Roman theatre goddesses unearthed in Crete

The life-sized marble statues of two ancient Greek goddesses have emerged during excavations of a 5,000-year-old town on the island of Crete, archaeologists said today.

The works, representing the goddesses Athena and Hera, date to between the 2nd and 4th centuries – a period of Roman rule in Greece – and originally decorated the Roman theatre in the town of Gortyn, archaeologist Anna Micheli from the Italian School of Archaeology told The Associated Press.