MEDIA ADVISORY: Ancient Sports Complex and Cult Center Will Be Focus of MU’s Celebration of National Archaeology Day

Story Contact(s):
Timothy Wall, walltj@missouri.edu, 573-882-3346

WHAT: The faculty of the University of Missouri’s Department of Art History and Archaeology invite the community to celebrate National Archaeology Day by attending the presentation “Athletics, Water and Cult: the Fountain of the Lamps at Corinth.”

The presentation will focus on the discovery, excavation and continuing study of a large bath and fountain complex that served athletes from the third century B.C. until the fourth century in the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. When the facility was no longer used by athletes, the underground bath became a cult place where more than 4,000 terracotta lamps, as well as other votives, were deposited from the fourth to the sixth century.

MU alumnus James R. Wiseman, the Founder’s Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at Boston University, will present the lecture. Wiseman received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from MU’s College of Arts and Science in 1989, the Distinguished Service Award of the Archaeological Institute of America in 1999, and the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement in January 2008.

MU’s Department of Art History and Archaeology in the College of Arts and Science and the Archaeological Institute of America’s Central Missouri Society will co-host the event.

WHO: Free and open to the public

WHERE: Room 106, Pickard Hall, MU Campus

WHEN: 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 16

NOTE: The event will be preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. in the Cast Gallery in Pickard Hall