Sparta45

=Sparta Society to the Battle of Leuctra, 371 BC =

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Funerary customs and rituals
See text: pp.146-149


 * List the key features of Spartan burial practice as describe by Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, 27 (p.146 of text)
 * List the features of the funerary ritual of a Spartan king as described by Herodotus, The Histories, 58
 * Describe the archaeological evidence for Spartan burials. In what ways does it contradict the Plutarch description?
 * What evidence does Pausanias’ description provide us for tombs and cenotaphs of war heroes in Sparta?


 * Plutarch**, __Life of Lycurgus__, 27
 * People could be buried within the city and near temples. This would allow young people to grow up not fearing death.
 * No burial goods were allowed, only a red cloak to wrap the body and some olive leaves.
 * No names on tombs except for a soldier killed in battle or a woman who died in labour (* note Brian Brennan’s comment on this last point).
 * Eleven days of mourning. On the twelfth day mourners sacrifice to Demeter and abandon their grief.


 * Herodotus**, __The Histories__, 58
 * Death is announced throughout the whole land by horsemen
 * Women strike a copper kettle
 * A free man and woman from each household must go into mourning
 * A large gathering at the funeral ceremony, including perioiki and helots and women, beat their foreheads and make lamentations
 * Mourning lasts for ten days, no assembly or election of magistrates in that time
 * Debts to the deceased king are cancelled

=**Archaeological evidence**=


 * Jar burials**
 * 20th Century discovery of bones buried in jars (pithoi)
 * 1906 discoveries could not be accurately dated
 * Later 20th C discoveries dated by associated goods to late 8th C BC
 * Grave goods, e.g. iron sword and dagger and bronze ornaments. This evidence contradicts ** Plutarch **’s assertion that Lycurgus banned burial goods.


 * Burials in Mesoa area**
 * Four cist-graves (lined cavities)
 * Two male adults, one female adult, one child
 * ** Christou **and ** Cartledge **argue that these were Spartan citizens
 * Grave marked by amphora depicting a hunting scene and battle scene
 * Dated to c. 600 BC
 * Graves covered by a tumulus, which contained bones of sacrificed oxen, wild boars and horses


 * Two-storey tombs**
 * Distinctive Spartan tomb, described by ** Pausanias **
 * Used from early 6th C. to 2nd C. BC
 * Body buried initially in lower storey
 * After decay, bones gathered and reinterred in second storey
 * One such tomb has been interpreted by ** Stella Raftopoulou ** as the site of a possible hero cult


 * Tombs and cenotaphs**
 * ** Pausanias **described many tombs and cenotaphs in Sparta
 * Dedicated to soldiers killed in battle, e.g. cenotaph to Brasidas who was killed at Amphipolis
 * Leonidas’ bones restored to Sparta forty years after Thermopylae; commemoration and funerary games only for Spartans were held each year; nearby stone commemorated all the Sparta fallen at Thermopylae
 * ** Tyrtaios **writes of the tomb of a Spartan war hero as giving him immortality