A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos

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A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos

Effie Baziotopoulou-Valavani

The construction of two new lines of the Metropolitan Railway of Athens created the opportunity for five extensive excavations and for several ones of smaller scale in the centre of Athens between 1993 and 1998, under the direction ofDrs Th. Karagiorga and L. Parlama.

A large number of the finds were exhibited in the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, until the end of 2001 and were accompanied by the publication of a catalogue titled The City beneath the City, with reports and commentary on the excavation as well. 1

I wish to express my wann thanks to the Honorary Ephor of Antiquities Dr. Th. Karagiorga and to the Ephor of the 3rd Ephorate of Athens Dr. L. Parlama for their help during the study of the material. I am also grateful to M. Tiverios, U. Knigge and H. Zervoudaki for the discussion on the chronology of the pottery. I am also indebted to my colleagues G. Alexopoulos, G. Drakotou, D. Kyriakou, A. Matthaiou, D. Tsouklidou and Al. Heliaki for their kind help. Finally, I express my thanks to Professor Bert Smith, for his invitation to the colloquium, M. Starnatopoulou and M. Y eroulanou for their kind help and the corrections to my English text. This study would not have been completed without the continuous help and encouragement of my husband P. Valavanis.

Abbreviations Agora Xll = B.A. Sparkes and L. Talcott, The Athenian Agora

Xll: Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th centuries B. C. (Princeton 1970).

CbC = L. Parlama and N. Stampolidis (eds), The City beneath the City (Athens 2000).

felten, 'Lekythen' =F. Felten, 'Weissgrundige Lekythen aus dem Athener Kerarneikos', AM91 (1976), 77-113.

Kerameikos VII.2 = E. Kunze-Gotte, K. Tancke and K. Viemeisel, Kerameikos VII.2: Die Beigaben (Berlin 1999).

Kurtz, AWL= D.C. Kurtz, Athenian White Lekythoi. Patterns and Painters (Oxford 1975).

Kurtz and Boardman = D.C. Kurtz and J. Boardrnan, Greek Burial Customs (London 1971).

Papaspyridi = S. Papaspyridi, ''0 'TExvi 'tTJt; 'tOOV Kal..aJ.lrov' 'trov AEUKOOV AT]KU9rov', ADelt 8 (1923) A, 117-146.

Rhodes, Thucydides = P.J. Rhodes (ed.), Thucydides' History li (Warminster 1988).

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To Dr. Theodora Karagiorga

Some other finds, as well as several copies, are exhibited in the permanent exhibitions of the central Railway stations. Most of the large scale excavations took place at the site of the railway stations. Although very few impressive finds were discovered, problems pertaining to the topography of the ancient city were re-examined and clarified.2

One of the extended excavations was in the Kerameikos station, at a very short distance from the north-west part of the archaeological site [fig. 1].3

This station remained at the centre of our concern for a long time, since the tunnel could approach the station only from beneath the archaeological site at a shallow depth. The anxiety and opposition of the archaeological community, because of the risks posed to the monuments, persuaded the civil authorities to alter their plans for the station and divert the tunnel away from the site. By that time, the excavation of the station had almost been completed, but its last and particularly dense sector close to the

Rudolph = W. Rudolph, Die Bauchlekythos; ein Beitrag zur Formgeschichte der attischen Keramik des 5. Jhs. v. Chr. (Bloomington 1971).

Schilardi = D. Schilardi, The Thespian Polyandrion (424 B.C.). The Excavation and the Finds from a Thespian State Burial (Ann Arbor 1977).

Schliirb-Viemeisel = B. Sch!Orb-Viemeisel, 'Eridanos Nekropole', AM81 (1966), 4-111.

Talcott, 'Stamped Ware' = L. Talcott, 'Attic Black Glazed Stamped Ware and Other Pottery from a 5th c. Well', Hesperia 4 (1935), 477-523.

Reports on the excavation and generally on the work of the 'Metro' have been published in Horos 6 (1988), 87-108 (Th. Karagiorga-Stathakopoulou) and Horos 10-12 (1992-1998), 521-544 (L. Parlama).

1 CbC. 2 The reference is mainly for the excavation at Syntagrna Square, Evangelismos and Kerameikos. See the excavation reports in CbC. 3 CbC, 264ff.

E. Baziotopou/ou-Va/avani

Figure l. Map of the Kerameikos area (the excavation area in dark grey).

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Figure 2. Plan of the cemetery discovered during the recent excavations in Kerameikos.

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E. Baziotopoulou-Valavani

Sacred Way remained, and is to be transformed into an archaeological site.

Excavation data

Scattered in an area of about 0.15 ha, 1191 burials dating from the early 7th century BC to the Roman period were investigated under a disturbed earth fill, which was caused by the intensive quarrying for sand used for construction purposes in the capital of the new Greek Kingdom in the 19th century [fig. 2].4

The continuation of the known Classical cemetery westwards was thus confirmed. The cemetery of Kerameikos extended chiefly within the triangle formed by the Sacred Way to the north, the Street of Tombs to the south and a low enclosure - a sort of retaining wall - to the west, situated about 200 m from the city wall [fig. 2A]. No large luxurious monuments were found, nor fragments of architectural members or monumental grave reliefs. Their absence is explained not only by the disturbance of the earth fill above the graves but also by the fact that this part of the cemetery lay at a distance from the nucleus of the necropolis, which was close to the walls and the gates.

However, the excavation provided us with important data on the topography of the region; at the same time, it yielded finds that relate to historical events, such as the two mass burials found in the centre and by the north-western edge of the cemetery. The first was a rectangular shaft [fig. 2B], where 27 adults were inhumed, one beside the other in two successive layers. No grave offerings were found; still, the chronology of the burial is derived from the sherds found at the bottom of the shaft, which was the original floor level of this common burial. Since the sherds are dated to the decade of 420 BC, the burial must be connected with the events of the Peloponnesian War.

The most interesting and impressive mass burial was a simple pit of rather irregular shape, 6.50 m long and 1.60 m deep [fig. 2C], discovered at a depth of 4.30 m from the surface. Its excavation proved particularly difficult, because of the superimposed disturbed fills ap.d of five intrusions into the shaft, which had occurred within a 1 00-year period following the burial. At its south edge, the pit was disturbed by tile graves; only one of them yielded an

4 Information for the area of the Kerameikos before the excavation by the German Archaeological Institute, in L. Ross, Avapv~uE:u; 1ca1 avaKozvrouE:u; an6 UfV EUaoa (1832-1833), Ei:voz Ilopl'f/Yrrctr; urov EU'f/VIKO Xd>po 3 (Athens 1976); B. Petrakos, ''H c'xvaO"Jcacpl) 'to'il Kepa~twc:ou c'x1to 'tl)v 'ApxatoA.oyucl) 'E'tatpeiu', '0 Mev-rrop 48 (1998), 119-207.

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offering: a squat aryballos of the late 5th-early 4th century BC. A pyre in a shaft was discovered at its west edge; it was totally disturbed, probably by the foundation works for the Vegetable Market of Athens established in this region at the end of the 19th century. Two intrusions (twins) at the centre of the pit, dated in the third quarter of the 4th century according to the sherds of coarse-ware pottery that were contained in them, destroyed the greatest part of the mass burial. Consequently, the information we were able to extract came by and large from isolated heaps of soil that had remained undisturbed.

The first bodies, facing towards the edge of the pit, appeared in its east sector [fig. 3]. Beneath them were other burials in more than five successive layers, without any intervening soil between them. The excavation revealed successive burial levels of 89 male and female bodies, buried in a disorderly fashion and usually in extended position, but also in positions directed by the shape and size of the pit. At the lower levels, the deceased were more widely spaced and it seems that they had been covered with some earth; still, their position and direction remained in the same disorder as in the upper layers. The rough rock of the region constituted the bottom and the lower sides of the pit. At the bottom and by its south-western edge 30 skulls were found, from exhumation of earlier burials that were disturbed by the pit of the mass burial. At this lower level among the first deceased, a man had been put in a hollow of the pit in a half-erect position. In the upper layer, 8 enchytrismoi of infants were found among the deceased. Contrary to the careless inhumation of the adults, the children seem to have been treated with special care. The infants' bodies were not buried in a pot but they were covered by one large amphora sherd, by two halves of different pots or by a half pot. All these pots were found broken or smashed. 5

The grave offerings consisted of 30 small vases scattered among the dead, especially in the lower layers. It is noticeable that the body of a pelike was found 0.50 m deeper than its lid. Considering the actual number of the dead the offerings were very few; initially there would have been at least 150 persons, given the loss of at least one more upper level and the destruction of the burial from the later intrusions.

Trying to reconstruct the sequence of events in relation to the mass burial, we can argue that an irregular roughly dug pit was opened in the north-western edge of the cemetery of Kerameikos - or the Eridanos cemetery as it is also known - destroying earlier

5 The child burials are marked in the plan in grey [fig. 3].

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Figure 3. Plan of the mass burial in Kerameikos (child burials in grey).

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graves. A great number of bodies were thrown in it one upon the other rather than buried; their positions and orientation were dictated by the shape and the size of the pit as well as by the large number of the deceased, with more proper care shown at the beginning, and far less later. Starting the burial, there was an effort to throw some soil upon the dead. But after two layers even this practice was abandoned and the people were thrown one upon the other. A few infants were also buried in the communal grave but with more respect and piety. 6 Very few common, offerings followed the deceased. A mass burial had thus been completed in a hasty and improper manner in a very short period of time. The dead might have been covered by a low tumulus, for practical and not monumental purposes, of which however nothing remains.7

The grave offerings

The grave offerings consisted solely of Attic pottery. No other small objects or jewellery accompanied the dead of the mass burial. Of the pots discovered in the grave, we shall present the ones which are better preserved and those which provide chronological data:

Black-glazed cup Inv.no. A 15285; Height: 0.075 m; Rim diameter: 0.083 m; Body diameter: 0.08 m [pi. 41A]. Mended. One handle missing. Chips and flakes, mainly on the upper half of the body. Slight groove around the middle of the body. Broad ring base. It is similar to the cup of grave 224 (SW 101) in the Kerameikos, 8 dated to 460/50 BC, and to the cup 343 from the Athenian Agora dated to c. 450 BC.9 See also the cup no. 13 from Rhodes in Copenhagen10

and a rather larger cup of the same shape in Oxford.11

Third quarter of the 5th century.

6 For the social aspects related to infant death in antiquity, see among others R. Garland, The Greek Way of Death (lthaca 1985), 82. 7 As in 'other cases in the cemetery of Kerameikos (cf. the Rundbau, GrabhUgel G and SUdhUgel) a circular pit follows the contours of a tumulus in the way of the position of the dead, which creates a cir.cle on the fringe of the pit. See C. H. Hou~y Nielsen, "Burial language' in Archaic and Classical Kerameikos', Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens I (1995), 129-184, esp. 153. 8 U. Knigge, Der Siidhiigel (Berlin 1976), pi. 36.5.4. 9 Talcott, 'Stamped Ware', fig. 1,21. 10 CVA Copenhagen (5) Ill, pi. 176, 13. 11 CVA Oxford (2), pi. 65, 15.

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Black-glazed lidded pelike Inv.no. A 15282; Height: 0.15 m; Body diameter: 0.082 m; Height of lid: 0.03 m; Diameter of lid: 0.096 m [pi. 41B]. 12

Mended. Both handles and a part of the lid are missing. Chips and flakes. Continuous curve from the neck to the discoid base. The rim of the lid is rather tall, with convergent walls. The pelike belongs to the third class of the Athenian Agora and is generally dated in the second half of the 5th century.13 Similar vases are a pelike in Copenhagen from Athens and two others from Rhodes. 14

Second halfofthe 5th century.

Two black-glazed kothons a. Inv.no. A 15264; Height: 0.08 m; Body diameter: 0.087 m. b. Inv.no. A 15286; Height: 0.084 m; Body diameter: 0.082 m. 15

Both are mended. Parts of the body and the handle of kothon a are missing. Chips and flakes. Vase b is better preserved. The two-part vertical handle begins at the rim and ends on the shoulder. A thin band with relief dotting sets off the joint of the neck and the body. Flat base with black concentric circles underside.16 Several similar vases, better known as Pheidias' cup, were found in the grave enclosure of Hegeso in the Kerameikos, dated in the third quarter of the 5th century;17 in the grave of Korkyraian proxenoi of 43312/8 and in the Thespian polyandrion of 424 BC.l9 Third quarter of the 5th century.

Three black-glazed ribbed lekythoi a. Inv.no. A 15260; Height: 0.111 m; Body diameter: 0.067 m; Base diameter: 0.055 m [pi. 41C]. b. Inv.no. A 15262; Height: 0.086 m; Body diameter: 0.053 m; Base diameter: 0.043. c. Inv.no. A 15263; Height: 0.0455 m; Body diameter: 0.048 m; Base diameter: 0.041 m. a. Lekythos a is complete and preserved in good condition. Calyx-shaped mouth, rather elongated body, broad ring base, strap handle; it belongs to

12 See also CbC, 351, n: 383. 13 Agora Xll, 50. 14 CVA Copenhagen (I) Ill, pi. 176, 1-2; Clara Rhodos 11, 141 fig. 19 and Ill, 207 fig. 204. 15 The vase is illustrated in CbC, 353 no. 390. 16 For these vases see also CbC, 356, no. 390, commentary. 17 K. KUbler, 'Ausgrabungen im Kerameikos 1', AA 1938, 586-606. 18 U. Knigge, 'Untersuchungen bei den Gesandtenstellen im Kerameikos zu Athen', AA 1972, 584-629. 19 Schilardi, 166 ff, no. 75 pi. 19.

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Rudolph's type VI E.20 The shallow and thin grooves form broad petals. Ribbed lekythoi are quite common in the last quarter of the 5th century, although their production starts in the third quarter of the century?1 Parallels to lekythos a are: lekythos no. 358 from Thespiae;22 the lekythos from the child burial hs 168 in the Kerameikos;23 the ribbed lekythos 6-7 in Mainz;24

and lekythos 197 in the Kieseleff Collection in Wiirzburg with thicker petals?5 The last two examples are dated in the last quarter of the century. Compare also: four lekythoi from the Vassalaggi necropolis/6 dated to 430/20 BC and the third quarter of the century. b. Lekythos b is smaller than a, with broad, light grooves forming vertical triangles around the body. The handle and part of the calyx-mouth are missing. The base is reserved. Similar vases are known from burial hs 111 in the Kerameikos cemetery, dated to the beginning of the last quarter of the 5th century/7 from grave 66 (56) in the Syntagma cemetery/8 and from a child sarcophagus from Voula. The latter is placed by Schilardi in the early chronology of the type, at the very beginning of the last quarter of the 5th century.29

c. The upper part of the vase, mouth, neck and handle of lekythos c are missing. Its shape is rather similar to lekythos b. c. 430 BC.

Black-glazed squat lekythos (with reserved band) Inv.no. A 15258; Height: 0.092 m; Body diameter: 0.074 m; Base diameter: 0.062 m [pi. 41D]. The body is nearly cylindrical, with some chips and flakes on its surface. The mouth, neck and handle are missing. Ring broad base preserved. A reserved band with the 'running-dog' motif adorns the front side, under the shoulder. This shape is very popular in the last third of the 5th century.30 It belongs to Rudolph's type VI E,31 dated between 440-425. The closest parallels of this lekythos are: the vases from a well in the Athenian Agora (no. 53) dated in

20 Rudolph, 30-32, pi. Xill. 21 Agora Xll, 154. 22 Schilardi, 406, no. 358. 23 Schltirb-Viemeisel, 38 no. 71.pl. 38.5. 24 CVA Mainz, pi. 50,6-7. 25 Die Sammlung Kieseleffin Wiirzburg ll (1989), 121, no. 197, pi. 81. 26 NSC 1971 (suppl.) e,f,g,h, on 28, 47, 56, 84. 27 Schltirb-Viemeisel, 40, no. 78. 28 S. Charitonides, ''Avumccupul. KA.acrucrov 1:cuprov 1tapa 'ti)v 7tAU'tEiuv I.UV'tCx"fiJ.U'toc;', AEphem 1958, 59-60, fig. 101. 29 Schilardi, 406. 30 Agora Xll, 153-154. 31 Rudolph, 30, pi. Xill.

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440-425 BC;32 and a lekythos in Geneva (no. 1302), dated generally in the second half of the 5th century.33 Other similar lekythoi are known from Thespiai (nos 356, 357) dated in 440-430 BC,34 and from cremation 39 in the cemetery of Anagyrous, dated by Petrakos to the middle of the 5th century.35

440-425 BC.

Black-glazed squat lekythos Inv.no. A 15259; Height: 0.074 m; Body diameter: 0.069 m; Base diameter: 0.057 m. It is similar to lekythos A 15258, with more rounded body. Mouth, neck and handle are missing. Many chips on the surface. On the front side, a reserved band, covering the upper body, is decorated with a series of careless 'S'. Ring broad base, reserved in its lower part. The shape of this lekythos belongs to Rudolph's type VI A, dated between 440 and the third quarter of the 5th century. 36 An exact parallel was found in grave 370 in the Kerameikos dated in the third quarter of the 5th century.37 Other similar examples from the same cemetery were found in burial 75 (lamax hs 112) dated to c. 440-430/8 and burial 66 (hs 160) dated to 440 BC. 39

440-425 BC.

Black painted squat lekythos Inv.no. A 15276; Height: 0.066 m; Body diameter: 0.039 m; Base diameter: 0.031 m. The body is complete. Parts of the mouth, neck and handle are missing. The rather rectangular body is decorated with two reserved bands with pairs of black stripes. Ring base. Similar to the form and style is a lekythos in Geneva, dated in general terms in the 5th century.40 Similar better dated examples are known from Athens, one from cremation IV, of 430 BC,41 and the other from 'Brandgrab' 81 in the Kerameikos, accompanied with six white-ground lekythoi of 420-410 BC.42

430-420 BC.

32 Talcott, 'Stamped Ware', 477-523, fig. 1.53. 33 .CVA Geneve (1) ill L, pi. 24.10. . 34 Schilardi, 402, pi. 47. 35 B. Petrakos, ADelt 20 (1965) B1, 115, pi. 81p. 36 Rudolph, 28, pi. Xll.4-5. 37 Kerameikos Vll.2, 96, pi. 63.7. 38 Schltirb-Viemeisel, pi. 38.5. 39 Ibid., pi. 29.2. 4° CVA Geneve (1) ill,1 pi. 23.13. 41 D. Schilardi, •· AvaO"Icaqn'J 1tapa 1:a MaKpa TEiXTJ Kat f) oivox6TJ 1:oii Tuupou', AEphem 1975, 78-80, pi. 35a. 42 Schlorb-Viemeisel41, Beil. 30.2 (cremation hs 173.7).

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Three white-ground pattern lekythoi a. Inv.no. A 15271; Height: 0.153 m; Body diameter: 0.057 m; Base diameter: 0.042 m. The upper part of the vase (mouth, neck and handle) is missing. Chips and flakes on the surface. b. Inv. no. A 15277; Height: 0.134 m; Body diameter: 0.045 m; Base diameter: 0.032 m. The mouth is missing. Many chips and flakes on the surface. c. Inv. no. A 15279; Height: 0.116 m; Body diameter: 0.051 m; Base diameter: 0.036 m [pi. 42A]. Mouth, neck and handle are missing. Chips on the surface. The three white-ground pattern lekythoi are decorated on the body with ivy-berry tendril. framed by latticework, a motif generally associated with the Beldam Painter's Workshop; on the shoulder stripes and dots. This decorative schema seems to have been most popular in the second half of the 5th century.43

Similar lekythoi were found in the graves of the Korkyraian proxenoi (433/2 BC)44 and in graves 418 (440-430 BC) and 489 Gust before 430 BC) in the Kerameikos.45

c. 430BC.

Two red-figure squat lekythoi a. Inv.no. A 15265; Height: 0.112 m; Maximum diameter: 0.065 m; Base diameter: 0.05 m.46

Complete, with few chips. The mouth is calyxshaped, the body is elongated cylindrical, and the ring base is broad. Strap handle. A female figure, standing on a reserved band, is shown in profile to the left. She wears a chiton and himation and her hair is gathered in a bun, leaving her earring to show. With her extended right hand she holds a piece of cloth. b. Inv.no. A 15270; Preserved height: 0.093 m.; Maximum diameter: 0.066 m; Base diameter: 0.066 m [pi. 42B]. The mouth is missing. A few flakes on the surface. Similar in shape to a. A female figure shown in profile to the left is depicted in the same style and manner as the one on lekythos a. She offers a libation over an altar. The shape belongs to Rudolph's type VI A 47 and is dated to 440-425 BC. In terms of style, squat

. lekythoi A 15265 and A 15270 belong to Sabetai's

43 Kurtz,AWL, 154. 44 Knigge, op.cit. n. 18. 45 Kerameikos VII.2, 106-107, pi. 70.2 and 129, pi. 88.1. For similar pattern Iekythoi see Kurtz, AWL, 154, 231, pi. 70.7. See also CVA Mainz (1) pi. 37.8, dated from the middle to the third quarter of the 5th century. 46 The vase is illustrated in CbC, 353 fig. 388. 47 Rudolph 28, 90, pi. Xll, 4,5.

class SL 48 and are dated to 430-420 BC. The iconography is usually related to f:7Ca.v2w or yvva.ucmvir11r; scenes.49

c. 430BC.

Red-figure squat lekythos Inv.no. A 15283; Height: 0.069 m; Body diameter: 0.068 m; Base diameter: 0.055 m [pi. 42C]. Mended, with some chips and flakes. The mouth, neck and handle are missing. The body is squat globular and the ring base is broad. A sphinx, seated on a band with an Ionic pattern, is concentrated on reading a stele. Its left toe is lifted. The shape is similar to vase no. 12404 in Geneva,50

dated in the last quarter of the 5th century. Fairly similar is another squat lekythos in Zurich,51 in the manner of the Washing Painter. The subject of the seated sphinx is very common but the reading sphinx is not very usual. For the subject, though of different shape and style, see lekythos no. 105 from the Purification ofDelos (426 BC).52

430-420BC.

Red-figure squat lekythos Inv.no. A 15269; Height: 0.087 m; Body diameter: 0.067 m; Base diameter: 0.049 m [pi. 42D]. The mouth and the strap handle are missing. The body is rather globular, the ring base is broad. A Nike, standing on a reserved line to the right, holds with her right hand a tendril bud. The shape belongs to Rudolph's type VI A.53 The subject is very common in the second half of the century. The style of the Nike is very close to the female figure dressed in chiton and himation, on the kotyle no. 120 from a well in the Athenian Agora, 54 dated in the decade of 430BC. 440-430 BC.

48 V. Sabetai, The Washing Painter: a Contribution to the Wedding and Gender Iconography in the 2nd half of the 5th cent. B. C. (Ann Arbor 1993), 212-213. 49 See A. Lezzi-Hafter, Der Eretria Maler (Mainz 1988), pi. 124, 197c; CVA Torino (3) m, 1, pi. 1Z,4 and CVA Zurich (1) ill pi. 24, 11-12 for a similar lekythos related to the group of the Washing Painter. See also the squat lekythos 167 in the Kieseleff collection in Wiirzburg, which seems to be close in style to the two squat lekythoi of the mass burial. 5° CVA Geneve (1) m, 1 pi. 22,6. 51 CVA Zurich (1), m, 1 pi. 24, 13-14. 52 Ch. Dugas, EAD XXI: Les vases attiques a figures rouges (Paris 1952), pi. XL, 105. 53 Rudolph 28, 90 pi. Xll 4,5. 54 Talcott, 'Stamped Ware', 492 fig. 12.

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Red-figure squat lekythos Inv.no. A 15268; Height: 0.061 m; Body diameter: 0.048 m; Base diameter: 0.035 m. Almost complete; the mouth neck and strap handle are missing. Several flakes on the surface. Ring base. The body is fairly rounded rectangular. A Nike, walking to the left, is holding a jewellery box (pyxis). A basket (kalathos) is depicted in front of her. The shape of the vase is close to Rudolph's type 11 C,55 dated in 470-450/40 BC. Although the subject is very common, no exact parallel is known to me; for a close but older example, see no. 2690 in Mainz,56 attributed to the Seireniske Painter. There is a lekythos in Copenhagen, which is similar in shape and subject but not in style. 57

Last quarter of the 5th century.

Red-figure lekythos of secondary type Inv.no. A 15281; Height: 0.17 m; Shoulder diameter: 0.068 m; Base diameter: 0.05 m [pi. 43A].58

The neck, the mouth and the strap handle are missing. Chips and flakes. The body, almost cylindrical, stands on a discoid base. A departure scene is depicted on the main side of the vase. On the left, a woman, wearing a peplos, holds a phiale in her right hand. The young man opposite her, dressed as a traveller with petasos and chlamys, is holding a spear, which forms the axis of the scene. The scene is crowned by a meander band whereas a reserved band serves as the ground line. On the shoulder there are three black palmettes, the central reserved, enriched with volutes. The subject, the departure of the man from home, is very popular in the iconography of the 5th century. A similar subject is depicted on the tondo of a kylix by the Calliope Painter, dated in the third quarter of the 5th century. 59

The female figure, especially the rendering of her head, is related to the woman on the lekythos 12343 in Basel, which is attributed to the Klugmann Painter.60 Lekythos A 15281 can also be attributed to the workshop of the Kliigmann Painter and it is probably a late work of the painter himself.61

c. 430 BC.

55 Rudolph, 18 pi. IX.3. 56 CVA Mainz (4), pi. 53, 7-9. 57 CVA Copenhagen (5) m, 1 pi. 167, 6. 58 For the lekythos A 15281 see CbC, 355, no. 387. 59 Lezzi-Hafter, op.cit. n. 49, pi. 66a. 6° CVA Base! (3) m, pis 30.3-4, 33.2. 61 For Kliigrnann Painter see ARV2

, 1198-1200, 1686; L. Zoroglu, 'Zwei Lekythoi Kliigrnann-Malers a us Kelenderis', AA 1999, 141-145.

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Red-figure chous Inv.no. A 15284; Maximum height: 0.072 m; Body diameter: 0.083 m [pi. 43C]. Only the front side of a chous is preserved. Mended from three sherds. A boy is sitting on his toy-cart offering a cake, n-6n-avov. A chous is depicted in front of him. The scene could probably be completed to the right with another boy pushing the toy-cart. The figures stand on a band decorated with an Ionic pattern. The same pattern is discerned above the scene, at the top of the fragment. The scene includes the main symbols of the third day of the Anthesteria festival and can thus be considered as one of the numerous representations of this popular subject on choes. The child seated on the cart is not a usual subject on choes. The contour of the child's face, his deep-set eyes, his heavy chin and his backward pose [pi. 43D], can be paralleled with the Eros riding on a deer, on a large squat red-figure lekythos in Tubingen,62 which has been attributed by J. Burow to Polion and dated to 430 BC.63

Red-figure chous Inv.no. A 15272; Height: 0.066 m; Maximum diameter: 0.064 m; Base diameter: 0.049 m.64

Mended. The handle is missing; few chips on the surface. Trefoil mouth, with the middle lobe slightly larger than the others, globular body, broad ring base. The scene is bordered on both ends by bands with Ionic pattern. Two facing boys are playing with ribbons on the edge of which a ball is attached. They are wearing _bands on their heads and periamma on their chests. Between the children, in the middle of the scene, two Maltese dogs are participating in the game. The most interesting feature of this chous is the children's game, which is depicted here for the first time.65 The boys hold a strap or a rope with a ball fastened to its end. They either hurl the ball as far as they can, or throw it in the air by holding the strap by the end. The dogs participate in the game, trying to catch the balls. 66

The closest parallel in terms of iconography is a vase from a rescue excavation at Aiolou Street in Athens. 67 Similar in style is the chous from Athens in the

62 CVA Tiibingen (5), pi. 44,3-4. 63 For Polion see ARV2 1171-3 and 1685. See also AR 1960-1961, 58 n. 23, fig. 11. 64 The vase is illustrated in CbC, 351, 356 no. 389. 65 For children's games see E. Schrnidt, Spielzeug und Spiele der Kinder in klassischen Altertum (Meiningen 1971). 66 For this vase in particular but also for bibliography on choes see CbC, 355-356 no. 389. 67 ADelt 18 (1963) B1, pi. 32cS.


British Museum (no. 1929.10-16,2) attributed to the Group of Athens 12.144.68

Last quarter of the 5th century.

About 15 white-ground lekythoi and lekythoi fragments were found in the mass burial. In most cases the figure decoration is partly or totally effaced. The better-preserved examples are described below. All of them belong to the same type with the calyxshaped mouth, a rather tall neck, sloping shoulder and the 's' outline from the lower body to the low disc foot. The lekythoi can be thus dated to the very end of the third and the beginning of the last quarter of the 5th century.69

White-ground lekythos Inv.no. A 15293; Preserved height: 0.29 m; Shoulder diameter: 0.084 m (0.054 m) [pL 43B]. The foot is missing; mended with restored parts. Surface worn, faded matte red paint. On the shoulder is depicted a floral pattern of palmettes with alternating matte black and red leaves, enhanced with tendrils. Under the shoulder there is a band of meander running right. On the body of the lekythos, the centre of the scene is occupied by a slender stele, on a two-stepped base, decorated with a large four-leaf pattern, which has a pair of antithetic s-shaped volutes on its centre. On the left, a woman dressed in a belted peplos is walking towards the stele, holding, in her right hand, a torch with hanging ribbons. Her left hand is hidden by the grave monument. The young man on the right, dressed in traveller's costume, is leaning against the tomb monument with his right arm; he holds two spears in his left hand.70

The young man is similar to the male figure on lekythoi 535 and 536 in Frankfurt.71 The style and the clothes are close to the male figure on lekythos 71 in Tokyo.72 The woman is similar in style and rendering to the female figure on the white-ground lekythoi 14515 and 1848 in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens,73 as well as to the woman on lekythos 334 in Palermo.74 They are all attributed to the Reed Painter. For the unusual tetrafoil orna-

6s ARV2 1320 1 69 The shape 'is .close to that of.Rheneia's white-ground lekythoi. Kurtz, AWL, 132 no. 9. 7° For this vase and the details of its style see: CbC, 352-353 no. 385. 71 CVA Frankfurt (4), 40 pi. 20,1-23;7. See also the male figure on the lekythos no. A 7 of the British School at Athens, in J. Oakley and E. Langridge-Noti (eds), Athenian Potters and Painters. Catalogue of the Exhibition (Athens 1994), 55-56, no. 40. 72 CVA Japan (2), no. 71,22 pi. B7 and 17,9. 73 Papaspyridi, 117-146. 14 CVA Palermo, no. 334, pi. 8, 1-2.

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ment see the lekythos 1897, 172 c in Glasgow, which is a work by the same painter.75 This pattern cannot represent an existing fmial, thus confirming the scholars who believe that white-ground lekythoi of this period often represent an imaginary rendering of the grave. 76

Lekythos A 15293 is attributed to the Reed Painter, whose main period of production is believed to be 420-410 BC. Except for the painter's style, the attribution is confrrmed by one of his 'signs': the hiding of the hand behind a monument, structure or figures is a common trick of the painter's hasty work.77

c. 420BC.

White-ground lekythos Inv.no. A 15301; Preserved height: 0.205 m; Shoulder diameter: 0.68 m [pi. 44A]. Mouth and foot are missing. Flakes on the surface. Much of the painting is faded. The male figure on the left is bending towards a grave monument, obviously a stele. The stele is close to Nakayama's group AIV, especially AIV 33, dated between 435 and 420 BC.78 The young man seems to give offerings to the grave. There are no visible traces of the right figure of the scene. The young man is quite similar to the left figure on lekythos 334 in Palermo,79 though the work on our lekythos is more hasty. The face of the young man is similar to that on the lekythos in Tokyo.80 Lekythos A 15301 can therefore be attributed to the Reed Painter.81

White-ground lekythos Inv.no. A 15302; Preserved height: 0.202 m; Maximum diameter: 0.07 m; Base diameter: 0.05 m [pi. 44B]. The mouth, the upper part of the neck and the handle are missing. Chips and flakes, faded colours. Paint is destroyed on parts of the surface. Cylindrical body on a disc foot. The scene is crowned by a band of meander running towards the right.

75 CVA Great Britain (18) The Glasgow Collection, 34 pi. 33, 5-7. 76 See for example H.A. Shapiro, 'The Iconography of Mourning in Athenian Art', AJA 95 (1991), 655. One could consider several possibilities for this four-leaf pattern. A possible suggestion was made by Prof. N. Stampolidis, who proposed that it is a depiction of a trophy consisting of shields. · 77 On the Reed Painter see ARV2 1376-1382, 1692, 1704; Para 485, 524; Addendd 370; Kurtz, AWL, 58-68; Papaspyridi; Felten, 'Lekythen', 77-113; Oakley and Langridge-Noti, op.cit. n. 71, 55-56 for more bibliography. ?s N. Nakayama, Untersuchungen der auf weissgrundigen Lekythen dargestellten Grabrniiler (Freiburg 1982), 65 pi. 9. 79 CVA Palermo, no. 334 pl. 8,1-2. 8° CVA Japan (2), 22, pi. B7. 81 For the Reed Painter and white-ground lekythoi in general see above note 77.

..,

Two women by the grave. A stele on a two-stepped base with a three-part finial at the centre of the scene. On the left stands a young woman wrapped in a himation, with her head bent low. Opposite her another woman, depicted in three-quarter view, is dressed in a yellow peplos. Traces of red ribbons are visible on the stele and on the first and third part of the finial. The grave stele belongs to Nakayama's type AV2, dated in the last quarter of the 5th century.82 For the figure on the right see parallels in Copenhagen, 83 and for the head of the female figure on the left see lekythos no. 19273 in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. 84 For this figure see also the lekythoi from Argos, in Japan and in Berlin.85

Lekythos A 15302 is a work of the Reed Painter. The liasty work and the concealed hand of the woman behind the stele on the right are characteristic of his work. The child-like figures recall the style of the Bird Painter, with whom the Reed Painter is stylistically connected. 86

c. 420BC.

White ground lekythos Inv.no. A 15295; Preserved height: 0.18 m; Maximum diameter: 0.067 m; Base diameter: 0.057 m [pi. 44C].87 The neck and the handle are missing. Chips and flakes on the surface. Part of the painting and added colours have disappeared. On the upper part of the body a faded meander outlined by lines of dilute glaze, crowns the scene. Man and woman by the grave. At the centre, a rectangular stele with acanthus finial. On the left, a male figure leans on a spear, and on the right a female figure holding a kanistron is bending towards the grave to lay an offering. Her right foot rests on the step of the stele base. The style of this lekythos is quite different from the above. Its figures can be equally related to the circle of the Painter of Munich 2335 and to the Bird Painter. The relation of the two painters has been confirmed archaeologically and stylistically. 88

The young man bears similarities to a figure on a lekythos in Berlin, attributed by I. W ehgartner to the Painter of Munich 2335.89 The woman is similar to the kneeling young lady on the lekythos 3832 from

82 Nakayama, op.cit. n. 78, 62, fig. 6lg, pi. 10. 83 CVA Copenhagen (5) ill, 1 pi. 173, 3a-b. 84 Chr. Kardara, 'Four White Lekythoi in the National Museum', BSA 55 (1960), 149-158, esp. 158, pis 40-41. 85 Papaspyridi, 122 fig. 6a; CVA Japan (2), pi. 87 and CVA Berlin (8), pi. 17,1-2. 86 Kurtz, AWL, 58. 87 For the vase see CbC, 353-355, no. 386. 88 Kurtz, AWL, 53-54. 89 CVA Berlin (8), pi. 17, 1-2.

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the Kerameikos, attributed to the Bird Painter.90 The bad state of preservation of the surface does not permit a more detailed stylistic approach; yet, lekythos A 15295 can be attributed to the circle of the Bird Painter.

White-ground lekythos Inv.no. A 15300; Height: 0.031 m; Rim diameter: 0.057 m; Body diameter: 0.893 m. Mended. The foot is missing. Chips and flakes. Faded colours, parts of the white ground are lost. On the left, a seated male figure can be discerned with much difficulty. In the middle, a rectangular stele is depicted crowned by a finial, which is hard to discern. A woman stands on the right. Only the upper part of her head and her long himation are preserved. The style of the woman recalls the work of the Painter of Munich 2335 as she can be easily related to the painter's female figures. For an example from the same cemetery, see the woman's head oflekythos inv. no. 1965 in the Kerameikos.91 Lekythos A 15300 may be a later work of the Painter himself or attributed to his Group.92

c. 430BC.

White-ground lekythos (secondary type) Inv.no. A 15296; Height: 0.162 m; Maximum diameter: 0.062 m [pi. 44D]. The mouth and the foot are missing. Chips and flakes. Parts of the white ground are missing. Only some lines of the decoration, in shiny gilded brown, are preserved. The scene, visit to the grave, is crowned by a meander band, running towards the right. On the reserved shoulder there are faded traces of tongue-pattern. Only parts of the left figure, probably a woman, are still visible; her two hands tend to the stele and with her right she offers a wreath. A triangular finial on the top of the stele can be easily discerned. Accordin~ to the shape, this vase belongs to Kurtz's type AT~,93 which is connected with the Aeschines' and Tympos Painters. The decoration, however, is very 'frairoentary'. Lekythos A 15296 seems to be connecteq to an artist close to the Tymbos Painter and prob~bly to the Group of Athens 2025; this attribution is mainly based on the shape and style of the meander band and of the woman's hands. The scene

9° K. Athusaki, 'Drei weissgrundige Lekythen', AM 85 (1970}, 49-52, pi. 21,1. 91 Felten, 'Lekythen', 94, cat. no. 29, pi. 30.1. 92 For the painter of Munich 2335 see ARV2 1161-70, 1685, 1703, 1707; Kurtz, AWL, 22, 55-56; M. Tiverios, Ilepiclsw Jlava81jva10.. Eva<; KpaU,pa<; wv Zwyprl.rpov Tov Movrl.xov 2335 (Thessaloniki 1989), 89-100. 93 Kurtz,AWL, 82-83.


resembles that of the white-ground lekythos 1113 in the Kerameikos, attributed to the late circle of the Tymbos Painter.94 See also lekythos no. 1875 in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. 95

c. 440BC.

Among the finds were two sherds of white-ground lekythoi. On the first, the upper body of a male figure is depicted; it can be attributed to the Reed Painter. The second, depicting a head of a man wearing a petasos, is probably the work of the Woman Painter. There is similarity in execution with the left figure on the white-ground lekythos 2 from grave 583 in the Kerameikos, attributed to the 'Frauenmaler'.96

Chronology

According to the accepted chronology, the majority of the vases from the communal grave is date~ around 430, some can be dated within the decade of 420 BC and a few generally in the last quarter of the 5th century. Yet, the hasty and impious way of the inhumation of about 150 people, who probably received no proper funeral rites, indicates the panic of the persons who buried them. The strange way of burial, as well as the chronology of the few common vases in the decade of 420 BC inevitably has to be associated with the plague in Athens in the first years of the Peloponnesian War, between 430-426 BC.

The contagious disease erupted in Athens suddenly; the shadow of panic slid over the entire population. Many scholars and doctors in particular have tried to identity the illness with known diseases such as small pox, bubonic plague, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid fever, ergotism and recently ebola.97 It seems possible, however, that this disease is either extinct

94 Felten, 'Lekythen', pi. 26,3. 95 Athusaki, op.cit. n. 90, pi. 19,2. 96 Kerameikos Vll.2, 145, pi. 95.3. 97 In general see D.L. Page, 'Thucydides' Description of the Great Plague at Athens', CIQ 3 (1953), 97-119; A. Parry, 'The Language ofThucydides' Description of the Plague', BICS 16 (1969), 106-118; V. Nutton, 'The Seeds of Disease: an Explanation of Contagion and Infection from the Greeks to the Renaissance', MedHist 27 (1983), 1-34; E.D. Phillips, Greek Medicine (London 1973); J. Poole and A.J. Holladay, 'Thucydides and the Plague of Athens', CIQ 29 (1979), 282-300. See also by the same authors, ClQ 32 (1982), 235; ClQ 34 (1984), 483-485 and A.J. Holladay, ClQ 38 (1988), 247-250; J. Longrigg, 'The· Great Plague of Athens', History of Science 18 (1980), 209-225; A.D. Langmuir, et al. (eds), 'The Thucydides Syndrome', New England Journal of Medicine 313 (1985), 1027-1030; J. Longrigg, 'Death and Epidemic Disease in Classical Athens', in V. Hope and E. Marshall {eds), Death and Disease in the Ancient City (London and New York 2000), 55-64.

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or so mutated, that it could not be recognised from the symptoms described by Thucydides (ii.47.3).98

The mass burial in the Kerameikos offers the ground for a medical approach through the study of the human bones that were collected from it.99 If we find remains of a disease, then not only the attribution of the burial to the great plague of Athens will be confmned but the medicine historians may also connect a certain disease to the plague.

There is a chronological disparity of 5-6 years between the accepted chronology of some of the vases - based mainly on style - and the historical event of the Athenian plague. The main difficulty arising from its attribution to the plague described by Thucydides is related to the career of the Reed Painter. It is generally accepted that he had worked in the last quarter of the 5th century at the earliest. The Reed Painter's white-ground Iekythoi, however, were found together with vases of the Kliigmann Painter, Potion and the Bird Painter. The question is whether the beginning of the Reed Painter's production should be placed about five years earlier and thus be contemporary with his related colleagues, the Bird Painter, the Painter of Munich 2335, or the workshop of the Tymbos Painter. We face again a similar situation of chronology to the one of the two sarcophagi of Anavyssos, where vase painters believed to have worked in different periods proved to be contemporary. 100 Yet, many scholars agree with McDonald's comment: "Still, although history can help to refine our knowledge of pottery, the reverse is not always true and one must be careful in using pottery to supplement historical data". 101 But in the case of the mass burial in Kerameikos, pottery and historical data are in agreement.

Kurtz and Boardman, based on literary sources, have already accurately mentioned that the few examples of mass burial in the Classical period were the results of extreme circumstances, such as the second outburst of the plague in 427/6 BC.102 Although no other mass burials due to epidemic diseases have been excavated in Athens to date, mass burials of the 5th

98 Rhodes, Thucydides, 228-229. 99 Associate Professor M. Papagrigorakis, who studies the 'bones of the mass burial in collaboration with Professor A. Koutselinis of the University of Athens, is in the process of examining the human remains for DNA and RNA. 100 B. Petrakos, ADelt 16 (1960) B, 39; S. Oakley, 'A Red-figure Workshop from the Time of the Peloponnesian War', BCH Suppl. 23 (1992), 199. 101 B.R. McDonald, The Distribution of Attic Pottery from 450 to 375 B. C. The Effects of Politics on Trade (PhD Thesis, University ofPennsylvania 1979). 102 Kurtz and Boardman, 97.

l

' f. century are known in Attica, and central Greece.103 A mass burial was recently excavated in Pydna (Macedonia). In a rectangular shaft grave 120 deceased, men, women and children, had been buried in disorder in four layers. There were no offerings but the burial has been dated in the 4th century BC.104

The mass burial of Kerameikos is different from the known common burials of the Phaleron captives, who though unaccompanied by offerings, were nevertheless buried one beside the other in a normal inhumation.105 The same method of burial occurred in other communal burials or in state burials, such as the Thespian Polyandrion for the dead of the Battle at Delion in 424 BC,106 in the Lakedaimonians' grave in Kerameikos, 107 as well as in three burials in Olynthos,108 containing 9, 9 and 26 persons respectively; Robinson - based on the normal way of their burial -considered them as victims of the battles of 432 or 428 BC rather than of the plague, which, according to Thucydides (ii.58.2), had broken out in the neighbouring Potidaia, in the Athenians' camp.109

A typical testimony of an improper mass burial in antiquity comes from Pausanias for the Persians who fell in the Marathon battle:

Although the Athenians assert that they buried the Persians, because in every case the divine law applies that a corpse should be laid under the earth, yet I could find no grave. There was neither mound nor other trace to be seen, as the dead were carried to a trench and thrown in anyhow ... uo

In the 19th century the German captain von Eschenburg, in his book on Marathon, argued that in the vineyard of Skouze a great number of human bones were found, belonging to hundreds of dead, buried in a disorderly fashion. The captain himself excavated at the ridges of the vineyard and found that the entire

103 For multiple state burials or communal graves, see Kurtz and Boardman, 108 and 247ff. 104 The excavation is going to be published; the information is derived from the newspaper Kafh?pepmi 1-4-2001. · 105 S. Pelekidis, ''AvaaiCaqn't cflaA.fipou', ADelt2 (1916), 13-64. 106 Schilardi, 19-28 and in particular for the communal graves: W. K. Pritchett, The Greek State at WarN (Berkeley 1985), 125-139. 107 L.R. Van Hook, 'On the Lakedaimonians Buried in the Kerameikos', AJA 36 (1932), 290-292; F. Willemsen, 'Zu den Lakedaimoniergraber in Kerameikos', AM 92 (1977), 128ff. 108 D. Robinson, Olynthus XI: Necrolynthia (Baltimore 1942), 163; Kurtz and Boardman, 257. 109 Robinson, op.cit. n. 108, 163ff. 110 Pausanias i.32.3-5. Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Loeb edition.

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region up to the swamp was full of bone remains, coming out of the ground during cultivation. 111

For the 5th century, there is a fair amount of scattered evidence for multiple burials in the same grave. However, even in these few examples - all from Athens and Attica - the number of the dead is not more than three. Most of these burials published so far112 have been dated in the last third of the century; moreover, they are also connected with a contagious disease like the plague, which had attacked members of the same family.

Some scholarsll3 believe that in the years of the plague the victims of the disease had been cremated, thus making detection of multiple burials impossible. This argument is derived from Thucydides' description that some people "btt 1t'llpa10 yQ:p aA.A.o'tpta!O !pB<lcrav'tEIO 'tOU!O vf)crav'ta!O oi JlEV E1tt9EV'tEIO 'tov £mn&v veKpov il!pf\1t'tov" (ii.52.4). But some lines above, the historian clearly states that "£9a1t'tov 8£ ro10 EKCXO''tOIO £8ilva'to. Kat 1t0AA0t EIO avatO'XUV'tO'Il!O Bf)Ka!O £1:pcX1tOV'tO" (ii.52.4).

Extreme emotions of fear and panic have been expressed in art and literature. Poetic, social, medical -and even cinematic - references to disastrous plagues have been made later, from Lucretius and Virgil to

. ll4 Camus' La Peste and Bergmann's Seventh seal. Nevertheless, Thucydides' description of the plague still remains one of the most vivid literary passages on disaster and creates strong emotions even in the modem reader. The historian, being struck by the plague himself, narrates the events vividly and emotionally (i_i.52.2-53):

LII. But in addition to the trouble under which they already laboured, the Athenians suffere(i further hardship owing to the crowdiQg into the city of the people from the country districts; and this affected the new arrivals especially. For since no houses were available for them and they had to live in huts that were stifling in the hot season, they perished in wild disorder. Bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead people rolled about in the streets and, in their longing for water, near all the fountains. The temples, too, in which they had quartered

111 V. Eschenburg, Topographische, archiiologische und militiirische Betrachtungen auf den Schlachtfelde von Marathon (1886); B. Petrakos, '0 Mapa8wv(Athens 1995), 25. 112 Kerameikos, Tavros, Heriai gate, in S.G. Humphreys, 'Family Tombs and Tomb Cult in Ancient Athens. Tradition or Traditionalism?', JHS 100 ( 1980), 11 Off. 113 Ibid. 114 J.S. Rusten (ed.), Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War II (Cambridge 1989), 179-180.


themselves were full of the corpses of those who had died in them; for the calamity which weighed upon them was so overpowering that men, not knowing what was to become of them, became careless of all law, sacred as well as profane. And the customs which they had hitherto observed regarding burial were all thrown into confusion, and they buried their dead each one as he could. And many resorted to shameless modes of burial because so many members of their households had already died that they lacked the proper funeral materials. Resorting to other people's pyres, some, anticipating those who had raised them, would put on their own dead and kindle . the fire; others would throw the body they were carrying upon one which was already burning and go away.

LIIL In other respects also the plague first introduced into the city a greater lawlessness.ll5

There was thus a total disruption of the traditional rites to the dead since their suffering brutalised them; being pious or impious made no difference, because they saw that all perished equally and everyone expected to die before he paid legal penalties for his crimes. 116

Even if we accept some scholars' scepticism referring to the historian's exaggeration, 117 it is cornmended that the society as a whole reached at the time a depth of religious despair unparalleled in the ancient Greek world.

No fear of gods or law of men retrained; for seeing that all men were perishing alike, they judged that piety and impiety came to the same.U8

It has been supported that the social changes that occurred during and because of the Peloponnesian War and the plague are reflected in the burials.119

115 Translation C.F. Smith, Loeb edition, 351,353. 116 For literature, historical and medical comments see: S. Hornblower, Commentary on Thucydides I: Books I-ll (Oxford 1991), chapters 47.3-53.1, 2-5, 97-100, 134; A.W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides IT: Books IT-ill (oXford 1972), ii.47.3-54.4; Rhodes, Thucydides, 228-233; J.S. Rusten, op.cit. n. 114. 117 J.D. Mikalson, 'Religion and the Plague in Athens, 431-423 BC', JHS 104 (1984), 219; Longrigg, op.cit. n. 97. 118 Thuc. ii.53; Smith, op.cit. n. 115, 353. 119 Thucydides believes not only that there was a collapse of standards during the plague (ii.53.1), but also that the Athenians did not return to the old standards afterwards. There is a contrast between Athens, which was well prepared for the war both in

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The plague broke out in Athens early in the summer of 430 and continued until the summer of 428. After a brief remission, it burst again in the winter of 427 until the winter of 426. It is assumed that l/3 of the Athenian population perished from the contagious disease. The dead near the temples, the sanctuaries, the fountains and in the streets, whose relatives 'lacked the proper funeral material' and could not afford to offer a proper burial, were gathered by the state and were buried in a communal shaft grave at the fringe of the cemetery of Kerameikos, under conditions of panic. This mass burial is therefore a sort of state burial. But this time the state does not honour its dead soldiers of a vigorous battle. This time the state buries the anonymous poor people in order to protect the rest of its inhabitants from the plague. 120

Many archaeologists wonder about the absence of archaeological evidence on the victims of the plague. Until the data of the excavations of the cemeteries are fully published, we cannot make any further hypotheses. Kiibler, Morris, Houby-Nielsen and other scholars have argued that during the period of the plague, the number of graves in the Kerameikos interestingly enough reduced. 121 In our excavation we cannot support this view since 80% of the graves belong to the 5th century and span equally its two halves. The same conclusion can be derived at present from the recently excavated, unpublished large cemetery in Amerikis Street, not far from Syntagma Square.122

manpower and other resources, and Athens which lost a third of its manpower through a chance misfortune (ii.54.4). Rhodes, Thucydides. See also Kurtz and Boardman, 97; I. Morris, DeathRitual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge 1992), 140-141 and 154-155. 120 The mass burial of Kerameikos could possibly be related to other historical events of the 5th century, namely the famine in Athens during Lysander's besiege of the city from land and sea mentioned in Xenophon's Hellenica (ii.2.10-13). The famine caused the death of many people by the end of the war in 404 BC. Still, the improper way of the inhumation in the mass burial and the chronology of the offerings do not permit us to attribute it to an extraordinary but accepted event such as this starvation but to an event which created panic such as the plague. On the other hand, if the mass burial had taken place at the end of the century, then the offered pottery should have included vases of later date, as for example stamped ware or hints of ornate style, or some whiteground lekythoi of the very end of the century, like those of the Group R and Huge or polychrome lekythoi. 121 K. Kiibler, Kerameikos Vll.1: Die Nekropole der Mitte des 6. · his Ende des 5. Jahrhunderts (Berlin 1976), 199; Houby Nielsen, op.cit. n. 7, 146; I. Morris, Burial and Ancient Society (Cambridge 1987), 100. 122 Some views on the cemeteries of Athens can be reconsidered: in the known cemetery by Syntagma Square, the majority of the grave offerings are dated in the last quarter of the 5th and in the 4th centuries. The cemetery seems to have started in the last quarter of the 5th, probably because of the events of the plague. The suggestion is that during the war new cemeteries appeared in Athens.

Some philologists have suggested that Thucydides exaggerates the events of the plague, since there is no other testimony from ancient sources for that event. I hope that eventually more common burials will be discovered, for the benefit of the historian's reliability. Until then, the mass burial of the Station at Kerameikos is filling this void. Once more, we face a

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case, on which the historical and archaeological evidence is in agreement. Thus, from now on this burial can be considered as one of the absolutely dated finds of the second half of the 5th century, along with the Korkyraians' grave, the Rheneian Purification, the Thespian Polyandrion and the Lakedaimonians' burial in the Kerameikos.

Effie Baziotopoulou-Valavani Curator of Antiquities

3rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Athens

1 Aiolou St. GR- 105 55 Athens

Documents

A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos