Table-top excavations

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All the burials from the children's cemetery on Astypalaia are in large pots, mostly trade amphorae. A hole was cut in the side, through which the child's body was laid down, and the piece cut out was replaced (we call it the "door"). After burial, this arrangement usually collapsed and soil poured inside. In the pictures above, excavation revealed first the door which had fallen inside and then the skeleton underneath. This type of excavation is demanding, because everything has to be done through the opening without damaging the pot. We have to reach in with tools and the soil matrix is cemented hard.

In most burials, however, pressure of the overlying soil cracked the pot all over, as well as pouring into the void inside. We carefully remove the pieces of pottery and then roll over the ball of soil which remains, to expose its underside. In the pictures below, the soil ball was first cleaned, to show some bones already exposed. This surface would have been lying in the lower side of the pot. Excavation revealed the very well preserved skeleton of a newborn baby.

The final stage of the process is to sieve, to a 2 mm mesh, all the soil which comes out of the burial.