Stymphalos: A Planned City of Ancient Arcadia

This is the second of two Zoom lectures presented by the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology and the local chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). Prof. em. Hector Williams from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver will present the AIA Rodney S. Young Memorial Lecture, titled "Stymphalos: A Planned City of Ancient Arcadia". Excavations at ancient Stymphalos, a small Arcadian late classical city set 2,000 feet up in the mountains of the northern Peloponnese, have uncovered fifteen areas of the city within its sturdy fortification walls. Famously as the site of Herakles’ sixth labor, killing the Stymphalian birds, the city also produced two Olympic victors and mercenary forces that served from Carthage to the Middle East. The talk will look at the well-built houses of the town, its theatre and wrestling school, its sanctuaries and their hundreds of offerings, the sophisticated city defences, and temples that included some with marble roof tiles (rare in Greece). It will also present four early Christian cemeteries and their burials, which throw light on local inhabitants. We also pioneered the use of geophysical exploration in Greece, revealing an orthogonally planned city of the 4th c. BC. Learn more.

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Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology