Dissertation committee:
Παναγιώτα Μποζάνα-Κούρου, Ομότιμη Καθηγήτρια ΕΚΠΑ (τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας)
Αλέξανδρος Μαζαράκης Αινιάν, Καθηγητής Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλίας (τμήμα Ιστορίας, Αρχαιολογίας και Κοινωνικής Ανθρωπολογίας)
John Papadopoulos, Καθηγητής UCLA (ΗΠΑ, Department of Classics)
Irene Lemos, Καθηγήτρια Πανεπιστημίου Οξφόρδης (Faculty of Classics)
Antonios Kotsonas, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής Πανεπιστημίου Νέας Υόρκης (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World)
Ιωάννης Παπαδάτος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής ΕΚΠΑ (τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας)
Γεώργιος Βαβουρανάκης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής ΕΚΠΑ (τμήμα Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας)
Summary:
The object of this study is the custom of cremation in the islands of the Saronic Gulf, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese and the Eastern Aegean during the Early Iron Age and the Early Archaic Period. The main aim is to trace the social status and identity of both the dead and the living in these island societies, taking into account the ideological and symbolic implications entailed in the practice of cremation. The data assembled mainly comes from preliminary publications, as a large part of the burials here examined has not received previous systematic treatment. Τhe cremation burials under study are 522 in total and are presented in detail in the catalogue, which constitutes the second part of the thesis (Part B). Due to the large number of burials and their variability, a statistical analysis of the data was undertaken by using the SPSS programme. The first part (Part A) is comprised of the synthesis of the catalogued data and is arranged as follows: introduction, five chapters and an additional, final chapter with a synopsis of the research conclusions. In the introduction are discussed the history of research, the methodology selected for the collection, classification and study of the material, and finally the structure of the study. In the first chapter the cremations are discussed in their chronological context. The custom of cremation is extremely rare in the Protogeometric period, its frequency of occurrence gradually increases from the Early Geometric period, while the majority of the burials date from the Late Geometric until the end of the Early Archaic period. In most islands cremations coexist with other burial practices (inhumations and enchytrismoi) within the same cemetery, outnumbered or not. The second chapter includes the tomb type analysis and an attempt to reconstruct the ritual of the three types of cremation identified in the current study (ie. primary, primary with urn, secondary). The reconstruction of the ritual was based on archaeological finds, anthropological studies, information from experimental archaeology, ancient literary sources and iconography, as well as comparative evidence from thoroughly studied cemeteries of other regions. Between the three types of cremation burials similarities but mainly differences were identified, mainly between primary and secondary cremations, their geographical distribution, and various individual characteristics of the burials. In the third chapter, the examination of the remains of rituals performed outside the tomb (enclosures, funerary markers, sacrificial pyres, stone structures) is complementary to the elements of the second and fourth chapters, with the aim of better understanding the practices associated with the custom of cremation. The fourth chapter deals with grave goods and is divided into two sub-chapters: pottery (drinking vessels, oil and perfume vessels, vessels for serving, miniatures, transport/storage vessels, plates, lekanides, craters, cooking pots, pyxides, lamps) is examined in the first sub-chapter, while the artefacts (jewellery, fibules, pins, weaving tools, metal vessels, faience vessels, weapons, tools, figurines, other kinds of artefacts) are examined in the second. This chapter deals with, among other things, the identity, gender, age and social status of the dead, and sets the basis for the interpretative approach to the custom of cremation following in the last chapter. The fifth, and last, chapter is structured in two sections. According to the available information from ancient literary sources (Homeric epics, later testimonies), the practices of cremation and inhumation do not seem to differ in terms of afterlife beliefs (subsection 5.1.1). Based on the content of the sources, as well as the similarities between the ritual of cremation and the animal sacrifice to god (subsection 5.1.2), cremation rite is part of a wider religious context. The anthropological (age, gender) and social parameters (social status) are explored in the second section. Age and sex can be safely identified in only a few cases, due to the lack of anthropological studies. However, by taking into account what emerged from the previous chapters and the available information on burial practices in the islands under study, it is considered that the choice of cremation was not dictated by sex or the social status of the deceased. Age, however, seems to have been a criterion for choosing cremation over other burial practices. Cremating the dead was a matter of either personal (or family) or social choice, while in some cases it may be linked to broader events (abandonment or re-establishment of a settlement, arrival of settlers, use of a site). Through the thorough study of the custom of cremation it emerged that the connectivity that characterises the islands, both between them and with neighbouring continental regions, does not usually lead to common burial customs. Particularities came out in the individual features of the practice of each island, something that can be interpreted by the different cultural identity of the island communities. At the same time, elements such as the coexistence of cremation and inhumation in some cases, as well as the exclusive use of cremation in others, place the islands of the central Aegean in the same context as the rest of the Greek world.
Keywords:
burial customs, cremation, ritual, grave goods, social status and identity, Early Iron Age, Geometric Period, Archaic Period, Aegean islands, Saronic Gulf, Cyclades, Dodecanese, East Aegean
