Ancient Greek Jar From 2,300 Years Ago Holds Curse Against 55 People

Ancient Greece Curse Jar
The “Curse Jar” found at the Athens Agora in 2006 has only recently been deciphered. Credit: Facebook/American School of Classical Studies in Athens

Archaeologists believe that a 2,300-year-old jar from Ancient Greece containing the bones of a dismembered chicken was likely used as part of a curse to paralyze and kill 55 people in Athens. The recent discovery brings new evidence to light regarding the use of magic n Ancient Greece.

“Curse tablets,” or thin sheets of lead inscribed with curses against a certain person, are well-known in Greece. They are commonly found underneath the ground after being buried there many centuries ago by the person who wanted someone to be cursed.

Curse jar
A drawing of the inscriptions on the “Curse Jar” found in the Athens Agora. Credit: Facebook/ American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

In a twist on this type of witchery, archaeologists recently discovered the pottery jar filled with chicken bones, along with a coin, underneath the floor of the Athens Agora’s Classical Commercial Building, which millennia ago was the site of craftsmen who plied their trades there.

Jessica Lamont, a professor of Classics at Yale University, wrote in an article published in the American School of Classical Studies in Athens’ journal Hesperia “The pot contained the dismembered head and lower limbs of a young chicken.”

Curse Tablets Common in Ancient Greece

The more commonly seen lead sheets containing curses often feature perforations made with nails; likewise, the person who cast this particular curse also thrust a large iron nail through the pottery jar containing the bones.

Lamont noted “All exterior surfaces of the [jar] were originally covered with text; it once carried over 55 inscribed names, dozens of which now survive only as scattered, floating letters or faint stylus strokes.”

The professor then added that the Greek writing uses words that may mean “we bind.”

Experts involved in the discovery believe that the nail and chicken parts together most likely played a role in the curse on the 55 different individuals. Nails, which are a common feature associated with ancient curses, “had an inhibiting force and symbolically immobilized or restrained the faculties of (the curse’s) victims,” Lamont stated in her scholarly article.

Archaeologists have determined that the young chicken had been slaughtered to be used as part of the ritual; they believe that the people who employed the magic may have wanted to transfer “the chick’s helplessness and inability to protect itself” to those they cursed by writing their names on the outside of the jar, Lamont stated.

She further explains that the head of the chicken, which had been twisted off, and its piercing along its the lower legs meant that the corresponding body parts in the 55 unfortunate people would also be similarly affected.

“By twisting off and piercing the head and lower legs of the chicken, the curse sought to incapacitate the use of those same body parts in their victims,” Lamont notes.

She goes on to state “The ritual assemblage belongs to the realm of Athenian binding curses and aimed to ‘bind’ or inhibit the physical and cognitive faculties of the named individuals.” The pottery vessel was discovered near several burned pyres that still contained the burned remains of animals—another aspect of the curse, according to Lamont, which may have been something believed to have increased the power of the curse.

But why?

The author of the academic paper states in an interview with Live Science that the style of the handwriting on the jar suggests that at least two individuals were responsible for writing the names on the vessel. “It was certainly composed by people/persons with good knowledge of how to cast a powerful curse,” maintained the author.

She went on to speculate that the elaborate, time-consuming ritual may have been part of a legal proceeding at the time.

“The sheer number of names makes an impending lawsuit the most likely scenario,” Lamont wrote in her paper, adding the “curse composers might cite all imaginable opponents in their maledictions, including the witnesses, families and supporters of the opposition.”

The rule of law was important in Ancient Greece and trials were not only a common occurrence in Athens but also attracted widespread attention and dispute.

Additionally, Lamont posits, the jar’s location, in a building used by craftspeople, including potters, no doubt may mean that the curse involved a dispute having to do with that workplace.

“The curse could have been created by craftspersons working in the industrial building itself, perhaps in the lead-up to a trial concerning an inter-workplace conflict,” Lamont theorizes in her article.

However, at the time, Athens and its surrounding regions were in the midst of political turmoil after the untimely death of Alexander the Great approximately 2,300 years ago.

After Alexander the Great died in 323 BC in what is now Babylon, Iraq in the middle of a military campaign, a military and political void was left, and his generals and other empire officials fought for control.

As Lamont explains, historical records show in great detail who the players were who fought in factions for control of the great ancient city during “a period plagued by war, siege and shifting political alliances.”

The pottery jar used as part of the curse was excavated in 2006 by Marcie Handler, a doctoral student in Classics at the University of Cincinnati at that time. However, its use as part of a magic curse was only brought to light after recent analysis and deciphering by Lamont.

The Glittering Gold of Mycenaean Greece

Mycenaean Greece gold
A gold Mycenaean death mask found in Greece. Credit: Sharon Mollerus / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Since the 19th century, several precious gold objects associated with the Mycenaean civilization have been discovered by archaeologists, predominantly at important burial sites where the royals and elite of Bronze Age Greece were buried.

The Mycenaeans were the first distinctly Greek culture to dominate mainland Greece during the late Bronze Age period between c. 1750 and 1050 BC. Their civilization was characterized by palatial states, advanced urban organization, and a written language dubbed Linear B by modern historians. It was during the Mycenaen age that the Trojan War purportedly happened, as retold in Homer’s Iliad.

The discovery of Mycenaean gold sheds light on the material culture of this enigmatic civilization but there are still many unanswered questions. For example, researchers are unsure whether the Mycenaeans crafted all of these items themselves, or whether they were obtained in trade and war.

Mycenaean Greece gold
Mycenaean gold ornaments. Credit: Gary Todd / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons

The Grave Circles at Mycenae

The most famous examples of Mycenaean gold were discovered in two grave circles uncovered at the ancient Bronze Age site of Mycenae. Grave Circle A was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 based on the descriptions of Homer and Pausanias. Grave Circle B was excavated in 1952 by archaeologists Ioannis Papadimitriou and Georgios Mylonas after workmen accidentally stumbled on the tombs a year before.

Both grave circles, dating back to the 16th century BC, contained impressive amounts of gold objects and other precious items. Unlike other Bronze Age tombs, they had not been discovered by the grave robbers and looted.

Grave Circle A contained 15 kg (33 lbs) of gold alone, making it one of the most substantial archaeological finds in all of Europe. Both grave circles contained hundreds of previous objects including jewelry, ornamental clothing attachments, decorated weapons, and highly distinctive funeral masks.

Grave Circle A
The Grave Circle An archaeological site at Mycenae. Credit: Andreas Trepte / CC BY-Sa 2.5 / Wikimedia Commons

The Death Mask of Agamemnon

The most iconic find is the so-called Death Mask of Agamemnon. Schleimann named the mask after the legendary Mycenaean King Agamemnon who led the Achaean Greeks in the Trojan War according to Homer’s Iliad. However, more recent research has indicated that the mask predates the time that Agamemnon was supposed to have lived by about three centuries.

The Mask of Agamemnon was crafted utilizing a single large gold sheet that underwent heating and hammering against a wooden surface. The intricate details were then added through the process of chasing, using a sharp tool to etch them onto the mask.

There were six other death masks discovered in Grave Circle A. Of the seven masks, six belonged to adult males and one to a child. None of the women discovered at the gravesite were buried with ornate masks.

The masks in Grave Circle A exhibit similar characteristics, featuring flat foil-like layers of gold depicting round, bald faces with round eyes and prominent ears. In contrast, Grave Circle B includes a death mask made of electrum, placed in a container next to a buried body instead of being placed on the deceased. The scarcity of death masks in Grave Circle B suggests that the interred individuals held lower wealth or status compared to the abundance of valuable material found in Grave Circle A, including the death masks.

Mycenaean Greece gold
Mycenaean death masks. The one on the right is the so-called “Mask of Agamemnon”. Credit: Zde / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Xuan Che / CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

The Royal Tombs at Pylos

The burials at Mycenae might have provided the most famous examples of Mycenaean gold, but they are not the only Bronze Age tombs where exquisite items have been found.

In 2019, a team of archaeologists discovered Bronze Age royal tombs situated near the royal palace of Pylos, said to have once been the seat of power for Nestor, the eldest among the Greek rulers who fought in Trojan War.

The larger tomb, which was once 12m (36 feet) wide and 4.5 meters (15 feet) deep, had stone walls that once stood as tall as the ground’s height. The underground chambers were originally covered by domes, but over time, the roofs and upper walls collapsed. Consequently, the tombs became buried beneath numerous melon-sized stones and a tangled mass of grape vines. In their excavation efforts, archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati, including Jack Davis, Sharon Stocker, and their colleagues, had to painstakingly clear away vegetation and manually remove the stones.

Mycenaean sword
Mycenaean bronze sword with a gold hilt and featuring a lion motif, from Grave Circle B, Mycenae. Credit: Gary Todd / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons

What they discovered, however, was extraordinary. Among the debris, the floors of the burial pits were adorned with shimmering flakes of gold leaf, which had once embellished the walls and floors of the chambers. The tombs, although lacking the remains of their occupants – suggesting a potential disturbance in the distant past – were nonetheless filled with opulent artifacts such as jewelry, gold, bronze, and gemstones.

A particularly interesting find was a gold pendant bearing the image of the Egyptian goddess Hathor who presided over motherhood and the protection of the dead. The Greeks during later periods drew parallels between Hathor and Aphrodite but it is not entirely clear what she meant to the Mycenaean Greeks during the Bronze Age. In any case, the artifact hints at trade links between the Mycenaeans and Egyptians at the time of the burials, which are believed to be about 3,500 years old.

Mycenaean Greece gold
A gold elliptical diadem. Credit: I, Sailko / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Gold Mining in Mycenaean Greece

As pointed out in an academic paper authored by  M. Vavelidis and S. Andreou, “Numerous objects of gold displaying an impressive variety of types and manufacturing techniques are known from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) contexts of Mycenaean Greece, but very little is known about the origin and processing of gold during the second millennium BC.”

This raises several questions, namely: where did the Mycenaeans source their gold from? Interestingly, the wider Argolid region in which Mycenae was itself located and where the discoveries were made of numerous stunning golden items, is bereft of gold. If the Bronze Age Greeks did their own mining it was therefore elsewhere in Greece.

According to Vavelidis and Andreou, “Ancient literature and recent research indicate that northern Greece is probably the richest gold-bearing region in Greece, and yet very little evidence exists regarding the exploitation of its deposits and the production as well as use of gold in the area during prehistory.”

Mycenaean earring
16th century BC Mycenaean earring. Credit: Louvre Museum / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Nevertheless, by examining the chemical composition of prehistoric artifacts from two settlements alongside the composition of gold deposits in their nearby regions, it becomes evident that gold was locally sourced in some parts of Greece. This finding also raises the possibility that a portion of the Mycenaean gold may have originated from northern Greece.

Furthermore, the discovery of small stone crucibles, one of which bore visible traces of gold melting, at the archaeological site of Toumba in Thessaloniki, proves that local production of gold items took place very early in ancient Greek history.

Beyond mining, the Mycenaeans may also have obtained gold via trade and war. In some cases, Mycenaean traders may have bought gold for Greek craftsmen to shape into various objects, and in other cases, they would have imported finished items.

The Mycenaeans were well-respected as warriors across the Eastern Mediterranean and sometimes fought in the armies of neighboring civilizations like the Egyptians as mercenaries. The leaders of these Mycenaean mercenary bands may have received gold as payments or gifts in exchange for their martial services.

The Greek Orthodox Monk Who Died Without Ever Seeing a Woman

Greek Orthodox Monk Mount Athos
The monastery of Saint Dionysios is one of several monasteries at Mount Athos. Credit: Fingalo, CC BY-SA 2.0 de/Wikipedia Commons

A Greek Orthodox monk on Mount Athos, the center of Orthodox monasticism, died at the age of 82 without ever seeing a woman. This is the story of Michael Tolotos. Born around 1856, Tolotos faced a tragic start to his life when his mother passed away a mere four hours after his birth.

With no father or other family members coming forward, the young boy found himself abandoned on the steps of a monastery situated atop Mount Athos. Fortunately, the monastery took him in and became his new home.

Here’s a newspaper clipping from the Edinburgh Daily Courier, dated October 29, 1938.

Greek Orthodox Monk

Bred and educated in the walled monastery, Tolotos never even once ventured past the gates of the monastery. Throughout this, a law passed in 1060 banning women and animals from Mount Athos was in force. It is a law that still stands to this day.

He lived his entire life in seclusion, shielded from the external world without ever encountering a woman or laying eyes on one. The monk was even given a special burial by all the monks living at Mount Athos who believed that he was the only man in the world to have died without knowing what a woman looked like.

He apparently had never seen a car or an airplane, and had never even seen a movie.

Greek Orthodox monk lived on the Holy mountain

Mount Athos, referred to in Greek as the “Holy Mountain,” is one of the most important centers of the Christian Orthodox world. Home to twenty monasteries under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, it is governed as an autonomous state within the Greek Republic.

The first monks arrived on Mt. Athos in the ninth century. Today, over two thousand monks from Greece and many other countries, including Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, and the United States, live an ascetic life on Athos, isolated from the rest of the world.

The monasteries house priceless collections of well-preserved artifacts, including rare books, ancient documents, and artworks of immense historical value. Mount Athos has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988.

Among the countless treasures and holy relics, the most precious and invaluable to Greek Orthodoxy are the Holy Gifts that are believed to have been offered by the three Magi of the East to the newborn Jesus.

To some outsiders, the simple communal life of the monks may seem archaic. However, for the men who have chosen to live there, it is a peaceful and even blissful existence.

Related: Mount Athos: A Monastic Community Where Time Stands Still

The 1,500-Year-Old Lady’s Sandals With Sweet Message in Greek

Sandals Byzantine
The ancient sandals were discovered almost intact in the Istanbul dig. Credit: Twitter/@NkayaMuhittin

A pair of 1,500-year-old lady’s sandals with a sweet message in Greek was discovered during a dig in Istanbul. The sandals have become one of the major attractions of the city’s archaeological museum.

There is a message in Greek on them which reads: “Use in health, lady, wear in beauty and happiness.”

The astonishing find was discovered during digs prompted by the Marmaray project, the undersea railway tunnel connecting the Asian and European sides of Istanbul under the Bosporus.

The excavations, which started in 2004, have revealed new historical aspects of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Some sixty thousand artifacts, unearthed over a span of around nine years, are being preserved in the Istanbul Archeological Museum until a special museum is built to house them, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reports.

The Byzantine Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD and continued to exist for another thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.

Sandals belonged to a Greek woman

Scientists say the sandals discovered are more than 1,500 years old, and they belonged to a woman. The Byzantines loved color and patterns, and they made and exported very richly patterned cloth, especially Byzantine silk, which was woven and embroidered for the upper classes and resist-dyed and printed for the lower.

Modesty was important for all, and most women appeared to be almost entirely covered by rather shapeless clothes. There has been a considerable amount of footwear recovered in this excavation project, with sandals, slippers, and boots to the mid-calf, commonly seen in manuscript illustrations, which were also found in the dig. Many of the items are richly decorated in various ways.

The color red, reserved for Imperial use in male footwear, is actually by far the most common color for women’s shoes. Purses are rarely found and seem to have been made of textile matching the dress or perhaps tucked into the sash.

Byzantine sandals
Byzantine men’s shoes of partially gilded leather, 6th century. Credit: Walters Art Museum/Public Domain

Istanbul excavations reveal gems from Byzantine Empire

The excavations have found the first traces of civilizations from different periods, including the skeletons of the first Istanbulites. Other finds included 8,500-year-old footprints; the Harbor of Eleutherios (Theodosius), a port known in world literature—no traces of which had been found previously; and the world’s largest medieval sunken ship collection. In addition, there were sixty thousand animal bones of fifty-seven species, along with plant fossils.

The Harbor of Eleutherios, which was one of the ports of ancient Constantinople, is located beneath the modern Yenikapi neighborhood of Istanbul. It was built at the mouth of the Lycus River, which ran through the city to the Propontis.

The harbor was built in the late fourth century, during the reign of Theodosius I and was the city’s major point of trade in Late Antiquity. It continued to be used until the eleventh century. Silt from the Lycus eventually filled the harbor entirely, and the area was later transformed for agricultural use due to the effects of upstream erosion and deposition. In Ottoman times, the area was entirely built over.

In November 2005, workers on the Marmaray project discovered the silted-up remains of the harbor. Excavations produced evidence of the fourth-century Portus Theodosiacus. There, archaeologists uncovered traces of the city wall of Constantine the Great, and the remains of over thirty-five Byzantine ships from the seventh to tenth centuries, including several Byzantine galleys, remains of which had never before been found.

Byzantine finds
Various findings from the Byzantine era. Credit: Gryffindor , CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikipedia

Furthermore, the excavation has uncovered the oldest evidence of settlement in Constantinople, with artifacts, including amphorae, pottery fragments, shells, pieces of bone, horse skulls, and nine human skulls found in a bag, dating back to 6000 BC.

Related: Constantinople Greeks: The Cosmopolitans of the Byzantine Capital

 

Seismologists Warn of Earthquake and Tsunami Danger in Istanbul

Istanbul earthquake tsunami
Most of the buildings in Istanbul are not earthquake resistant says a Greek seismologist. Credit: Juraj Patekar/Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 2.0

Earthquake and tsunami fever has gripped Istanbul since last year’s disaster in southern Turkey, as residents in Europe’s most populous city fear they could face similar devastation.

The city lies near the North Anatolia faultline, a geological danger that has seen Istanbul hit by at least 34 strong earthquakes over the last 2,000 years.

Authorities in Istanbul have placed tsunami warnings in several parts of the city and have been advising people on how best to protect themselves if the worst comes to the worst.

Earthquake and tsunami “can occur in Istanbul at any moment”

Memories are still fresh from the devasting 7.6 earthquake in 1999 when between 17,127 and 18,373 people died as a result.

“An earthquake can occur in Istanbul at any moment,” said Efthymios Lekkas, professor of Geology and Natural Disasters, speaking to ERT, citing the tsunami warning signs that have been posted in the city.

The Greek scientist who is the top seismologist in the country, noted, that only a third of the buildings are not particularly vulnerable in the city of 20 million inhabitants.

“We don’t know when the big tremor will come, maybe in five years” he noted and explained, “we are dealing with a huge faultline, the Anatolian fault, which has a length of about 1,500 kilometers from the Caspian to the Aegean, it is divided into 13 big pieces, 12 pieces have broken and given big earthquakes.

“The last piece expected to break is the one south of Istanbul, in the Gulf of Marmara. It was believed that an earthquake should have already occurred by 2020, but this earthquake did not occur. As time goes by the chances increase together with the probability of having a bigger size earthquake as the underground energy accumulates.”

He also warned about the possibility of a devasting tsunami. “There is a risk of a tsunami because the fault is very large around 60 kilometers and the Gulf of Marmara is a closed bay that could produce a tsunami of up to 10 meters,” he added.

Fault lines anticipated to rupture

The Greek professor’s dire predictions mirror those of a seismological expert who recently raised fears about the likelihood of a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami hitting Istanbul.

Yoshinori Moriwaki, a Japanese seismologist, issued a warning regarding the imminent danger faced by the city in June last year.

Moriwaki pointed out the presence of fault lines at the bottom of the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul. He emphasized that these fault lines, located between Yalova and Silivri, are approximately 20 kilometers from Istanbul and are anticipated to rupture soon.

The seismologist predicted a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, with the possibility of even stronger tremors if multiple faults rupture simultaneously.

Moriwaki specifically highlighted that one fault passes directly beneath the stock exchange, while another runs beneath the city of Iznik. He further warned that seismic activity on the fault line between Inegol and the stock exchange is expected before a major earthquake occurs.

Drawing attention to the historical context, he noted that it has been 150 years since the last devastating earthquake in the region. Moreover, in Bandirma Bay area, several fault lines have remained inactive for over 250 years. Moriwaki stressed the importance of constructing new buildings and structures to withstand potential earthquakes.

Related: Are We Prepared for the Next Big Mediterranean Tsunami?

Items Used by Roman Cavalry Unearthed by Metal Detectorist

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Items used by Roman cavalry and other treasures
A metal detectorist uncovered items used by Roman cavalry and other treasures. Credit: Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Metal artifacts from the Iron Age and Roman times were found by Ian Porter, a metal detectorist, on an island in Wales.

The discovery, made in 2020 while Porter was exploring pastures and spring on Anglesey, has been declared a national treasure, according to Amgueddfa Cymru — Museum Wales.

Porter expressed his excitement about finding these items, noting that they offer a glimpse into the island’s history, with the realization that the last person who handled them lived nearly two thousand years ago.

Porter quickly informed the authorities from the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales about the discovery of 16 artifacts. These items included Late Iron Age chariot fittings dating back to the first century A.D., along with Roman cavalry fittings from the same era.

Among the Roman artifacts were segments from three bridle-bits, a terret (which guides the reins), a ram’s head fitting, and a set of four harness discs, as reported by Live Science.

In addition to the chariot fittings and cavalry gear, Porter uncovered more treasures. These included a decorated brooch, four coins, and a lead pot repair, all dating back to the British Roman period (A.D. 43 to 410).

Among the discoveries was also a hefty Roman copper ingot weighing 45 pounds (20 kilograms). This ingot, used in copper manufacturing, was probably smelted using metal from a nearby mine.

Location might be a ‘significant place for religious ceremony’

Adam Gwilt, principal curator of prehistory at Museum Wales, emphasized the significance of the discovery, calling it an important new find for the island. He noted that the artifacts were likely buried during or after the Roman army’s invasion of the island in A.D. 60 or 61.

Gwilt suggested that the location of the items near a spring could indicate that the person who buried them viewed the area as a significant spot for religious ceremonies during a time of conflict and change.

Experts believe that a majority of the items, such as the chariot fittings and harness pieces, were deposited at the site between A.D. 50 and 120. The coins, on the other hand, seem to have been added gradually throughout the Roman period, with the latest batch being minted between A.D. 364 and 378.

This discovery isn’t the island’s first encounter with artifacts from this era. Back in the 1940s, another collection of Iron Age items was unearthed there, according to Live Science.

Ian Jones, who oversees the building and collections at Oriel Môn, a museum in Anglesey, emphasized the island’s deep connection to this significant era in our history.

The artifacts’ significance lies not only in the items themselves but also in how they were buried, marking a pivotal moment in history. These treasures will be preserved and showcased as part of the collection at Oriel Môn, according to Live Science.

Greece Experiences Warmest Winter on Record

Greek Alphabet
Tourists marvel at the Acropolis on a warm, sunny day. File photo. Credit: Greek Reporter

Greece has experienced the warmest winter on record this year according to preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) analyzed by the scientific team of meteo.gr.

Specifically, the 2023-2024 winter, lasting from December 2023 to February 2024, in Greece was marked by extended periods of high temperatures, significantly surpassing seasonal norms.

Meteo reports that the winter of 2023-2024 was recorded as the warmest in Greek history, surpassing the winter of 2015-2016.

The average maximum temperature in Greece during the winter period has risen by 1.8°C from 1960 to 2024.

In Northern Greece, the average maximum temperature for the winter of 2023-2024 ranged 2 to 3°C above the mean of the 1991-2020 period, while in the rest of the country, it ranged 1 to 2°C higher.

In no part of Greece did the deviation of the average maximum temperature fall below +0.5°C.

Warmest winter around the globe

According to C3S, January 2024 was the warmest January on record globally with an average surface air temperature of 13.14°C, which was 0.70°C above the 1991-2020 average for January and 0.12°C above the temperature of the previous warmest January in 2020.

The month was 1.66°C warmer than an estimate of the January average for 1850-1900, the designated pre-industrial reference period.

European temperatures varied in January 2024 from much below the 1991-2020 average over the Nordic countries to much above average over the south of the continent.

Outside Europe, temperatures were well above average over eastern Canada, north-western Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia, and below average over western Canada, the central US, and most of eastern Siberia.

Last month was the warmest February on record in England and Wales, the Met Office national weather service said on Friday, pointing to the impact of human-induced climate change on winter temperatures in Britain.

England’s average temperature last month was 7.5°C, topping a record of 7°C set in 1990. In Wales, the average temperature of 6.9°C in February was slightly ahead of a 1998 record.

The Met Office said in January that the UK experienced its second-warmest year on record in 2023 just behind 2022.

The agency said it was seeing a clear trend of warming winter temperatures and predicted it would continue due to the impact of human-induced climate change.

Earth’s temperature warmest on record in 2023

Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Global temperatures last year were around 1.2°C above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported in early January.

“NASA and NOAA’s global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

“From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing,” Nelson said.

First Wedding of Same-Sex Couple Takes Place in Greece

Same-sex couple wedding
A historic day for the LGBTI in Greece as the first gay couple wedding takes place. Credit: AMNA

The first same-sex couple got married in a civic wedding in Greece on Saturday following the recent law allowing gay marriages.

LGBTI rights activists Stavros Gavriliadis and Dimitris Elefsiniotis married in the City Hall of Nea Smyrni, a suburb of south Athens.

Speaking to Skai TV, deputy mayor of Nea Smyrni, Konstantinos Anagnostopoulos, who performed the wedding, said recently that the law came to cover a legal gap and he expressed the assumption that other same-sex couples will follow.

For over 20 years, Stavros Gavriliadis and Dimitrios Elefsiniotis have shared a common life. They bought a house and started a family. But until recently they could not marry and were not recognized as the parents of their three children.

The new law means the 52-year-old Stavros will no longer have to worry about his son’s fate if he dies before his partner Dimitris, or if he is allowed to pick up his (non-biological) twin children from school. The five of them will finally be considered a family – and not “strangers”, noted Gavrieliadis.

Gavriliadis commented to Bloomberg that the new law is a welcome solution to his family’s problems. After the wedding, he will officially adopt Dimitris’ twins and Dimitris will adopt his son.

“We will finally be a family with two surnames,” he said. The law “honors freedom, equality, love, our dignity and ensures the rights of our children,” Stavros Gavriliadis stressed.

Greece approves same-sex marriage

On February 15, 2024, the Greek Parliament approved a bill on same-sex marriage in a landmark reform promoted by the conservative government over the opposition of the country’s powerful Orthodox Church.

“The vote has passed: as of tonight, Greece is proud to become the 16th EU country to legislate marriage equality,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted on X. “This is a milestone for human rights, reflecting today’s Greece — a progressive, and democratic country, passionately committed to European values,” he added.

Greece passed legislation in 2015 allowing civil unions between same-sex people. The new law goes further to allow child adoption, while excluding the option of surrogacy.

Same-sex couples can now also adopt in Greece, but not have a baby through a surrogate. Like in much of the EU, surrogacy remains a thorny issue and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who tabled the legislation as “a matter of equality,” clarified early on that this was not something he was willing to tackle.

Rights activists say the new law does not go far enough because it does not allow same-sex couples to have children through surrogacy.

The EU is trying to harmonize legislation across it to tackle this problem but is facing resistance from countries such as Italy and Hungary, where their governments marginalize their LGBTI communities. With Greece, 16 of the 27 member states now recognize same-sex marriage.

Related: Europe, US Congratulate Greece on Same-Sex Marriage Law

Ancient Gymnasium Unearthed in Oasis Shows Impact of Greek Life in Egypt

Ancient Greek Gymnasium Egypt
The gymnasium included a large meeting hall, once adorned with statues, a dining hall and a courtyard in the main building. Credit: Dr Margaret Maitland

In 2017, when the ruins of an ancient Greek gymnasium were discovered in an oasis of a desert in Egypt, archaeologists said that it was the first of its kind.

The Watfa gymnasium that was used to train young Greek-speaking men in sports, literacy and philosophy was discovered by a joint Egyptian-German archeological team on the site of an ancient village southwest of Cairo in the Faiyum Oasis.

The gymnasium included a large meeting hall, once adorned with statues, a dining hall and a courtyard in the main building. Surrounded by gardens, this center of Greek learning for young men in ancient Egypt also had a 200-meter (660-foot) running track, on which they trained for important 180-meter races.

Watfa was founded 2,300 years ago in a small, rural village of 1,200 people – two-thirds Egyptians and one-third Greeks – by King Ptolemy II. The king named the village in Fayoum Oasis for his second sister Philotera.

Philoteris was one of the new villages founded in the years after Alexander the Great invaded Egypt. Thousands of Greek-speaking settlers moved to the territory by the River Nile and built public buildings and baths which became meeting places for themselves and their Egyptian neighbors.

Ancient Greek gymnasium in Egypt founded by the wealthy

The Hellenistic gymnasium was run by the village authorities and open to young men up to the age of 30. Women, slaves, freedmen, tradesmen, male prostitutes, drunkards and madmen were excluded.

The Ptolemaic dynasty ended with the Roman conquest in 30 BC although Greek culture continued to thrive in Egypt until the Muslim conquest in the seventh century.

The elite school or gymnasium was similar to others founded by wealthy Greek-speaking people who wanted their sons to be trained in sports, to learn to read and write, and to enjoy philosophical discussions.

In the Hellenistic Period, gymnasia became highly standardized both in architecture and function and continued their important role in a young male’s physical and general education. They became a common feature across the Greek world and were adopted and adapted by the later Romans, eventually evolving into the huge multi-purpose complex that was the Roman baths.

The foundations of the installation were exposed by the team led by Professor Cornelia Romer, of the German Archaeological Institute.

“The gymnasium of Watfa clearly shows the impact of Greek life in Egypt, not only in Alexandria, but also in the countryside,” Romer said at the time.

Alexander the Great, she pointed out, had made Egypt part of the Hellenistic world, thousands of Greek-speaking settlers flocked into the land on the Nile attracted by the new Ptolemaic empire which promised prosperity and peace.

In particular in the Delta and in the Fayum new villages were founded, in which the indigenous population lived together with the Greek newcomers.

Such villages were equipped not only with Egyptian temples but also with Greek sanctuaries. There existed also public baths, an institution very popular in the Greek world. The baths soon became places of social encounter in the villages and meeting points of the Egyptian and Greek-speaking inhabitants.

‘Floating’ Hyperloop Train Hits a Record-Breaking Speed of 387MPH

‘Floating’ Hyperloop Train
MLX01 Maglev, the former world’s fastest train, is slower than China’s new T-Flight floating hyperloop train. Credit: DAJF / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

For more than 100 years, people have been using airplanes to make their trips within a country much quicker. But what if you could board a train that could take you to your destination even faster than a regular plane?

That could be a possibility for China in the coming years. They have achieved a significant milestone in creating super-fast trains.

One of these trains called the ‘T-Flight,’ has recently set a new speed record of 387 miles per hour during a test run. This is even faster than Japan’s fastest train, the MLX01 Maglev, which travels at 361 miles per hour, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Chinese engineers are aiming for an astonishing speed of 1,243 miles per hour once the train is ready for passengers. That’s much faster than the speed of sound and more than twice as fast as a Boeing 737 plane.

Wuhan to Beijing in just 30 minutes

Traveling at such fast speed, the T-Flight train could cover the distance from Wuhan to Beijing in merely 30 minutes, a contrast to the current high-speed trains, which take over four hours for the same journey.

The T-Flight train operates using magnetic levitation (maglev) technology. This technology employs magnets to lift the train pods above the track, allowing them to smoothly glide along. By eliminating the need for wheels, friction is significantly reduced, resulting in a service that is both faster and quieter.

Essentially, the T-Flight is a hyperloop train. This means it transports passengers at top speeds through tubes connecting distant locations, according to the Daily Mail.

The idea of high-speed travel through tubes, originally suggested by US engineer Robert Goddard in 1910, caught the attention once again in 2013 due to a detailed document authored by billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

The T-Flight train has been developed by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC). During tests conducted in Datong, located in the northern province of Shanxi, the T-Flight train achieved a remarkable speed of 387 miles per hour (623 kilometers per hour) within a low-vacuum tube that measured only 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) in length, as reported by the Daily Mail.

As reported by Live Science, CASIC plans to conduct a second round of testing where they intend to extend the track by more than 30 times. This expansion aims to enable the T-Flight train to achieve even higher speeds.

The ultimate goal of CASIC is to establish a tube system spanning from Wuhan to Beijing, covering a distance of over 650 miles (1055 kilometers). Such a system could potentially reduce the travel time between the two cities from four hours to just half an hour.