Minoan compound uncovered on tiny islet

Excavations on the Chrysi islet south of Crete have yielded ruins of a 3,800-year-old Bronze Age settlement of the Minoan period. The Culture Ministry said the compound contained bronze talents, which was a common unit of currency in antiquity, as well as gold jewels and glass beads - some of them of Egyptian origin. Archaeologists, who have been digging at the site for a decade, also uncovered fish tanks and broken seashells that produced a prized purple pigment. The ministry said the shells point to a very early production of the dye in the Mediterranean. [Culture MinistryANA-MPA]