Scientists from Greece have discovered a unique artifact in the cemetery of the ancient city of Lato in Crete – the skull of an athlete dating back to 2500 BC. The skull has a golden wreath in the shape of a laurel branch.

The wreath was preserved because the athlete’s flesh had decomposed over thousands of years. A silver coin was found in the mouth of the skull, which probably symbolized a payment to Charon, the carrier of souls to Hades, GreekReporter writes.

The skull with a golden wreath has become one of the most prominent exhibits at the Agios Nikolaos Museum in Crete.

The city of Lato, where the artifact was found, was an ancient settlement in Crete. Its ruins are located near the village of Kritza. Lato was a Dorian city-state that existed in the 5th-4th centuries BC.

The skull of an athlete with a golden wreath gives an idea of the life of people in the era of antiquity. It shows that athletes were highly respected in ancient Greece.

Earlier, we told you about a Vatican researcher who claims that Da Vinci hid the date of the apocalypse in his painting of Jesus.