Kerameikos

Athens, Greece

Kerameikos was the potters' quarter of the city, from which the English word 'ceramic' is derived, and was also the site of an important cemetery and numerous funerary sculptures erected along the road out of the city towards Eleusis.

The earliest tombs at the Kerameikos date from the Early Bronze Age (2700-2000 BC), and the cemetery appears to have continuously expanded from the sub-Mycenaean period (1100-1000 BC). In the Geometric (1000-700 BC) and Archaic periods (700-480 BC) the number of tombs increased; they were arranged inside tumuli or marked by funerary monuments. The cemetery was used incessantly from the Hellenistic period until the Early Christian period (338 BC until approximately the sixth century AD).

The most important Athenian vases come from the tombs of the Kerameikos. Among them is the famous “Dipylon Oinochoe”, which bears the earliest inscription written in the Greek alphabet (second half of the eighth century BC). The site's small museum houses the finds from the Kerameikos excavations.

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Address

Melidoni 15, Athens, Greece
See all sites in Athens

Details

Founded: 2700 BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in Greece

Rating

4.4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Sinéad Browne (3 months ago)
Really interesting place to visit. It's an ancient cemetery and the tombs are fascinating. The museum has lots of ceramic artefacts dating back to about 1700BC. Great place to learn about the history of ancient Greece.
GT Hodge (4 months ago)
Excellent site, very enjoyable. Ancients roads, city walls, gates, tombs…. and a tortoise. Info markers here are well done and help you visualize the past prior to ruin. Tombs and grave markers are interesting. Wall construction interesting. Site also has potable water well, welcome on a blazing hot July day.
Sarish Mohar (7 months ago)
Best site amongst the non acropolis sites. But like all sites in Athens, the Greek ministry of culture have 0 clue how to make their sites accessible to tourists. 0 information on anything we’re seeing. The digital map is so useless and hard to navigate. What made this an awful experience is the staff shouting at me when I asked questions about the site and for a map - very rude and unprofessional In the museum part - a staff member tried to fiddle with my bag because he wanted to hide a keychain that could scratch the cabinet display. Instead of just asking me , he touched my possessions himself and messed about - that’s so unprofessional and a blatant lack of respect for your visitors . Gross stay away
Mehdi Bettiche (7 months ago)
An ancient cemetery that still has a lot of the ancient ruins, we were even lucky to witness archaeologists working on excavating ground stones (and being among the first ones to see it in thousands of years). We spent more than 1h there walking slowly and enjoying the place and the museum. The museum is a couple of rooms but has many artefacts. Out of the 7 places included in the general admission for the acropolis tickets, I would place this one in the 3rd place (acropolis being the first, followed by ancient agora)
john wilkes (8 months ago)
One of the sites included in the extended Acropolis ticket. The site includes the old Athenian walls and the cemetery outside them. Several signs point out what you are looking at, but it was also fun just wandering around the ruins. Nicely presented small museum on the site, that contains the originals of several items that have been replaced with replicas to preserve them. There's a few tortoises too - as well as the usual complement of elegant stray cats.
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