Deep in an open-pit coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the oldest archaeological site in the country rich in antiquities, and it dates back 700.000 years and is linked to the ancestors of modern humans - hominins.
The discovery, announced yesterday, will set back the dawn of Greek archeology by as much as a quarter of a million years, although older hominin sites have been discovered elsewhere in Europe.
The oldest site, the one in Spain, dates back more than a million years.
The site in Greece was one of five investigated in the area of Megalopolis during a five-year project in which an international team of experts participated, according to a press release from the Ministry of Culture.
The site was found to contain crude stone tools from the Late Paleolithic period - about 3,3 million to 300.000 years ago - and the remains of an extinct species of giant deer, as well as elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses and macaque monkeys.
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