Cyprus dig unearths 'one of world's earliest water well'

Cosia: Cyprus' antiquities chief said on Wednesday that construction work has led to the chance discovery of a water well believed to be among the world's earliest.

Pavlos Flourentzos said radiocarbon dating shows the 5-metre shaft discovered near the island's southwestern coast is between 9,000 and 10,500 years old.

He said that was around the time when migrating humans started to build permanent settlements on the island.

Thomas Davis, director of the Nicosia-based Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, said the well can safely be said to be among the earliest in the world.

The well also contained a macabre secret: a skeleton of a young woman. Researchers can't explain exactly how she came to be there or how she died.