ANTANDROS MEZAR TAŞLARI

Abstract

The grave steles uncovered during the salvage excavations done by the museum and the following systematic exca­vations at the Antandrus necropolis are the topic of this work. The content of this study is unprocessed natural stones, herme shaped stelai, stelai with triangular pediments, a stele with a circular cross-section, and a kouros fragment, which had been used as a grave marker. Among the stele groups that have been classified chronologically, the herme shaped stelai stand out. The common characteristic of this group is having vertically a rectangular body, a short and narrow neck, and an upper structure in a stylized head shape. However, none of the human organs is elaborated neither on the head nor the body. Early samples dating to the second half of the seventh century BC of this group were also in use during the Classical period. In both periods, steles were placed directly on ground without using bases. Apart from the herme shaped stelai, the grave markers that date to the Archaic Period are a kouros head fragment and a stele with a circular cross-section. The latter was possibly a three dimensional version of the usual two dimen­sional herme shaped stelai. The sustainability can only be followed among the Herme shaped steles in Antandrus. They were used both in the Arc­haic and Classical periods and then replaced by steles with triangular pediments and bases the in Hellenistic period.