80 Shackled Skeletons Found in Greek Grave After Ancient Mass Execution

A mass grave was recently discovered four miles outside of Athens in the historic harbor city of Phalaeron. But this wasn't just any mass grave—36 of the 80 skeletons were restrained in iron shackles and were arranged in a row next to each other. Because of this, some researchers speculate that they might be adherents of Cylon, a despot who attempted to conquer Athens in the seventh century B.C.

About 1,500 skeletons have been discovered in a 1-acre cemetery near Phalaeron, according to Tia Ghose of LiveScience. But, this most recent set was discovered in a location where the Greek National Opera and a new branch of the Greek National Library are being built. Scientists were able to date the cemetery between 650 and 625 B.C., a time period that ancient historians claim was full of unrest for Athens, thanks to two tiny vases discovered among the bound skeletons.

The teeth of the remains, according to AFP, indicate that they were largely from younger, healthy individuals. This supports the hypothesis that they were political outlaws who attempted to take control of Athens. A bioarchaeologist from the University of West Florida in Pensacola named Kristina Killgrove, who was not involved in the study, tells Ghose that "these might be the bones of persons who were part of this coup in Athens in 632 [B.C. ], the Coup of Cylon."

The ancient historians Plutarch and Thucydides claim that Cylon participated in the 640 B.C. Olympic Games as an athlete. His triumph there earned him a higher position and the hand of the Megarian tyrant's daughter. Because of the bad harvests and social disparity, Athens experienced unrest during the following 10 years. In 632, Cylon launched a coup with the aid of his father-in-army, law's expecting that the citizens of Athens would follow him. Though most didn't, some did.

As a substitute, Cylon fled the city, and his rebels sought refuge on the Acropolis. They eventually started to hunger, but Megacles, the city archon, guaranteed them safe passage. But he killed them as soon as they exited the shrine. According to Thucydides, "They even killed several of them in the very presence of the dreadful Goddesses at whose altars they had sought sanctuary while passing by." "The killers and those who follow them are considered cursed and transgressors against the Lady."

Nonetheless, it is far from definite that the skeletons belong to Cylon's disciples. Killgrove explains to Ghose that one of the issues is that there aren't many historical records from that century; as a result, "we really have no history" and "it might be a stretch for them to connect these shackled skeletons with this coup." "There are any number of possibilities for why a mass grave — really, many mass graves — of shackled skeletons were uncovered in Athens," says Killgrove in Forbes.

Less archeological sites from the time period do, however, depict people from lower socioeconomic levels. According to Killgrove, these skeletons could provide researchers with information about the working-class Athenians of the time.

This is the Trophy of the battle of Marathon

It is dated to 470-460 BC.

In September 490 BC, on the plain of Marathon, 10,000 Athenians and 1,000 of their allies from the Boeotian city-state of Plataea, under the command of General Miltiades, fought and defeated the army of the powerful Persian Empire. The battle led to the ignominious end of the first Persian attempt to subjugate Greece under the rule of Darius I.

On the column was probably placed the statue of Victory, in bigger size than natural and with lively movement.

According to ancient custom, the Athenians erected a wooden trophy on the battlefield, from which they hung the Persians' spoils of arms.

A few years later it was replaced by a monumental trophy made of white marble to commemorate the great victory over the Persians. On the column was probably placed the statue of Victory, in bigger size than natural and with lively movement.

Part of the Trophy is now exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Marathon, while a copy of it is placed near its original location in Panagia Mesosporitissa.

The Trophy was restored in 2004, preserving parts of the column and the capital. In 2016, the capital was completed by Professor Manolis Korre with two parts of the suffix.

You could visit the permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Marathon, where the history of the region from prehistoric to Roman times is presented through finds from the prehistoric cemeteries of Vrana and Tsepi, the burial mounds of the Athenians and Plataeans who fought against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).

What did orator Demosthenes say about ancient Macedonians?

By Sarantos I. Kargakos

Had it not been for Demosthenes' slanderous characterizations against Philip - especially against Alexander - the question of the Greekness of the Macedonians would not have been raised. Every supporter of this opinion relies on Demosthenes. The other data they put forward are merely supplementary elements, which have no historical weight.

We could consider Demosthenes' insults as an outburst of political passion that drives him into the madness of insults and that's all. When someone insults, he does not mince words. That is why Demosthenes often calls Philip the barbarian, knowing that he is insulting and humiliating him. But if Philip was a barbarian (foreigner), why should this characterization bother him? Even with this designation, Demosthenes wants to portray Philip as a foreigner who usurps the freedom of Greece in order to unite all Greeks against him. In politics, the end justifies the means.

But the extent to which Demosthenes' characterizations are accurate can be seen in the insults of his great rival, Aeschines, who also calls Demosthenes a barbarian!

In particular, in the famous "On the False Embassy" oration,the insulting phrase is heard twice: "And you say this, Demosthenes, although your lineage on your mother's side is descended from Scythian nomads". And again: "On his mother's side, Demosthenes is a Scythian. A barbarian who uses the Greek language!"

His mother Demosthenes Kleoboulis was the daughter of Gylonos, who had settled in the Taurian peninsula (Crimea). But I ask: Are insults a solid basis for the scientific foundation of historical theories? With this I do not want to bypass the only "document" that Mr. J.B. quotes. Rather I will present all insults of Demosthenes chronologically in order to be able to draw the necessary conclusions. Before doing so, however, I will avoid mistaking the great orator for a common insulter and examine the meaning of the Demosthenes-Philip dichotomy, which reflects the dichotomy of the democratized southern Greek cities versus the monarchical Greek north. One element is that the Greeks had a politics of city-states. They had a city-centric view. The city was the center of all political action. In other words, Athens, Sparta, Thebes were important cities.

Statue of Demosthenes

Macedonia, on the other hand, was a state with many cities, but they were not so important that they determined political life. Thus, the state-centered monarchical system of the northern Greeks contrasted with the city-centered democratic system of the southern Greeks. Demosthenes' opposition to Philip was thus not racial, as many propagate. It was politics. If Philip had in mind the Great State, Demosthenes, who had grown up with other political ideals, had in mind the Great Man, "the free in justice". The Citizen, not the servant of the state. The personality and character and not faceless political being. Therefore, he remained faithful to the idea of "Athenism". Only Athens gave him some guarantees for the State of Free Citizens.

Demosthenes did not reject the idea of Panhellenism. But he gave it cultural meaning. Philip made a realistic policy. Demosthenes from the 4th century BC imagines a federation of cities with a democratic form of government. Philip, on the other hand, sought a unity of Greeks by all means. He was a Machiavelli who did not write, but acted. Therefore, the conflict between Demosthenes and Philip was not a conflict of races, but a conflict of visions.

Yet despite noble visions, neither shied away from mean means. After all, they were engaged in politics, not religious preaching. Macedonia and Philip were what Prussia and Bismarck were to Germany. If Bismarck expected to unite Germany with Kant's wonderful vision of perpetual peace, he should have eternal life as well. But the politicians who create eternal work are those who know that life is short and time is running out.

Let us now turn to the "shocking" document that J.B. quotes:

"Not only a non-Greek and not related to the other Greeks, but not even a barbarian from any place that could be called with any honor, but like a pestilent knave from Macedonia, where one cannot even buy a decent slave" (The Third Philippic, Demosthenes' political orations ). But let us see what Demosthenes himself says: "Not only is he not a Greek, nor has he anything in common with the Greeks, but he is not even a barbarian of good stock, but a pernicious Macedonian, from whose country one cannot even buy a slave."

The reader should note that Mr. J.B. commits a scientific indecency. He translates "pernicious Macedonian," which is indeed a heavy epithet, with the phrase "pestilent knave from Macedonia," which has no correspondence with the original. No Greek researcher denied that this text, because of its verbal severity, raises the suspicion of an ethnic division between Greeks and Macedonians. It is also not absent from any Greek historiography, ancient or translated. However, what Mr. J.B. seems to ignore the psychology of language, i. e. a word that means something specific, is used with a different meaning in a specific case. We all know, for example, what history means.

Statue of Philipp of Macedon in Thessaloniki, Greece

But you have to know the psychology of the Greek language to understand the phrase "we will have histories", which means entanglements, struggles, and so on. We all know what politics means, but few know that politics in the medieval Greek language meant also whore! So, in order to understand Demosthenes' phrase, we need to know the psychology of language, which means that in relation to Philip, we need to trace the psychological transitions or upheavals that Philip's politics triggers in him. We begin with an observation: of the nine orations Demosthenes made against Philip, Philip is called a barbarian in only three (the relevant part in the "Against Stephanos" oration is a later addition). But let us start with the orations from the beginning:


1. In the "First Philippic" oration against Philip, written when the Macedonian king had reached Thermopylae and was also threatening to cut Athens off from the allied cities of Thrace and Euxinus, Demosthenes uses harsh language but never calls him a barbarian. Neither in the First nor in the Second Olynthiac oration.


2. Philip is first called a barbarian in the Third Olynthiac oration: "He is not an enemy, he does not possess what is ours, he is not a barbarian, whatever else one may say". The last sentence ("whatever else one may say") shows that the previous word "barbarian" is also used as an insult and not as a national designation. Demosthenes here stigmatizes Philip's behavior and not his origin.


3. In 346 BC, Demosthenes delivered his "On the Peace" oration. Philip has already conquered Olynthos, crushed the Phocaeans, and become a member of the Delphic Amphictyony. But now that the threat is more immediate, Demosthenes says nothing in his speech about Philip being a barbarian. Yet it would have been a wonderful opportunity for him to denounce before all Greeks that a barbarian had become a member of the amphictyony in which only Greeks participated. The reason why he did not do this is simple: he knew that all Greeks knew that Philip was not a barbarian.


4. In 341 BC, Demosthenes delivered the "On the Chersonese" oration,which is a war cry against Philip, who is not called a "barbarian" here either. And yet Demosthenes had just returned from Macedonia, where he had gone as an ambassador and stayed for three months. Therefore, he had the opportunity to learn the language, customs and traditions of the Macedonians. If he thought they were barbarians, why would he miss such a wonderful opportunity to comment on them? 


5. A year later, he delivers the "On the False Embassy" oration and while he sharply characterizes Philip, he still says nothing about barbarism. This oration is of a legal nature and is directed against Aeschines, the leader of the "Macedonian party" in Athens. His aim is to show the opportunism and political immorality of Aeschines and to point out his contradictions. Specifically, he says of Aeschines, "Formerly he preached before the people and called Philip barbarian and destructive. But now Aeschines calls him the most Greek of men and the greatest friend of Athens!". With this rhetorical trick Demosthenes tries to expose Aeschines in the eyes of the Athenians as well as in the eyes of Philip.


6. Finally, in "third against Philip" is found the sentence to which J.B. refers and modifies in the translation. In this oration from 341 (three years before the battle of Chaeronea) Demosthenes, desperate to see Philip's omnipresence, has lost control of his words, treats Philip like a gladiator, and uses the worst insults against him. This verbal frenzy and verbal jibes are aimed at insulting Philip personally and his country in general. This is also evident in the sentence of the ancient commentator of Demosthenes, who examines the characterization of "barbarian" in the third Olynthiac:

"Because Demosthenes wants to insult Philip, he calls him a barbarian. But if he really wanted to investigate, he would find that he is a Greek from Argos, descended from the lineage of Hercules, as all historians confirm."

Statue of Alexander the Great in Thessaloniki, Greece

Personally, I do not like simple interpretations. Demosthenes has a political goal in the sense that he wants to destroy Philip by any means. He sees the Macedonian monarch as an enemy of Greek freedom, i.e. the autonomy of the Greek cities. Therefore, with the last sentence, he actually wants to portray him as a foreigner in the eyes of the other Greeks and the Macedonians as foreigners seeking Greek independence in order to achieve a panhellenic alliance against them. So passionate is he that he does not hesitate to recommend to the Athenians an alliance with the Persians against Philip (Fourth Philippic):

"I think you should send a legation (to the Persians) to converse with the Persian king, leaving aside the silly phrase "the barbarians are the common enemy of everything and everyone".

Thus Demosthenes frees the Persian king from the status of barbarian and assigns it to Philip, whom he also calls "the robber of the Greeks" and implores the gods to destroy him.

How could the Parthenon remain standing for 2,500 years without a foundation?

The mystery is revealed after studies showed that the Parthenon Temple on the Acropolis is triple seismically shielded despite the fact that it has no foundation.

According to civil engineer Niki Timotheu, studies of the temple's architectural and structural form have shown that the ancient world had already discovered what we now call "seismic isolation". According to Niki Timotheu, the temple successfully contradicts the theory of modern construction because, without having a foundation at all, it is triple seismically insulated.

This triple insulation is located, as she explained, in different parts of the building. The first point is in the layers of huge horizontal and extremely smooth marble stones on which the Parthenon stands.

The second point is found in the elastic metal joints that connect the slabs of each layer, made up of small iron piles in the middle, around which lead has been poured (lead has the property of protecting iron from rust and weakening the elasticity of each wave, since part of its kinetic energy is converted into thermal energy).

And the third point is found in the columns of the building, which were not set in one piece, because the ancient Greeks knew that in order to withstand the vibrations of the earth, they had to be set in slices that were perfectly superimposed.

The result of this triple insulating formula, as Mrs Timotheu noted, was that the seismic waves on the surface moved one layer of the marble slabs over the other, while the joints dissipated the kinetic energy developed by the earthquake! The columns, as they were arranged, made the whole building sway, but not collapse.

Haloa: The "obscene" feast of ancient Greece

Haloa was one of the festivals that the ancient Greeks systematically celebrated every year in honor of the goddess Demeter, known as Haloea (goddess of the fruits of the earth), Dionysus (god of the vine and wine) and Poseidon Fytalmios (god of coastal vegetation).

Haloa was a three-shaped peasant feast of antiquity, and the customs of worshiping the gods in this context cause us to call this celebration "obscene". A second opinion is that they were also celebrated in honor of Persephone, the daughter of Demeter.

The Haloa were held around Attica and extended to Eleusis, where they ended, then followed the Poseidonian procession and finally the initiation into the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone.

There are two versions about the period of this celebration: the first one says that Haloa was celebrated in the month of June (Ekatombeonas) with the harvest of the Spartans and the second one in the month of December (Poseidon) with the harvest and the opening of the new wine. In Haloa, no hierophant participated, but a priestess who initiated the women, and all exchanged free speeches and conversations, and at the end there was a common dinner. The dinner included all foods except those forbidden in the ceremonies (eggs, pomegranates, etc.). But why was it called "obscene"?

In this celebration, the women had with them figurines in the shape of sexual organs and food in the corresponding shapes of phallus and vulva. At the end of the meal, they buried the phalluses in the ground, believing that in this way vegetation and fertility would be strengthened.

In Haloa, among other things, obscenities were exchanged between all the women, even the priestess urged the married women to commit adultery and they danced orgiastically with each other. From the 4th century BC, hetairas participated and women flocked to the streets and danced to provocative songs.

Hetairai at Haloa festival dancing around a giant phallus (Oedipus Painter, 480 BC) By Wikipedia

In general, Haloa was a festival of women in ancient times and was celebrated at night, although the preserved information is insufficient compared to other customs of the ancient Greeks. Moreover, there are two versions of the conceptual origin: the first states that Haloa means the threshing floor according to Philochorus, the second that it means the vines according to the commentator Lucian.

The Haloa festival lasted several days, at the end of which athletic competitions like the Olympics took place, in which not all citizens of ancient Athens were allowed to participate, as was customary in other celebrations. However, in this celebration the young people had the right to speak publicly.

From the above it is clear why Haloa is characterized as an obscene celebration of antiquity, because in modern times the use of strange effigies and provocative dances with obscene vocabulary is not common, although in antiquity it was a habit and considered normal.

Palatiano (Ioron) of Kilkis city, Greece: The ancient city that worshiped Dionysus and idolized Patraοs

The story of a city founded in the 10th century BC, glorified the family of Patraos, who is unknown until today, and when it was mysteriously destroyed, it was never inhabited again.

In a magical place at the foot of the Krousia massif, which is as green today as it was thousands of years ago, the ruins of an ancient city are preserved on a hill. From this peak the inhabitants saw their life, the land that fed them, the water, the plants that sprouted, they saw the sun dancing on the leaves of the olive groves, the vines that promised delicious wine, the figs that filled their daily table with sweetness. They saw the land where their herds grazed, next to the river Echedoros, meaning "the one that has gifts" and gave everything that its name promised, its raw materials, its precious metals, gifts of wealth, the most important of which was gold!

The ancient city of Palatiano, 20 kilometers north of Kilkis, was in a naturally fortified position and controlled the important passage from the ancient region of Christonia to the regions of Parorvilia and Sintica, that is, to Lake Kerkini and Serres, and even further west.

It is even very likely that it is identified with the ancient city of Ioron, which means guardian, and the name is fully justified by its location.

Palatiano was founded in the 10th century BC and developed in the classical and Hellenistic years from the 4th to the 1st century BC, centuries in which it became an urban center.

It reached its peak in the Roman years, from the 1st to the 3rd century AD, when it was destroyed by an unknown cause. This era is called the Pax Romana (Roman Peace) and Palatiano flourishes and benefits from the goods of peace.

The city was protected by fortifications and its development was adapted to the morphology of the terrain. In the excavated eastern part of the hill, which developed amphitheatrically, a high retaining wall contributed to its division into two districts.

Today's ruins, set in a beautiful natural landscape, seem to exude the splendor of antiquity. The visitor can walk through the authentic ancient streets of the city and climb to the top of the hill where the sanctuaries of the gods, the center of public life, were probably located. He can cross the narrow streets between buildings, houses and workshops, follow the natural slopes of the hill and wander through the neighborhoods that were once bustling with life.

The Palatiano was destroyed - for unknown reasons - but never rebuilt and never inhabited again, but the houses of the ancient inhabitants have survived the centuries unscathed. The modern passerby can imagine the people who once filled these buildings with life. In the rooms of the houses were found the personal belongings of the former inhabitants: mirrors and jewelry, tools for the house and field, lamps to drive away the darkness of the night, storage and drinking vessels, even toys, small clay carts with wheels for children, so many thousands of years ago, just like today.

The head of the Department of Antiquities of Kilkis, Georgia Stratouli says that "among the most important monuments that testify to the wealth of the city are the two honorary Heroa found in one of its neighborhoods. One of them, the family Heroon(a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero) of Patraos, Ammia and their three sons, is preserved in very good condition, with four of the five statues of the family members almost intact."

Patraos wears a tunic in a classical statue type that exudes prestige and respect, while the wife and mother, Ammia, is a respected mistress. Two of the three sons, one of whom is depicted as an athlete in heroic nudity while the other holds scrolls. Perhaps he was educated, perhaps he had distinguished himself in the political or intellectual life of his place.

The archeologists studying the material are now called upon to answer the question: Who was this famous Patraos really? Was he a metal trader who became rich? The archeological excavation brought him and his whole family to light, and the discovery is perhaps another myth in the labyrinth of human imagination.

According to Ms. Stratoulis, "the inhabitants of Palatiano believed in Olympian gods: Zeus, Hermes, Athena, but it seems that their favorite was the god Dionysus. In fact, a full-figure statue of the god with a panther skin was found in the area, while an inscription gives him the epithet GONGYLOS (= round). However, they also worshiped other deities such as the eastern Kybele, the Greek mother of the gods and the Egyptian god Bissa".

The finds from Palatiano indicate a robust, developed and diverse urban society, associated with agriculture and animal husbandry, but also with crafts and trade, while the large number of coins suggests trade relations with other Macedonian cities.

It is very likely that the source of their great wealth was some kind of metalworking craft, which was apparently very important for the inhabitants of the ancient city. Perhaps Patraos became rich through it, who raised an honorary Heroon for his family.

"The important thing about this archaeological site is that we can empathize with the people of the past. How did the people who lived in these houses, who walked through the alleys to get to their sanctuaries, or to their properties at dawn? What stories can we tell? Let us think about them when we look at their personal belongings," says Ms Stratoulis.

Palatiano is a vibrant city. A city that still exudes the aura, the joys, the sorrows, the failures and the successes, the loves and the sorrows of a complex but also simple society. And by its simplicity it fascinates the visitor.

The Ephorate of Antiquities of Kilkis has created a very interesting film to introduce the Palatiano to the general public. The general coordination and the overall editing of the film is the responsibility of the head of the Ephorate, Georgia Stratoulis, the scientific editing is done by the archaeologists Nektarios Poulakakis and Maria Farmaki, while the "tour guide" in the area is also the archaeologist Theodoros Papakostas and the direction was led by Thanos Kartsoglou.