Agora Deposit: H 17:2
Title:   Pit Tomb, Child Inhumation
Supervisor:   Dorothy Burr Thompson
Category:   Burial
Description:   Child's Grave (E.L. Smithson: Grave XXVIII: G).
Cf. Container Lot ΣΤ 165 (fill over geometric grave).
Neat, rectangular, unlined trench, cut into bedrock to a preserved depth of 0.20m,below the level of the floor of the so-called Geometric House. The tomb was located in the area between pits A and D, and was just over 2m to the east of the preserved west wall of the Geometric House. Oriented southwest-northeast, the tomb measured about 1m long and 0.40m wide. The skeleton of a child (4 years old by Angel and 3.5-4.5 years old by Liston) was found in a fully extended supine position, on its back, head to the northeast. On the left side of the cranium was a pair of cockle shells, compared by the excavator to similar shells found in Rhodian graves. The cranium was at a slightly lower level in the tomb than the feet; the upper part of the skull of the deceased was found near the south corner of the tomb, the jaw bone closer to the east corner. In addition to the shells, the skeleton of an animal, identified in the field as "probably a piglet", was placed to the left of the skeleton, along the central part of the southwest side of the tomb pit.
The fill of the tomb pit was plain earth,the upper parts of which were described by the excavator as disturbed too a level "fairly close to the skeleton". Slight traces of carbonized matter were noted at the southeast end near the cranium, with small specks of carbon throughout the earth fill,but no substantial traces of burning or any burnt pots. No formal tomb covering was encountered.
Two other empty trenches were found within the area of the Geometric House, ,thought to be rifled tomb pits. Scattered cemetery debris,burned and unburned, was encountered everywhere in the vicinity.
Notes:   Mentioned as Grave XXVII in Agora XXXVI.
Bibliography:   Hesperia 2 (1933), pp. 552-554, figs. 10-11.
    Agora XXXVI, Tomb 14, pp. 118-123, 534, figs. 2.65-2.69.
PD Number:   PD 379
Chronology:   Early Geometric I
Date:   1 April - 6 May 1932
Section:   ΣΤ
Grid:   ΣΤ:40/ΙΖ
References:   Publication: Agora XXXVI
Publication: Hesperia 2 (1933)
Publication Page: Agora 8, s. 124, p. 110
Publication Page: Agora 12.2, s. 20, p. 393
Images (4)
Objects (7)