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The east cemetery of Pella : 1989 excavation

• Λιλιμπάκη - Ακαμάτη, Μαρία

In the 1989 season the so-called East cemetery was investigated, in the rural area of Pella to the south-east of the settlement. In all, 21 cist graves, 16 chamber tombs and 13 tile-covered tombs were excavated. Thus, all the forms of funerary architecture so far known in the Macedonian capital are represented, in a period covering the late 4th and early 3rd century BC.The cist graves were either cut in the bedrock or had built walls, and were oriented east-west. They were covered with wooden planks, which insulated them and rested on the top of the walls, in some cases being additionally supported on wooden beams. These wooden planks were surmounted by stone slabs. The walls of the graves were covered with plaster, sometimes white and sometimes in zones of colour, adorned with scenes of objects from the gynaikonites, or imitations of isodomic masonry and marble revetment. There were usually pits in the floor of the tombs, at the ends, and benches in the middle, on which were placed wooden funerary couches or caskets. The funerary couches, with rectangular legs, were decorated with bone and glass appliqués, in a manner known from Macedonian tombs and other cist graves dating from the 4th century BC. Those grave offerings that escaped plundering display a general homogeneity. In almost all the burials there are gold myrtle wreaths, with a bone circlet, bronze leaves and clay berries. Common offerings are unguentaria, lamps, pyxides, alabastra, and iron strigils. There are relatively few clay figurines and coins. The discovery of sheets of gold bearing the name of the deceased is an indication that it was a common practice to place the dead person’s “identity-card" in the tomb.The meticulous construction of the cist graves and the nature of the grave offering lend support to the view that distinguished persons were buried in them. The existence of grave monuments on built pedestals and of enclosure walls is also consistent with this view.The chamber tombs were cut into the natural rock, with a variety of orientations. They have rectangular entrance- openings with cuttings in the faces to facilitate descent, long narrow chambers with shallow, vaulted roofs, and arched entrances closed by undressed blocks of stone and material in second use. These tombs, which are rather like cist graves with shallow vaults, may be regarded as precursors of the rock-cut chamber tombs of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC in the area of Pella, with their sloping dromos, and one or two burial chambers. In the chamber tombs, the dead were placed on wooden stretchers. The grave offerings usually consist of unguentaria, small skyphoi, pyxides, lamps, irons strigils, and clay figurines.The majority of the tile-covered tombs had been destroyed by modern farming. The grave offerings in the ones that have survived are of the same kind as those found in the chamber tombs.The large number of cuttings in the bedrock, surrounding the tombs, were probably holes for planting trees or shrubs.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Excavations (Archaeology)
• Burial

Περιέχει σχέδια 68 και συντομογραφίες, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες