Art News

Untouched Tomb to Unravel Secrets of Cyprus’s Past

NICOSIA (REUTERS).- Locals say it could be the final resting place of Ajax’s niece, contain a golden chariot and will unleash a horrible curse. But whether a tomb recently uncovered on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus contains the bones and booty of a close relative of a Trojan war hero straight from the pages of Homer or will just yield better evidence for understanding the rituals and lives of ancient Greeks is yet to be revealed. Construction workers in the eastern coastal town of Paralimni, popular with tourists, literally stumbled onto a rare unlooted tomb dating back to the ancient world, when they were digging up the roadside to lay new paving stones in the “Fig Tree Bay” area. “The ground just gave way,” said Andreas Evangelou, the mayor of the once sleepy fishing village, told Reuters. Beneath the road’s surface, a burial chamber, untouched by looters was awakened from thousands of years of slumber, and will now give experts the opportunity to piece together a more ac