Agora Deposit: F 16:4
Title:   Urn Cremation
Supervisor:   Dorothy Burr Thompson
Category:   Burial
Description:   Grave 2. Urn cremation (trench-and-hole). In some records as XXIII.
Variously labeled as grid 7/Δ, 7/Γ and 7/Γ-Δ.
Rectangular pyre trench cut through earth into bedrock, with only the lowest 0.04m surviving. The exact orientation of the trench has not noted in the field, but it appears to have been roughly oriented east to west (or east-southeast to west-northwest). The pyre trench measured about 1.25m long and was 0.52 m wide. The trench floor comprised what appeared to be scorched earth; it contained a few sherds, described by the excavator as being of "small bowls".
The urn-hole was located at the east end of the pyre trench; its diameter and depth were not recorded, but judging from the cover stones the pit probably measured just under 0.50m in diameter and was about 0.35m deep. In it, a neck-handled amphora , which served as cinerary urn, was placed in an upright position; it contained the cremated remains of an individual described as an adolescent aged 10-14 years at death. Analysis of the human remains showed that the cinerary urn contained a small child, no more than two years old.
See also P 34860-P 34866 catalogued as "sherds overlying tombs
F 16:3 & F 16:4".
Notes:   A note by J. Papadopoulos (nbp. 293) says small pieces of charred wood found with the burned material of this grave are stored with the human remains of AA 283.
Negs. ΣΤ 86, 89, 91, 94, 95, 2-248, 2-249
Bibliography:   Hesperia 73 (2004), p. 26, n. 71.
    Hesperia 2 (1933), pp. 468-470 (with F 16:3).
    Agora XXXVI, Tomb 9, pp. 67-69, 529-530, figs. 2.14, 2.21, 2.22, 3.15, 3.16, pl. V.
Chronology:   Transitional Late Protogeometric/Early Geometric I
Date:   15-16 March 1932
Section:   ΣΤ
Grid:   ΣΤ:7/Γ
References:   Publication: Agora XXXVI
Publication: Hesperia 2 (1933)
Publication: Hesperia 73 (2004)
Images (8)
Object: P 364