Study: Shackled men in ancient Greek burial site were locals, not foreigners
Sunbeams illuminate columns in an ancient Greek tomb. Photo courtesy of iStock/Getty Images
Note: The following story includes discussion and imagery of human remains.
Located just south of Athens in the historical region of Attica sits one of the largest ancient cemeteries ever found in Greece — the Phaleron burial ground.
In 2016, three mass graves were discovered at the site and given the name the Esplanada. Overall, the Esplanada contains 79 adult males, buried in three rows, most of them in metal shackles.
While the reason behind the unusual burial remains unknown, researchers from Arizona State University’s School of Human Evolution and Social Change have been able to glean further insight into the backgrounds of the individuals buried at the Esplanada, piecing together an important period of history and getting one step closer to bringing their stories to life.
A recently published study details how the team of researchers investigated the residential history of 66 individuals buried at the Esplanada and 97 individuals from the Phaleron burial ground. Their findings show that the individuals buried at the Esplanada were largely local to the Attica region — as were the other individuals buried at Phaleron — not foreigners, as previous research has debated.
“We were surprised at how few nonlocals there were,” said Julianne Stamer, postdoctoral research scholar in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and lead author of the study. “The people of Phaleron lived during a time in Athens when there was increasing connections — both the movement of people and goods — throughout the Greek world. And Phaleron itself was the port of ancient Athens before the Persian War.”
While a majority of previous work on the Esplanada spotlights the differences between the individuals buried in the mass graves from those buried in more normative graves at Phaleron, these findings highlight the similarities between the two groups, in that they were likely part of the same community.
“Even though those buried in the Esplanada were treated harshly at the time of their death, it did not appear to be against foreign invaders. Instead, anger was directed at those who also were from the same place,” Stamer said.
Researchers utilized radiogenic strontium analysis, a tool that has historically been used to piece together residential histories in the archaeological record, to provide insight into the individuals’ backgrounds. Specifically, researchers analyzed the individuals’ tooth enamel in order to determine their place of residence.
“Human tooth enamel does not remodel during life. It stays chemically the same as it was during early childhood. It is essentially a record of your early life,” Stamer said. “In this case, it records your residence, geologically speaking, in early childhood. Calcium, the building blocks of our teeth and bones, is sometimes replaced by strontium — a very normal, and small, mistake by the body. This strontium is isotopically similar to the ground on which we live and is captured and recorded in our teeth.”
Through radiogenic strontium analysis, researchers were able to compare records of the local geology with those of individuals' tooth enamel. If the tooth enamel did not match local geology, that suggested that the individual likely migrated to the area sometime after their childhood. That was not the case for the 66 individuals buried at the Esplanada or the 97 individuals from the Phaleron burial ground, suggesting they were locals.
In addition to the context gained around the social violence directed toward the individuals buried at the Esplanada, these findings add bioarchaeological support to the idea that migration into Attica may have been limited during the archaic period in Greece.
Going forward, the research team plans to delve further into the identities of the individuals buried at Phaleron. Their work demonstrates the ability of bioarchaeological research to help us better understand our shared human history.
“While this research rules out the Esplanada (remains) as being foreigners, it does not tell us exactly who these people were or why they were buried in such a manner. The work also tells us more about who the rest of the people of Phaleron were and what their connection was to the region of Attica. Our team, the Phaleron Bioarchaeological Project, is using many other bioarchaeological techniques to investigate who the people of Phaleron were in life,” Stamer said.
The study, “Investigating the residential history of the Esplanada mass graves at Phaleron, Greece,” was recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Kelly Knudson, associate dean of faculty and professor in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Jane Buikstra, Regents Professor in The College, also served as co-authors of the study.
This research was supported by specialized equipment and staff members Gwyneth Gordon, Trevor Martin and Tyler Goepfert at ASU's Core Research Facilities METAL Core.
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