Agora Deposit: J 2:31
Title:   Cist Grave
Supervisor:   Marcie Handler
Description:   Cist grave for two infants. The grave was cut into a sterile rocky layer on its southern and western sides, and a sterile fill layer on its northern and eastern sides. No obvious grave marker was present, although three flat stones arranged at the northern end of the grave were documented in the layer immediately above the grave (Lot ΒΖ 2281), and these stones may have been part of the disturbed covering for the grave. A piece of the handle of the cup was found 30 cm higher in the grave filling than the cup itself, and parts of the rim and neck of the amphoriskos were never recovered (even though water sieving), providing further proof that the grave was at least partially disturbed. We removed approximately 29 cm of dark grayish-brown gravely fill from the inside of the grave. All of the soil within the grave was water-sieved, and the shell, charcoal, etc. were saved as sample AS 2233.
The grave was partially lined with worked light yellow limestone slabs. The tops of slabs were found at approximately 51.55 masl. Within the lining, the length of the grave was 0.820 m. (top)-0.734 m. (bottom), and the width of the grave was 0.420m (top) and 0.387m (bottom). The cutting for the grave pit measured 0.91m in length and o.64 m. in width. During excavations, only one skeleton was visible in-situ on the stone bedding. A vertical-handled amphoriskos (ΒΖ 2187) was found near the left shoulder of the skeleton, while a one-handled cup (ΒΖ 2189) was found alongside the skeleton's lower right leg. Under the skeleton, we found a bedding made of flat, worked yellow limestone at 51.330-51.360 masl. The bedding was fashioned from the same type of limestone as most of the lining slabs.
Date
The two vessels found in Cist Grave J 2:31 provide two different dates: the amphoriskos appears to belong to the transition from Submycenaean to Early Protogeometric, while the one-handled cup seems to belong to the Middle Protogeometric period (or possibly the transition between Early and Middle Protogeometric). While it is possible that the two individuals in the grave were interred at two different times each with his/her own vessel, there was no evidence for two separate burial moments, and the earlier vessel (the amphoriskos) was found at a slightly higher elevation than the later vessel (the cup). We might imagine, instead, that the two children died and were interred together toward the beginning of the Middle Protogeometric (ca. 1000 B.C.), with one newly acquired vessel and one vessel that had been in the family’s possession for a generation or two.
Bibliography:   Hesperia 89 (2020), pp. 620-622.
Chronology:   Early Iron Age
Date:   29 June-13 July 2018
Section:   ΒΖ
Grid:   J/13,14-2/6,7
Elevation:   51.623-51.598m.
Masl:   51.598-51.623m.
References:   Publication: Hesperia 89 (2020)
Report: 2018 Excavations
Report Page: 2018 Excavations, s. 4
Report Page: 2018 Excavations, s. 10
Images (12)
Object: P 38241
Object: P 38243