Editing Sparta (section)

===Birth and death===
Sparta was above all a militarist state, and emphasis on military fitness began virtually at birth. According to Plutarch after birth, a mother would bathe her child in wine to see whether the child was strong. If the child survived it was brought before the Gerousia by the child's father. The Gerousia then decided whether it was to be reared or not.<ref name=EB1911/> It is commonly stated that if they considered it "puny and deformed", the baby was thrown into a chasm on [[Taygetus|Mount Taygetos]] known euphemistically as the ''Apothetae'' (Gr., ''ἀποθέται'', "Deposits").{{sfn|Cartledge|2001|p=84}}{{sfn|Plutarch|2005|p=20}} This was, in effect, a primitive form of [[eugenics]].{{sfn|Cartledge|2001|p=84}} Plutarch is the sole historical source for the Spartan practice of systemic infanticide motivated by eugenics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bayliss |first1=Andrew J. |title=4. Raising a Spartan |journal=The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction |date=26 May 2022 |pages=59–76 |doi=10.1093/actrade/9780198787600.003.0004|isbn=978-0-19-878760-0 }}</ref> Sparta is often viewed as being unique in this regard, however, anthropologist Laila Williamson notes: "Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williamson |first=Laila |contribution=Infanticide: an anthropological analysis |editor-last=Kohl |editor-first=Marvin |title=Infanticide and the Value of Life |pages=61–75 [61] |publisher=[[Prometheus Books]] |place=NY |year=1978}}</ref> There is controversy about the matter in Sparta, since excavations in the chasm only uncovered adult remains, likely belonging to criminals<ref>{{cite journal |author=Theodoros K. Pitsios |url=http://www.anthropologie.ch/d/publikationen/archiv/2010/documents/03PITSIOSreprint.pdf |date=2010 |title=Ancient Sparta – Research Program of Keadas Cavern |journal=Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie|volume=16|issue=1–2|pages=13–22|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002192630/http://www.anthropologie.ch/d/publikationen/archiv/2010/documents/03PITSIOSreprint.pdf |archive-date=2 October 2013 }}</ref> and Greek sources contemporary to Sparta does not mention systemic infanticide motivated solely by eugenics.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Disability and Infanticide in Ancient Greece |journal=Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens |date=2021 |volume=90 |issue=4 |pages=747 |doi=10.2972/hesperia.90.4.0747 |last1=Sneed |s2cid=245045967 }}</ref>

Spartan burial customs changed over time. The Archaic Spartan poet [[Tyrtaeus]] spoke of the Spartan war-dead as follows:

<blockquote>Never do his [the war-dead's] name and good fame perish,<br>But even though he is beneath the earth he is immortal,<br>Young and old alike mourn him,<br>All the city is distressed by the painful loss,<br>and his tomb and children are pointed out among the people,<br>and his children's children and his line after them.<ref>Tyrtaeus, fr.12 lines 27–32</ref></blockquote>

When Spartans died, marked headstones would only be granted to soldiers who died in combat during a victorious campaign or women who died either in service of a divine office or in childbirth.<ref>Plutarch, ''Life of Lycurgus'' 27.2–3. However this may be conflating later practice with that of the classical period. See Not the Classical Ideal: Athens and the Construction of the Other in Greek Art ed. Beth Cohen, p. 263, note 33, 2000, Brill.</ref> These headstones likely acted as memorials, rather than as grave markers. Evidence of Spartan burials is provided by the Tomb of the Lacedaimonians in Athens.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} Excavations at the cemetery of classical Sparta, uncovered ritually pierced [[Kantharos|kantharoid]]-like ceramic vessels, the ritual slaughter of horses, and specific burial enclosures alongside individual 'plots'. Some of the graves were reused over time.<ref>Tsouli, M. (2016). Testimonia on Funerary Banquets in Ancient Sparta. In: Draycott, C. M., Stamatopoulou, M., & Peeters, U. (eds.), Dining and Death: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the 'Funerary Banquet' in Ancient Art, Burial and Belief, Peeters, 353–383.</ref><ref name=":0">Christesen, P. (2018). The typology and topography of Spartan burials from the Protogeometric to the Hellenistic period: rethinking Spartan exceptionalism and the ostensible cessation of adult intramural burials in the Greek world. ''Annual of the British School at Athens'', ''113'', 307–363.</ref>

In the Hellenistic Period, grander, two-storey monumental tombs are found at Sparta. Ten of these have been found for this period.<ref name=":0" />