Agia Triada archaeological site

Hagia Triada, as nearby Phaistos, was excavated from 1900 to 1908 by a group from Italian Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene, directed by Federico Halbherr and Luigi Pernier. They unearthed a sarcophagus painted with illuminating scenes from Cretan life, now at the Archaeological Museum in Iraklion.The sarcophagus was used for the burrier of a prince during the period of the Mycenean occupation (1400 BC).The main scene is a bull sacrifice and shows all the stages of the sacred ceremony. On it appear a large number of relegious symbols,a male figure playing a flute and a man playing a seven-string lyre. This is the oldest picture of the lyre known in classical Greece.