Archaeologists go high-tech in 2,500-year-old Greek cold case

Disir

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More than 2,500 years ago, an Athenian nobleman named Cylon -- the first recorded Olympic champion -- tried to take over the city of Athens and install himself as its sole ruler.

According to Thucydides and Herodotus, Athenian and Greek historians who wrote about the coup, Cylon enticed an army of followers to enter the city and lay siege to the Acropolis.

They were defeated, but Cylon managed to escape.

Now archaeologists in Athens believe they may have found some of the remains of Cylon’s army in a mass grave in Phaleron, four miles (6 kilometers) south of downtown Athens.

The discovery of the 80 skeletons of men is “unequalled” in Greece, said site project director Stella Chrysoulaki.

The men, young and well-fed, were found lying in the unmarked grave in three rows, some on their backs while others were tossed facedown on their stomachs.

All of the men had their hands in iron chains and at least 52 of them had their hands tied above their heads.

They died from blows to the head, victims of a “political execution” that dates back to between 675 and 650 B.C. according to pieces of pottery found in the grave, Chrysoulaki said.

Archaeologists go high-tech in 2,500-year-old Greek cold case - ARCHAEOLOGY

Horrifically cool.
 
How do you tell a person was well-fed just from their skeletal remains? And why do you well feed a bunch of people you imprison in chains all to be killed?
 
Isotope analysis. Isotope Analysis

I'm not an expert. I do know that a lot is found in the teeth. I know that certain diseases leave their marks on the bones. Something like rickets leaves the bones soft and they bend. Leprosy leaves lesions on the bones.

Why would you keep 80 young men involved in a coup that wanted to kill you alive long enough to starve? It would have been quick.
 

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