Zeus on Mount Lykaion Redux

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

Another Auction

Yesterday I was wading through a pile of Roman glass etc. (none of which was very interesting) and decided I wasn’t going to cover auctions any more. Then, of course, something interesting came up from the Ventura County Collection again, via Bonham’s. Here’s an item at Live Auctioneers officially described as Roman, c. 100-300AD., a life size marble carving of a clinched right hand and it’s clutching something. Any guesses as to what’s in the hand?

This Day in Ancient History

ante diem vii kalendas februarias

  • Sementivae or Paganalia (day ?) — Sementivae was a festival of sowing which was actually a moveable feast (although I’m not sure of the moveability criteria; I’m guessing that the first day falls between January 24 and 26). By Ovid’s time it appears to have been coincident with Paganalia, which also obviously has some rural aspect to it. It appears to have been a two-day festival with an interval of seven days between (corrections on this welcome … my sources seem muddled on this one)
  • 66 A.D. — perihelion of what would eventually be called Halley’s comet (possibly mentioned in Josephus; less possibly mentioned in Suetonius)