SALAMIS Ambelakia - 2007

Ambelakia. In a lecture at the Museum of Cycladic Art, M. Pologiorgi (B' EΠΚΑ) reports on her excavation of 11 tombs of different types dating from the L5th or E4th Ct to the 3rd Ct BC along E. Venizelou street (on the line of the anc. road leading to the city gate). An infant interment in an amphora is illustrated. Two sarcophagi each contained a female burial with a bronze mirror, together with clay pyxides. One mirror survived intact but heavily oxidized, preserving only traces of its decoration. The other, decorated in sphyrelaton with a scene of Aphrodite(?) and an Eros, and perhaps the product of a Cor workshop, had been deliberately separated into its 2 parts and both the cover and the mirror disc used as receptacles for fruit offerings (pomegranate seeds, almonds, chestnuts, etc.). This rare example of a mirror recovered from a properly documented context provides important evidence for funerary customs, which counters commonly held views on the magical role of mirrors in graves. Finds from this excavation are held in the Salamis Archaeological Museum.