#myceneaen

[marysmirages]

Fallen Hero (2021)

[peashooter85]

Gold decorated hilt of a Mycenaean bronze sword, 2nd millennium BC

[traffickingculture]

Aidonia Treasure

by Neil Brodie

The Aidonia Treasure is a collection of Mycenaean gold and jewelry returned to Greece in 1996 and thought to have been robbed from a cemetery at Aidonia in the late 1970s.

Aidonia is a village ten kilometres northwest of Nemea in the northeastern Peloponnesian district of Corinthia in Greece. In November 1976, a Mycenaean (fifteenth-century BC) cemetery was discovered not far from the village, and the tombs were dug out illegally by local archaiokapiloi (a term used for looters in Greece) (Miller 1997: 40; Waxman 2007: 347). There were reports of a gun battle between rival gangs of archaiokapiloi, and evidence that local government officials had sanctioned and even participated in the plunder (Miller 1997: 43; Waxman 2008: 347). Looted objects were rumoured to have been smuggled out of Greece hidden in watermelons (Miller 1997: 41).

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