March
12
/ 2026
Recent excavations at a 6th-century BC temple in western Greece have unearthed compelling evidence suggesting that some ancient sanctuaries were more than just places of worship. A team of archaeologists believes the striking temple at Kleidi-Samikon, in the Peloponnese region of Ilia, may have also functioned as a repository for official documents, effectively serving as an ancient archive. The discovery, made during the 2025 excavation season, centers on a collection of heat-damaged bronze sheets found clustered on the floor of the temple’s northwestern hall. This find, combined with a large bronze inscription discovered in the same space in 2024, strongly indicates that the room was used to store written records . In ancient Greece, important civic and sacred documents, such
