Marathon tombs

1
Marathon tombs
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The Athenian Mound
The Plataean Mound
A Mycenaen tomb at Marathon
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Soros

• A burial mound
• The Athenian burial mound was thought to just be
  a monument, but the remains of separately
  cremated bodies in vases were discovered
• Trenches cut to hold ashes from yearly sacrifices

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Why a mass grave?

• Homers Iliad speaks of mass cremation in funeral
  pyres
• Multiple mounds found in Marathon copied the
  idea
• According to Thucydides, the battle of Marathon
  was so important that they were to be buried
  where they fell more prestigious

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Where did the idea come from?

• Mycenaea tholos (beehive tomb)
• Homers Iliad
• Horse graves
• Kurgans

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Kurgans

• Russia in the 4th millenium BC
• Nomadic people conquering in the Middle East,
  Europe, etc
• Did not conquer in Greece, only influenced
• Kurgan graves are mound shaped and built up with
  rocks

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Excavations

• H. Schliemann in 1884 failed due to water
  welling into their site
• Schliemann maintained that the site was older
  than the battle and was unrelated
• Ephor Valerios Stais in 1890 and 91
• Spyridon Marinatos in 1970

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Stais excavation

• Thick layer of charcoal and ash
• Bothros remains of the funeral banquet (it was
  covered with ash and food residue, as well as
  vase fragments)
• Some of the vases were older than the actual site
  vases were left as tribute to the dead and had
  been family heirlooms

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The Persian dead

• Mass grave church of Panaghia Mesosporitissa
  now stands
• German Captain Eschenburg 1884/85 mapped
  Marathon found hundreds of bodies haphazardly
  thrown
• Total Persian dead was 6400

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Bibliography

• Gardner, Percy. Sculptured Tombs of Hellas. 1896
• Petrakos, Basil. Marathon. 1996
• The World of Athens. 1984
• MacKenzie, Compton. Marathon and Salamis. 1934
• http//www.livius.org/man-md/marathon/marathon.htm
  l
• http//www.channel4.com/history/microsites/G/great
  _excavations/pasts.html
• http//www.reference-wordsmith.com/cgi-bin/lookup.
  cgi?exact1termsmarathon