MEGARA - North cemetery - 2003

General Information

Record ID

2214

Activity Date

2003

Chronologies

Antiquity - Archaïc - Classical - Hellenistic - Roman

Keywords

Figurine - Inscription - Numismatics - Tools/weapons - Dress and personal ornament - Cemetery

Type of Operation

Excavation - Rescue excavation

Institution

Γ' Εφορεία Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων (Γ' ΕΠΚΑ)

Localisation / Geographical Information

Toponym
Megara

Linked Record

1973 197420032004

Report

Megara, North cemetery. P. Avgerinou Γ’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports on excavation on two plots.

Tachi: Unnamed road (O.T. 656, property of Th. Salta). Excavation north of Alepochoriou Street revealed 28 graves of a cemetery to the north of the ancient city walls (Fig. 1:2).

All but four burials were of adults. Tombs 1 and 24 contained three burials, and 11 and 17 two, while to the west of grave 3 was a collection of bones. All the burials were in sarcophagi of shelly limestone, the dead supine with hands parallel to the bodies and heads to the north. It is difficult to date graves without goods, or tombs 1 and 22 which contained only metal fragments. The remaining tombs date to three periods:

I. First half of the fifth century BC. Grave 4, a child burial, contained a peplophoros figurine, the head of a female figure, and parts of an egg; grave 6 contained the burial of two adults with a Corinthian kotyle, kylikes, a black-figure lekythos and a lekythos of the Cock Group; 20 contained an adult burial with a lekythos; 21 (Fig. 2) contained 21 pots including a black-figure lekythos with Amazons and Athena fighting the Giants, a lekythos with Dionysos and Ariadne and another of the Cock Group, Corinthian black-figure kotylai, and a pyxis.

II. End of the third-beginning of the second century BC: nine graves including grave 2, an adult burial with spindle-shaped unguentaria and pottery at the head, hands, and pelvis, a small oinochoe and two unguentaria at the left foot, and at the chest 17 gold olive leaves; grave 11, of two adults, with textile remains, 30 clay spindle-shaped unguentaria, a lead katadesmos, an iron strigil, a pitcher, and a stamnos; grave 15, of a child, with 68 intact unguentaria, and 22 gold olive leaves, of which 11 were at the chest and the remainder later collected with the bones.

III. Roman period. Graves 24, 25, 27, 28. A peribolos contained graves 27 and 28 (Fig. 3). Finds included glass unguentaria, bronze coins, six gold leaves, and parts of strigils.

On Alepochoriou Street (O.T. 623, property of S. Molou) (Fig. 1:3), eight graves were discovered - seven limestone sarcophagi of the fifth century BC and one (cist tomb 1) Roman, from the same cemetery. These graves contained eight adult burials and one child.

Tomb 2 contained two adults with many goods – white-ground lekythoi, black-figure kylikes, standing female figurines, and female protomes.

Tomb 6, of a child, held many goods: lekythoi, and figurines placed around the skeleton, including three female figures and two Sirens.

In the northwest of the excavation was part of a funerary peribolos, the upper preserved course of which was built of identical square blocks, with a second course of unequal stones, many in secondary use. The foundations were preserved in two courses of diverse building materials including parts of sarcophagi and cover slabs. The few finds in the wall did not provide a date.

Outside tomb 1 was part of a marble funerary stele with two lines of text: ΕΥΦΡΑ | ΙΣΩΣ.

Author

Robert PITT

Bibliographic reference(s)

AD 56-59 (2001-2004) Chr., 294-295.