Because people used to worship other gods that are dead now. Get it?

Doug Erickson of the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

In the Spirit: That ‘graveyard’ on Bascom Hill today? It’s those student atheists at it again

A fake graveyard on Bascom Hill today honors more than 250 ancient deities. Well, honors might be too strong of a word.

The point of the tombstones, erected by a group of UW-Madison atheists, is to suggest that one person’s god centuries ago may be another person’s myth today.

“Perhaps one day the gods of today will be laid to rest alongside Zeus, Mars, Apollo, Aphrodite, Thor, and all the other dead gods that were once worshiped,” said Sam Erickson, president of Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics (AHA) at UW-Madison.

Large signs say, “Here lies the graves of hundreds of past gods. Once worshiped by entire civilizations, now forgotten by most. How much longer will the gods of today last?”

Each tombstone contains the name of a god. Zeus and the Greek gods are depicted alongside Quetzalcoatl and the Aztec gods.