Bronze Age · 3200–2000 BC · Rafina, Attica, Greece
Early Bronze Age jar burial with stone false door found at Rafina in Greece
The pithos tomb in eastern Attica held two people covered by large stones, and two metres away lay a burnt pit containing a complete equid skeleton.
Official announcement
Rafina, Greece Archaeologists in eastern Attica, Greece, have excavated an Early Bronze Age burial in which two people were laid inside a large storage jar. The jar's mouth was closed off by a pebble wall and a stone structure built to look like a door. The tomb lies on the southern bank of the Rafina stream. It dates to the Early Helladic period (3200–2000 BC).
About two metres away, the team found a large circular pit. It held a thick layer of ash and burnt animal remains, including the complete skeleton of an equid.
The finds come from a rescue excavation by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Eastern Attica. The ephorate has carried out the dig since 2024 as part of the archaeological subproject "Arrangement-Delimitation of the Rafina Stream". The subproject accompanies work to demarcate and regulate the streambed. The Greek Ministry of Culture released photographs of the site.
A storage jar sealed with a stone false door
The burial was made in a pithos. This is a large ceramic storage jar of the kind also used as a coffin in the Bronze Age Aegean. This one stands 1.74 metres tall. It was placed on its own in a pit cut into the clayey marl of the riverbank.
The jar has horizontal handles at the level of the belly. Corded relief decoration runs around the neck and handles, a style typical of the period.
What sets the tomb apart is the way it was closed. A semicircular wall of river cobbles sealed the mouth of the jar. Two large stones, with smaller slabs between them, formed a pseudo-door leading into the vessel. The pseudo-door had jambs and a threshold.
La Brújula Verde, reporting the ephorate's account, describes the arrangement as symbolically sealing access to the world of the dead.
Inside, the bones of two individuals lay on a prepared layer of sand and pebbles. Large stones had been placed over them. The stones filled nearly all the space in the jar.
The grave goods were a copper awl, obsidian points, pottery and an ovoid flat stone. Archaeology Wiki's report of the announcement describes the stone as possibly an offering table. La Brújula Verde calls it a board or plaque. According to the announcement, the careful construction of the monument reflects a profound respect for the deceased.
Organised cemeteries of the same period are already known in Attica. They include Tsepi and Mati in Marathon, Agios Kosmas in Elliniko and Asteria in Glyfada. The Rafina tomb is an isolated burial. The ephorate presents it as new evidence for the variety of funerary customs in the region during the 3rd millennium BC.
The announcement also cites evidence of Cycladic and eastern influences. La Brújula Verde says some elements of the grave goods point that way, but it does not name them. La Brújula Verde also suggests that the tomb's individual character and elaborate structure may indicate social differentiation.
Burnt animal remains in a nearby pit
The circular pit lies about two metres south-east of the pithos. It shows signs of prolonged use and traces of burning. Its layers span a very long time.
The upper levels contained a bull skull, together with pottery and coins from the historical period. Archaeology Wiki calls the coins bronze; La Brújula Verde calls them copper. Near the bottom lay the complete skeleton of an equid, a member of the horse family, and the bones of smaller animals. They rested on top of a thick layer of ash and burnt material.
The excavators think the deposit points to rituals involving animal sacrifices, with the animals burned or cooked. No direct connection between the pit and the tomb has yet been established. It is not known whether the two are contemporary.
It is also an open question how to read the bull skull from the historical period. It may mark a chance reuse of the spot. Or it may reflect a tradition of treating the place as sacred that lasted for a very long time.
The discovery comes 75 years after the archaeologist Dimitrios Theocharis found the first Early Bronze Age settlements at Rafina. They lay in the area of the old harbour (today's Eleftherios Venizelos Square) and on the Askitari peninsula. The new finds add burial and possible ritual evidence to that picture of the town's earliest communities.
The study of the site will combine the archaeological work with zooarchaeology and natural science analyses. These include organic residue analysis and absolute dating. The team expects them to fix the relative chronology of the pit and the tomb. The analyses should also show which parts of the animals were consumed or offered, and test whether the two features are linked.
Sources
- A Hermetically Sealed Tomb with a False Door and a Circular Ritual Pit from the First Bronze Age Communities 5,000 Years Ago Discovered in Attica (La Brújula Verde)
- Bronze Age Burial Uncovered in Greece (Archaeology Magazine)
- Significant pithos burial uncovered in Rafina (Archaeology Wiki)
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