With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Mary Voyatzis and David Gilman Romano, together with a multinational interdisciplinary team, will analyze the evidence for early cult and ritual practice at the ash altar of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion in Arcadia, Greece. Central to the project is the investigation of the ways in which systems of belief serve to anchor and provide social stability in traditional societies over extended periods of time. It is clear, looking at societies and nations in the world today that identities are in significant measure forged around ideologies, both religions and other, which incorporate a society?s core values and which provide both cohesiveness and a base for decision making. To be effective over the long run such core values must be flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances and archaeology has the potential to examine how such belief systems function over extended periods of time. The Mt. Lykaion site assumes significance in this context. Archaeological research at the site indicates that ritual offerings took place over a period likely of more than one thousand years and the stratified layers are composed of burnt animal bone and other remains. Over the course of two field seasons, trenches have been placed through the deposit and this award provides funds to study of the formation processes and chronology of the ash altar and its contents, integrating various scientific techniques such as carbon-14 dating, ceramic analyses, geoarchaeology, the study of animal bones (zooarchaeology), chemical residue analysis and paleoethnobotany. One of the many research objectives is to evaluate the zooarchaeological, ethnobotanical and ceramic evidence for continuity and change in ritual activities and other types of human behaviors from the Final Neolithic through the Archaic periods. An important aspect of the project includes field training of undergraduate and graduate archaeology students. The NSF grant will support a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona for Dr. Britt Starkovitch, who will institute and develop laboratory protocols for the pre-treatment of calcined bone samples. Dr. Starkovich's work will enable the NSF-Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory to radiocarbon date calcined bone samples from Mt. Lykaion and from other projects in the future. A proposed (privately funded) research center in Megalopolis, near Mt. Lykaion, will create a permanent facility in the Peloponnese to enhance and promote international research for students and scholars in a variety of fields. Broader benefits include the creation of a new archaeology program for underserved high school students at Mt. Lykaion, and importantly, the establishment of a 550 square kilometer Parrhasian Heritage Park in the area of Mt. Lykaion. The park will create hiking trails linking the ancient sanctuaries and cities within it, and include signage relating to the antiquities and the natural flora, and fauna. The chronological and other results of the project will be detailed on park signs located near the mountain summit.