A mass grave was recently discovered four miles outside of Athens in the historic harbor city of Phalaeron. But this wasn't just any mass grave—36 of the 80 skeletons were restrained in iron shackles and were arranged in a row next to each other. Because of this, some researchers speculate that they might be adherents of Cylon, a despot who attempted to conquer Athens in the seventh century B.C.
About 1,500 skeletons have been discovered in a 1-acre cemetery near Phalaeron, according to Tia Ghose of LiveScience. But, this most recent set was discovered in a location where the Greek National Opera and a new branch of the Greek National Library are being built. Scientists were able to date the cemetery between 650 and 625 B.C., a time period that ancient historians claim was full of unrest for Athens, thanks to two tiny vases discovered among the bound skeletons.
The teeth of the remains, according to AFP, indicate that they were largely from younger, healthy individuals. This supports the hypothesis that they were political outlaws who attempted to take control of Athens. A bioarchaeologist from the University of West Florida in Pensacola named Kristina Killgrove, who was not involved in the study, tells Ghose that "these might be the bones of persons who were part of this coup in Athens in 632 [B.C. ], the Coup of Cylon."
The ancient historians Plutarch and Thucydides claim that Cylon participated in the 640 B.C. Olympic Games as an athlete. His triumph there earned him a higher position and the hand of the Megarian tyrant's daughter. Because of the bad harvests and social disparity, Athens experienced unrest during the following 10 years. In 632, Cylon launched a coup with the aid of his father-in-army, law's expecting that the citizens of Athens would follow him. Though most didn't, some did.
As a substitute, Cylon fled the city, and his rebels sought refuge on the Acropolis. They eventually started to hunger, but Megacles, the city archon, guaranteed them safe passage. But he killed them as soon as they exited the shrine. According to Thucydides, "They even killed several of them in the very presence of the dreadful Goddesses at whose altars they had sought sanctuary while passing by." "The killers and those who follow them are considered cursed and transgressors against the Lady."
Nonetheless, it is far from definite that the skeletons belong to Cylon's disciples. Killgrove explains to Ghose that one of the issues is that there aren't many historical records from that century; as a result, "we really have no history" and "it might be a stretch for them to connect these shackled skeletons with this coup." "There are any number of possibilities for why a mass grave — really, many mass graves — of shackled skeletons were uncovered in Athens," says Killgrove in Forbes.
Less archeological sites from the time period do, however, depict people from lower socioeconomic levels. According to Killgrove, these skeletons could provide researchers with information about the working-class Athenians of the time.
