Alexandra Alexandridou 6 Shedding Light on Mortuary Practices in Early Archaic Attica: The Case of the Offering Trenches Abstract: The seventh century B.C. saw a number of changes in Attic mortuary practices with the emergence of the offering trenches being one of the most characteristic. The earliest examples came to light in the late nineteenth century in association with a number of tumuli in the Attic country- side, although the cemetery of Kerameikos revealed the richest evidence, which has been thoroughly published and studied. The trenches contained good quantities of Protoattic and early black-figure pottery, which formed the focus of the early scholarship because of its importance for the study of the Attic vase painting. Nevertheless, during the last two decades, offering trenches have been employed by a number of scholars as a medium for approaching early Archaic Attic society during a period of special interest, which coincides with the early development of the polis. The offering trenches serve as a case study for showing the shift in archaeological research on early Attica with scholarly interest moving from the finds to their archaeological context, and focusing on the importance of funerary practices for the study of contemporary society. Moreover, the present contribution reassembles all the known trench-evidence from Attica, while re-examining their funerary and social implications for the contemporary polis. Introduction Offering trenches form the most characteristic funerary feature of seventh- and early sixth-century Attica. With the goal of reconstructing the contemporary social history of Attica based on the available mortuary evidence, these trenches have been a central concern of scholars especially over the last two decades (Houby-Nielsen 1992; 1995; 1996; D’Onofrio 1993; Kistler 1998; Alexandridou 2008; 2009; 2011, 34–36; 2013). The Attic offering trenches can form a constructive case study, illustrating the importance of archaeological context in shaping an understanding of contemporary social practices, which are poorly documented in much later historical sources. The present contribution focuses on the historiography of research, in an attempt to dem- onstrate the shift of scholarly focus from the excavated material—in particular the fine decorated vases—to their context and the questions raised on the funerary, ritual, and social character of the trenches, and their use as a tool for providing new insights into early Archaic Attica. Authenticated | alexandraalexandridou@gmail.com author's copy Download Date | 9/9/15 11:32 PM