“The Kouroi of
Atalanti”, which came to light in 2018 by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Phthiotida
& Evrytania on the eastern outskirts of Atalanti (Opous), are part of a
wider monumental archaeological landscape of the organized cemetery, which was
revealed thanks to the discovery of the first statue by a farmer during
ploughing. This unexpected find is of great importance both for Phthiotida and mainland
Greece, as their typology and innovative stylistic features -such as their
posture- make them unique, providing new, unknown information in the art of
monumental archaic sculpture.
The results of a preliminary
archaeometric research, carried out by collecting samples of limestone (poros),
which abound in various areas of Locris, and their comparative analysis with
the raw material used in the manufacture of the statues, identified the
domestic origin of the limestone. This fact allows the attribution of the artifacts
to a local Locrian sculpture workshop, which produced works of art during the
6th and first half of the 5th century BC.
In addition, the 3D scanning
of the sculptures revealed details that were invisible to the naked eye and
helped to identify the central statue of this exhibition as the hero, the
demigod Hercules, who is represented in the “type of Kouros”, wearing
the lion’s skin over his head with the animal’s forelegs tied to his chest.
The
cemetery
The statues were found in the
upper layers of the wider excavated context of the organized cemetery, in which
16 intact graves have been excavated, containing individual burials of adults,
children and infants, accompanied by numerous and remarkable grave offerings.
In addition, it is worth noting the existence of a cenotaph between the graves,
in which offerings and all honors were attributed to the deceased, who may have
been lost far from home. The cemetery was in use from the late 7th/early 6th
century BC to the first half of the 2nd century BC, with the majority of the
graves dating to the 5th century BC.
The majority of the graves had an E-W orientation,
while there were others with different direction from N to S. The
deceased in the limestone and clay sarcophagi were placed with their heads
facing east, and with their lower limbs strongly bent. In the burial pithoi the
bodies were positioned in a strongly contracted posture – “embryonic”. The
special care of the dead and their burial ritual is demonstrated by the
numerous grave goods that accompanied them. Predominant are the Locrian kantharoi
with white decoration of floral motifs, numerous terracotta figurines, painted
polychrome Locrian plates, bronze vases, mirrors, silver jewelers, a bone stylus,
a glass Phoenician pendant in the shape of an African male head, an eye-bead etc.
In the last phase of the
cemetery’s use, during the late Hellenistic period (first half of the 2nd
century BC), temporary enclosures were constructed to delimit the clusters of
graves. The building material used, was abundant in the area from the earlier
burial monuments, included pieces of funerary grave stele and sculptures, such
as a part of the buttocks of an oversized kouros and several architectural
members. The discovery of the statues in the overlying Hellenistic layer of the
cemetery enclosures reinforces the possibility that the sculptures were
transported during this period to be used as building material.
