19 - Archaic Grave Monuments: Body or Stele?

Summary

We know of two major types of late Archaic Attic marble grave monuments: the three-dimensional statue of a young male or female in the statuary types of the kouros or kore and the relief stele (Figs. 14.1 and 19.1). Both monuments show the image of the deceased as a standing figure. In one case, the deceased is presented as an autonomously standing figure sculpted in the round, while in the other case, the deceased constitutes the central relief decoration of a marble stele. Or, more simply put: in one case, the grave monument is a marble body, in the other case, it is a marble stele. The following chapter shall confront these two strategies of monumental commemoration of the deceased. What is at stake in the choice of body or stele? In what respects do these two concepts for a grave monument differ, what do they have in common, and what do their differences and commonalities tell us more generally about the specific culture of monumental commemoration of the deceased in Archaic Greece? The chapter will focus on the polis of Athens.

STATUARY MONUMENTS AND STELE MONUMENTS: COMMON ELEMENTS

The spatial arrangement of burial and grave monument

First and foremost, both types of marble grave monuments have their origin in common. From Geometric cemeteries, we know of roughly fl attened slabs of mostly high rectangular form of no more than a meter in height. These are reconstructed as standing next to the well-known monumental grave vases (Fig. 19.2). In the course of the Archaic period, such simple stone stelai evolved into lavishly carved marble grave monuments. The Geometric grave vases typically (though not always!) have a hole on their bottom, which is indicative of their use for libations to the deceased. These grave vases were therefore set up directly over the actual burial. The Geometric grave vases thus function as a visible marker of the deceased buried beneath the ground and therefore remote from the world of the living. Interestingly, the grave vases’ function as grave markers was supplemented by the roughly worked stone slabs erected next to them, fulfilling in a second way the function of marking the grave.