Greece Adventure 2014: Athens Kerameikos




Kerameikos is a beautiful ancient cemetery that will take your breath away. You will find it just off Ermou street and the Keramikos Museum is also found here.

 
 It is not as commonly visited which is such a shame as it is truly a gem. It was named after keramos, son of Dionysios and Araidne, hero of the potters. The area was used continuously for burials from the twelfth century BC for a 1000 years.

As you walk through the site your jaw drops in complete awe at the many carved statues and mini temple like structures built in dedication for the departed.
The inner Kerameikos was the former potters' quarter with in the city. The outer Kerameikos covers the cemetery and the Demosion Sema, a public graveyard just outside the city walls where Pericles delivered his funeral oration back in 431 BC. The site of this cemetery is also where the Hiera Hodos (the Sacred Way - the road to Eleusis) began while the procession moved along for the Eleusinian Mysteries.. This quarter was located here because of an abundance of clay mud carried by the Eridanos River.



Over the years many archaeological excavations have taken place but the excavated area only covered a small portion of the ancient site. It was originally a marshland on the banks of the Eridanos river. It was used as a cemetery from as long as the 3rd millennium BC. then from about 1200BC it became an organised cemetery with numerous cistgraves and burial offerings from the this period have been discovered by the archaeologist. Houses were later contstucconstructedhigher dry ground to the south. During the Archaic period larger and more complex grave mounds and monuments were monuments along the south bank of the Eridanos and this then lined the Sacred Way. 
 
mud The building of the new city wall in 478 BC changed the original look of the area. After the constuction of the city wall, the Scared Way and a forking street known as the Street of the Tombs was once again lined with the many imposing sepulchral monuments belonging to the families of rich Athenians, dating back to before the late 4th century BC. The construction of lavish mausolea was banned by a decree in 317 BC after this decree only small columns or inscribed square marble blocks were permitted as grave stones. 
 

 
 


 

 

 

 



 

 



 NOTE: sadly I lost most of the footage I took at the cemetery so needed to add some google images to replace the lost photos.

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