Athenian burials with weapons: the Athenian warrior graves revisited

The weapon burial ritual has a long term history in the Greek burial practises and recent researches have pointed out the varieties of the ritual behaviour and the need for an in-depth analysis and regional studies. The case of early Athens, where a striking number of occurrences is known for the period from the Protogeometric to the end of the Geometric, is worthy of thoroughly examination. Questions related to gender, age, ranking are treated in the paper as well as the distribution pattern within the asty area and in the whole Attic region. The Authors also calls attention on an Athenian particular form of the killed weapon ritual, with the bent sword wrapped around the urn-amphora, which appears as an identifying and exclusive marker of the Athenian male elite.