More on the Identity of the Burials in the Rundbau Mound (original) (raw)
Further support for the identity of the occupants of the Kerameikos Rundbau on the Eridanos, a burial mound initiated in the late 8th C. BC. It has been linked to the Kerykes, one of the two ancestral families that supervised the activities of the sanctuary of Eleusis. The Rundbau burials were initiated contemporary with the Alcmeonids' renewal of the nearby Hagia Triada cemetery, which may not be coincidence. The Neleid occupants of the Hagia Triada burial ground, Codrids and Alcmeonids, had traditional ties with the sanctuary: Melanthos had served as a priest of the sanctuary before being appointed king of Athens. Neleid Peisistratos was also a supporter of the sanctuary.
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At the turn of the seventh century, Athenian burial practices underwent a series of changes, including a decline in the number of graves, the advent of primary cremation and offering-ditches, and the disappearance of weapon burials. The main source of information for an analysis of burial customs is, once more, the Kerameikos cemetery. Here a particularly informative context is the early Rundbau plot and other burials next to it, dug into an area included within the Eridanos river bed and the path preceding the Sacred Way. The plot has produced a unique sequence of burials, beginning in Late Geometric IIb and continuing into the early sixth century, some of which contained rare bronze objects of both Greek and eastern (or orientalizing) production. These objects include double walled embossed bowls comparable to those from Etruscan princely tombs, and a badly preserved object of thin embossed bronze sheet, decorated with snakes, which may be a belt reproducing an Urartian pattern. A horse-burial completes the unusual picture. This chapter adopts a contextual perspective to bring together an archaeological record excavated at different times and published separately, thus allowing the totality of the evidence to be exploited as an historical and cultural source. The conclusion is that the burying group could have included individuals of high status and non-Athenian origin, who were integrated within a local descent group. Burial ritual creates cultural references and a network of correspondences worthy of analysis and explanation.
Alt-Keryneia in Aigialeia. Ausgrabung und Architektur im Heiligtum auf dem Profitis Ilias zusammenfassung Die systematische Ausgrabung auf der Anhöhe Profitis Ilias bei Mamousia in Achaia legte die Überreste eines Heiligtums frei, das zum Einflußbereich von Alt-Keryneia gehören dürfte. Der archaische Peripteros beherrschte die Anhöhe. Dieser Tempel, der zwischen 500 und 490 v. Chr. datiert, war aus Sandstein erbaut, mit Simen, Akroteren und Giebelskulpturen aus Inselmarmor. Gestalt und Comparanda der Krepis weisen auf ein Pteron mit 14 Säulen an den Längsseiten hin. Bemerkenswert ist, dass die Cella außerordentlich schmal ist, so wie es auch im zeitgleichen Tempel der Athena in Alipheira der Fall ist. Östlich des archaischen peripteralen Tempels befinden sich die Überreste des Altars und eines kleinen Oikos. Das archaische Heiligtum wurde aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach durch das Erdbeben des Jahres 373 v. Chr. zerstört. Die Ausgrabungen westlich des großen archaischen Tempels brachten die Überreste eines kleineren Tempels mit zwei Säulen in antis und quadratischer Cella ans Licht, der in die Mitte des 4. Jh. v. Chr. datiert werden kann. Schlagwörter Archaischer Tempel; Keryneia; Voura; Achaia.
Review Article: New Insights into Bronze Age Eleusis and the Formative Stages of the Eleusinian Cults. Review of M.B. Cosmopoulos, The Sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis: the Bronze Age (Archaeological Society at Athens: Athens 2014) and Bronze Age Eleusis and the Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Cambridge University Press: New York 2015). American Journal of Archaeology, Volume 120, Number 4 (October 2016), pp. 673–677 DOI: 10.3764/aja.120.4.0673
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