An ancient seal manufactured in the ancient Greek city of Asine, Peloponnese 4,000 years ago returned home on Wednesday after more than a century, according to greekreporter.com.
The Swedish embassy in Athens handed over the seal to Culture Minister Lina Mendoni. “In 1922 half of the seal ended up in Sweden, half stayed in Greece,” the Swedish embassy said in a tweet. Now the two pieces of the seal are reunited.
The seal was made in the ancient city of Asine situated on the coast. It is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad as one of the places subject to Diomedes, king of Argos.
The fragment of the clay seal was discovered during an archaeological dig initiated by the then Crown Prince of Sweden, Gustaf Adolf, and later King Gustaf VI Adolf.
It was in the possession of the Uppsala University Museum in Sweden, but the Swedish government decided to give permission for it to be given to the Archaeological Museum of Nafplion.
Mendoni thanked the Swedish Ambassador Johan Borgstam and said that the return of the artifact proves the outstanding relations between the two countries.
“Asine is a special place. It’s a bit hidden, but at the same time rather obvious. It reveals a very old phase of Greek civilization, 4,000 BC. At the same time, however, it is a link in the long chain of the historical duration of this civilization,” the Greek minister noted.
Speaking about the seal she said the reunification of the two parts of the artifact has a very significant meaning. “Two parts of a small artifact are united in the land that created them, in Greece,” she added.
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