Gortyna Archaeological Site
Sprawling Roman-era ruins holding the oldest complete inscribed law code in ancient Greece.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Gortyna Archaeological Site near Heraklion follows a stone slab hidden in a mill wall for centuries, spotted by French scholars in 1857 and pursued further in 1884 by Italian archaeologist Federico Halbherr, who went to unusual lengths to read what lay beneath it. You will hear about the six hundred lines of boustrophedon writing he uncovered, laying out rules on divorce, inheritance, adoption and adultery in one of ancient Greece's earliest law codes.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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