ABSTRACTS - The American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Panagiota Kassimi, Substitute Head, Vasilis Tasinos, Archaeologist, LZ΄ Ephorate of Prehistoric and
Classical Antiquities
The Ancient Cemetery at Anapnoa
In the summer of 2004, an ancient cemetery was revealed in the plot owned by Andreas
Papathanasopoulos, at the Anapnoa site in Ancient Corinth. Of the ten graves found, nine were dated
between the late 4 th and the beginning of the 3 rd century B.C., that is at the beginning of the Hellenistic
period.
Graves 1, 2 and 3 were exceptionally placed within a tripartite Funerary Monument, made of
isodomic blocks.
Grave 1 yielded exceptionally rich finds, as it contained a multitude of figurines. Some of them had
been placed directly on the grave’s covering slab. The best preserved figurines are of exceptional art,
worthy of the reputation of Corinthian sculptors. They represent females in various positions, while
preserving traces of color and gilding and they are dated in the 4 th c. B.C. (350-325 B.C.). Important works
were also found inside the grave, such as alabaster pyxides, bronze pins, a needle, a silver coin, sea shells,
a small clay hydria, etc. The finds as well as the bones demonstrate that the skeleton in the grave belonged
to a young woman.
The other two graves (2, 3) of the Funerary Monument did not yield equally rich finds.
The rest of the graves were dated at the end of the 4 th c. B.C. and belonged to common folk of the
middle and lower class.
An ancient water supply system can be traced at a small distance, in the same direction. That
system brought water from the Chatzimoustafa fountain or another fountain at the SW to the foot of
Acrocorinthos and served the needs of a settlement of the classical period; it was abandoned at the end of
the 4 th century and replaced at the beginning of the 3 rd c. B.C. by a large chamber cistern. All the evidence
converges to the existence of an important settlement in Western Corinth even from the Geometric period
with sanctuaries and altars; this settlement was ravaged for an unknown cause (perhaps violently), during
the upheaval caused during the time of the Heirs of Alexander the Great.
The Cemetery is characterized as parodio, meaning it was formed alongside the road leading from
the center of the town towards the Gate of Phlious.