Kerameikos – Ancient Burial Ground and Archaeological Site – Athens

 

 

The largest burial site in ancient Greece, which was in continual use from the 9th century BC until the Roman invasion, is to be found in Kerameikos, one of the oldest parts of Athens

The first tombs discovered there date back to as early as the Bronze Age (2700-2000 BCE).

Kerameikos is located in the area around Ermou Street, northwest of the Acropolis.

The area was divided into two parts, the “inner” and “outer” Kerameikos, by the western wall constructed by Themistocles (Athenian politician and general – c. 524 BC – c. 459 BC) in 479 B.C.

The inner part was the living area and the outer part, outside the city walls, was the cemetery.

 

 

Potters’ Field

 

 

Kerameikos takes its name from the potters’ quarter (inside the city walls of Athens).

The potters, in turn, had taken their name from the word “kéramos”, meaning pottery clay (where the English word ceramic comes from), as the area, being located next to the banks of the River Eridanos, meant there were copious supplies of clay deposits, perfect for the famous Attic vases produced by the artisans of the day, many of which were later discovered in the cemetery’s tombs.

 

 

However, the river was prone to overflowing which created an area of marshland therefore the potters decided to move to higher ground leaving the soggy land behind.

Eventually this deserted area became a burial ground.

This burial ground was to become the most significant cemetery of ancient Athens.

Most of the area remained concealed for centuries buried under about seven or eight meters of sediment left behind by the floods of the River Eridanos.

All was once again brought to light during archaeological excavations carried out in the 1960s.

 

Kerameikos

 Archaeological Site

 

 

Archaeological excavations began at the eleven acre archaeological site of Kerameikos in 1870 and continue to the present day.

The “Inner Kerameikos” the former “potters’ quarter”, was within the city and the “Outer Kerameikos”, including the cemetery and public graveyard, were just outside the city walls.

Here, in the public graveyard in 431 B.C. Pericles, Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens gave his famous funeral oration.

 

 

This was an Athenian practice during the 5th century B.C. where a public funeral was held in honour of all those who had died in war.

For three days offerings were made to the dead before a funeral procession carried ten coffins carrying the remains, one for each of the Athenian tribes and another left symbolically empty for the missing, to be buried at the public grave at Kerameikos.

The finale was a speech delivered by a prominent Athenian citizen chosen by the state.

 

The Diplyon Gate

 

 

 The western city wall, which divided Kerameikos into two parts, the inner and outer, had two large gates facing north-west, the Diplyon Gate and the Sacred Gate.

On the northern side, an extremely wide road, the Panathenaic Way, ran through the double-arched Diplyon Gate (formerly known as the Thriasian Gate).

This was the major route to Athens leading to the official state burial ground, the Agora and the Acropolis via Plato’s Academy, the first university in the world.

It is not only the larger of the two gates but was the largest and most major of the fifteen gates giving access to the Classical city of Athens.

 

 

State tombs were built on both sides of the Dipylon Gate, for the burial notable people such as warriors and statesmen, including Pericles and Cleisthenes.

Its name, Diplyon, means “two-gates” owing to the fact it was actually two gates positioned between four defense towers.

In Classical times an important public building, The Pompeion, was built between the two gates, this was to be the starting point for the long procession of the four yearly Panathenaic Festival, the most important festival in ancient Athens, held in honour of goddess Athena, the protector of Athens.

 

The Pompeion

 

 

The Pompeion (the word derives from the Greek word “pompi” meaning procession) was a rectangular structure consisting of a large square courtyard surrounded by columns and banquet rooms, constructed at the beginning of the 4th century B.C.

This was the place in which people prepared themselves for the procession of the Panathenian Festivals, which set off from here, heading for the Acropolis.

The Pompeion was burnt to the ground by the army of the Roman dictator Sulla, during the Siege of Athens in 86 B.C.

 During the 2nd century AD a warehouse was built on the site of the Pompeion but that also went the way of its predecessor and was destroyed during the invasion of the Heruli, an East Germanic people, who raided towns in the Roman Empire in 267 AD.

The ruins then became home to potters’ workshops up until about 500 AD when a new Festival Gate was erected to the east with three entrances leading into the city.

 This was yet again to be destroyed, this time in raids by the Avars and Slavs, at the end of the 6th century.

After this last attack Kerameikos more or less became a place of insignificance until a Greek road worker came across a monument there in April 1863.

 

The Sacred Gate

 

 

On the southern side of Kerameikos, ran “The Sacred Way” to Eleusis, where the enigma called The Eleusinian Mysteries, the most famous of all secret religious rituals of ancient Greece took place, about fourteen miles northwest of Athens.

In the autumn a procession left through the Sacred Gate and walked along the Sacred Way to Eleusis, for the opening ceremony of the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries.

The Sacred Gate was used only by the pilgrims who walked the Sacred Way to and from Eleusis during the yearly procession.

Through this same gate flowed the small river Eridanos.

 

 

The Athenians also took part in the Skira or Skirophoria celebrations so called as the last month of the year in the Attic Calendar was named “Skirophorion” (June/July).

This was a sort of saying good bye to the old year ceremony, if you will, similar to the Thesmophoria Festivals.

After the construction of the city wall the Sacred Way and a pathway, known as the Street of the Tombs, became lined with majestic mausoleums owned by the families of wealthy Athenians dating back to before the late 4th century B.C.

 

 

However, in 317 B.C. the construction of elaborate tombs was forbidden and thereafter only small columns or inscribed marble blocks were acceptable as grave markers.

 

 

Evidence of the Plague of Athens is Revealed

 

 

The first real evidence supporting the writings of Thucydides (Athenian historian and general – c.460 BC – c. 400 BC) about the plague of Athens, did not come to light until 1994 when a mass grave, together with hundreds of tombs dated at around 430-426 B.C., were discovered not far from Athens’ ancient Kerameikos cemetery.

It was during the construction of Kerameikos metro station that a “plague pit” and approximately 1,000 tombs from the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. were discovered.

 

 

Archaeologists found it strange that the grave did not have the usual monumental character, the offerings left there were cheap and the bodies had been placed very quickly into the grave suggesting the whole thing had been managed in a state of panic, owing to a plague maybe?

Thucydides had in fact described the panic caused by the plague which struck the besieged city in 430 B.C. and stated that bodies were abandoned in temples and streets, to be subsequently collected and hastily buried.

The epidemic lasted for two years and killed an estimated one third of the population.

 The disease reappeared in the winter of 427 BC.

 

Museum

Treasures from the Tombs of Kerameikos

 

 

 

 

The Kerameikos Museum, originally built in 1937, is a small building housing one of the most extensive collections of burial-related artifacts in Greece from large-scale marble sculpture to funerary urns, jewelry, and toys etc.

The original burial memorial sculptures are displayed inside the museum and have been replaced by plaster replicas in situ.

The museum consists of an inner and outer courtyard, where the larger sculptures are kept.

Down the hill from the museum visitors can walk amongst the Kerameikos ruins, along the banks of the River Eridanos, where some water still flows and marvel at the remains of the Pompeion and the Dipylon Gate.

 

 

You can walk along the first blocks of the Sacred Way towards Eleusis and along the Panathenaic Way towards the Acropolis.

Most of the area lies about 7–10 meters below street level, owing to centuries of sediment accumulation from the floods of the River Eridanos.

Some of the most important Athenian or Attic vases come from the tombs of the Kerameikos Cemetery.

 

 

The Sacred Gate Kouros, a marble statue of a male youth, discovered by the German Archaeological Institute of Athens, near the Sacred Gate of the cemetery in 2002, stands almost 7 feet in height (2.10 meters).

 

 

Experts assume the Kouros and other artifacts found with it, including two marble lions, a sphinx and fragments of marble pillars, are the work of the “Diplyon” sculptor who worked at the cemetery.

 

 

Another interesting find from Kerameikos is the famous “Diplyon Oinochoe”, discovered in found in 1871, which bears the earliest inscription, written in the Greek alphabet (second half of the eighth century BC).

This is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

 

 

The Kerameikos Museum is located at the end of Ermou Street, to the west of Monastiraki Square.

 

OPENING HOURS

From 1/4 until 31/10 – 08:00 – 20:00, Tuesday 10:00 – 20:00

From 1/11 until 31/3 – 08:00 – 17:00, Tuesday 10:00 – 17:00

148 Ermou Str., Athens 10553

TELEPHONE

(+30) 2103463552

 

Kerameikos Today

 

 

Today Kerameikos, about a ten minute walk from Monastiraki square, is one of the less-visited tourist areas of Athens.

The area, with its numerous bars, restaurants, mural painted walls and distinctly bohemian atmosphere, is one of the most stylish parts of Athens.

Kerameikos has its own Metro station; however, it’s much easier and far more interesting to reach the archaeological site by walking straight down Ermou Street from the Monastiraki or Thiseio stations.

In 2018 Forbes said of Kerameikos :

“The laid back Kerameikos neighborhood seems to live in a magical world of its own”

and proceeded to add it to their list of:

“The world’s coolest neighborhoods”.

(The Forbes List refers to one of the lists published annually by the American magazine Forbes).

 

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