From the BBC:
A bronze figurine of a bull believed to be at least 2500 years old has been unearthed in Greece following heavy rain near the ancient site of Olympia.
Burn marks on the statuette suggest it may have been one of thousands of offerings to the Greek God Zeus.
The discovery of the small, intact item was made by archaeologists near a temple..
An archaeologist spotted one of the bull’s horns sticking out of the mud after a downpour.
Thanks for posting, Nigel.
I found an article with a couple of pictures of the figurine.
https://news.yahoo.com/ancient-bronze-figurine-bull-uncovered-125414388.html
Thanks Nigel! What a find. We were just reminiscing about Olympia yesterday. A memorable stop on our tour.
I saw that story.
One can only imagine what's still buried under who knows what.
Every time they dig somewhere for construction they uncover Ancient Greece!
Every time a flood, storm or earthquake occurs some unknown relic, tomb, structure is unearthed.
When the New Acropolis Museum was constructed they discovered all kinds of foundations, sewers, cisterns, walls, etc. You walk right over them as you cross the "glass" walkway.
I heard archeologists would love to remove all that urban sprawl in Athens and discover even more of Athens' history!
Thanks to Nigel for the original post, and Estimated Prophet for the link. Amazing find.
This may be more detail than most people want but I’ve just listened to this really interesting lecture on religion in Ancient Greece.
Take away points for those who don’t want to listen to the whole thing
a) it was incredibly flexible in some ways, incorporating many other gods. For example there was a synagogue on 4th century BCE Delos.
b) on the other hand it was also very rigid. The rites at each altar were specified to the last detail, often in writing at the entrance to the sanctuary. Basically an instruction manual!
c) they had no work for religion, and no sacred texts.
As I say, perhaps more detail than you wanted!
Alan
That's really wonderful. Thanks, Nigel, for posting about this.
It reminded me of my tour of Turkey in 2002. At one point we were walking across a field to visit an ancient stadium and all sorts of old marble bits were sticking up out of the soil. Our guides told us that Turkey just didn't have the money to unearth every potential site. I wondered (and still wonder) what beauty lurked just below the ground.
Underlining Tommy’s point a friend in Athens says that workers digging to lay new electric lines in Plaka have hit ancient street drains. Apparently they were digging just by the monument of Lysikrates and were only a few feet down. There will now be a delay in laying the cables!
Thats much smaller than I thought it would be..
Amazing that it was found just from yhe tiny horn
