3000 yr old remains from the Temple of Zeus

Angela

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The remains date from 1100 BC. and were found in southwestern Arcadia at a sacrificial site.

See:
http://www.archaeology.org/news/4723-160811-greece-zeus-altar

"The Associated Press reports that the 3,000-year-old skeleton of a teenager has been discovered at the remote sanctuary of Zeus on the summit of Mount Lykaion. Thousands of animals were sacrificed to Zeus at the site, beginning around the sixteenth century B.C. The human remains were found among the ashes of the animals. The body had been laid between two lines of stones on an east-west axis. Stone slabs covered the pelvis, and the upper part of the skull was missing. Pottery placed with the bones dates them to the eleventh century B.C. “Several ancient literary sources mention rumors that human sacrifice took place at the altar, but up until a few weeks ago there has been no trace whatsoever of human bones discovered at the site,” said David Romano of the University of Arizona. Only about seven percent of the altar has been excavated."

This is a link to a site about the excavations on Mount
Lykaion:
http://lykaionexcavation.org/site/

"
Pausanias described the sanctuary of Zeus in great detail in his Guide to Greece (8.38.2-8.38.10) and indicated that the whole mountain was considered a sacred place by ancient Greeks. It was identified in Greek mythology as the birthplace of Zeus (at Cretea) and, according to Pausanias, on Mt. Lykaion there was a stadium and hippodrome in which athletic games for the Lykaion festival were held, a sanctuary of Pan, and, at the summit, a formidable temenos and altar of Lykaion Zeus. In front of the altar, Pausanias says, there were two columns crowned by gilded eagles."
 
They should test his DNA. I would like to see what ancient greeks were like genetically. I doubt one sample would be sufficient since he could be a foreign visitor.
 


From pottery excavation trenches certified human activity on the hill as early as the Neolithic era and during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. During the Mycenaean period the hill that emerges as an important sanctuary and remains a place of worship from early historical times. The animal sacrifices in honor of Zeus, mainly goats and sheep indicating continuous religious activity in the name already in the 16th century BC up to the Hellenistic period.


The narrow grave was lined on the north and south side of handsomely carved plates, while no investment in the eastern and western limits of the trench. Plates covered the area of ​​the dead pan. The length of the tomb with the plates amounts to 1.52 m. According to the preliminary study of the skeleton belongs to a person, probably andra- adolescence and the ceramics resulting from the excavation dated mainly at the end of the Mycenaean period, indicating that burial probably belongs to the 11th century. BC, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, in the period of transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, at a time when the altar was in operation.


From the 4th century. B.C. onwards, written sources mention human sacrifices on the altar of Lykaion Mountain, but the excavations had been carried out to date in the area had not found human bones.


until now


images



Lykaio_Oros_2016_2.jpg



http://www.archaiologia.gr/blog/2016/08/12/85603/


http://www.archaiologia.gr/blog/2016/08/10/85579/

(unfortunately is in greek both)


I am more interested to know if it is human sacrifice... it is exceptional case and maybe the conclusions at the end of a big search will shock us.




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(images from Lyka;ion, in general...)
https://www.google.gr/search?q=λυκα...X&ved=0ahUKEwjn0sK9wMDOAhWlBsAKHSoyBSYQsAQILA


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Peloponese is great, nearby beetween Arcadia and Messinia is the temple of Epicurios Apollon or Bassae for the English meaning littlte vale on the rocks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bassae



epikourios-700x475.jpg



I realise that is also nearby Olympia and Mycynae and Tyrinth and Corinth ...
 
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There are interesting parallels also in terms of the probable human sacrifice here of an adolescent. Human sacrifice in these ritual contexts was common in the ancient world, and even in the "Greek" world, as, for instance, in the case of Agamemnon and Iphigenia.

This is how it was depicted in a fresco in Pompeii:
fresco-depicting-the-sacrifice-of-iphigenia-from-the-house-of-the-picture-id142932016


Yes, cover your face...

Judaism did not separate itself from the practice, contrary to what is usually taught in Sunday school. The sacrifice of one's child is indeed practiced by the Hebrews, as it was practiced by their neighbors the Canaanites:
https://books.google.com/books?id=e...aac as repudiation of child sacrifice&f=false

Child sacrifice in some sense is the basis of Christianity: God sacrifices his only begotten son to redeem mankind from death...Christ as the sacrificial lamb, the scapegoat who takes upon himself the sins of the world.
 
How nice you you pointed especialy that with the scapegoat...
there is a nice book of Joan Breton Connely -The enigma of Parthenon; Το αίνιγμα του Παρθενώνα-(2014 release) which well related from the above you post.


iphigeneia_kazakos_papamoschou.jpg



Iphigeneia: ...so father this is your wish; to give me bride to mighty Achilles?


Agamemnon: ...Eehmm... (Actually i was thinking for Hades...)


mixalis-kakogiannis-i-filmografia-tou-42.jpg

 

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