Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-10-12

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Inspiration for the Terracotta Warriors may have come from Ancient Greece-BBC

[02] We must protect our good relations from the nationalist voices, PM Tsipras tells Albanian parliament president Meta

[03] ND leader Mitsotakis to address conferences at US universities

[01] Inspiration for the Terracotta Warriors may have come from Ancient Greece-BBC

Archaeologists also said that inspiration for the Terracotta Warriors, found at the Tomb of the First Emperor near today's Xian, may have come from Ancient Greece.

They also said that ancient Greek artisans could have been training locals there in the Third Century BC.

"We now have evidence that close contact existed between the First Emperor's China and the West before the formal opening of the Silk Road. This is far earlier than we formerly thought," said Senior Archaeologist Li Xiuzhen, from the Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum Site Museum. A separate study showed that European-specific mitochondrial DNA has been found at sites in China's westernmost Xinjiang Province, suggesting that Westerners may have settled, lived and died there before and during the time of the First Emperor.

Farmers first discovered the 8,000 terracotta figures buried less than a mile from the tomb of China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang in 1974. However, there was no tradition of building life-sized human statues in China before the tomb was created. Earlier statues were simple figurines about 20cm (7.9ins) in height.

To explain how such an enormous change in skill and style could have happened, Dr Xiuzhen believes that influences must have come from outside China. "We now think the Terracotta Army, the Acrobats and the bronze sculptures found on site have been inspired by ancient Greek sculptures and art," she said.

Professor Lukas Nickel from the University of Vienna says statues of circus acrobats recently found at the First Emperor's tomb support this theory. He believes the First Emperor was influenced by the arrival of Greek statues in Central Asia in the century following Alexander the Great, who died in 323BC.

"I imagine that a Greek sculptor may have been at the site to train the locals," he said.

Other discoveries include new evidence that the First Emperor's tomb complex is much bigger than first thought and 200 times bigger than Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

They also include the mutilated remains of women, believed to have been high-ranking concubines of the First Emperor, and the skull of a man with a crossbow bolt embedded in it.

The skull is believed to have belonged to the First Emperor's eldest son, thought to have been killed along with others during a power struggle after the emperor's death, according to the BBC.

[02] We must protect our good relations from the nationalist voices, PM Tsipras tells Albanian parliament president Meta

On his part, Meta expressed his pleasure for visiting Greece at a period of political stability and economic improvement.

"Your visit is taking place at an important period for the relations of the two countries that experienced times of tension in the past but they were always relations of co-existence, and this is something we must protect," said Tsipras adding "it is of huge importance to protect the prospect of good relations from nationalist voices that always want to create problems, the cost of which the citizens are called to pay. I want to congratulate you because you have stood against these voices. You represent your country's parliament which is the most democratic institution. I welcome you and wish your visit to be constructive hoping that the developments in Albania in the next period will promote democracy as well as the Albanian people's volition to solve the problems."

Meta said that he is visiting Greece at a period of political stability and improvement of the social and economic conditions adding that "the destinies of our peoples are now linked more than ever and we have been benefited a lot from Greece during the period of growth after the '90s."

"We have also been affected by the repercussions of the recent economic crisis that hit your country," he stated and added: "A powerful and strong Greece will be in our interest too."

The president of the Albanian parliament thanked Greece for its support to Albania's efforts to join the NATO and Greece's support to the prospect of Albania's accession in the EU.

[03] ND leader Mitsotakis to address conferences at US universities

On Thursday, he will be the keynote speaker at an international conference "Greece's Turn?: Litmus Test for Europe," at Tufts university co-organised by the Fletcher Law and Diplomacy School and the Institution Constantinos Karamanlis.

Earlier, he will address a conference at the Harvard University on the future of democracy.

On Friday, Mitsotakis will speak at the event "European Horizons" at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Mitsotakis will conclude his visit to US with a series of meetings with investors in New York.

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