In Search of Greek women in Pithekoussai - An analysis of female graves in Lefkandi, Pithekoussai and Pontecagnano based on artefactual material

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyse the available, i. e. published, data from the necropolises of Pithekoussai, Lefkandi, and Pontecagnano. The goal is to potentially examine a first generation of Greek women at the Greek colony, Pithekoussai, through analysis of artefactual remains deposited in the cemeteries during the Geometric period (c. 750-625 BC). Also to investigate if Greek women were a part of the Greek colonising expeditions. The first phase of the project involved finding a Greek female grave model from Euboea where artefact occurrence was analysed by a multivariate correspondence analysis, to distinguish different functions of objects with reference to each grave. The second phase compared the Greek female grave model to the graves from Pithekoussai which had been assigned anthropologically to be female graves to identify the graves as Greek. The graves at Pithekoussai were also compared to indigenous graves from Pontecagnano from the Italian mainland. The analyses led to a concept borrowed from current literary and cultural theory; hybridity and a hybrid burial pattern. Through the concept hybridity it was possible to search for the building blocks constructing a new hybrid burial pattern, and look for their origins.