Fallen Heroes Bones of Pericles’ soldiers come to New York for analysis. ° by Mank Rose It is for such a city, then, that these men nobly died in battle, thinking it right not to be deprived of her, just as each of their survivors should be willing to toil for her sake. (Funeral Oration of Pericles) 1 1997, construction of a theater at 35 Salaminos Street in downtown Athens was halted when four polyard Subsequent excavations, directed by Charalambia Stoupa of the Third Ephoreia (Department) of Classical Antiquities, yielded ashes and burned hhuman bones, along with pottery that was initially dated to ca. 430 n.c. A fifth pohandreion, Found under a building adjacent to the site, has not been excavated. The bones, which may represent as many as 250 individuals, are now in the forensic lab at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, fopologist Anagnosti Agelarakis has begun to analyze them, One question is simply, to whom do they belong The location of the tombs and the date of the pottery found in them provide tantalizing evidence about the iden tity of the remains. The road leading out of Athens’ main gate passed through the Academy, the olive grove i. On either side of the road was the Démosion Séma (People’s Grave), state bur ial ground for notable statesmen, generals, cultural figures, and Athenian citizen-soldiers who died in battle, In his, Guide 10 Greece, the first-cemtury A.D. traveler Pausanias described the Démosion Séma: sacred to Athena where Plato tau, Ouaside the city of Athens in the country districts and beside the rows there are sanctuaries of gods and of heroes and the tombs of men... There isa memorial to all the Athenians who dled in beatles at sea or om the laved except for those who fought at Marathon. Their tone isin that place, i honor of their courage, but the rest lie beside the road to the Academy tombstones stand on the graves to tell you each man’s name and district. Pausanias then lists more than 40 monuments he sav between the city wall and the Academy, ranging from the tombs of the tyrant slayers, Harmodlios and Aristogeiton (514 nc), 10 the great statesman Pericles (429), other leaders such as Conon (392) and Thrasyboulos (388), and ier cultural figures such as the fourth-century painter icias and the philosophers Zeno (263) and Chrysippos (207). The Academy Road, now beneath modern build ings, follows the route of Plataion and Salaminos streets, and during the recent excavations its retaining wall was discovered near the polyandrein. From theit location, it is probable that the polhandreia found beneath Salaminos, Street are state burials. The initial datin sponds to the beginning of the Peloponnesian Wat, a pro: tracted struggle from 431 to 404 n.c. between Athens and her allies and a coalition whose chief members were of the pottery, around 430 B.c., corre Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth. The war had several causes: the Athenian leader Pericles’ use of funds intended general defense of Greece against the Persians for the or the Parthenon and other public buildings in Athens: interven: tion by Athens on behalf of Kerkyra (Corfu) in a dispute with Corinth in 433: and Athens’ attack on the Corinthian colony of Potidaca in 432. Afier futile attempts at neg ating a settlement, Sparta and her allies declared war. Sparta invaded Athenian territory the following year, The ‘truest cause” of the war, wrote the ‘was Spart’s anxiety about the growin Despite the plague, which broke out in 430 and lasted sev eral years, Athens continued the struggle, fortune favoring orian Thucydides, power of Athens Archaeology + March/April 2000 tion ict ren poh I log abl not had ing oft acid indi ple from Id 1 pos anal exp 800 bon: this, thro typh N nat polywho ‘or of ithe ton uther and 2pos ail Hs, itis one side then another, until the disastrous Sicilian expedi tion of 415-413, in which an Athenian fleet and army besieging Syracuse were destroyed, and the Spartan naval victory at Aegospotami in 404. Athens was forced to sur: render. The initial of the pottery found in the polyandreia beneath Salaminos Street suggests the bones nning of this war. n late December 198, Anagnosti Jarakis, who has worked in since 1978. on anthropo: logical archaeology and has consider able experience with en notified by Greek authorities that he chosen to study the re mains. He went to Greece the follow ing summer to supervise the packing af the bones, which were wrapped in acid-free paper and placed in plastic bags according to excavation unit Cushioned with styrofoam, the bags were placed in a custom-made fire retardant packing crate that was flown to New York under his care Most of the bones came from three of the poljandreia. The remains are not mere ashes but recognizable pieces of arm and leg bones; ja, skull, vertebra and pelvis fragments; and whole ankle and wrist bones. The polyanuieia had been looted in antiquity, further frag menting the bones and displacing ee Soe Pear them from their original positions. As a a based on the be preliminary estimate average weight of bone for cremated individuals, Agelarakis. says the re- mains may represent 200 to 250 peo- ple. A quick look at the bones from ten excavation units, randomly. chosen from all four polyandreia, revealed that II diagnostic bones were from males That the bodies were cremated poses great difficulties for forensic he chalky, white apes nnce of the bones indicates they were exposed to temperatures of around 800 degrees Celsius. At stich temper atures bones warp and shrink up 10 one-thied, ¢ and the organic component of the bone, including DNA, is destroyed. If ther this, itis that any pathogens from the plague that swept through Athens typhoid—would have been destroyed as well Nonetheless, it should be possible to gather some infor- analysis. amel lay cers on teeth explode is an upside to Agelarakis suspects it was typhus oF mation from the bones about the people buried in the polyandreia: the number of individuals present, age www archaeology.org a and sex (from morphology and metrical analysis), health as reflected in pathologies; trauma; and growth checks, Known as Harris lines, on long bones), and diet (through trace-chemical analysis). Indications of occupational activ ities, such as bony modification of the calcaneus (heel ‘might refleet constant mounting and dismount ing of horses, will be of particular importance in identify ing the remains. Cross-cheeking the remains from each polyandreion will reveal any differences, or uniformity in such characteristics. Agelatakis, now on leave from his teaching duties, hopes to complete an initial examination by the end of this spring. vidence that might help pin: point the identity of the dead ‘will come not just from the bones, but also from the artifacts found with the bones, the Athenian historian Thucydides’ description of the war, and our knowledge of the state burial ground from Pausanias description of it along with archaeo- logical finds related to it According to the sites excavator, Charalambia Stoupa, the pottery from the polyandreia includes red figure vases and white-ground leky- thoi (oil vessels) with battle and Pei Sa funerary scenes. The pottery, she beets says, dates the complex to between 430 and 420 .¢, Stoupa notes that the pottery from the polvarareia is unburnt, though the bodies were ere mated. This might reflect, she says, the Athenian custom of cremating sol diers killed abroad and bringing theie ashes home for burial Thucydides is our chief source for this period. A young man at the ou set of the war, he survived the plague and eventually was made a general and served in the northem Aegean. In 424 he was exiled for not getting his ships to Amphipolis in time to save it from the besieging Spartans, He returned to Athens at the end of the war and died soon afterward. Thucydides’ account of the war provides details of battles on land and sea, often giving information about the numbers of soldiers involved, whether infantry or cav alry, their leaders, and casualties. Thucydides recorded, for example, the following the first year of the war: an unsuccessful Spartan attack on ‘Oenoe, a fortified border post; defeat of an Atheni detachment at Rheiti, near Eleusis: a minor cavalry engage 8ment at Phrygia between the Athenians, with ‘Thessalian support, and Boeotians; fighting by the Athenian Fleet Methone, Pheia, actions against the Chaleidians and Potidaeans in the north ht jus be possible wo match the Démosion Séma remains with casu alties from one or more of these battles Pausanias noted monuments in the Démosion Séma to Thessalian cavalrymen who died ith their Athenian allies (431); Athenian cavalrymen who perished with the 431); Melasandros, killed fighting in. Lycia (430); and Athenians killed fighting at Tanagra (424) and Amphipolis (422). It might be tempting to try to match the remains excavated in 1998 with one oF more of these mon Thronium, Alope, Sollium, and Astacus; and an expedition Pericles led against Megara. [tm Thessalians ‘ments, but there is good reason to be cautious. Soon after the Peloponnesian War the Academy Road was rebuilt in the form of a 121-foot-wide ceremonial avenue. After the Greck defeat by the Macedonians at Chaironea in 338, when Athens expected attack, grave monuments were used to rein- force the city walls. Furthermore, Hellenistic graves were later built among the state monuments. Finally, the area was doubtless altered more when first Philip V of Macedon, in 200 nc, and then the Roman general Sulla, in 86 n. antacked Athens at the westem (Dipylon) gate. ‘Thus the Damosion Séma of Pericles day had been considerably trans formed by the time Pausanias saw it inthe Fist century A. We have some additional knowledge of Démosion Séma monuments from excavations and chance finds. Eatly state tombs dating to 479 n.c have been found flanking the gate and oriented parallel to the wall rather than the Academy Road. For whom the tombs were built is unknown, but by the end of the Peloponnesian War they were covered over. A neatby polyas dreion on the south side of the Academy Road has been excavated, An inscription on a comice block identifies it as the burial place of members of the Spartan garrison killed in 403 n.c. After thei vitory the Spartans helped to establish an ol The so: the time the city wall was built garchical government in Athens, called “Thirty months in early 403, until democratic force were strong enough to mount a series of attacks that led to full-scale civil war Spartan troops fought on the oligarchical side, but the opposition won and democracy ‘was restored. The tomb, a 34-foot-long ash: lar masoney structure divided into three chambers, held the remains of 13 men. Just west of the Spartans’ tomb were other buri- als of warriors, unidentified, that shared a common facade on the Academy Road Also on the south side of the Academy Road is an elaborate mid/-fourth-century tomb, 1 494foa-long rectangular enclosure, built of ashlar masonry’ and with guardian dog sul tures on the comers, around a circular stu ture that was topped of by a si-foot high mar ble vase. It has been called the tomb of Athens to Ne CChabrias, an At who died in 357 nc rian general bur only because Pausanias: mentions that Chabrias tomb was along the Academy Road. Tre date is appropriate, but there is no proof of the identification, What Pausanias ¢ does. not when checked against archaeolog eal mention, evidence underscores the need for caution in using his information in idemifying the polyardrein Fragments of the ments to these killed at and an Corinth and Koroneia in 394/93 n.c scription N relating to the dead in fighting at the Hellespont have been Ise found, and both are noted by Pausanias. On the other diets hand, an inscription for Athenians killed at Potidaea (per peris haps in 432 oF during the siege of 430/29) has been found, rated but Pausanias lists no such monument. He does not men: speet tion the early state graves flanking the gate or the polyan sent dreion of the Spartans from 403 t.c.,.nor does he mention the 1 monument for those killed at Samos in 440/39, tho Spea we know from the biographer Plutarch (ca. a.0. 50-1 fap that Pericles gave their funeral oration 2 Teng ent thens honored its war dead with a public procession and funeral and an annual celebration, The state hk funeral for those who died in the war's first year is He,t described by Thucydides: their is thi In this winter, following their iraditional custom, the homo Athenians held burial rites at public expense for th cathe die in this war, in the following man They lay out the bones of the beforehand, after sett person brings whatever offer his own relatives. When the process place, wugons carry eypress coffins, one for she wishes to ithin are the bones of e One empty bie each tribe, and man, according to tribe fully decorated, is brought forthe mish fut who were not found and recovered. A from at the grave as mourners, The them in Wed ihe the public om, lich sf the scat bea zy tiful suburb of the city and in which they $ aways bury those killed in war... After mus cover them with earth, a man chosen b just PAE This thes bral practice, and throughout | Archaeology + March/Ans md 2000 |Nobody is claiming that these are the bones of Pericles, It seems possible, however, that they belong to citizen-sol itunder his orders, perhaps even those whe perished in the first year of the war and were commemo: oration, one of the greatest speeches ofall time. Thucydides, who was probably pre he speech and is believed to have captured the spirit of Pericles’ message if not the exact words sent, record Speaking from a high platform so that as many could hear s possible, Pericles described the greatness of Athens at length, then shifted to the greatness of those who had fall to preserve the city his for such a city, then, a these men nobly died in bat tle, thinking itr ht not to be deprived of her, ruld be willing to toil and those of mew li st as each of their survivors sh For it thems, that har rl in the city, s} would it be mani is their virtues, hhonor to the quatities 1 hav nd for fow other Hi them, that reputation is equal to the deeds [Gre st, as it is for None of referring further enjoy men turned cowurd from it of tat he might wealth, nor did any, from the poor man’s hope escape poverty and gro e the danger. Thinking defeat of the enemy more desirable than prosperity, just as they considered this the fairest of risks, they were willing to vanguish hint a for th in thi rich, contrive a way to posty hat risk, and lon rest, le future fronted them mon, anid recog he uncertainty of prosperin o rely on their om izing that it meant resistin, dying rather than surviving by submission, they fled disgrace in word but stood up to the deed with their lives ane the fortune of the briefest departed critical moment, at the height lary rather than fe So fared these m of their city; you survivors ‘must pray to meet th hing lesser cost but resolve to do s just as unfli glorify Periclean Athens for the great monu \ \ / ments of the Acropolis and as the birthplace of democracy, but to Pausanias the leaders on both Peloy and almost the wreekers of Greece’ sides. during thi innesian War were “the and he excludes them Coe eec onc Nt Prony of the city aes Figures, and eee cement Aristageiton and Harmodios, ied to assassinate the Pee oe Cece a Thucydides Scione hall adult males and from his list of the greatest Greek patriots recorded atrocities on both sides: after capturin and Melos, the Athenians put to de sold the rest of the population into slavery; the Spartans slaughtered 3,000 Athenians captured akis shares Pausanias’ view, but also acknowledg the noble qualities Pericles espoused. “This was the war ever fought among Greeks,” he says, the human condition that we ded with so many aspects of I ree ‘ueled by differences in ideals and in the hunger even today: the for power and resources; the maliciousness of warfare an the sullering and loss of countless lives resulting not only from armed conflict, but also Irom disease; and the des: perate_strategi and saly 's for survival and the hope for peace Today, forensic anthropology is ever more the final act t conflict, We in the United States try to identify our dead and account for each and every one of them from recent and past wars, The ancient Athenians would appreciate this attitude unlike other classical Greek states, Athens brought home her dead. They would al understand Anagnosti Agelarakis' efforts to identify some of those killed atthe outset of the Peloponnesian War. For ty, sees his work on the bones as a sacred trust. “Discovery remains of the Athenian warriors w ting for the ideals, values, and tradi tions of their city during the first years of the Pelopon. offered their lives nesian War presents a time capsule of singular impor tance,” he says. “One eannot evade feelings of tremendo: responsibility to both past and future generations. This is rendezvous with history.” ml Mank Rost is M Editor of Aucuazovocy For more information about the remains of Pericles’ soldiers see ARcHAEoLoGy’s website at www.archacology. org Look for our interactive investigation with Adelphi Uni- versity’s Anagnostis Agelarakis as he studies the bones this spring,