Pot burials in the Neolithic and EBA Greek mainland: how a comparison with West Anatolian practices can help us distinguish trends in various local traditions
This article aims to discuss two ideas which have been often assumed about the pot‑burials of the Neolithic and EBA Greece: their adoption under an oriental influence and their specificity as burials for babies. An overview of the evidence based on the observation of regional as well as site‑scale c...
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| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/bch, |
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| Hlavní autor: | |
| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Anglais |
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Bulletin de correspondance hellénique
2026
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| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Shrnutí: | This article aims to discuss two ideas which have been often assumed about the pot‑burials of the Neolithic and EBA Greece: their adoption under an oriental influence and their specificity as burials for babies. An overview of the evidence based on the observation of regional as well as site‑scale contexts, focused on central and northern Greece, firstly shows that the use of pot‑burials during the EN and MN differs from their oriental counterpart. The burial use of clay containers remained rare on the Greek mainland until the Late Neolithic, and they were more often intended to receive cremation remains than inhumations in Thessaly and Macedonia. During the EBA however, pithos burials extended on the two shores of the Aegean even if the communities in Greece display greater variability in their practices. Secondly, the paper highlights that, despite the spread of pot‑burials for the very young during the EBA, it was not a canonical practice for this age group, nor restricted to it on most of the sites. Newly available data from the Chalkidiki peninsula and west Macedonia are decisive for a better understanding of the funerary use of vessels in the 3rd millennium BC. |
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