GEOARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SANCTUARY OF ZEUS, MT. LYKAION, PELOPONNESOS, GREECE

Pausanias reports in his Guide to Greece (2nd century AD) that the Mt. Lykaion Sanctuary of Zeus was sacred to ancient Greeks. His descriptions hold: an upper sanctuary with ash altar and temenos; a lower sanctuary with hippodrome, stadium, and fountain. The Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project team has determined that Zeus-cult activities continued uninterrupted from Late Helladic (from 1400 BCE) through Hellenistic times (2nd century BCE). The upper sanctuary resides on a tectonic klippe. A very gently dipping early Tertiary thrust (Lykaion thrust) is the basal fault for the klippe. Its trace separates the lower and upper sanctuaries. Springs 'dot' the fault trace because ground-water descent through the klippe is halted by impermeable fault rocks.

The lower sanctuary occupies the very top of the lower thrust plate. The expansive flat space on which the hippodrome and stadium lie correspond to a broad gentle bedrock syncline in-filled by meters of clay and silt derived from the klippe flank through sheet wash. This soft sediment-mantled flat contrasts with the steep rugged bedrock surroundings. The foundation of a stoa was built directly upon the top of the lower plate, where limestone bedrock provided a platform. Site development for the stoa was advantaged because sheared and broken rock in the Lykaion thrust could be swept aside easily. Within the upper sanctuary, a proto-stadium (?) occupies a soft straight grassy strip along the trace of an active normal fault. Also, the northern edge of the temenos appears to be the trace of an active normal fault. The ash altar itself is composed of bone ash, the remains of burnt offerings (mainly goats and sheep). Within the ash are votive offerings, e.g., miniature bronze tripods and ceramic vessels, fragments of animal figurines, and kylikes.

Pragmatics of site development of the sanctuary relate closely to advantages of local stratigraphy, sedimentary petrology, structural geology, geomorphology, sedimentology, and hydrology. "Power" of the sanctuary derives in part from seismicity, active tectonics, mass wasting, and weather dynamics. Just as today, storms were dramatic on Mt. Lykaion. Finds in the ash include a bronze hand grasping a ligthning bolt, and petrified lightning (fulgurite): quite a telling juxtaposition of offerings to the "Lightning Wielder."