MARATHON - 2016

Marathon Tsepi. M. Pantelidou Gofa (ASA) reports on the finds in Deposit 39 (Figs. 1, 2). Specifically, a book entitled Tsepi Marathonos; deposit 39 on the prehistoric cemetery was published in 2016 by ASA. The book is richly illustrated and includes drawings of the finds. What follows are extracts from the conclusions written by M. Pantelidou Gofa:

Deposit 39 is a four sided pit situated approximately in the centre of the EH cemetery of Tsepi in Marathon (Figs. 3, 4). It was excavated in 1999 and 2000, and was found to be packed with pottery, a few additional objects, stones and pebbles. Excavation of this pit has provided significant insights for the study of burial customs.

The pit (2.50-2.60 x 2.10-c. 3.00 m.) had stone lining on three of its sides. The floor was roughly horizontal and partly paved with river stones and sand. It was filled over a short time with pottery fragments scattered or in groups, mostly without any discernible order or stratigraphy. The excavation placed emphasis to the identification of the original small groupings which appeared to have been deposited together.

The pit was initially consecrated with ritual offerings: remnants of these are some vessels and animal bones found in its NW corner. The oldest deposit consists of a broken basin with a small bowl, a goat bone and a pebble deposited in it; next to it lay half of a pig skull (Figs. 5, 6). A broken amphoriskos and an intact bowl of a type peculiar for this site were found in the SW corner. Following the initial consecration at the two corners of the pit, we can distinguish three other groupings of potsherds in separate locations on the floor of the pit; these should be considered as closed deposits. After these few discrete groups, the bottom of the pit was filled with broken pottery, and pebbles mixed into the darkish sandy soil.

The purpose of Deposit 39 and the character of the fill were to protect the debris associated with particular activities. Its location in a central position in the cemetery indicates that these contents were closely related to the purpose of the site. The grouping of each periodic deposit serves to isolate the shapes of pottery used in every successive ritual and, more tenuously, the proportion of shapes necessary on each occasion. They were basins and skyphoi, perhaps two of each, always accompanied by an amphoriskos, a globular vase and perhaps a pithos or a piece similar in size and shape. Occasionally, they found a necked jar as a substitute for an amphoriskos, as well as a fruitstand. The vessels used in particular rituals were deliberately broken, then cast into a funeral pyre after it had already been extinguished.

The complex procedure followed and the sequence of actions dictated by convention during the funeral rites made necessary the use of specific types of vessels, most probably in a prescribed sequence. In addition to the pottery, other objects had been thrown into the pit; namely 51 pieces of obsidian, seashells, few human bones, which are the result of grave-cleaning operations, and animal bones, which must have been the remnants of meals.

The most important find recovered from Deposit 39 is the pottery: 760 restored vessels and another 960 distinguished from their fragments. The pit was filled within a relatively short period and this gives Deposit 39 the character of a closed deposit. The eleven main shapes found are: amphoras, amphoriskoi plain and incised, ladles, fruitstands, kraters, basins, pithoi, necked jars, large bowls, globular vases and their three handled variety.

Deposit 39 belongs to the latest of Neolithic phases, Late Chalcolithic, which has been named “North Slope” of the Acropolis. Radiocarbon analysis gave a date of 3600-3500 B.C. Tsepi follows the Attica-Kephala phase, but precedes conventional EHI. The pottery points to relations with the Peloponnese (mainly Lerna, Franchthi, Tsoungiza, Aigeira), Euboea (Tharrounia), and naturally other Attic sites (Spata, Zagani, Koropi, Athens, Glyphada). There is clear evidence of connections with the Cyclades, especially Saliagos and Ayia Irini Keos. It would be very important to find out whether some Cretan connections (Petras Kephala) were direct or indirect. Of particular interest is what the finds from Tsepi tell us about an opening to the North, Phokis, Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus, even the Balkans.