I never promised you a rose garden
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 7:21 pm
In 1911 a large 7th BC cemetery was found in Palaio (Old) Phaliron. In the summer of 1915 with the resuming of the excavations the following tomb
http://s1246.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... s%20garden
was discovered (but, itself, not dated back to the 7th BC). 17 or 18 skeletons were found because there were missing bones from one and other bones that did not match with any. As one could easily realize, this finding is critical but not one that one would find often in published material. Many fantasize classical ancient Greece as something near perfection. The fact of matters is that Athens was a living and thriving society and all this is a testament of how their law enforcement systems operated.
The skeletons were attached to a plank with iron clamps (it shows in a photo) around their wrists, ankles, and the neck. Traces of the woodwork are still on the iron clamps. There weren't any dedicative coins or vases and the tomb is dated back to either the 5th or the 4th BC depending on the archaeologist (back then). It is evident that this is a testament of the practice of the death penalty via αποτυμπανισμός. Three were all the kinds of death penalty's in acnient Athens: 1) Drop from a cliff 2) The Coneion (Socrates) and 3) The αποτυμπανισμος which by the way was considered to be the harshest of the 3.
Litteral testaments on the matter we can find on Aristophanes "Thesmophoriazouse" (verses 930-1165), Plato "Politeia" Z, 514 and Plutarch "Perikles" when he narrates of how Perikles cut the heads of the Samian generals who had suffered the αποτυμπανισμος.
In the case in question, since one body was pierced by an arrow and the other have suffered considerable injury, we can hypothesize that they were hanged while already dead. The first digger suggests that they may have been Laurion slaves or pirates and comes to the conclusion (in the end) that the remains were in fact Atheninan citizens who were sentenced on charges of great desecration after them cutting the Ermes (Sicilian campaign- Alkibiades)
From Α.Δ Volume 2 , 1916 Σ. Πελεκίδης and ΒΑΕ 1923 Α. Κεραμόπουλος
Funny note: The tomb is actually in the area where my office's building currently stands!
http://s1246.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... s%20garden
was discovered (but, itself, not dated back to the 7th BC). 17 or 18 skeletons were found because there were missing bones from one and other bones that did not match with any. As one could easily realize, this finding is critical but not one that one would find often in published material. Many fantasize classical ancient Greece as something near perfection. The fact of matters is that Athens was a living and thriving society and all this is a testament of how their law enforcement systems operated.
The skeletons were attached to a plank with iron clamps (it shows in a photo) around their wrists, ankles, and the neck. Traces of the woodwork are still on the iron clamps. There weren't any dedicative coins or vases and the tomb is dated back to either the 5th or the 4th BC depending on the archaeologist (back then). It is evident that this is a testament of the practice of the death penalty via αποτυμπανισμός. Three were all the kinds of death penalty's in acnient Athens: 1) Drop from a cliff 2) The Coneion (Socrates) and 3) The αποτυμπανισμος which by the way was considered to be the harshest of the 3.
Litteral testaments on the matter we can find on Aristophanes "Thesmophoriazouse" (verses 930-1165), Plato "Politeia" Z, 514 and Plutarch "Perikles" when he narrates of how Perikles cut the heads of the Samian generals who had suffered the αποτυμπανισμος.
In the case in question, since one body was pierced by an arrow and the other have suffered considerable injury, we can hypothesize that they were hanged while already dead. The first digger suggests that they may have been Laurion slaves or pirates and comes to the conclusion (in the end) that the remains were in fact Atheninan citizens who were sentenced on charges of great desecration after them cutting the Ermes (Sicilian campaign- Alkibiades)
From Α.Δ Volume 2 , 1916 Σ. Πελεκίδης and ΒΑΕ 1923 Α. Κεραμόπουλος
Funny note: The tomb is actually in the area where my office's building currently stands!