The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
The Phaleron Bioarchaeological Project explores the complex lifeways of Archaic Greece during a particularly volatile period, which culminated in the formation of Athens as a polis and a complex democracy. One of the largest known cemeteries of ancient Greece, the Phaleron cemetery was in use from the eighth to fourth century BCE and was situated outside the boundaries and walls of Athens. It was located approximately 4 km southwest of the Acropolis near the port of Faliro, which served Athens during this period. Between 2012 and 2017, approximately 2,000 burials were excavated by Dr. Stella Chryssoulaki of the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica, Piraeus, and Islands. Most of these burials were simple pit burials, but other common forms include cists, jars, and cremations. This cemetery is also known for the interment of shackled, executed individuals in graves of varied size. As the individuals from Phaleron cemetery are the first to be systematically studied from the Archaic period, this project has the unique opportunity to not only explore the lived experiences of this non-elite population but also consider the impact of fluctuating socioeconomic, political, and cultural conditions during the creation and implementation of democracy and the rise of classical Athens.
Other Keywords
Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis •
Archaic •
Mortuary archaeology •
demography •
Paleopathology •
Cremations •
Mobility •
Osteobiography •
strontium •
Archaeometry & Materials Analysis
Geographic Keywords
Republic of Bulgaria (Country) •
Romania (Country) •
Republic of Serbia (Country) •
Republic of Moldova (Country) •
Republic of Turkey (Country) •
Italian Republic (Country) •
Hellenic Republic (Country) •
Republic of Albania (Country) •
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedoni (Country) •
Republic of Montenegro (Country)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-8 of 8)
- Documents (8)
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The Archaic Period Diet: Preliminary Isotope Results for Adult Individuals from the Phaleron Cemetery (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While the Archaic (700–480 BCE) was a transformative and tumultuous period in ancient Greece, there is a considerable lack of paleodietary studies for this time. The recent excavation (2012–2016) of ~1,500 individuals from the Archaic period Phaleron cemetery in Athens provides a means of...
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A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Antemortem Post-cranial Trauma Patterns within the Archaic Greek Cemetery of Phaleron (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Phaleron cemetery dates to the Greek Archaic Period (700–480 BCE), a time of great political and social upheaval. Textual accounts from the Archaic period are limited, making bioarchaeological analysis integral to understanding the lived experiences of everyday ancient Athenians. This project...
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Cremation Mortuary Practices at Phaleron during the Archaic Period (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, we reconstruct cremation mortuary practices from the Archaic site of Phaleron (ca. 750–480 BCE) located in Athens, Greece. We build on performance theory and issues of identities to answer two main research questions: (1) How was the identity(ies) of the cremated individuals at...
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Death and the City: Funerary Practices and Social Transformations during the Archaic Period in Greek Poleis and Beyond (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The abundance in textual sources and richness of its archaeological record make Athens one of the most studied Greek cities during Classical Antiquity. However, research has focused principally on Athens, leaving much of the periphery of the Classical world largely unexplored. Scholars have mostly...
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Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Marginalized in Life and Death (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Phaleron cemetery is most well-known for the archaic burials of 79 young men who had been shackled, probably violently executed, and interred in three trenches. However, there are 80 additional individuals whose mortuary contexts fall outside expected forms, now categorized as “distinctive,”...
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Investigating Childhood Metabolic Health during the Rise of the Athenian Democracy (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sociopolitical change, such as that which occurred during the Archaic period in Athens (700–480 BCE), has the potential to increase food scarcity and physiological stress. When dietary diversity is negatively affected, women and children are often the first to suffer the effects of insufficient...
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Investigating the Residential History of the Esplanada Mass Graves at Phaleron, Greece (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cemeteries are spaces in which social and political identities are publicly negotiated between the living and the dead. Three mass graves, termed the “Esplanada,” at the Phaleron cemetery, Greece, are a clear and public statement that has captured significant attention since they were first...
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Phenotypic Perspectives on Biological Variation at Phaleron (2024)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Phaleron is an important site in the history of ancient Athens and preserves a unique record of life in the past. One of the more compelling aspects of the site is the range of mortuary treatments documented there, including multiple groupings of non-normative burials, a series of co-interments...