Poliochni
Poliochni ( Greek Πολιόχνη ) is a prehistoric city on the Greek Aegean island of Limnos . The oldest of the seven archaeological excavation layers indicate the earliest settlement in the 5th or 4th millennium BC. BC, which Poliochni also earned the nickname “the oldest city in Europe”. Poliochni reached the height of its urban development in the Early Bronze Age between about 3200 and 2000 BC. Chr.
Early history
The island's location in the north-eastern Aegean, in the immediate vicinity of the Dardanelles ( Hellespont ) strait , made it a cultural and economic center of this region from an early age. Poliochni, located near Cape Voskopos in the southeast of the island, was in the early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC. BC grew into a walled coastal settlement, had a sewage system, paved streets and communal meeting places. Opposite the city was Troy on mainland Asia Minor . Another settlement from this period was discovered during excavations on the small offshore island of Koukonisi .
The original Poliochni was made in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Destroyed and abandoned, possibly an earthquake was the cause, alternatively conflicts are assumed. During the 2nd millennium BC There were only temporary repopulations.
present
The ruins are one of the island's attractions and archaeological finds from the early Poliochnis era are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum in the main town of Myrina . The Greek state has awarded the archaeological site of Poliochni the European Heritage Label .
literature
- Luigi Bernabò Brea : Poliochni. Città preistorica nell'isola di Lemnos. L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 1964 (2 volumes).
- Eva Alram-Stern, Florens Felten : The Aegean Early Period. Series 2., Research Report 1975–2002, Vol. 2., The Early Bronze Age in Greece with the exception of Crete. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3268-9 , pp. 913–928.
Web links
- Poliochni III. Scavi e Restauri 1986-1998 (Italian)
- Poliochni ( Memento of October 23, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) in the Archaeological Atlas of the Aegean
Coordinates: 39 ° 51 ′ 15 ″ N , 25 ° 20 ′ 37 ″ E