ACHARNAI, 38 Souliou Street - 2006

Acharnai, 38 Souliou Street (property of L. Pliatsika and M. Baliousi). Maria Platonos (Β’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of nine graves.

Grave 1: a cist (0.83 x 1.90m 0.62m) oriented northeast-southwest, constructed from five, carefully-worked, limestone slabs. Half lay in the adjacent property to the east of this plot. The grave contained an inhumation in supine position with 10 offerings which date it to 440-420 BC: a black-glazed phialidio, two lekythoi, a black-glazed pyxis, a white-ground lekythos, a ribbed squat lekythos, a red-figure lekythos, and three alabastra (two of alabaster and one of glass).

Grave 2: a rectangular niche of limestone (0.65 x 1.1m, 0.5m high, oriented northeast-southwest) lay to the south of grave 1. A bronze cauldron within a circular cutting in the centre of the niche contained cremated bones, traces of fabric, and an alabaster alabastron.

Graves 3, 4 and 5: three limestone cists in the middle of the plot, oriented northwest-southeast. Grave 3, the best preserved (0.67m wide x 1.75 long x 0.55 deep), contained a supine inhumation and a black-glaze, ribbed squat lekythos. Only the northeast half of grave 4 is preserved (0.65m wide x 1.05 long x 0.54 deep), and only the western part of grave 5 (0.67m wide x 1.75 long x 0.55 deep); no skeletal remains were found in the latter, only a ribbed squat lekythos with a red-figure palmette inside the grave and a miniature phiale in its backfill.

Grave 6: a tile grave (0.45/0.53 x 1.36 x 0.12m,) oriented southeast-northwest and bordered with unworked stones, lay to the northwest of graves 3-5. It contained skeletal remains in poor condition and a fragmentary iron strigil.

Grave 7: a limestone sarcophagus in the north part of the plot, oriented southeast-northwest and with a flat cover slab (0.9 x 2.1m), contained a supine inhumation, three lekythoi, an alabaster alabastron and a bronze mirror. It dates to the end of the fifth century BC.

Grave 8: a secondary cremation in a west slope hydria of the beginning of the third century, placed in a pit and covered with an undecorated lekanis, lay to the west of grave 7.

Grave 9: a limestone sarcophagus (0.7 x 2.95 x 0.65m) with two flat cover slabs, oriented northeast-southwest, at the northwest corner of the plot. It contained a supine inhumation and is dated by the grave offerings - two alabaster alabastra, two phialidia, a black-glazed saltcellar and a bronze mirror – to the end of the fifth century BC.