211-324

From the cemeteries of ancient Demetrias-Pagasae

• Μπάτζιου-Ευσταθίου, Ανθή
• Τριανταφυλλοπούλου, Πελαγία

Demetrias was founded in the early 3rd c. BC by Demetrius Poliorcetes at the site where Pagasae had flourished during the Classical period. Systematic excavations at Demetrias have been carried out on two monuments, the palace and the theater. Most of the evidence for the city’s development and urban organization, the composition of its population, and its cults comes from these two excavations and from rescue excavations in the city and its cemetery.The material dealt with in this study comes from a large number of rescue excavations conducted between 1982 and 2001.The cemeteries of Demetrias lay outside its walls and were organized in three areas: the northern cemetery, the eastern cemetery, and the southern cemetery, although tombs have also been excavated inside the city. Tombs from the Classical period that probably belonged to the settlement of Pagasae have been included with the material from the northern cemetery. In accordance with the evidence from resc ue excavations, they were in the walled area of Demetrias and were discovered in the northwestern section of the Hellenistic city (T. 1,2, 3,4). The same is true of two Roman tombs (T. 32, 33) excavated near the coast in the northern part of Demetrias. The eastern cemetery was confined to the area between the eastern wall and the sea. However, here too Hellenistic tombs have been excavated within the walls (T. 38), though we may conclude from their construction that most were Roman burials (without grave goods).In the Pagasae-Demetrias cemeteries, we encounter nearly all the known tomb types known from the Archaic to the Roman period. Of the 102 tombs, the majority were tile-covered, followed in order of frequency by built cist graves, pit graves, simple cist graves, pot burials, stone sarcophagi, interments directly in the ground, marble cinerary urns, and pit graves with cover tiles.Tile-covered graves appear starting from the early 3rd c. BC with Demetrias’s founding; to date n o tile- covered Classical graves have been excavated. Based on the dating of their funerary gifts, they were used until the late 2nd-early 1st c. BC. Overall, they represent the majority of tombs presented in the present study. Thirty-two were tile-covered huts; two were a combination of the pit and tile-covered types with Laconian pan tiles used to cover the pit.The cist graves belonged to two types. The first type (a) was composed of cist graves constructed with monolithic marble or slate plaques. Such constructions date from the late 5th c. to the late 4th-early 3rd c. BC, i.e. the Classical period. They are oriented E-W or NNE-NNW. The second type (b) consisted of cist graves built of rubble. These date from the 2nd to the late 3rd c. AD. During the Late Roman period (3rd c. AD), the use of a bonding material is observed. The reuse of graves is also observable during this period (T. 80, 82, 83).The pit graves were simple trenches in which the deceased was buried. Only rarely do we observe some other material covering the pit’s walls. These graves were covered with slate slabs. All have an E-W orientation. They date from the mid-3rd c. BC to the 2nd c. AD.Pot burials were found only in the southern cemetery. From among twelve such instances, three were in a kalathos (T. 50, 68, 75), three in pointed-toe amphorae (T. 51,65, 101), four in chytra-like vases (T. 64, 66, 76, 100), and two in ribbed amphorae with rounded bases (T. 94, 99). The burial vases were placed in small pits on their sides and often surrounded by stones to support them. Two contained only ashes (T. 50, 51). Eight had carbonized bones (T. 64, 65, 66, 68, 76, 94, 99, 100) and two (T. 75, 101) contained infant burials. The mouths of the vases were normally stopped with a small piece of slate or a square brick (T.50) secured by stones. The majority had no funerary gifts, and this makes their dating uncertain. Tomb 75 dates to the mid-2nd c. BC, Tomb 76 to the second half of the 2nd c. BC, an d Tomb 94 to the 3rd c. AD. For the remainder without grave goods, since they were found in the same cemetery and the same clusters, dates ranging from the mid-2nd c. BC to the 3rd c. AD are considered very probable. This time frame is also supported by the pot burials in the area of the palace of Demetrias, where following its destruction in the 2nd c. BC, the southern wing of the eastern peristyle was used as a burial site until the 3rd c. AD.All the stone sarcophagi were found in the northwest sector of ancient Demetrias; they date to the Archaic and Classical periods, and belonged to the cemetery of Pagasae. They are oriented E-W or NE-NW, and contained one or two burials. Only one (T. 1) was found with its cover in situ.There were two marble cinerary urns (T. 45,49), both from the southern cemetery. These date to the 3rd c. BC, and contained carbonized bones and ashes.There were three direct interments, all found in a fragmentary state (T. 36,59,81). One (T. 36) was very richly furnished with funerary gifts; it dates to the late 3rd c. BC. The second (T. 59) dates to the first half of the 2nd c. BC; it was bounded by a small, makeshift apsidal wall. The third (T. 81) consisted of an irregularly-shaped pile of stones where scattered bones were found; its grave goods date to the second half of the Iste. BC.Inhumation was the prevailing method of burial. Cremations were confined to the cases of the two marble cinerary urns and the ten pot burials, i.e. 12.6% of the graves under examination here. In multiple burials, their orientation varied, while in single burials the head was normally found to the north or east. The removal and transfer of relics was a common practice throughout the cemetery’s entire period of use.There were very few examples of grave markers. Two funerary stelai were found in the southern cemetery, one of which had been re-used as a cover for T. 97; the second was collected. The upper part of a funerary stele with painted palmette crown ing element was found in the northern cemetery. Children and adults were buried in the same area.Most of the graves had funerary gifts. The majority of tombs without such gifts were the pot burials and tile-covered huts. Vases make up the majority of funerary gifts.

• History and Archaeology

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