Cemeteries

Two cemeteries and also some isolated tombs have been excavated in the area of Galaxidi. The cemetery of the Geometric settlement at Agios Athanasios consisted of eight cist-graves (1).

The dead were placed on their side with the knees bent to the chest, together with rich offerings, such as clay and bronze vessels, jewellery and weapons.

In the modern town, part of a cemetery from Hellenistic and Roman times was excavated. It consisted of about 35 tombs of all types , with many funerary offerings, mainly clay and glass vessels, oil-lamps and coins. In some, bronze and iron nails were found, indicating that the dead had been placed in a coffin or on a bed. Most important was:  a structure, measuring 7.70 x 5.25 m, which surrounded five tombs already looted in ancient times and  an impressive, cist-grave which contained a skeleton, in the supine position, together with many offerings (clay and bronze vessels, coins, an oil-lamp and an iron ring) and also personal items for athletic activity (an iron strigil and a bronze perfume pot) which led us to believe that it was a tomb of an athlete.

On the oldest gravestone*, a part of a bare foot is saved. The most interesting is that belonging to the young man Armoxenos which has an elegiac poem at the base, stating that his parents erected the gravestone so that future generations would remember their child.