Poliochne

Poliochni ( Greek: Πολιόχνη, AltGr. Poliochne ) is a prehistoric town on the Greek island of Lemnos in the Aegean. The oldest of seven archaeological layers indicate a earliest settlement in the 5th or 4th millennium BC, which Poliochni also earned the nickname as the " oldest city in Europe ". The highlight its urban development reached Poliochni in the Early Bronze Age between about 3200 and 2000 BC

Early History

The location of the island in the northeastern Aegean Sea, near the Strait of the Dardanelles ( Hellespont ), she made an early age into a cultural and economic center of the region. Poliochni, located near the Cape Vroskopos in the southeast of the island, was grown in the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC to a wall reinforced coastal settlement, had a sewage system, paved roads and community gathering places. The city lay on the opposite mainland of Asia Minor Troy. Another settlement from this period was discovered during excavations on the small offshore island Koukonisi.

The mythological significance of Lemnos as the island of Hephaestus, the god of fire and the forge, possibly is related to the archaeological findings demonstrated sophisticated techniques of metal processing of the residents (eg Odyssey, 8, 293-294 ).

The original Poliochni was destroyed and abandoned in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, possibly an earthquake was the cause, alternatively conflicts are accepted. During the 2nd millennium BC, there was only temporary restoration settlements.

From the end of the 2nd millennium BC, ie in Mycenaean times, settled Tyrrhenians on Lemnos to about 510 BC, the Athenian general Miltiades conquered the island. From about 493 BC, places of worship were built, where Hephaestus and the Kabiri were worshiped.

Presence

Today, living in the village just a few hundred people. The ruins belong to the island's attractions and archaeological finds from the early days Poliochnis be issued in the capital Myrina. The Greek government has awarded the archaeological site of Poliochni with the European Heritage Label.