769-794

Archaeological investigations in the necropolis of ancient Thasos : 1979-1996

• Κουκούλη - Χρυσανθάκη, Χάιδω
• Σγούρου, Μαρίνα
• Αγελαράκης, Αναγνώστης Π.

The extensive necropolis of ancient Thasos stretched around the city, cov­ ering almost all the surrounding flat area. Our picture of this important ceme­ tery, which kept pace with the long history and development of the city, can today be restored thanks to the fragmentary finds of the rescue excavations conducted in earlier times by the French Archaeological School and more re­ cently by Ephorate XVIII of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities. These exca­ vations have proceeded more rapidly in recent years in view of the expansion of the modern town into the area outside the ancient walls, and have produced fresh evidence and valuable finds.Although we have very little information about the Archaic city, the monu­ ment of Glaucus, in the ancient Agora, may perhaps be an indication of the limits of the settlement founded by the first colonists and of its cemetery. The only Archaic tombs excavated to date were discovered below the foundations of the tower in the SW wall and date from the late sixth century BC. Very few burials of the fifth century BC, the era in which the city was at its zenith, have so far been discovered and those known date from the end of the century. By way of contrast, the fourth century is represented by a wealth of burials. At this time, the cemetery seems to have stretched quite a distance from the ancient city, along the main roads leading into it. The most complete group of fourth - century burials was discovered on the D. Soultsos farm over a period covering five excavation seasons. Here, the cemetery occupied a band 15 metres wide along the south edge of the paved road which headed towards one of the gates in the SW wall. Apart from burials in tombs lined with marble slabs, pyres and offerings to the dead were also found, together with cremations in funerary urns and others conducted on the spot in clay sarcophagi and cist tombs. The grave goods —gilt wreaths and tiaras for the men, pieces ofjewellery, mirrors and scent-boxes for the women— and the comparatively scarce finds of coins and vases indicate that these burials took place over a period from the early fourth century BC to the second century BC. Excavations on the farm took place in parallel with a study of the skeletal material conducted by a team of anthro­ pologists. The skeletal material produced interesting evidence about the pa- laeodemography of the population which inhabited the city of Thasos a gener­ ation after it was visited by Hippocrates.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

Θάσος, νεκροταφεία, συνέδρια

Περιέχει εικόνες, Περιέχει παράρτημα στα αγγλικά με τίτλο "Physical anthropology and palaeopathologyat the classical necropolis of Thasos" υπό τον Anagnostis P. Agelarakis.