“Burial language” in Archaic and Classical Kerameikos

The Kerameikos cemetery is the most renown burial site of the long term, multi-focal settlement of Athens. Its continuous use can be traced back to the final phases of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1100 BC), but it is at the Transition to the Early Iron Age (c. 1050 BC) that the evidence becomes most relevant and it constitutes the backbone of the chronological and cultural sequence of Athens, which on turn is considered as the model for a number of other Hellenic sites. A research, financed by L’Orientale and directed by the author (2011-2013), was conducted upon the Kerameikos cemetery; in this paper a well-known series of burials with weapons, mostly excavated by K. Kübler in the 30s and 40s and edited in the volumes of the Kerameikos, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen will be dealt with by the author. Thanks to the kind permit of the German Institute and of the Third Ephoria for Classical and Prehistoric Antiquities of Athens, it has been possible to study the grave goods of the twenty so-called warriors graves, dated from the Transitional to the Middle Geometric periods (c. 1050-800 BC), having direct access to the finds, kept in the Museum of Kerameikos, mostly in the Museum stores. The results of the mission (Athens 2011 and 2012) and of the subsequent researches are summed up in the paper.

The present article discusses how archaic cultures eliminated their fear of the dead; first and foremost in connection with laments as a folklore genre and lamenting as a ritual practice. Primarily, we examine the relevant Balto-Finnic and North Russian traditions, in which lamenting has retained its original function of balancing the relations between the spheres of the living and the dead, and of establishing borderlines, as well as of restoring the interrupted social cohesion. Lament texts can be viewed as a multifunctional genre that may even be addressed in various ways, but wherein nevertheless the interests of the community stand foremost, whereas personal psychological problems come only after, and related to them. The lamenter's role and function in the society will be viewed, too.

Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, 2021

This dissertation focuses on Early Medieval and Medieval (c. AD 900–1400) inhumation burial customs in Upper Satakunta and Häme regions in Finland. The aim is to clarify the find contexts of Early Medieval inhumation burials in Finland, and to explore the research potential of studying the variations in burial customs. The methodology is based on archaeothanatological analysis which aims at distinguishing the human and natural taphonomic processes in burials. Although some of the burials have been considered atypical in previous research, the studies on the contexts of all the graves in the area reveal that there has been significant variation in Early Medieval inhumation burial customs. This variation is likely explained by individual choices at different stages of the burial ritual. These choices may have been influenced by different social motives, beliefs, and local events. Therefore, the variations in burial practices emphasize the impact of individual agency. In addition to general variation, a possible slight increase in double and multiple burials around AD 1200 was observed. This is also a period when “antique” spearheads were occasionally struck into the coffin structures – a habit previously considered dramatic and unusual. Based on environmental studies and recent molecular studies in the Baltic countries and Scandinavia, it is possible that crop failure and epidemic outbreaks caused a mortality crisis at the time, leading to an increase in double and multiple burials. However, the political instability of the period could also have also provoked local power struggles, which could have emphasized the ritual meaning of ancestors. This could explain the various usage of “antique” objects and older cremated bones in the inhumation burials. When the graves are studied in detail, it will become possible to raise new questions on gender roles and identities, local rituals, commemoration, and the meanings of objects and sites. In general, the contextualization of graves widens the possibilities to study and interpret Finnish archaeological material and help integrate this material in wider geographical, temporal, and theoretical discussion.

Staging Death, 2016

Newsletter di Archeologia CISA, Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", Volume 5, 2014, pp. 39-57, 2014

Even though pre-historic burials have been the favourite topic of research of Estonian archaeologists at least for the past century, the focus has been on their appearance, chronology, ethnic context and objects discovered in them. Burial tradition, as it reflects in the archaeological remnants, has hardly been studied. Research in the field over the past few years, as well as osteological analysis of bone material, which was first carried out in the 1990s, has introduced new findings in the funeral customs of our ancestors. The article examines funeral customs on the island of Saaremaa, and the ideology behind it. The main focus is on the final centuries of the prehistoric period and the beginning of the Middle Ages -more specifically, on changes brought along by Christianity, although the study also provides an overview of earlier customs. A separate chapter discusses the partial distribution of bones and objects in graves, objects determining the boundaries of graves, and traces of funeral rituals. This evidently reflects a set of traditions, and thus also conceptions about the otherworld, composed of multiple layers and differing considerably from the modern funeral tradition. Christianisation of the population of Saaremaa in the 13th century changed these conceptions beyond recognition over a very short period of time.

ore 16-18: interventi introduttivi presiede la Sessione Luan PËRZHITA -B. Muka, Problemi dell'archeologia della morte in Albania -G. Lepore, Le ragioni di un Congresso discussione preliminare Coffee break ore 18: sessione poster -B. Toçi, Il riuso degli spolia nei contesti funerari di Durrazzo durante il periodo romano imperiale -A. Anastasi, The Acropolis of Epidamnos / Dyrrachium and the transformations of a religious area during the centuries -E. Hobdari, J. Buzo, La necropoli d'Amantia -M. Heinzelmann, B. Muka, A. Schroeder, Hellenistic necropoleis of the Illyrian settlement at Dimal: topography, chronology and funerary practices -K. Çipa, M. Meshini, U. Tota, From clandestine excavations to the documentation of a Cemetery: the case of the Cemetery and the Tumulus of Himara -N. Aleotti, F. Pizzimenti, Le necropoli ellenistiche e romane di Butrinto: stato delle ricerche e nuove considerazioni sui materiali rinvenuti da L.M.Ugolini negli anni '20 del '900 -V. Kapopoulos, I. Papalexis, V. Papadopoulou, A. Vasios, The western Necropolis of Ambracia: significance and enhancement -Th. Kyrkou, Eternal remain : gold funerary offerings from the southwest Cemetery of Ambracia -L. Vasileiou, Looking after dead children in Hellenistic Molossia -Y. Faklari, Geographic names on grave stelae from Nicopolis -F. Meo, Al di là del mare: i contesti funerari della Messapia cena lunedì 16 dicembre 4 -ore 9-11: l'Illiria presiede la Sessione Arthur MULLER -St. Verger, Les necropoles d'Apollonia et les paysages funéraires hellénistiques, entre Orient et Occident -F. Bièvre-Perrin, Les vases à figures rouges d'Apollonia d'Illyrie: entre imitations des modèles italiotes et inovation -N. Ceka, O. Ceka, A gate to eternity: the naiskos-stelai of Apollonia -E. Shehi, B. Shkodra, M. Koçi, Retrospect in urban necropoleis of Epidamne-Dyrrachion: topography, chronology and funerary rituals -L. Calio', Tombe "eccellenti" e infrastrutture urbane. Problemi di topografia funeraria -S. Veseli, Reuse of prehistoric Tumuli during Roman period in Albania: previleged burials? Coffee break -ore 11.15-12: l'Illiria presiede la Sessione Shpresa GJONGECAJ -M. Koçollari, La tomba monumentale di Persqop: nuovi dati per la definizione del ruolo dell'insediamento nell'età ellenistica -E. Kalaja-Hajdari, Recent epigraphic findings from Kosovo -ore 12-13: l'Epiro -R. Perna, Y. Marano, Insediamento e modelli funerari della valle del Drino -Dh. Çondi, Le tombe monumentali nella valle di Drino: Antigone, Jorgucat, Matohasanaj pausa pranzo: Catering (Accademia delle Scienze -Akademia e Shkencave) -ore 15-17: l'Epiro presiede la Sessione Maria STAMATOPOULOU -O. Gilkes, Monumental burial and commemoration in Roman Butrint -G. Lepore. Phoinike: una necropoli tra "ellenismo" e "romanizzazione" -Sh. Gjongecaj, Le monete nelle tombe -A. Gamberini, Vasi per i vivi, vasi per i morti -B. Muka, Mors immatura: contestualizzare la morte e le sepolture dei bambini a Phoinike -L. Usai, Il rito della cremazione a Phoinike Coffee break martedì 17 dicembre 5 -ore 17.15-19: l'Epiro presiede la Sessione Roberto PERNA -G. Pliakou, K. Lazari, A. Tzortzatou, V. Lamprou, Burial practices in Thesprotia during the Hellenistic and Roman Period -I. Katsadima, The grave stelai of Cassopaia revisited (NW Greece) -V. N. Papadopoulou, A. Aggeli, Th. Kontogianni, V. Kapopoulos, The western Necropolis of Ambracia: the new finds -M. Stamatopoulou, Epirotes and Illyrians in Demetrias -V. Antoniadis, Nicopolitan graves and tombstones across the Empire and the search for an elusive colony Cena -ore 9 -13: Magna Grecia e Sicilia presiede la Sessione Jean-Luc LAMBOLEY -S. De Caro, A. Serritella, Le Necropoli di età ellenistica dalla valle del Sarno nel quadro del mondo campano -C. De Mitri, Echi dall'altra sponda. Attestazioni funerarie non omologate nel Salento ellenistico (fine IV-II sec. a.C.) -V. Caminneci, Per un confronto: la Sicilia di età ellenistica -A. Pontrandolfo, M. Scafuro, Per un confronto: la Campania in età ellenistica -M. L. Rizzo, Poseidonia: la necropoli meridionale della Licinella -P. Munzi, C. Pouzadoux, M. Leone, G. Sachau, A. Santoriello, G. Correale, L. Fornaciari, I.M. Muntoni, S. Patete, V. Soldani, Archeologia della morte in Daunia: nuovi dati dalle necropoli di Arpi tra topografia, tipologia e pratiche funerarie -E. Giorgi, Le necropoli di Suasa: la cultura funeraria di un centro romano dell'ager Gallicus discussione P. Cabanes, V. Nizzo Conclusions sur l'Archéologie de la mort en Illyrie et Épire / Conclusioni su l'archeologia della morte in Illiria e Epiro mercoledì 18 dicembre 6 B. Toçi: Il riuso degli spolia nei contesti funerari di Durrazzo durante il periodo romano imperiale Agenzia del Servicio Archeologico, Ministero della Cultura

2016

The book presents recent and on-going research on tombs and deathscapes in the region of Karia in southwestern Turkey

In the framework of the University “Orientale” research project “The Kerameikos necropolis revisited” directed by Prof. A. M. D’Onofrio and to which the author has contributed (2011-2013), it is here proposed a reexamination of the early phases of the Kerameikos cemetery of Athens, the cornerstone of the chronology of the so-called Dark Age (c. 1100-700 B.C.) in Attica, located between the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces and the formation of the polis. The Sub-Mycenaean and Proto-Geometric (c. 1080-900 B.C.) graves of this necropolis have been excavated and published by W. Kraiker and K. Kübler in the first half of the last century. Despite the absence of the micro-stratigraphical data of the cemetery, due to the remoteness in time of the archaeological excavations, and thanks to the careful publication of the available data, it is possible to submit the well-known archaeological record to further analysis, looking for a methodological approach to test the current relative sequence of the burials. The result will be presented in the frame of the wider literature on the argument, which developed conspicuously from the 1980s on.

Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies (London 21 – 26 August 2006), Vol. II, Abstracts of Panel Papers, p. 63., 2006

In the past 60 years a large number of graves and burials have been investigated by the Ephoreia of Byzantine Antiquities of Thessaloniki in the course of salvage excavations. The resulting conclusions are summarized below:

Studia Archaeologica Universitatis Serdicensis Tome 7, 2021

The present study attempts to cover the unusual burial practices in graves with skeletal remains and to determine their place in the standard burial ritual in archaeological cultures on the territory of Bulgaria during the Late Eneolithic. Stavreva, V. 2021. Unusual Burial Practices in the Late Eneolithic. - Georgieva, P. (ed.) Studia Archaeologica Universitatis Serdicensis, 2021, Tome 7 (2017). Sofia: ST. KLIMENT OHRIDSKI UNIVERSITY PRESS, 5-74. ISSN: 1312-7284

E. Teleaga (ed.). Funeralkultur der Thraker und Skythen des 7. bis 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. an der unteren Donau. Rahden/Westf., 2020

This paper discusses how archaeologists can approach ways in which the ritual treatment of the dead body was a means of reproducing a sense of identity and community in the past. The approach combines a theoretical framework grounded in practice and body theory with a methodological approach based on taphonomic analysis. This framework is introduced to analyze the mortuary practices at the Mesolithic cemeteries of Skateholm I and II, Vedbæk, Bøgebakken and Zvejnieki. Beyond the immediate context, the study seeks to reflect on how similarities and differences noticeable over time and space may provide an insight into changing identity processes.