Dr. Romano Presents Archaeological Discovery

Karabots Professor of Greek Archaeology Dr. David Gilman Romano delivered a lecture on and answered questions about his discoveries at Mt. Lykaion in Greece during a lecture hosted by the Classics Department last Friday. Romano, who now works at the University of Arizona, started working as a graduate student in Arcadia, Greece over forty years ago.After describing his experiences during the excavation, Romano presented a particularly intriguing find—one which could suggest that human sacrifices were part of the ancient civilization in Greece. He showed images of the remains of an almost fully intact human skeleton, buried in a disheveled way, that he and his team discovered this past summer.

“I'm really interested in what they will say about the body, and how they'll explain what happened, so I'm definitely going to look out for the articles about the C14 results.”

Its body faced due West, almost exactly perpendicular to the direction that the stone altar base faced. Rather than being buried in the usual ceremonial fashion, its chest was covered in pieces of stone and it lay surrounded by plates of stone stuck into the ground facing lengthwise up. Interestingly, Romano and his team did not find the cranium when they excavated the site.Romano expressed pleasure with the finding, especially in light of the many years that led up to his discovery. As well as spending between 8 to 10 hours on the site each day with his assistants and director, he had to submit and present a proposal to the Greek Archaeological service. "We [had] a team of forty people,” he said. “Ten of them were assigned to the altar, and so we had a specific idea about what we were going to do and specific place to be dug.”Many mysteries remain unsolved, but there have been multiple hypotheses surrounding the corpse and its enigmatic burial. The most popular theory that the body was used in a human sacrificial ritual, went viral on the internet soon after Romano’s discovery, thanks to media outlets such as The Guardian and the Smithsonian’s Smart News. Romano expressed concern with this coverage because of the uncertainty of the hypothesis.In reaction to Romano’s discovery, lower Michaela Phan expressed her interest in following up on the mystifying. “It was really interesting how there is so much left unsolved,” she said. “I'm really interested in what they will say about the body, and how they'll explain what happened, so I'm definitely going to look out for the articles about the C14 results.”Upper Evan Saltman lauded Romano’s presentation, explaining that it has inspired in him an interest in archaeology. “I learned about the process; looking for clues and then actually going and discovering artifacts,” he said. “I’m looking forward to when they find either more bodies, or come to a conclusion on the one that they found.”Not only did Romano share his firsthand experience, he also offered students the opportunity of attending the archeological dig at Mt. Lykaion next summer, explaining that three recent Exeter graduates had already worked at the site when the skeleton was discovered.Lower Janeva Dimen commended Romano’s seminar. Dimen, who spent her July at an archeological dig in Bibracte, appreciated the new perspective on archaeology Romano presented.  “One important thing I learned from Dr. Romano is that the process of archaeology is perpetual,” she said. “There are always more questions to ask and theories to consider.”