DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14547#0029
IV.
A new departure is marked by a funeral monument which
was unique at the time of its discovery, in 1933, although re-
mains of a few similar ones have since been excavated nearby.
From other parts of Greece none are known. It is a rectangu-
lar, houselike structure, but lacking a door or any other means
of access, carefully built, of sun-dried bricks, coated with
pounded limestone and stucco and covered by a flat roof with
a border of fine limestone slabs that carried off the rain like
the eaves of a house. Two great Early Attic bowls, with fig-
urines of mourning women on their rims, stood on this roof,
while the chamber itself contained only a clay box from Co- Plate
rinth, no other offerings or skeletons. On our plan, two pairs of 14
brick channels seem to cross the floor of the chamber; but
they belonged to an earlier tomb and had been destroyed by
the new monument which cut ruthlessly into two small tumuli.
The ashes of the personages in whose honor our chamber, and
a couple of neighboring ones, were erected, lay in deep un-
derground pits, without any funeral gifts. Fortunately, the
vases just mentioned provide a certain date, about 600 B. C,
for the well-preserved chamber, while the others appear to be
slightly older.
We can now reconstruct this whole area, at least in im-
agination. Standing at the cross-roads, and looking towards
the city, one saw a long row of funeral vases on either side of
the road, ranging from Late Geometric to the turn of the sixth
century. More such vases, some gigantic, others of moderate
size, crowned the steep banks of the Eridanos. Shrubs or
trees were probably planted between and behind them, since
some were painted only in front. Where the road to
Piraeus branched off to the left, the precinct of the Tritopa-
tores would be alive with greenery, small votive objects sus-
pended from their branches. The fine chamber tombs, gleam-
ing white under new coats of stucco, stood out before older
A new departure is marked by a funeral monument which
was unique at the time of its discovery, in 1933, although re-
mains of a few similar ones have since been excavated nearby.
From other parts of Greece none are known. It is a rectangu-
lar, houselike structure, but lacking a door or any other means
of access, carefully built, of sun-dried bricks, coated with
pounded limestone and stucco and covered by a flat roof with
a border of fine limestone slabs that carried off the rain like
the eaves of a house. Two great Early Attic bowls, with fig-
urines of mourning women on their rims, stood on this roof,
while the chamber itself contained only a clay box from Co- Plate
rinth, no other offerings or skeletons. On our plan, two pairs of 14
brick channels seem to cross the floor of the chamber; but
they belonged to an earlier tomb and had been destroyed by
the new monument which cut ruthlessly into two small tumuli.
The ashes of the personages in whose honor our chamber, and
a couple of neighboring ones, were erected, lay in deep un-
derground pits, without any funeral gifts. Fortunately, the
vases just mentioned provide a certain date, about 600 B. C,
for the well-preserved chamber, while the others appear to be
slightly older.
We can now reconstruct this whole area, at least in im-
agination. Standing at the cross-roads, and looking towards
the city, one saw a long row of funeral vases on either side of
the road, ranging from Late Geometric to the turn of the sixth
century. More such vases, some gigantic, others of moderate
size, crowned the steep banks of the Eridanos. Shrubs or
trees were probably planted between and behind them, since
some were painted only in front. Where the road to
Piraeus branched off to the left, the precinct of the Tritopa-
tores would be alive with greenery, small votive objects sus-
pended from their branches. The fine chamber tombs, gleam-
ing white under new coats of stucco, stood out before older