Challenging the Spartan ‘Mirage’ by Redefining the Greek Standard for Burials

Abstract

Ancient sources, like Plutarch, have written on the Spartan burial practices by depicting them as 'unique' through the acceptance and practice of intracommunal burials compared to extracommunal burials. Through the portrayal of Spartan burials in ancient sources, such as Herodotus, Plutarch, and Pausanias, Sparta was depicted as being the exception to the Greek standard . However, the ancient sources on Spartan burials are not reliable, thus, resulting in modern scholars relying on material evidence to infer an accurate prediction about past societies . This paper will address the flaws and inconsistencies within the ancient sources’ description of Spartan funerary practices and illustrate how Sparta was a part of the Greek 'standard'. This will be accomplished by using recent archaeological evidence showcasing extracommunal and intracommunal burial practices from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period to contradict the existing ancient sources illustration of Sparta’s ‘unique’ burial practices. Furthermore, this paper will compare Sparta with its neighbouring poleis, Corinth and Argos, to show how their archaeological evidence also depicts the mixture of intracommunal and extracommunal practices from the Archaic to Classical period. Thus, I argue that the preconceived ‘unique’ intracommunal burial practices of Sparta are inaccurate based on the archaeological evidence, which instead supports that the Greek standard utilized a mixture of intracommunal and extracommunal burial practices.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jessica Romney