Shifting Identities

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The analysis of funerary data

Graves D16, D17, wall BD, Lerna (Courtesy C. Zerner)

The archaeological analysis of the funerary data from the large MH cemeteries (Lerna, Asine, Argos) is carried out by Eleni Milka, PhD candidate at the Groningen Institute of Archaeology. She has presented aspects of her research in conferences in Groningen, Leiden, Sheffield (TAG), Montreal (AIA) and at the MESOHELLADIKA conference. She will present the results from her comparative analysis of Lerna, Asine and Argos during the One-Day Conference on 19 December 2007.


The analysis is proceeding in two stages. The first stage involves a statistical and contextual analysis of the archaeological data, and the second the integration of anthropological, biomolecular and archaeological information.

The aims of the analysis are:

• to detect and interpret variation between age, sex, status and burial / kin groups. The main question here is whether the variation in the type, construction and size of graves as well as in the funerary offerings accompanying the dead represent real differences among the living community.
• to reconstruct and explain processes of social, political and cultural change which MH communities underwent during the period. The MH period is characterized by social regression, poverty and material austerity as well as cultural introvertedness. The end of the period, however (MHIII-LHI), sees important changes, especially in the mortuary sphere: the introduction of more labour intensive tombs, the adoption of more complex burial ritual, and a striking increase in the wealth deposited with the dead. The ultimate goal of this analysis is to understand the causes which led to these changes.
• to understand the funerary ideology of MH people. The main question here is whether mortuary practices were used to express social differentiation and to formulate a specific (regional, local) cultural idiom.

Set of pots (L78-80) from grave D5, Lerna (Photo E. Milka)

These aims are achieved with a detailed analysis of all aspects of the mortuary data: the location, size and type of graves and their association with the space of the living; the quality, quantity and type of funerary offerings; the traces of ritual. The emphasis is placed on the presence / absence of specific features as well as their correlation or mutual exclusion. Special attention is given to the relation between houses, habitation floors and graves in order to detect 'households' and possible kin groups. The offerings are examined in terms of presence / absence, quantity, and diversity in order to understand their use in social strategies. An attempt is also made to understand their meaning and significance (both in the mortuary ritual and in everyday life) by studying their position inside the grave, their preservation and patterns of breakage, as well as the associations between the various offerings.

At a second stage, the archaeological data will be integrated with the results of the bioarchaeological analyses. The integration of the archaeological information concerning treatment at death and the anthropological information about each individual skeleton will help us interpret variation across the MH communities. In addition, the aDNA results will be used to test our working hypothesis: that the spatially more or less demarcated burial groups attested in most MH cemeteries represent kinship groups.

Group of graves (1, 9, 10) Lerna (Courtesy C. Zerner)

The analysis has begun with the large cemeteries at Lerna, Argos (Aspis, Argos "tumuli") and Asine (Kastraki, Barbouna, East Cemetery). This comparative analysis allow us to observe differences between intramural and extramural cemeteries, and between flat cemeteries and tumuli. The analysis also allow us to detect variation between the main sites of the region, especially during the crucial MHIII-LHI period when rich tombs, imports, prestige items and figurative art make their appearance in the mortuary record. At the second stage of the investigation, the data from other important, but less well documented sites, such as Mycenae and Tiryns, will be added. At the last stage, the evidence from smaller sites, e.g. Prosymna, will be included. The analysis of the data from Mycenae and Prosymna is carried out by Sofia Voutsaki.

Mortuary differentiation is therefore used as a tool to reconstruct the social structure, political organisation and cultural orientation of the communities of the Middle Helladic Argolid, and to understand the causes of their transformation.