Archaeologists in Greece have made an ominous discovery of the southern mountain peak, dedicated to the god Zeus, which may prove one of the darkest Greek legends, officials said.
The Ministry of Culture announced, that the excavation of the mound mountain Lykaion made from the ashes of animals sacrificed for over a thousand years of the god Zeus was discovered the skeleton of a teenager. The bones are dated 3,000 years back in time.
The find in the southern Peloponnese dates back to the 11th century BC. This is the end of the Mycenaean era, whose characters are immortalized in Greek mythology and the works of Homer.
Ancient writers have connected the mountain Lykaion with human sacrifices – a practice that rarely has been confirmed by archaeologists in Greece.
According to the legend, a boy was sacrificed along with the animals and all the meat has been cooked and eaten.
“Several ancient written sources mention human sacrifice that occurred on this altar, but until now there were no traces of human bones found in this place”, said David Gilman Romano, professor in Greek archeology at the University of Arizona, head of the excavations. “Is it a sacrifice or not? This is an altar for sacrifices … not a place just to bury a person, not a cemetery”, says Romano.
