TRYPI Anc. Kaiada - 2003

Trypi (anc. Kaiada). Th. Pitsios (Athens) reports a renewed programme of anthropological research at this rock-cleft located in the foothills of Taygetos, on the boundary of mod. Trypes, ca. 10km NW of Sparta. A research programme instigated in 1983 by P. Themelis (AR [1984−1985], 24; AR [1985−1986], 29) documented the physical form of the feature and, on the basis of the large quantity of human bone present, identified it with anc. Kaiada, into which the Lakedaimonians threw condemned criminals, prisoners of war, and weak infants. Anthropological investigation to date has not confirmed the presence of infants or small children: most of the skeletal material found inside the cleft probably belongs to men with a biological age of 18−35 years.
A new 3-year research programme, begun in 2003 by the Anthropological Museum of Athens University in collaboration with P. Themelis (Rethymnon) and under the supervision of the EPSNE and Ε' ΕΠΚΑ, aims to investigate in detail the circumstances of deposition of the human skeletal material in the rock-cleft, and to collect, clean and characterize all remaining material.