Visit the ancient Akanthos cemetery

The plot that is the site of the project “Shell to protect and highlight a section of the ancient cemetery of Akanthos, Halkidiki”, was ceded in 1994 by the Municipality of Ierissos to the 16th Ephorate of Antiquities.

The project was included in the Operational Program of Macedonia-Thrace (2007-2013) and co-funded by Greece and the European Union.

The purpose of the project was to reveal and present to the public at least a small section of the cemetery of ancient Akanthos, keeping it in situ at the excavation site and protecting it with a shell that needed to be functional and communicate, discreetly, the site’s public cultural character while meeting contemporary aesthetic standards.

The canopy was constructed before the antiquities were brought to light, in order to preserve the original appearance of the dig and to avoid potential damage to the ruins from the construction works.

The shell design was intended to provide security and protection of the site against the elements, natural light and ventilation, and to ensure unhindered visibility for visitors.

Lot no. 28 is situated near the NW corner of the ancient cemetery, and archaeological research identified 163 graves in total. The burials are on three subsequent levels, dating from the archaic to the Hellenistic periods, and of every known type from antiquity.

The most common are pit graves (some simple, others invested with clay soil). Usually, their location as marked by simple stones, and more rarely by tombstone stelae. Nails were often found around the skeletons, indicating that the dead were often placed on wooden litters.

The placement of the dead in vessels (such as amphorae, small clay jars, urns, and cauldrons) was the main method of entombing children. Conversely, adults were usually placed inside large burial urns. All of the above vessels came both from local workshops and from workshops throughout Greece.

There is a large number of tiles graves, where tiles in the form of roofs were used to cover the bodies of children and adults, while in infant burials narrow casings were used as floor and cover.

Less frequent are clay sarcophagi, some plain and others adorned with painting on the edges – of the Klazomenian type – and more frequently with a relief Ionic wave on the side of the edges.

The covering tiles usually formed a curved or gabled roof.

The presence of cist graves is rarer; of those, the built ones are associated with the use of the cemetery in the Roman era. In many cases, but clearly less so with the passage of time, the custom of cremating the dead was observed. Cremation, as a funereal custom, probably survives from the time of the Homeric heroes. It was usually carried out in pits (plain or invested with bricks), while is a few cases the funereal urns have been found, where the dead’s cremains were later placed.

The artifacts that accompanied the dead in the afterlife were usually clay vessels, small idols, coins and jewelry. The placement of the artifacts was not always the same, and their quantity and value was not associated with the type of grave, but with the actual or desired social standing of the deceased.

Both imported and locally produced vessels are represented in all the periods of the cemetery; Corinthian vessels were prevalent in the archaic period, and Attic in the Classical period. Idols were usually placed on the chest and are mostly found in women’s and children’s burials. Golden wreaths, gold and silver coins have been found in several cases in the positions where they were placed, while “Charon’s obol” placed in the mouth of the dead is typical mostly of burials of the 4th century BCE. Children’s burials were almost always accompanied by bone astragaloi [dice], which were used as toys.