AIA Lecture: Dr. David Romano, University of Arizona, "Altars of Zeus, Games for the Gods: Mt. Lykaion and Olympia in Early Greek Religion"

The Mt. Lykaion Project is excavating the “birthplace of Zeus” on Mt. Lykaion in Arcadia. An ash altar there has produced Bronze Age pottery and figurines that indicate that this was a Mycenaean shrine from the 16^th  century B.C. Mt. Lykaion was also the site of an athletic festival, the Lykaia, known from literary and epigraphical sources. The earliest evidence for the ash altar at the nearby sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, site of the famous ancient Olympic Games, dates after 1050 B.C. Could the ash altar at Mt. Lykaion have been the model for the ash altar at Olympia?   The lecture is free and open to all.

Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project website: http://lykaionexcavation.org

The lecture is free and open to all.