Not sure why this is in the news again; we heard about it last September and even back in January, to some extent.
Dixit David Romano:
“What’s new is this mountaintop altar had cult activity that’s continuous from the Mycenaean to the Hellenistic periods.”
… which is what we were told a year ago. Some details about the altar found there might be new … an excerpt from the Discovery.com article:
Although the excavation is ongoing, a paper on the first three years of the project is in the works for Hesperia, the journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
The bronze male hand holding the silver lightning bolt likely represents Zeus, according to the archaeologists. It was found near a sample of glass-like fulgurite, otherwise known as petrified lightning, which is formed when lightning strikes sandy soil. It is not clear if the fulgurite was formed on the mountain or elsewhere.
“The altar would have been situated on top of the hill and may have been represented by a ring of stones,” Romano said, adding that it was flanked by a nearby sacred area known as a temenos, which appeared to have no temple or other structure.
Folks might want to check out the website: Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project
- Zeus Cult Sacrificed Animals on Mountaintop Altar (Discovery.com)
- Penn Museum scholar searches for Zeus on Mt. Lykaion (Daily Pennsylvanian)
rogueclassicism 