopoulos, says his colleagues believe the site took on mythological significance. “Giorgos thinks that when the cave collapsed and everyone left, they took this cultural memory with them of an underground realm where they buried the dead,” says Galaty. “This could be the source of the Greek fascination with the underworld.”

However, William Parkinson of The Field Museum said that some 2,000 years after the settlement at Ksagounaki was abandoned, the Mycenaeans built a structure there and filled it with the bones of dozens of individuals,

Late Bronze Age pottery, stone beads, ivory, and a bronze Mycenaean dagger. Perhaps the Neolithic buildings had drawn the attention of the Mycenaeans to this natural wonder. (The recently discovered grave of a man and woman who had been buried together in an embracing position some 6,000 years ago was found at Diros.)