Europe were diff erent from region to region, with skeletal
burial common in some areas and cremation in others.
Ancient European mortuary practices varied dramati-
cally over the millennia aft er people began to regard burial as
a way of expressing a relationship between the dead and the
living. Archaeologists pay very close attention to burial rites
and graves, because they refl ect social organization, status,
and symbolism better than almost any other form of archae-
ological remains.
GREECE
BY WENDY E. CLOSTERMAN
Funerals were family aff airs in ancient Greece. When some-
one died, family members took the lead in conducting all
stages of the funeral; no religious offi cial seems to have been
involved. Th e funeral began with the prothesis, a ceremony
in which the corpse was laid out for mourning at home. Th e
women of the family washed the body, dressed it in special
funerary clothes, and placed it on a bed, around which the
family members gathered and mourned. Athenian vases por-
tray women and children closest to the head of the corpse at
this stage of the ritual, tearing at their hair, singing dirges,
and crying out in distress, while the men stand near the feet
raising their hands in more subdued gestures of mourning.
Th e next stage of the funeral, the ekphora, consisted of
a procession transporting the corpse from the house to the
gravesite. Here the men walked in front while the women fol-
lowed, continuing to mourn. Exactly what rituals took place
du r i ng bu r i a l i s u nc er t a i n. P roba bly s ome one made a l ibat ion,
a ritual pouring of wine or other liquid onto the ground. Ar-
chaeological digs near graves reveal long trenches or smaller
areas of burnt soil containing animal bones and pottery nor-
mally used for dining, suggesting that a ritual meal was of-
fered to the deceased. Whether the survivors participated in
this meal is unknown, but it is clear that aft er the funeral the
family gathered at a home for a communal meal.
Aristocratic families, especially in the Archaic Period
(600 –480 b.c.e.), oft en took advantage of the opportunities
funerals off ered for ostentatious display of wealth and posi-
tion. It was probably for this reason that various cities passed
laws curtailing some aspects of funerary display. For example,
at the beginning of the sixth century b.c.e. the Athenian law-
maker Solon limited the length of the prothesis to one day and
its location to within the house and required that the ekphora
take place before daybreak.
Th e Greeks practiced both burial and cremation. Burial
might be directly in the ground, in stone-lined graves, or in
wooden or stone coffi ns. With cremation, the ashes of the
deceased were placed in a vessel that was then buried in the
ground. Th e Greeks also deposited objects in graves during
burial. In addition to jewelry or other items worn by the de-
ceased during the funeral, grave off erings might include pot-
tery, mirrors, fi gurines, weapons, and toys. Th e amount and
expense of grave gift s varied in diff erent periods and regions.
Because the Greeks usually buried beside roads, especially
those leading in and out of a town, the gravestones were vis-
ible to many people. Th e form of gravestones and the imagery
on them diff ered with time and place. In Athens large vessels
painted with prothesis and ekphora scenes, 3 feet or more in
height, marked graves during the eighth century b.c.e. Later
Athenian funerary markers no longer focused primarily on
ritual but instead presented generalized and idealized images
of the deceased. In the Archaic Period tombstones took the
for m of stat ues or stelae (stone slabs or pi l la rs) ca r ved i n rel ief,
most commonly depicting near-life-size men in their prime,
sometimes as soldiers or athletes. Sculpted grave markers fell
out of use in Athens for much of the fi ft h century b.c.e. When
they returned to favor from about 430 to the late 300s b.c.e.,
they included depictions of women and of family gatherings.
Ritual obligations to the dead continued beyond the fu-
neral. Athenians visited the gravesite for third-day, ninth-day,
and 30th-day rites, the last of which offi cially marked the end
of the mourning period. Th ey continued to visit periodically
aft erward, including during the Genesia, an annual religiousStele of Aristion, a philosopher of Athens who died in 86 b.c.e. (Alison
Frantz Photographic Collection, American School of Classical Studies at
Athens)death and burial practices: Greece 319