University of Groningen the Early Bronze Age Cemetery at Chalandriani on Syros (Cyclades, Greece) Hekman, Jan Jakob
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University of Groningen The early Bronze Age cemetery at Chalandriani on Syros (Cyclades, Greece) Hekman, Jan Jakob IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2003 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Hekman, J. J. (2003). The early Bronze Age cemetery at Chalandriani on Syros (Cyclades, Greece) Groningen: s.n. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. Download date: 10-02-2018 The Early Bronze Age cemetery at Chalandriani on Syros (Cyclades, Greece) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN The Early Bronze Age cemetery at Chalandriani on Syros (Cyclades, Greece) Proefschrift ter verkrijging van het doctoraat in de Letteren aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, dr. F. Zwarts, in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 15 mei 2003 om 16.00 uur door Jan Jakob Hekman geboren op 17 november 1958 te Assen Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Kleibrink Beoordelingscommissie: Prof.dr. P.A.J. Attema Prof.dr. J.L. Bintliff Prof.dr. H.R. Reinders The Early Bronze Age cemetery at Chalandriani on Syros (Cyclades, Greece) Jan Jaap Hekman Assen, 2003 The work for this dissertation was made possible through the financial support of: - The Faculty of Arts of the University of Groningen - The Institute for Aegean Prehistory, New York - Stichting Kyklos Cover design: Henk Stadman Lay-out: Jan Jaap Hekman Computer drawings: Huib Waterbolk and Erwin Bolhuis Ink-drawings: Huib Waterbolk, Annie Bakker and Jan Jaap Hekman Production and printing: Jan Hindriks and Henk Stadman copyright: J.J. Hekman, 2003 For Annie, Rosalinde and Josephine SYRA (A TRANSMITTED REMINISCENCE.) Fleeing from Scio’s smouldering vines Above a tented inn with fluttering flag (Where when the sword its work had done A sunburnt board announced Greek wine The Turk applied the torch) the Greek In self-same text Anacrean knew, Came here, a fugitive stript of goods, Dispenced by one named “Pericles.” Here to an all but tenantless isle, Got up as for the opera’s scene, Nor here in footing gained at first, Armed strangers, various, lounged or lazed, Felt safe. Still from the turbaned foe Lithe fellows tall, with gold-shot eyes. Dreading the doom of shipwrecked men Sunning themselves as leopards may. Whom feline seas permit to land Then pounce upon and drag them back, Off-shore lay xebecs trim and light, For height they made, and prudent won And some but dubious in repute. A cone-shaped fastness on whose flanks Bur on the strand, for docks were none, With pains they pitched their eyrie camp, What busy bees! no testy fry; Stone huts, whereto they wary clung; Frolickers, picturesquely odd, But, reassured in end, come down)) With bales and oil-jars lading boats, Multiplied through compatriots now, Lighters that served an anchored craft, Refugees like themselves forlorn)) Each in his tasseled Phrygian cap, And building along the water’s verge Blue Eastern drawers and braided vest; Begin to thrive; and thriving more As Proserpine’s upon the coin. When Greece at last flung off the Turk, Such chatterers all! like children gay Make of the haven mere a mart. Who make believe to work, but play. I saw it in its earlier day)) I saw, and how help musing too. Primitive, such as isled resort Here traffic’s immature as yet: As hearthless Homer might have known Forever this juvenile fun hold out Wandering about the Ægean here. And these light hearts? Their garb, their glee, Sheds ribbed with wreck-stuff faced the sea Alike profuse in flowing measure, Where goods in transit shelter found; Alike inapt for serious wirk, And here and there a shaty-shop Blab of grandfather Saturn’s prime Where Fez-caps, swords, tobacco, shawls When trade was not, not toil, nor stress, Pistols, and orient finery, Eve’s)) But life was leisure, merriment, peace, (The spangles dimmed by hands profane) And lucre none and love was righteousness. Like plunder on a pirate’s deck Lay orderless in such loose way Herman Melville As to suggest things ravished or gone astray. The Collected Poems (Chicago, 1996), 250-52. Preface ver since the discovery and the subsequent publication of finds from the cemetery at Chalandriani it has played an important role in the development of our knowledge of the Eprehistoric cultures in the Cyclades and in the Aegean world as a whole. Directly after the first reports on ancient graves found in the northeastern part of the the island of Syros many antiquarians and archaeologists have taken this site into their itineraries through the Aegean or have studied the objects found in the graves. References to this cemetery and the finds are found in nearly every textbook on the Aegean prehistory. Unfortunately, these studies are all, by necessity, based on an incomplete picture of the cemetery, since no study of all the excavations results has yet appeared. In the present study we will present a detailed summary of all available information regarding the cemetery at Chalandriani, and of all the finds from the tombs known today. Every study using results of older excavations faces a number of specific problems. First, the views, goals, and methods of the excavator may differ from those of the person who completes the study. This is all the more likely when a very long period passed between the excavation and its final publication. Examples of similar studies of older excavations, which have inspired me to continue when it seemed almost hopeloss to do so, are Hodson’s treatment of the Hallstatt burial site in Austria, and Chapman’s study of the Los Millares cemetery in Southeast Spain. Unfortunately, in such cases many insights and questions in modern archeology cannot be investigated since no account was given to such aspects during the time of excavation. Secondly, there may be many practical or logistical problems. The documentation of the excavation (e.g. notes, daybooks, drawings, field maps, photographs) may have become incomplete or even missing. But also finds may have become misplaced or even lost. These problems should be anticipated when research is carried out which involves the use of results from older excavations. In order to be able to merit this kind of research it is necessary to present a detailed account of the relevant events which have interferred with the data over the period between the excavation and the final publication. This kind of account may be called the post-excavation history. Unfortunately it appears all to often that not all lacunae and hiatuses in the available documentation may thus be explained. Specially when the period between the excavation and the time of its final publication amounts to more than one hundred years. In her book on the history of archeological research of the Greek Bronze Age , J. Lesley Fitton observed that “... it is, for example, a melancholy possibility that all, or almost all, Early Cycladic cemetery sites have been discovered, and in many cases despoiled, so that we may never have further Cycladic figurines from excavated contexts to explain the many uncertainties surrounding their use and meaning.” (page 193). To advance our knowledge of the Cycladic culture in the Early Bronze Age one might wish to excavate an unspoiled large cemetery or settlement. However, this action i inevitably also involves its destruction, besides the fact that modern standards of excavation involve many specialists and generally take years to complete, whereby only a small part of the site will be fully excavated. This is not to mention the fact that archeological excavations have become a very expensive tool for archeologists. Illicit ‘excavations’ and destructions of many archaeological sites in the Cycladic islands was to a large degree fuelled by the demand for Early Cycladic stone figurative art. In this quest for commercial spoils much important information is lost. The possibility of finding a large cemetery such as Chalandriani still lying somewhere undetected is extremely small. This is a further incentive to return to older excavations and see whether we can add from these sources to our knowledge of the Cycladic culture. One way of advancing our knowledge of any culture is by critically studying the results of previously executed excavations, and specially those which have not yet been fully investigated or published. In doing so we may gain much new information at relatively low cost and in addition fulfill a promise of completing work once started. Moreover, it has the advantage of giving finds which may have been stored in museum depots for years or put on display without proper background a more considered provenance and context. Essentially this has been the case for the work I undertook with the results from the excavations carried out by Christos Tsountas at Chalandriani. The Cycladic culture of the Early Bronze Age has partly become a victim of its aesthetic succes. The stylized marble figurines have attracted the attention of many people who give no qualms about their provenance or legitemacy of the appearence of such objects on the art market.