Sellada 2001 Overview

The Publication of the Cemetery of Sellada, Thera, Greece
Photini Zapheiropoulou

The object of this project is the excavation of the cemetery of Sellada at the island Thera (the cemetery of Ancient Thera). The excavation was carried out during 16 periods between 1961-1982 by the late N. Zapheiropoulos, at the time Ephor of Antiquities for the Cyclades, under the auspices of the Archaeological Society of Athens.

The island of Thera is situated in the South Aegean, on the maritime road from mainland Greece to Crete. Two important excavations have been carried out on the island: the first of the prehistoric city at the coastal site of Akrotiri and the second of ancient Thera, the town of the historic period, which is situated at the top of Mesa Vouno, an abrupt cape which forms the southeast extension of mountain of Prophetes Elias. Ancient Thera was founded by Dorian colonists around the end of the 9th century BC and survived until the end of the Roman period. Outside the town, at the slopes of Sellada, a saddle connecting Prophetes Elias and Mesa Vouno, lies the area of this cemetery. Parts of it were excavated by the German archaeologists Dragendorff and Pfhul during the period 1896-1904. Excavations in the area - on a limited scale - had been carried out earlier by Choiseul Gouffier and other amateurs at different times.

The cemetery site at the northeast slope of Sellada was located in 1953, during the construction of a road to Ancient Thera. In 1959 new road works brought to light important new finds which resulted to the organization of a systematic excavation by N. Zapheiropoulos in 1961. The excavation revealed a cemetery which spreads out in a terrace formation according to the ground morphology. The burials date from the Geometric period until the Roman times. There are cremations for the adults and enchytrismoi (jar burials) for children until the Classical period, around the end of which inhumations appear as well. This type of burial gradually prevails and by the Roman period constitutes the only method of burial. Besides a substantial number of burials (about 1000), the excavation brought to light a large number of finds of all kinds, especially pottery, but also figurines, small finds, jewelry, glass artifacts, metal artifacts, as well as works of sculpture (though on a more limited scale).

The existing literature on the cemetery concerns the excavation by the German archaeologists, which covers mainly the Geometric period. Apart from the much wider time span which the finds of N. Zapheiropoulos' excavation cover, the importance of his work also lies in the fact that modern archaeological methodology was applied. From the beginning it was conducted with a view to bring offer a full picture of the arrangement and preservation of a whole complex of burial constructions. Zapheiropoulos' findings offer a picture much more complete than the one offered by the one carried out by the German team - which was followed by an otherwise exemplary publication for the standards of the time - at the same time they provide solutions to important issues. New avenues of approach have been opened and the evidence suggests that in many cases the interpretations proposed by the previous excavators must be reassessed.

The publication of the Sellada excavation will first provide the academic community with a full account of the archaeological data and the conclusions reached, and second will make known a plethora of finds characterized by rich variety. The publication of this hitherto unknown material will fill important gaps in the literature and offer the possibilities for radically new assessments. The finds will be available to the academic community for further research. Those few finds which have already become known have been presented unsystematically and without the necessary connection to the environment of the whole excavation context.