The Funeral Mound of the Athenians at Marathon Sellers C. Lawrence -- 1996

    The imperfect nature of the literary sources for the Marathon campaign has spawned countless theories and reconstructions of the battle that have often varied greatly. However, almost all scholars have used one landmark as a fixed point: the soros, or funeral mound of   the Athenians. While it is certain that this artificial hillock marks the resting place of the 192 Athenians who died in the battle of 190 B.C. and were buried “on the field,” many writers go further and suggest that the mound marks the spot where the Persians broke the center of the Greek line and where Athenian losses were greatest, and thus can be used to reconstruct the positions of the armies and the course of the battle (N. G. L. Hammond [1988; 1973; 1968]; J. A. G. van der Veer [1982]; Eugene Vanderpool [1966]; W. K. Pritchett [1960]). I argue that this idea is based on assumptions that have no support in the ancient evidence, and a better case can be made that the mound is on the right side of the Athenian battle line.
    Herodotus (6.113) reports that the Persians routed the center of the Athenian formation and “pursued them inland.” Historians make the reasonable assumption that the Athenians suffered many casualties here where the hoplite ranks were broken, although no ancient source directly confirms this. Herodotus does not say anything about how the Athenians dealt with their dead after the battle. Thucydides (2.34.5) tells us that the Athenians were buried on the spot of the battle, and Pausanias (1.32.3) visited the mound, but no ancient source discusses when the dead were buried and the tumulus erected over them. In most modern accounts the often unstated assumption (again without ancient support) is that the bodies were collected immediately and burned en masse at the site of the mound. When scholars do discuss the burial, they assign this chore to Aristeides and the Antiochis tribe while the rest of the army raced back to Athens (Pritchett [1960]). The supposition is that the Athenians selected a site near where most of the dead fell for the sake of honor and convenience (to get the bodies out of the summer sun as quickly as possible).
    However, is the funeral mound at Marathon a careless construction thrown together hastily, or is it is evidence of a more attentive and deliberate ritual to honor the Athenian dead? The excavations of the mound in 1890 and 1891 uncovered an artificial “pavement” of packed sea sand mixed with greenish soil at a level three meters beneath the modern ground level. On this layer, and near the center of the mound, was a brick-lined sacrificial tray that contained ash and the bones of animals and birds. Around this, and above the sand, was a layer of ash and human bones mixed with lekythoi and other vases of the early fifth century. All this suggests that the bones of the Athenian dead were burned at Marathon after careful preparation and with great ceremony, and that this public burial occurred some time after the battle. Only then was the earthen mound erected, and another sacrificial tray constructed on the southeast side where later generations continued to honor the heroes of Marathon (IG II2 1006).
    If we remove the question of convenience from the Athenians’ decision in placing the funeral mound, the matter becomes one of how best to honor the dead. The possibility remains that they chose a spot where many of the dead fell, or perhaps a spot near a roadway to make the tomb more accessible or conspicuous. I offer another suggestion. As the polemarch, Callimachus of Aphidna probably performed the sacrifices before the battle to ensure victory and then led the right flank of the Athenian line (Herodotus 6.111). There is evidence that he died in the heart of the struggle on the plain, fighting heroically, as the Athenians routed the Persians. His body was supposedly struck by so many Persian missiles that he did not fall to ground after he was dead (Polemon I and II; E. B. Harrison [1972]). Callimachus’ rank, his religious responsibilities and his bravery in battle would all mark the spot of his death, on the Athenian right flank, as a logical location for the burial mound. Among the many smaller vases found in the ash layer, there was also a “two-handled vase … with decoration somewhat in the Mycenaean style” containing the charred bones of a man. The excavators suggested these were the bones of a general. Indeed, these may have been the final remains of Callimachus, the Athenian polemarch who gave his life for his city on that very spot.