Remains of an ancient town and burial complex that date to the Neolithic and Bronze Age have been uncovered in Greece.
The archaeological team had also recently discovered a Neolithic 'spooning' couple - an adult man and woman buried side-by-side, embracing, at the same site.
Recent research by The Diros Project, a five-year excavation programme in Diros Bay, Greece, also uncovered several other burials and the remains of an ancient village that suggest the bay was an important centre in ancient times.
Located outside the entrance to Alepotrypa Cave, the site of Ksagounaki yielded Neolithic buildings and adult and infant burials that indicate the sites together were part of one huge ritual and settlement complex, researchers said.
Although Alepotrypa Cave was used for domestic and ritual uses throughout the Neolithic period (6300-3000 BC), radiocarbon dates indicate that the site of Ksagounaki was used during the Final Neolithic period (4200-3800 BC).
This period in Greece is noted for wide trading networks, as well as the introduction of copper tools, laying the groundwork for the subsequent Bronze Age, researchers said.
Dr William Parkinson from Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois explained that perhaps the most surprising discovery was a Mycenaean-period burial structure, filled with the disarticulated bones of dozens of individuals accompanied by Late Bronze Age painted pottery, exotic stone beads, ivory and a Mycenaean dagger made of bronze.
Parkinson and his team have suggested that the megalithic buildings at Ksagounaki, constructed during the Neolithic Age, may have attracted the attention of Mycenaeans over 2,000 years after they were abandoned.
