12

A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos

Effie Baziotopoulou-Valavani
The construction of two new lines of the Metropoli-
tan 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 re-
ports 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).
187
To Dr. Theodora Karagiorga
Some other finds, as well as several copies, are ex-
hibited in the permanent exhibitions of the central
Railway stations. Most of the large scale excavations
took place at the site of the railway stations. Al-
though 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 sta-
tion 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 au-
thorities to alter their plans for the station and divert
the tunnel away from the site. By that time, the exca-
vation 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).
188
~
r
\
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
CD
0 I 2 3 'j.
Figure 2. Plan of the cemetery discovered during the recent excavations in Kerameikos.
189
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 architec-
tural 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 origi-
nal 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 Peloponne-
sian 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 par-
ticularly difficult, because of the superimposed dis-
turbed fills ap.d of five intrusions into the shaft,
which had occurred within a 1 00-year period fol-
lowing the burial. At its south edge, the pit was dis-
turbed 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,
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 c'x1to 'tl)v 'ApxatoA.oyucl) 'E'tatpeiu', '0
Mev-rrop 48 (1998), 119-207.
190
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 Ath-
ens 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 ac-
cording 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 lay-
ers, without any intervening soil between them. The
excavation revealed successive burial levels of 89
male and female bodies, buried in a disorderly fash-
ion and usually in extended position, but also in po-
sitions 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 re-
mained 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 de-
ceased. 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 per-
sons, given the loss of at least one more upper level
and the destruction of the burial from the later intru-
sions.
Trying to reconstruct the sequence of events in rela-
tion 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 Erida-
nos cemetery as it is also known - destroying earlier
5
The child burials are marked in the plan in grey [fig. 3].
r
!
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
+
Figure 3. Plan of the mass burial in Kerameikos (child burials in grey).
191
E. Baziotopoulou-Valavani
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 begin-
ning, 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 in-
fants 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 pre-
served 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 Copenhagen
10
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. H o u ~ 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.
192
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 miss-
ing. 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 Copenha-
gen 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 under-
side.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 diame-
ter: 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.
~
I
I
.l
; .
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 exam-
ples are dated in the last quarter of the century. Com-
pare also: four lekythoi from the Vassalaggi ne-
cropolis/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 sar-
cophagus 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 cen-
tury.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.
193
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
440-425 BC;
32
and a lekythos in Geneva (no. 1302),
dated generally in the second half of the 5th cen-
tury.33 Other similar lekythoi are known from Thes-
piai (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).
E. Baziotopoulou- Valavani
l
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 diame-
ter: 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 diame-
ter: 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 deco-
rated 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 calyx-
shaped, 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 pro-
file to the left is depicted in the same style and man-
ner 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 iconog-
raphy 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 com-
mon 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.
1 eoea
194
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 par-
allel 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. 5
7
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 miss-
ing. 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. 5
9
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 ARV
2
, 1198-1200, 1686; L. Zoroglu,
'Zwei Lekythoi Kliigrnann-Malers a us Kelenderis', AA 1999, 141-
145.
195
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
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 popu-
lar 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 di-
ameter: 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 rib-
bons 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 chil-
dren'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 Ath-
ens.
67
Similar in style is the chous from Athens in the
62
CVA Tiibingen (5), pi. 44,3-4.
63
For Polion see ARV
2
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.
E. Baziotopoulou-Valavani
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 frag-
ments 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 calyx-
shaped 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. Sur-
face worn, faded matte red paint.
On the shoulder is depicted a floral pattern of pal-
mettes 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 monu-
ment. The young man on the right, dressed in travel-
ler'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 Archaeo-
logical 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-
6
s ARV
2
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.
196
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 attri-
bution 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; Shoul-
der 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; Maxi-
mum 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 ARV
2
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 hi-
mation, 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 stylisti-
cally connected.
86
c. 420BC.
White ground lekythos
Inv.no. A 15295; Preserved height: 0.18 m; Maxi-
mum 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 rec-
tangular 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.
197
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
the Kerameikos, attributed to the Bird Painter.
90
The
bad state of preservation of the surface does not per-
mit 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 attrib-
uted to his Group.
92
c. 430BC.
White-ground lekythos (secondary type)
Inv.no. A 15296; Height: 0.162 m; Maximum di-
ameter: 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.
to the shape, this vase belongs to Kurtz's
type

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 to the Group of Athens 2025; this attri-
bution 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 ARV
2
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.
E. Baziotopoulou-Valavani
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 d a t e ~
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 re-
ceived 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.
198
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 hu-
man 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 con-
fmned but the medicine historians may also connect
a certain disease to the plague.
There is a chronological disparity of 5-6 years be-
tween 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 Thu-
cydides 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 sar-
cophagi 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 out-
burst of the plague in 427/6 BC.
102
Although no other
mass burials due to epidemic diseases have been ex-
cavated 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 (Mace-
donia). In a rectangular shaft grave 120 deceased,
men, women and children, had been buried in disor-
der 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 nev-
ertheless buried one beside the other in a normal in-
humation.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 Olyn-
thos,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 Eschen-
burg, 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.
199
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
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 scat-
tered 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
far
112
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 scholarsll
3
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' descrip-
tion 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 ex-
pressed 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 emo-
tionally (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.
E. Baziotopoulou-Valavani
themselves were full of the corpses of those
who had died in them; for the calamity
which weighed upon them was so overpow-
ering that men, not knowing what was to be-
come 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 lawless-
ness.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 ex-
pected to die before he paid legal penalties for his
crimes.
116
Even if we accept some scholars' scepticism refer-
ring to the historian's exaggeration,
117
it is corn-
mended 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.U
8
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. Horn-
blower, 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
200
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 con-
ditions 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 hy-
potheses. Kiibler, Morris, Houby-Nielsen and other
scholars have argued that during the period of the
plague, the number of graves in the Kerameikos in-
terestingly 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 pre-
sent 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, Death-
Ritual 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 white-
ground 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 reliabil-
ity. Until then, the mass burial of the Station at
Kerameikos is filling this void. Once more, we face a
201
A mass burial from the cemetery of Kerameikos
case, on which the historical and archaeological evi-
dence 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