Ancient Greek Girl Buried With A Crown of Ceramic Flowers, Patras, 300-400 BC, from Museum of Patras, September 5, 2013//Credit: Wikimedia Commons-Fred Martin Kaaby-CC-BY-SA-3.0
The skull of an Ancient Greek girl with a ceramic flower wreath has been discovered. These remains have been dated circa 400 to 300 B.C. This skull currently resides in The New Archaeological Museum of Patras in Greece.
This fossilized cranium is among a featured collection of the pates of women and girls found in the North Cemetery in Patras in the Hellenistic period. Patras is presently Greece’s third-largest city, the regional capital of Western Greece in the northern Peloponnese.
This period of history under consideration is one of Greek expansion and conquest. The collection is dated roughly from the time of the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) to the rise of Augustus in Rome (31 BCE).
What is archaeology?
How can this ancient Greek girl wearing a ceramic wreath be characterized? Some scholars of archaeology are dynamic storytellers, or they may ask so many conflicting questions we may get bored. Their presentation may be about little more than nothing. A sense of humor helps reveal more than dry bones and broken pottery.
It is a good question to ask on International Archaeology Day (or any day of the year). What is this excavatable field of inquiry all about? Anytime an archaeologist examines ancient remains, they have certain goals in mind. They wish to document and explain the origins of human cultures. Desiring to understand cultural histories and record evolution, archaeologists thus study behavior and ecology.
Is archaeology useful?
A focus on prehistoric and historical times is usually measured by the search for objectivity in asking many questions. Nevertheless, contemporary society finds all this useful when it contributes not simply to education but identity and community formation. These cannot be separated from politics or how power and society’s institutions are arranged, challenged, and justified. Has humanity evolved for the better because of archaeology and its contributions?
As the world becomes more ecologically aware, the overlap between archaeology and paleontology increases in importance. The difference between the former and the latter is that paleontology focuses on all life forms. Whether with social or deep ecological views, we begin to comprehend that human development cannot be separated from other species and dynamics of the planet.
Before digging, archaeologists research the historical background of the area to be considered. They survey the land for features and challenges. Preliminarily, and at regular intervals, subsurface testing is followed by written reports. Scholars hope that something profound can be discovered for historical and social interpretation.
Why buried with the wreath of ceramic flowers?
Focusing on the remains of this girl, who obviously did not live to become an adult, allows us to speculate on biological evolution, the meanings of Greek youth in her epoch, and the path girls take in going from childhood to womanhood.
We can consider marriage rituals, religion, gender roles, sexuality, and children’s rites of passage. How did her community value nature and the arts? These are only beginnings. And these instincts become more specific as a product of the historical research one does before digging for bones or the remnants of art or tools.