Relics Of Battle Of Marathon

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 5

Relics Of Battle Of Marathon

The burial place of Greek warriors who fell in the epoch - making Battle of Marathon, defending Athenian civilisation from Persian conquest in 490 B.C,,'has been discovered byGreek archaeologists ip the ancient battlefield. The announcement pf the discovery was made on the site by Professor Spyridon Marinates, inspector general of Greek antiquities, as he stood on the edge of the mass grave containing the skeletons of some young soldiers slain in the battle between East and West 2460 years ago. The professor told a throng of newsmen that the grave had been identified “beyond any reasonable doubt” as the tomb of the Plataeans, who had volunteered to help the Athenian Army under the leadership of Miltiades fight the Persian invaders, though heavily outnumbered by the enemy. The mass grave lay under a carefully built stone tumulus, or burial mound, 10 feet high and 50 feet in diameter, its edge marked by hewn stones, on a plain 26 miles north-east of Athens. Only part of the burial trench has been excavated so far, revealing five perfectly preserved skeletons. According to experts they belong to young soldiers aged 20 to 25, placed next to one another. Professor Marinatos pointed ' to the skull of a sixth warrior, probably a leader that still bore the marks of the spear or sword that killed him. Next to each skeleton there was a tiny, painted five-inch “lekythos,” or oil phial, as well as a large clay eating plate placed there “for use in after-life,” the professor said. Professor Marinatos said the excavators had found traces of a large sacrificial pyre, containing animal bones, that had been lighted before the burial, as an offering to the gods. He believed the losses of the Plataeans—who came from the town of Plataea, near Thebes—if proportionate to those of the Athenians, could not have been more than 20 men. He said the archaeological service proposed to build a vault here and turn into a “national shrine the grave of these superb defenders of the fatherland.” Layer Of Ash This is’the first time that relics of the Marathon battle dead have been found. The well-known 40-foot-high Marathon tumulus, about one mile east of this new discovery, revealed no trace of burials when it was first excavated 90 years ago. It was then assumed that the 192 Athenians who died in the Battle of Marathon had been cremated. A thick layer of ash, also containing oil phials and burnt bones, had been found there.

According to Professor Marinatos, the discovery of the tumulus of the Plataeans now poses the question whether the tumulus of the Athenian dead should not be reinvestigated for possible burials. He said the discovery had also clarified what was the battle order when the 9000 Athenians on the right, and 700 to 1000 Plateans on the left, outflanked, defeated and routed the Persians, of whom about 6,400 according to the historian Herodotus were killed or drowned in the marshes north-east of the battlefield.

According to Herodotus, the Persian force numbered 100.000. But this number is now regarded is an exaggeration. The likeliest figure is 10 to 20 thousand. Most of those who escaped embarked on

the ships moored in Marathon bay. « Professor Marinatos said tn an interview that the archaeological service would continue Its search in the hope of finding the burial place of the Persian dead,-as well as the graves bf the Athenian slaves who had been allowed to fight as free men for the first time , in the battle.

“Many top foreign archaeologists and historians,” Professor . Marinatos said, “believe that if the Persians —who, before Marathon, had conquered Eretria on the island of Euboea, a maritime power at the time—had won, and conquered Athens, whose civilisation and culture were then beginning to flourish, Western Civilisation as we know it today, for better or for worse, could not have existed." He added: ’The dead we found are the heroes of one battle that saved civilisation.” The Parthenon on the Athens Acropolis, built 58 years after this battle, might not have existed had they failed. Popular Resort This archaeological discovery was made while the Greek Department of Antiquities was engaged in a large-scale exploration of the vast seaside plain of Marathon, which, because of its sandy beaches and blue waters, is fast becoming a popular tourist resort. The search so far has revealed some spectacular finds that may force archaeologists into a reappraisal of their theories about the people who first inhabited Attica, the countryside of Athens. Archaeologists found large cemeteries here dating from the middle Bronze Age (2000 to 1600 8.C.), containing some of the earliest burials ever found on the Greek mainland. This was a turning point in the lives of the local tribes, which in the late Stone Age used to dump their dead in remote areas to be devoured by beasts. The burials marked the time when they may have started to believe in the possibility of life after death. Kingly Graves Not far from the tumulus of the Plataeans, excavators found four grave circles dating from the middle Bronze Age, elaborately built with stones, which encircled several shaft-type graves, probably of local kings and their families. In the centre of each circle, which has a diameter of 55 feet, was a small empty room. It is believed the room was built as a kind of “living room" for the dead leaders to use in the afterlife. Near the shore of Marathon Bay, the excavators also found a settlement extending over an area of 125 acres, which was founded in Neolithic times and survived until the Byzantine period. The settlement was protected by a seven-foot-thick fortification wall dating back to 2000 B.C. Professor Marinatos said: “The ancient Greeks had a legend that the son of Deucalion, our own Noah, named Hellene—which is what the Greeks call themselves today —had one son named Xoutbos. who went to Attica, built a city in the plain of Marathon, and married a daughter of Erecbtheus, the King of Athens. It may be that, our discoveries will eventually prove that the Plain of Marathon was, in fact, the cradle of the Greek race." Copyright “New York Times” News Service.

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