Lecture 17:Athenian burial practice in the sixth and fifth centuries BC

A view of recent excavations in the Kerameikos cemetery, Athens.

Proper burial, and the ongoing observance of tomb cult by the surviving family members, was of the highest importance in Archaic and Classical Athens. This made the city's cemeteries important places of regular visitation. Inhumation and cremation of the deceased were both practised in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, with personal preference probably a deciding factor, though cost must often also have been a consideration since cremation required the purchase of expensive timber fuel. During the fifth and fourth centuries BC, inhumation appears to have been more common than cremation, with the exception of the last quarter of the fifth century when the Peloponnesian War and outbreaks of plague may have influenced mortuary practice. While in the Archaic period bodies were commonly cremated in the grave itself, during the Classical period cremation took place somewhere other than in the grave which received only the resulting ashes contained within an urn. Inhumation, meanwhile, could be in a single earth-dug pit or in a more elaborate grave constructed in the ground from tiles or stone: coffins of wood or stone could also be used in conjunction with these grave types.

Child's clay larnax from Athens, 450-425 BC.

Small children were often inhumed in clay vases buried in the earth, a practice known as enchytrismos, although from circa 425 BC the use of the clay larnax, or tub, becomes more common as the receptacle for the child's body. Cremation, on the other hand, was rarely used for children. During the fifth century we see a tendency to bury children in special child cemeteries.

Athenian black-figure funerary plaque by the Sappho Painter, late sixth century BC. Paris, Louvre.

Women played a central role in the preparation of the corpse for burial and in the mourning of the dead. In this prothesis, or laying out the dead, scene on a black-figure plaque attributed to the Sappho Painter, all the figures are labelled with their familial relationship to the dead youth: on the left, the father greets a group of men headed by the deceased's brother. The mother holds the head of her dead son, and next to her stands his sister, while his grandmother stands at the head of the bier accompanied by his aunts. The women raise their hands to their heads to tear at their hair in the traditional Greek gesture of mourning, and cry out in grief.

Following the mourning of the dead at home, the corpse was taken on the third day after death, before sunrise, to the cemetery: the ekphora, or funeral procession, was led by men and the women of the family followed. In contrast to the popularity of this scene in Late Geometric art, the ekphora is rarely shown in Athenian black- and red-figure vase painting.

Athenian white-ground lekythos from Eretria showing a visit to a tomb, circa 440 BC. Athens National Archaeological Museum.

At the cemetery, the corpse was either inhumed or cremated. Libations (liquid offerings), and perhaps also food offerings, were then made over the grave: the shattered remains of many broken cups over and around burials bear testimony to this practice. The grave was heaped up with earth, and probably at some later date when the earth had settled a tomb marker was erected. In the sixth century these mounds were sometimes surrounded by plastered mud-brick walls, on which clay plaques painted with funerary scenes (such as the plaque illustrated above by the Sappho Painter) could be hung. Plastered earth mounds were often also used in the fifth century. Built tombs now, however, tended to enclose several graves to form burial groups: these burial enclosures are known as periboloi, and scholars are divided as to whether they represent families or other social groups.

Athenian black-figure lekythoi from the Kerameikos, circa 480-470 BC.

Tomb offerings during the sixth and fifth centuries BC seem to possess mainly symbolic value, for while much wealth was expended on the "visible" burial (i.e. funerary ceremony and grave markers) the grave gifts are generally of a humble nature. Pottery vessels constituted the most common offerings, particularly black-figure lekythoi and, between circa 460-400 BC, white-ground lekythoi containing oil. Such gifts might be offered not only in the grave but also on top of the tomb. Some graves of the seventh and early sixth centuries BC also seem to have been supplied with offering channels or other special offering places.

Terracotta figurines from the Kerameikos, circa 450 BC.

Terracotta figurines, both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic, are also frequently found in graves. Note here the pig (no. 369), which probably relates to the Eleusinian mystery cult of Demeter and Persephone, and to the hope offered by the cult to its initiates of a life beyond the grave. Real or miniature eggs found in graves probably reflect the Orphic mystery religion and its promise of a life after death.

Athenian red-figure choes, circa 450-425 BC.

Tomb types, the treatment of the corpse, grave location, tomb markers and grave gifts can be used by archaeologists to extract information about the gender, age and social status of those buried. Care must however be taken with this approach: while, for example, grave gifts are often sex specific with mirrors, jewellery and loomweights offered for women and strigils and weapons for men, the gender divide is not absolute since strigils occasionally turn up in female burials and jewellery in male graves. Children's burials often include toys, terracotta animal figures, baby feeders or miniature vases. In the last quarter of the fifth century BC the miniature chous (a type of jug), often depicting babies or young children, is very common.

Map of Athens, showing the location of the Demosion Sema on the north-west side of the city.

The road leading from the Dipylon Gate, through the outer Kerameikos, to the Academy Gymnasion, was set aside for public burials and referred to as the Demosion Sema, or place of public markers. Here, at the public expense, were buried on the one hand those Athenians who died in battle for the sake of their city, and on the other the great Athenian statesmen of their day. Though we cannot be sure when public burial was instituted, it may have been around 500 BC and have been linked to the developing democratic system. Also in 464 BC an annual state funeral and state oration for the dead was introduced: see Thukydides ii.34 for an account of Perikles' funeral oration. Casualty lists were set up on the public graves, recording the names of the war dead under the heading of the tribe to which they belonged. Annual commemoration of the war dead also included musical competitions, athletic and equestrian events, and night-time torch races.

The burial mound of the Athenian war dead at Marathon.

In this context then, the burial mound of the Athenian war dead at Marathon is extraordinary. For, instead of returning to Athens for burial the bodies of the 192 hoplites who died fighting against the Persians in 490 BC, the warriors were accorded the singular honour of being interred in a communal grave on the battlefield.