Archaic necropolis found in Gela

An Archaic-era necropolis in use during the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. has been discovered in Gela, Sicily. So far six tombs have been found: two belonging to adults, two to children and two undetermined.

Gela was a Greek colony founded in 688 B.C. on the southwestern coast of Sicily. The city was sacked by Carthaginian general Himilko in 405 B.C., and remains from before that event are rare, giving this small necropolis an oversized archaeological significance.

The modern city was founded next to the ruins of the ancient one in the 13th century, but the historic center overlaps the ancient city and numerous archaeological remains, have been found there. The site was therefore excavated before redevelopment of the urban space into a green area to recover any archaeological materials that might be there.

Tomb 1 contained no human remains, only two lekythoi (narrow-necked perfumed oil jugs) dating to between 500 and 475 B.C. The body was removed shortly after burial, but the grave goods were left behind, so looting was not the motive. Archaeologists think the remains may have been moved in response to a natural disaster like a sudden clay flow that sealed the area and compelled the bereaved to transfer the bodies as quickly as possible, leaving the grave goods behind.

One of the notable graves was topped by a kalypter hegemon, an elongated curved terracotta roof tile that covered the joints of the flat tiles or the roof ridge to prevent rain penetration. The one in the burial ground was likely recycled from a nearby temple, its sacred character redeployed in a funerary context.

This type of reuse of architectural materials in funerary contexts is not uncommon in the practices of the Greek world, but the specific presence of a kalypter at a peripheral site such as Gela opens new questions about the object’s original provenance and destination. […]

At the moment it has not yet been possible to establish with certainty whether the burials belonged to members of the same family unit, but the hypothesis is under consideration by archaeologists and could be confirmed through stratigraphic analysis of the area and anthropological study of the bone remains, where preserved. In this sense, the overall context of the find, characterized by close graves arranged in a relatively contained space, suggests an organized use of the funerary space, consistent with common practices in the Greek colonial centers of Sicily in the Archaic period. In addition to the tombs, the archaeological investigation also uncovered an artificially carved soft rock. Inside were found ceramic fragments traceable to a crater and some amphorae, objects related to the storage and consumption of liquids, probably wine or oil. The function of the rock remains uncertain at the moment: it could be an ancient disused quarry reused as a deposit, or it could be a ritual context associated with burials. The materials found within it are now being examined by experts for a more precise typological and chronological classification.

* This article was originally published here