revised April 11, 2001

Table of Contents
Project Proposal
Abstract
Project Description
Prospects and Purpose
Summary of Activities
Activities
Publication
Personnel
Bibliography

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Project Proposal:

Pilot Study of the Chamber Tomb Cemetery at Ancient Nemea, Greece
Principal Investigators:  Prof. James Wright, Ms. Evangelia Pappi, Dr. Sevasti Triantaphyllou, Dr. Mary Dabney.
Summary Description:  A pilot study beginning in May 2002 to develop a full scale project for the excavation of a threatened Late Bronze Age chamber tomb cemetery at Ancient Nemea, Greece.  Pilot to include geophysical prospecting, mapping, preliminary excavation, and development of strategies and methods.

This is a proposal for a pilot study scheduled for May through July 2002 to develop a full scale project for the excavation of a threatened Late Bronze Age chamber tomb cemetery at Ancient Nemea, Greece.  The pilot will include geophysical prospecting, mapping, preliminary excavation, and development of strategies and methods.  The project will be a collaboration (synergasia) with the Fourth Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities; Miss Evangelia Pappi will be the principal investigator from the Ephoreia.

Although many ancient cemeteries have been excavated in the Aegean, few burial assemblages have received physical anthropological study, e.g. Lerna, the Agora,  Kerameikos.  Only recently have ancient cemeteries begun to receive the kind of in situ recording and analysis and subsequent laboratory study that are necessary to truly begin to understand the dynamics of ancient demography, health, diet and social relations (see for example some of the burials recovered in the recent Metro excavations in Athens, in recent excavations at ancient Pydna, Amphipolis, Thassos, Abdera, Makrigiallos and Koilada in Macedonia).  There has yet to be a proper excavation and analysis of the burials in an undisturbed chamber tomb cemetery of the Late Bronze Age of Greece.  This project presents an opportunity to conduct such a study and, because of the previous study of the adjacent settlement and surrounding region by the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project (1981-1990), a comprehensive presentation of the life the Mycenaean community in the Nemea Valley will be the result.   These results will be of importance also for our specific understanding of Mycenae and its environs and will add to our general archaeological understanding of the Peloponnesos in the Late Bronze Age.
 

In July 2001 Wright returned to Greece to work in the archaeological museum at Ancient Nemea in order to check finds that are included in his manuscript reporting on excavations of the Mycenaean settlement in Ancient Nemea conducted between 1926-27 and 1981-86.  He prepared the manuscript during a sabbatical in 2000-01 and it will be submitted to the Publication Committee of the American School of Classical Studies for consideration for publication.  The full publication is a monograph with Dr. Mary K. Dabney reporting on the Middle and Late Helladic remains from the hill of Tsoungiza..
While at Ancient Nemea Wright was shown a robbed chamber tomb by residents of the village.  It is located just west of the village (Figs. 1 and 2) among cypresses and white pines on the west side of a steep ravine.  The tomb (Fig. 3) is a medium-sized chamber tomb cut into the soft marl hardpan of the hillside.  Apparently the chamber had collapsed and the robbers dug down into it but did not clear it out, since there appears to be about a meter of undisturbed deposit.  Sherds and human bone fragments littered the site (Figs. 4 and 5) and the sherds are from small jars which probably held unguents for the dead.  The decoration on them places them in the phase Late Helladic IIIB1, i.e. the early 13th c. B.C.E.  Also he found a fragment of a bronze blade, perhaps from a knife or razor.
He walked over the area systematically and determined that there is an extensive chamber tomb cemetery, perhaps with between ten and fifteen undisturbed tombs.   Wright then contacted the local acting superintendent of antiquities, Dr. Eleni Palaiologou, who came and inspected the site.  They discussed how to deal with the problems facing them: safeguarding the site, excavating the robbed tomb, and excavating the cemetery.   Dr. Palaiologou stated that the Archaeological Service would undertake measures immediately to preserve the robbed tomb and to have the site guarded.   She suggested that Wright apply for permission to begin excavations in the summer of 2002.
Wright then contacted Professor Day, who suggested that he submit an application to the Excavation and Surveys Committee for a permit for a pilot study for the summer of 2002 and for a permit the full scale excavation of the cemetery to begin in 2003.

The tombs in this cemetery are threatened and it is imperative that work begin now to undertake proper excavation of them.   Our intention is to use the pilot season planned for 2002 to develop a project that insures that the excavation of these tombs takes advantage of every opportunity to recover as much as possible about the lives of the persons interred within the tombs.  Since we have carefully excavated the settlement on Tsoungiza and equally carefully surveyed the region (Wright 1982, 1990; Wright et al. 1987, 1990), we have an enormous amount of information about how the people lived, what they lived in, what they grew and ate, land use throughout the valley, and their interactions outside the valley.  But we do not know how wealthy they were in terms of imported craft items, such as are normally found in tombs, and of course we know nothing of their health, their genetic make-up, and their social habits as recoverable from mortuary remains. The discovery of this chamber tomb cemetery offers an exceptional opportunity to answer these questions.

Normally chamber tombs have multiple burials representing several generations of the burying group.  The excavation of the entire cemetery of a settlement offers the prospect of the recognition of family and kin groups.  In the excavation of each tomb the project will utilize a variety of resources for isolating individual burials, for distinguishing multiple burials and remnants of earlier ones swept aside, and for distinguishing the stratigraphic episodes of other activities that took place within the tomb.  Some of these episodes will be natural, such as the collapse of parts of the chamber and water seepage through the tomb, and we will distinguish these from human activities.  This work will require the attention of  the geoarchaeologist, the forensic anthropologists, and the excavators.

Because of our interest in the population of the tombs a particular focus will be on accurate estimation of the minimum number of individuals (MNI) present in the bone assemblages.  This is not merely a matter of counting skulls.  The commingling and disturbance of skeletons  after deposition  by succeeding burials and mortuary practices sufficiently disturbs the remains that for estimation of MNI, following of standard anatomical units for disarticulated assemblages, one must consider only skeletal elements from one side (Triantaphyllou 1999; Papadatos 1999).

Study of the skeletal material will develop demographic profiles through macroscopic examination and through analyses, including DNA sampling. These are age, sex, mortality and survivorship.  Admittedly there are limitations to palaeodemography, but, with the exception of such work as that of Iezzi on the Locris collection and at Elateia in Central Greece (Iezzi 2000), no one working in Greece on chamber tomb cemeteries has yet taken advantage of the opportunity to study intact burial groups that comprise successive burials.  We wish to test fundamentally important hypotheses about the burying group or groups, such as whether they are families and/or kin groups, whether non-kin were included in such groups, whether there was exclusion by age-grade, sex, or status.  Most research on this problem has been based on a combination of speculations about the sex and age of the burials and the nature of the grave goods, albeit in some instances highly sophisticated speculation (e.g. Kilian-Dirlmeier 1986; Graziadio 1991).  We intend to establish a firm basis for further research on this fundamental issue.  This will be achieved through macroscopic examination of non-metric traits and statistical analysis of them combined with a rigorous, systematic in situ sampling of the bone material for DNA analysis.
 Both macroscopic and microscopic investigations of human skeletal remains provide significant information about health, diet and oral status.   Such pathologies as degenerative joint disease, trauma, vertebral defects, non-specific infections, metabolic disease (usually represented in prehistoric populations by anemia) and dental diseases (caries, calculus, antemortem tooth loss, periodonitis, periapical abscesses) are discoverable.  This research will focus on two broad categories: (1) bone lesions associated with mechanical load and occupational activities repeatedly exercised on the skeleto-muscular system, and (2) pathological conditions associated with the physiological stress and episodes of stress which affected the individual during lifetime. Additionally we can record the scoring of the insertion areas of the muscles on the long bones, which aids in the identification of general patterns of physical activities practiced by individuals.  Another important aspect relating to diet and health is the recognition of stature.  Measurements of the postcranial skeleton may contribute to the estimation of stature depending on bone completeness and also provide useful growth patterns to compare with estimated age categories.  Stature is often associated with status since it is related to diet and health.
Our interest is not merely in the recognition of these features on individuals but especially to recognize patterns of these pathologies and to associate or compare them among different burying groups, i.e. among different chamber tombs, as well as by age-grade, sex and status.  These will be critical analyses for recognizing differentiation among the population and their accuracy will be amplified by our studies of the association of grave goods and other mortuary practices within individuals and groups.  Furthermore it may prove possible in comparison with the evidence from the settlement at Tsoungiza to associate activities and differentiation recognized in the burial assemblages with some of those recorded in the living assemblages, notably the ground stone tools and also in activity areas and refuse deposits.  We assume that we will find evidence of burial over several generations and in so far as that evidence corresponds to the life of the community on Tsoungiza we will be able to inspect for changes in the lifestyles of the inhabitants over time.  For example the changing evidence of reliance on certain kinds of imported items in the settlement from its inception in late MH III to its abandonment at the very end of LH IIIB (Dabney 1999) will be compared to the grave goods in the tombs and again, the association of the grave goods with individual burials and the analyses of the skeletal remains will provide powerful documentation of these changes in the social relations and well being of the inhabitants.

Dietary patterns are both the result of natural resources and economic and social practices.  Diet varies according to subgroups of a population divided by status, sex and age. .  Certain types of dental disease have been associated with certain food categories, such as dental decay with a high consumption of carbohydrates. Analysis of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon will be useful to complete our reconstruction of diet.  The latter has the potential to determine the contribution of certain isotopically distinctive nutrients in the diet.  In addition to representing certain nutrients of past peoples diet, carbon isotope analysis has been used to distinguish marine from terrestrial diets.  The macroscopic investigation of dental pathologies and stable isotope analysis address different aspects of diet.  In particular, macroscopic investigation indirectly reveals particular types of dietary intake such as the consumption of meat and carbohydrates and stable isotopic analysis reflects consumption profiles after they have been metabolized.  Neither approach identifies the total range of foods nor the proportions in which they were consumed by past populations.  Thus, it is interesting for example that stable isotope analysis conducted recently in coastal sites of Northern Greece (see chapter 7 of diet in Triantaphyllou 1999) and the Neolithic Alepotrypa respectively (Papathanasiou 1999) have shown that contrary to the general view that coastal populations used to consume a marine-based diet, no signal of marine consumption has been indicated.  We have systematically collected animal bone material from the settlement of Tsoungiza and will be able to investigate to what extent animals were sharing categories of food similar to those consumed by humans,  for example through consumption of refuse

The opportunities afforded by this project are unique in the history of the study of the Greek Bronze Age and the contributions we can make will be of signal importance for Greek archaeology and for the prehistoric archaeology of the Mediterranean area.  There are too few cemeteries that have been excavated and are currently being studied that have taken advantage of the full spectrum of physical anthropological and modern archaeological techniques and methods of recovery and analysis.
Methodological Considerations: Excavation of burial assemblages requires patience, cooperation, planning, and back up support.  We think a pilot season is necessary to learn the full scope of the larger project, to develop and practice all procedures, to learn to work with the facilities at hand, and to get to know one another in order to function best as a team.

As with any scientific excavation the work has to be systematic and procedural. All excavation and retrieval will be oriented by a grid system tied into the Universal Mercator coordinates.  Everything found will be located according to gird coordinates and piece plotted.   Overlay grids using a 1 x 1 m. frame with 0.1 x 0.1 m. guidelines will be used in excavation and retrieval, for photography and drawing.  We will photograph the process of excavation, to document the sequence of stratigraphy and to record the location and disposition of finds relative to each other.  For this we will employ digital and 35 mm. cameras.  Drawings will be made of in situ finds, both through manipulation of digital images and by hand. We will use AutoCad™ for recording and drawing the state plans.  These data will then be entered into the GIS software.

For the skeletal material special considerations come into play for recording, namely the depth of the cranial and postcranial skeleton, the contextual location within the architecture of the chamber tomb, orientation of the skeleton, facing of the skull, accurate position of the skeleton (contracted, supine, extended or other) and placement of upper and lower extremities, as well as the placement of the associated artifacts.

Because the mortuary rituals were performed outside and inside the chamber tombs we will study the macro- and micro-environmental contexts.  Of particular importance will be isolation and analysis of soils by the excavators in conjunction with a geoarchaeologist.  We will look for evidence of successive burial sequences, deposition of organic materials through such rituals as burning offerings, slaughtering animals, deposition of foodstuffs and floral and faunal items.  This will require a systematic program of water sieving..  Sampling in situ will include soil and bone material for further analyses.  Bone samples will be collected in situ with sterile gloves and we will initially focus on trabecular bone (vertebrae, ribs etc.) for DNA extraction and a small quantity of a long bone diaphysis,  which will  provide sufficient collagen for stable isotope analysis. Collected samples will be stored in  stable and acid-free packing materials including bags, specimen bottles, and plastic boxes.

We anticipate problems with chamber roof collapse and will experiment with constructing a shield to prevent ceiling debris and water from affecting the excavation.   We also expect that frequently much or all of the floor of the chamber tomb to be fully covered by bone, artifacts, and organic and inorganic residues.  This will require the construction of  platforms from which excavators, specialists, and workmen will work.  We will probably have to use a generator to provide sufficient light to the interior for careful observation.

 Analysis will begin with discovery and continue through external laboratory studies. First will be the in situ preliminary analysis while the skeletal material is being cleaned or retrieved.  It is possible to make some first observations with regard to age (adult/subadult), sex, postcranial measurements and very obvious pathological conditions which affect the bone such as degenerative changes, trauma, dental disease.  Next will be work in the Nemea Museum where among other activities the bone material will be cleaned and taped. This activity will ready the material for initial analysis and for transportation of specimens of particular interest, for example for X-ray examination, to the Wiener Laboratory of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The Nemea Archaeological Museum has a conservation laboratory and a photographic studio with a darkroom.  Thus most of the skeletal material and virtually all of the artifacts will be able to be documented, conserved and stored in this museum. The preliminary analysis will include skeletal inventory, sexing, aging, palaeopathology.

 The particulars of additional analytical methods to be applied will be determined after the preliminary osteological analysis.  Such analyses may include dental histology for refining estimates of adult age-at-death, investigation of Sr/Ca ratios to determine weaning ages, cross-sectional geometry of limb long bones to associate with level and type of activity, and radiocarbon dating.
 

The goal of the pilot project will be to determine the number of tombs in the area of the cemetery and to test procedures for excavating them in order to develop a multistage plan for full scale excavation; for removal, conservation,  and study of the contents; for a program of publication and dissemination of reports; for an exhibition; and for conservation and presentation of the cemetery.

1. 1. Geophysical work will consist of subsurface research to determine the number and location of the chamber tombs and any other archaeological traces in the area.
2. 2. Topographical work will use a total station to make a topographical map. We will use ArcMap™ and Autocad™ for data recording and drawing.
3. 3. Geoarchaeological work will focus on soil depositions within the tombs and the differentiation of natural and anthropogenic strata.
4. 4. Archaeological work will prepare the area for excavation and excavate at least one tomb.  This will help us determine for future seasons the pace of the work, the number of workmen and assistants needed, the critical coordination between excavation and in situ osteological examination, and systems and methods of documentation.
5. 5. Bioarchaeological work will consist of directing the excavation of the skeletons and recovery of contextual material, in situ sampling, documentation, removal, laboratory studies and analytical procedures.  Again this work will be necessary to determine the pace of fieldwork and laboratory study, the personnel needed for these different operations, and the methods to be employed.  One physical/forensic anthropologist will focus particularly on the taphonomic history of the skeletal material and another will explore pathological conditions and conduct palaeodietary analyses.
6. 6. Curatorial work will consist of overall coordination of specialized personnel and museum facilities.  It will focus on systems of recording; methods of documentation, conservation, and storage; and an assessment of needs.  This work will include all field and museum records, photography and drawing, database management, conservation, and exhibition.
7. 7. Administrative work will be the overall management of the project.  The Director will undertake the responsibility of enlisting the team, develop project proposals, raise funds to support ongoing excavation and analysis, prepare budgets, secure permits, coordinate with authorities, oversee reporting, and coordinate the program of publication, site conservation, and exhibition.
8. 8. Reporting will be through a web site and through paper publications.  Both will be the loci of annual reports.  In the coming months  Wright will also be looking into a documentary of this project that would begin with the prospection and preparations of the pilot study and follow the course of excavation, skeletal analysis, and interpretation.

Publication of the cemetery will consist of annual reports in Hesperia.  Specialist studies, particularly of the skeletal material, will also be made and published in appropriate journals.  Plans for final publication of the results will be developed by the principal investigators as the project proceeds.  One long-term desideratum is to produce a book length study of life in the Nemea Valley during the Mycenaean period for which the results from the excavation of the cemetery will be fundamental.

1. Project Director: Dr. James Wright.
2. Bioarchaeological Director:  Dr. Sevi Triantaphyllou.
3. Museum Director:  Dr.  Mary Dabney.
4. Geoarchaeologist:  need and extent under discussion
5. Geophysical prospector:  Dr. Michael Boyd.
6. Surveyor and GIS/CAD expert:  Geoffrey Compton..
7. Physical anthropologist specializing in taphonomy and assisting in the field: under negotiation with Dr. Athanasia Papathanasiou..
8. Physical anthropologist specializing in pathology and working in the museum: Mr. Kostas Moraïtis, M.A. (beginning in 2003)
9. Four bioarchaeological student assistants to be drawn from the Department of Biology, University of Athens and Bryn Mawr College.
10. Four archaeological student assistants for assisting in the excavation, recovery, recording, registration, and analysis of objects.
11. Project manager and on site conservator.
12. One conservator in the museum working with the objects:  Mr. Photis Dimakis, Argos Museum.
13. An archaeological artist experienced at drawing skeletons.  Under negotiation.
14. An experienced archaeological photographer.  Under consideration of extent of need in first year.
Total of between 18 and 20 staff.
 

Dabney, Mary. 1999.  "Locating Mycenaean Cemeteries." In P. P. Betancourt, V. Karageorghis, R. Laffineur, and W.-D. Niemeier, eds. Meletemata. Studies in Aegean Archaeology Presented to Malcolm H. Wiener as He Enters his 65th Year. (Aegaeum 20). Liège 1999: 171-175.

Graziadio, Giampaolo. 1991.  "The Process of Social Stratification at Mycenae in the Shaft Grave Period: A Comparative Examination of the Evidence."  American Journal of Archaeology 95 (1991): 403-440.

Iezzi, K.  2001. "Skeletal materials shed light on environmental and social conditions".  American School of Classical Studies at Athens Newsletter  46 (2001):  14-15.

Kilian-Dirlmeier, Imma. 1986.  "Beobachtungen zu den Schachtgräbern con Mykenai und zu den Schmuckbeigaben Mykenischer Männergräber." Jahrbuch des Römisch-germanischen Zentralmuseums, Mainz  33 (1986): 159-198.

Papathanasiou, Anastasia. 1999. A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Health, Subsistence, and Funerary Behavior in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin: A Case Study from Alepotrypa Cave, Greece.  Ph.D. University of Iowa.

Triantaphyllou, Sevasti.  1999.  A Bioarchaeological Approach to Prehistoric Cemetery Populations from Western and Central Greek Macedonia.  Ph.D. Thesis, University of Sheffield, U.K.

Wace, Alan J. B.  1932.  "Chamber Tombs at Mycenae."  Archaeologia 82 (1932).

Wright, James C., 1982. "Excavations at Tsoungiza (Archaia Nemea) 1981", Hesperia 51: 375-97.

Wright, James C. 1990. "A Mycenaean Hamlet on Tsoungiza, Ancient Nemea,"L'habitat égeén prehistorique, Supplement au Bulletin de Correspondance Hellenique, XIX, 1990: 347-57.

Wright, James C., John F. Cherry, Jack L. Davis, and Eleni Mantzourani 1987. "To Erevnitiko Archailogiko Programma stin Koilada tis Nemeas kata ta eti 1984-1986," Archaiologika Analekta ton Athenon XVIII, 1985: 86-104.

Wright, James, C. John F. Cherry, Jack L. Davis, Eleni Mantzourani, Susan B. Sutton, and Robert F. Sutton, Jr. 1990.  “The Nemea Valley Archaeological Project.  A Preliminary Report”, Hesperia 59: 579-659.