ARGOS - North Cemetery - 2000

Argos, North Cemetery. A. Bakourou and G. Tsekes (5th EBA) report on excavation on two adjoining properties on Diomedes Lane.

O.T. 14Γ, A. Denezi and E. Tedzeri property. A further 15 graves were added to the 35 previously excavated (see ADelt 54 [1999] Chr, 223). Of this total of 50, only the pithos burial 50 (set deep in the early pebble layer, oriented east-west and with a stone cover slab) is Geometric in date. This contains one contracted inhumation without grave goods. The remaining tombs were all tile graves of extremely similar construction.

Grave goods were few or non-existent: the only exception, tomb 14 (the burial of a young girl), contained a pair of earrings. Infant and child burials account for ca. 20% of the total. The fill between graves to 2.5m deep consists of soft red-brown soil with Geometric, Hellenistic and Roman sherds, and from 2.5−3.4m deep of river pebbles. A few Geometric and Hellenistic sherds in some tombs were probably therefore intrusive. The existence of two layers of tombs and the large area covered underline the longevity of the cemetery.

Immediately to the south lies the property of G. Dedousi, E. Kirsanof, G. Karakitsou and I. Kotronaki (O.T. 14Γ). Here, 64 tombs were opened, of which two Geometric pithos burials (35 and 37) lie in the pebble layer. Twenty three graves contained child burials: of these, tomb 6 contained a pair of bronze earrings, tomb 42 a gold hoop earring, an iron dagger and a probable bronze pin, and tomb 28 a coarseware cup. Double child burials occurred in tombs 3, 31, 61 and 64.

All of the Byzantine tombs were near-identical tile graves; the only minor variation occurred in tomb 26, which had four-sided terracotta plaques instead of tiles. The first layer of Byzantine tombs likely destroyed pre-Christian tombs beneath, noting Geometric to Hellenistic sherds in the fill of the Geometric graves: the earring in tomb 42 suggests that offerings from older tombs were reused.

In the western part of the plot was a trapezoidal underground structure which may be an Early Christian baptistery, later levelled and used as part of the cemetery. Tomb 46 lay inside it, and tombs 47 and 48 above the demolished south wall. The exterior face was of unworked field-stones, while the interior was well finished with white hydraulic cement. In the centre was a four-sided basin with quatrefoils at each corner.