MEGARA, south cemetery - 2005

Megara, south cemetery. P. Avgerinou(Γ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of tombs on the following three plots.

1: 168 28^th October Street (O.T. 4). Southwest of Lytara square and west of the city’s football field, a group of three second-century BC cist tombs and a peribolos were discovered during the opening of tanks for a petrol station. The tombs, which were looted, were large (ca. 2.56m long) slab cists preserving plaster, with a marker stone above. Goods were mostly fusiform unguentaria arranged in small groups around the shoulders, thorax and thighs of the deceased.

Tomb 1 contained an adult inhumation with part of a second cranium, plus 15 fusiform unguentaria and a plainware lagynus. The corner of an earlier cist grave lay beneath. Above the north cover slab was a fusiform unguentarium and a plainware lamp. Tomb 2: lined with red-coloured plaster, this looted tomb contained the inhumations of an adult with 20 fusiform unguentaria around the shoulders and chest plus 19 round the thighs, and a plainware trefoiled-mouthed oinochoe, and a close black glazed shape. Tomb 3 contained only the bone fragments left after looting, plus one intact and many sherds of fusiform unguentaria, and four-five fragments of thin gold sheet (probably from jewellery), and part of an iron object. The tomb marker was found to the east. Part of a late antique Π-shaped structure could belong to a pithos or a grave structure.

 

2: 7 Cheimarras Street (property of D. Zisi, O.T. 79).

Tomb 1: sarcophagus with two successive adult inhumations, a red-figure palmette lekythos and a black glaze lamp of the late fourth or early third century BC.

Tomb 2: slab cist with three adult inhumations and a displaced burial, plus three fusiform unguentaria, a pyxis and lid, a miniature chytra, five trefoil-mouthed oinochoae, a miniature lamp, a bronze rod, and shell. Date: second century BC.

Tomb 3: third-century BC slab cist with an adult inhumation, bronze mirror and an ovoid unguentarium

Tomb 4: third-century BC sarcophagus with two adult inhumations and a displaced burial, an ovoid unguentarium, an iron pin, a Macedonian type amphora, a miniature lamp, and alabastron sherds.

Tomb 5: third-century BC disturbed and looted cist tomb with no skeletal remains, plus sherds of an unguentarium and a black glaze vessel.

Tomb 6: simple cist containing two successive extended inhumations and a displaced burial in the eastern part of the grave, plus a chytra: late fourth- to early third-century BC.

Tomb 7: early third-century cist formed of reused slabs, with an adult inhumation plus an oinochoe, three unguentaria, and a lagynos.

Tomb 8: third-century BC cist grave with an adult inhumation: of the three cover slabs, one was in secondary use an another a column. Goods comprise a lekythos, three miniature unguentaria, a miniature lamp, a trefoil mouthed oinochoe, a bronze ring and a silver coin.

Tomb 9: second-century BC sarcophagus with an adult inhumation, six fusiform unguentaria, a lagynus skyphos and iron strigil.

Tomb 10: second-century BC partially destroyed sarcophagus: five sherds of fusiform unguentaria were found in the fill.

Tomb 11: late third- to early second-century sarcophagus with six adult inhumations, partially destroyed but preserving a silver coin, a round ungentarium, a trefoil-mouthed askos, a squat lekythos, an iron ring, bronze strigil and fragments of eggshell.

Tomb 12: a late fourth- to third-century BC sarcophagus with two child burials, a red-figure palmette lekythos, a bronze ring with oval bezel, a bronze needle, an iron disc, six glass paste beads, fragments of eggshell, and a silver coin.

Tomb 13: a late fourth- to early third-century sarcophagus with four successive adult inhumations, plus alabastron sherds, a miniature lamp and an iron rod.

Tomb 14: largely destroyed sarcophagus.

Tomb 15: largely destroyed sarcophagus.

Tomb 16: sarcophagus with two adult inhumations and a bronze needle.

Tomb 17: looted sarcophagus.

Tomb 18: early third-century cist tomb with an adult inhumation, two small oinochoae, a miniature lamp, two unguentaria, and iron strigil and a bronze pinhead.

Tomb 19: late fourth- t o early third-century sarcopaphagus with two successive adult inhumations, a black-figure lekythos (with a scene of maenads), and an iron pin.

Tomb 20: a late fourth- to early third-century sarcophagus with an adult inhumation, a miniature lamp, a plainware ladle, a black glaze squat lekythos, an oinochoe, a bronze rod, and a conical terracotta object.

 

3: 34 Morava Street (property of K. Mourtzoukou, O.T. 1). A single slab cist contained an adult inhumation with a lagynus and fusiform unguentaria.