hat, we also examine artefacts recovered from ancient graves at many of the museums on our tours. No wonder – ancient graves are a key source of archaeological material, and more generally, burial habits and burial sites are a central characteristic that helps us understand cultures and societies from prehistory to the present.
One of the most famous and most significant historic cemeteries we visit is the Kerameikos of Athens, a key point on our Exploring Athens tour. The site, at the outskirts of the ancient city but now near the centre of the modern one, is not just of immense archaeological interest but also of great beauty. Absurdly ranked in 81st place among the city’s sights on a review website I have recently poked fun at, it is a must-see, a tranquil oasis in the heart of the metropolis, surprisingly removed from the hustle and bustle all around, traversed by a stream and home to a thriving population of tortoises!
The Wall of Themistocles
Explored for over a century, the Kerameikos falls in two parts, one inside the boundaries of Classical Athens, the other one outside. What separates them is the Themistoclean Wall, itself a major historical monument. As the historian Diodorus reports, after the temporary abandonment of Athens during the second Persian War of 480/479 BC, the Greek allies, led by Sparta, were debating the option of banning Athens from rebuilding its fortifications, so as to prevent a future invader from gaining a stronghold. Under the leadership of Themistocles, Athens sent emissaries instructed to stall negotiations, while a new and expanded set of city walls was created hurriedly and on the sly. The foundations of that wall, repeatedly rebuilt and restored for many centuries, are there to be seen – and excavations have revealed the rushed construction of their initial phase, incorporating many grave monuments that stood in the area previously. A key example of Classical Greek defensive architecture, the wall is pierced within the Kerameikos archaeological area by its two most famous gates, the Sacred Gate and the Dipylon (“double door”). It was between them that the Roman dictator Sulla’s army breached the Athenian defences in 86 BC.
Part of the Kerameikos site comprises the very edge of Classical and later Athens within the walls. There are some interesting structures there, including private homes, potters’ workshops (the name Kerameikos primarily referred to the pottery-producing quarter of the city) and a large fountain house, providing fresh water for those leaving or entering the city. The most significant of these buildings is the so-called pompeion, a large building complex just inside the walls. Comprising a series of small rooms, probably andrones, around a central courtyard, this appears to have been used in the preparation for the various religious festivals that structured the Athenian calendar, such as the Dionysia in honour of Dionysos, the god of wine, the Eleusinia, underlining the close link between Athens and the cult of the fertility goddess Demeter at nearby Eleusis, and most importantly the Panathenaia, a major event worshipping the city’s patron goddess, Athena. Those festivals included processions and “floats”, which were probably set up at the pompeion, so the structure had a central, if rather practical, role in the city’s spiritual life.
A vast ancient necropolis and a mine of information
The most important part of the Kerameikos, however, is the area outside the walls. Here, decades of excavations have revealed part of the enormous necropolis, the cemetery lining the roads immediately beyond the western limit of the city. There were other cemeteries elsewhere outside the city walls, but the Kerameikos was the largest, most famous and most ancient. It also the only one that can be explored as a discrete and coherent site today.
The area was used as an important burial ground from the Late Bronze Age, before 1200 BC, until the Roman period in the first centuries AD. During that enormous stretch of time, Athens underwent massive and repeated changes, including the grad