Distinctive Burials of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Marginalized in Life and Death

Summary

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,” which includes additional mass grave contexts or those positioned prone or tightly flexed in single graves. For the individuals buried in distinctive single burial contexts (N = 43), 40% were most likely bound, as suggested by limb positioning and/or the presence of metal shackles. Others are considered distinctive based solely on body positioning that fall outside expected forms, which cannot be directly correlated to a violent death. Nearly all of those in the mass grave contexts were bound at the time of interment. We examine patterns in the demographics, pathology, trauma, and isotope analyses to consider how experiences of physical and structural violence may have impacted their identity construction, physical well-being, and resulting mortuary treatment. This paper presents the contextualized life histories of those buried in distinctive graves, exploring the connections between marginalization and violence during life and the distinctive burial forms representing their death.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Bioarchaeology of the Phaleron Cemetery, Archaic Greece: Current Research and Insights   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39962.0