Ancient Olympia
Ancient Olympia
In 200 BC Pausanias The Greek adventurer wrote a lot about the early Olympic Games and their sites in Olympia. Pausanias wrote his chronicles in the second century. But these sites were only rediscovered in the 18th century.
At Olympia the archaeological excavations systematically began in the nineteenth century by German archaeologists. They used the texts of Pausanias to guide them in their olympic excavations.
Olympia in Ancient Greece is the place where the Olympics began but it was buried in mud. All the buildings were covered up and lost. Olympia was the home of the Greek God Zeus and is described in the World Heritage List. Ancient athletes vied for honours on the fields and came from all around the middle east and the greek islands. In the audience there was drama as well as on the Olympic fields. There was no prize for second or third, only the winners were honoured. Winners in disciplines such as wrestling were honoured in stone.
Religion and sport were intertwined as the gods had fought against each other and it was seen as a noble pursuit. Sport also brought the ancient greek civilization a kind of unity as well as entertainment. Arcbaeologists have reconstructed some of the columns to see how it might have looked in the time of ancient greece. Athletes were not allowed to have any criminal records and they were the first olympic athletes. Women were not allowed to participate so coaches had to compete in the nude so that no women could sneak into the games. Olympia is a memory turned to stone. Musicals and theatricals were part of the ancient olympic games and patrons came along and had a fantastic time. Training schedules were rigorously organised and umpires suprervised the olympic games rules and regulations. Some patrons had statues of Zeus made to make themselves look good. Athletes and umpires were sometimes bribed and there were a good deal of scandal and corruption.
Emporers of the Roman Empire made the games in Olympia into grand spectacles but they were banned by a later Roman Emperor. Mud slides and flooding rivers did the rest to destroy the ancient Olympia village. There is a sense of the sacred in the quiet moments in Ancient Olympia.