Construction works for the new Cultural
Centre of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in the Athenian neighbourhood of Faliro have revealed a large ancient necropolis. The cemetery
was part of Phalerum, the main port of Ancient Athens before the port of
Piraeus was developed in the 5th century BC, and small sections of the cemetery were excavated by the Greek Archaeological Service at the beginning of the last
century.
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| Photo: Stavros Niarchos Foundation |
Over the past few years more than one
thousand burials have been excavated in the cemetery, which was in use for
almost three centuries, from the late 8th to the early 5th
C BC. Most of the burials are pit graves, but there are also many pot burials
of infants and young children and some cremations. The necropolis is also notable
for its animal burials, including the interment of four complete horses. Last
week the Head Archaeologist of the site, Stella Chrysoulaki, announced to the Central Archaeological Council the
discovery of an unusually well-preserved horse skeleton.
The exceptional aspect of the skeleton is that it is in such a good state of preservation that it has
its hooves. This level of preservation, plus the fact that are four horse skeletons, provides a rare opportunity for zoo-archaeologists to research the breeds and the evolution
of the species.
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| Photo: Stavros Niarchos Foundation |
The necropolis at Faliro has brought to
light other unusual discoveries including two skeletons found with their hands
clasped together, who were possibly a couple. This indicated that they may have died at the same time, since rigor mortis had not set in at the time of the joining of the hands.
The necropolis continues to shed light on daily life – and death – in Attica in the Archaic Period. The majority of grave
goods were ceramic and all known styles
are represented including Late Geometric, Protoattic, and Black-figure. Most of
the ceramics were produced in Attica as might be expected, while the high number of
Corinthian imports shows the dominance of Corinthian pottery and their export trade
at the time. A number of the excavated pots were imports from eastern Greece
and Euboea and this is indicative of the commercial network of Attica in the
Archaic period.
A preliminary study of the burials and the
humans remains indicates that there was not, at this stage, a wide social
inequality, but also shows a high rate of infant mortality and
incidences of pathological conditions which would suggest arduous daily work.
Interestingly, the burials do not follow the same orientation, and even the
positioning of the dead within the graves varies significantly across the cemetery.
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| Photo: Stavros Niarchos Foundation |
The finds from the excavations are
currently undergoing study and further investigation, but some of them will
eventually be on display in a museum in a specially built museum in the Cultural
Centre.
For more information:
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Hello, Carolyn. I was very happy to see this post in my news reader. Always good to see fascinating material from the good folk I've managed to follow online in this place or that. You may like to know, too, that your link to the Greek Reporter leads to an error page due to the last string of text. Shortening the link to http://greece.greekreporter.com/2016/01/14/intact-horse-skeleton-discovered-in-ancient-greek-cemetery/ should do the trick.
ReplyDeleteHello Virgil and thanks a lot for pointing that out. I've edited the post. Hope all is well with you!
ReplyDelete