Experts find ‘Ring of Minos’ genuine
The long-lost «Ring of Minos,» a gold ring found on Crete in the 1920s and generally dismissed as a fake has been identified by Greek archaeologists as a genuine 3,500-year-old artifact, reports said on Saturday. The director of the Athens National Archaeological Museum told the Eleftheros Typos daily that the ring is in the museum’s possession, while Culture Ministry officials said a panel of experts had found the piece to be genuine. The matter will be discussed tomorrow by the ministry’s Central Archaeological Council. The large jewel was found by locals in 1928 in a field near Knossos, where a vast prehistoric building complex has been associated with the palace of Minos, the mythical king of Crete. Attempts to sell it failed, as archaeologists either found the price too high or dismissed the ornate ring as a forgery. The ring – whose large oval surface is engraved with a hilltop shrine, a seated female figure, two women clinging to trees and a boat poled by a demonic figure – then disappeared. It was later returned to the Museum.
