Editing Kerameikos (section)

== History and description ==

The area took its name from the city square or [[deme|dēmos]] (δῆμος) of the [[Kerameis]] (Κεραμεῖς, potters), which in turn derived its name from the word κέραμος (''kéramos'', "pottery clay", from which the English word "[[ceramic]]" is derived).<ref name="goette">Hans Rupprecht Goette, ''Athens, Attica and the Megarid: An Archaeological Guide'', p. 59 {{ISBN?}}</ref> The "Inner Kerameikos" was the former "potters' quarter" within the city and "Outer Kerameikos" covers the cemetery and also the ''Dēmósion Sēma'' (δημόσιον σῆμα, public graveyard) just outside the city walls, where [[Pericles]] delivered his [[Pericles' Funeral Oration|funeral oration]] in 431 BC. The cemetery was also where the [[Ηiera Hodos]] (the [[Sacred Way]], i.e. the road to [[Eleusis]]) began, along which the procession moved for the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]].  The quarter was located there because of the abundance of clay mud carried over by the Eridanos River.

The area has undergone a number of archaeological excavations in recent years, though the excavated area covers only a small portion of the ancient ''dēmos''. It was originally an area of marshland along the banks of the Eridanos river which was used as a cemetery as long ago as the 3rd millennium BC. It became the site of an organised cemetery from about 1200 BC; numerous [[cist]] graves and burial offerings from the period have been discovered by archaeologists. Houses were constructed on the higher drier ground to the south. During the [[Archaic period in Greece|Archaic period]] increasingly large and complex grave mounds and monuments were built along the south bank of the Eridanos, lining the Sacred Way.<ref name="goette" />

[[File:Kerameikos7 Athens.JPG|thumb|left|Part of the [[Themistoclean Wall]] built in the 5th century BC]] 
The building of [[Themistoclean Wall|the new city wall]] in 478 BC, following the [[Achaemenid destruction of Athens#First phase: Xerxes I (480 BCE)|Persian sack of Athens]] in 480 BC, fundamentally changed the appearance of the area. At the suggestion of [[Themistocles]], all of the funerary sculptures were built into the city wall and two large city gates facing north-west were erected in the Kerameikos. The Sacred Way ran through the [[Sacred Gate]], on the southern side, to Eleusis. On the northern side a wide road, the Dromos, ran through the double-arched [[Dipylon Gate]] (also known as the Thriasian Gate) and on to the [[Platonic Academy]] a few miles away. State graves were built on either side of the Dipylon Gate, for the interment of prominent personages such as notable warriors and statesmen, including Pericles and [[Cleisthenes]].<ref name="goette" />

[[File:Athens - Ancient road to Academy 1.jpg|thumb|Road to the [[Platonic Academy]]]]
After the construction of the city wall, the Sacred Way and a forking street known as the Street of the Tombs again became lined with imposing sepulchral monuments belonging to the families of rich Athenians, dating to before the late 4th century BC. The construction of such lavish mausolea was banned by decree in 317 BC, following which only small columns or inscribed square marble blocks were permitted as grave stones. The [[Roman Empire|Roman]] occupation of Athens led to a resurgence of monument-building, although little is left of them today.<ref name="goette" />

[[File:The Pompeion in Kerameikos Cemetery on March 1, 2021.jpg|thumb|left|The ruins of the Pompeion]]
During the [[Classical Greece|Classical period]] an important public building, the [[Pompeion]], stood inside the walls in the area between the two gates. This served a key function in the procession (''pompē'', πομπή) in honour of [[Athena]] during the [[Panathenaic Festival]]. It consisted of a large courtyard surrounded by columns and banquet rooms, where the nobility of Athens would eat the sacrificial meat for the festival. According to ancient Greek sources, a [[hecatomb]] (a sacrifice of 100 cows) was carried out for the festival and the people received the meat in the Kerameikos, possibly in the Dipylon courtyard; excavators have found heaps of bones in front of the city wall.<ref name="goette" />
 
The Pompeion and many other buildings in the vicinity of the Sacred Gate were razed to the ground by the marauding army of the Roman dictator [[Sulla]], during his [[Siege of Athens and Piraeus (87–86 BC)|sacking of Athens in 86 BC]]; an episode that [[Plutarch]] described as a bloodbath. During the 2nd century AD, a storehouse was constructed on the site of the Pompeion, but it was destroyed during the invasion of the [[Heruli]] in 267 AD. The ruins became the site of potters' workshops until about 500 AD, when two parallel colonnades were built behind the city gates, overrunning the old city walls. A new Festival Gate was constructed to the east with three entrances leading into the city. This was in turn destroyed in raids by the invading [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] and [[Slavs]] at the end of the 6th century, and the Kerameikos fell into obscurity. It was not rediscovered until a Greek worker dug up a [[stele]] in April 1863.<ref name="goette" />