Abstract
The anthropological study of two late 8th c. BC monumental graves, designated as T144 and T105, at the ancient necropolis of Paroikia at Paros, initially intended to investigate inter-island features of the human condition, observable as ingrained traces in the human skeletal record, as it may have related to the Parian endeavors in the northern Aegean for the colonization of Thasos. Through the “Paros Polyandreia Anthropological Project,” it was possible to retrieve insights into aspects of the human environments and experiences that had transpired in a Parian context, elucidated by a considerable population sample of cremated male individuals, transcending to broader features that would have involved Thasos; discerning further facets of the human condition during the Late Geometric to the Early Archaic periods in the ancient Hellenic world. This book integrates the basic anthropological data, evaluations and assessments derived from the study of the human skeletal record of polyandreia T144, and T105. Bioarchaeological and forensic anthropological research results include the morphometric analyses of biological developmental growth and variability in relation to manifestations of acquired skeleto-anatomic changes, along with inquiries into the demographic dynamics, and the palaeopathologic profile of the individuals involved. Such intra-site data juxtaposed afforded the possibility to deliberate on issues of the preparedness, intended purpose, function, and symbolic meaning of the funerary activity areas and to reflect on the organizational abilities and capacities of the political and military affairs of the Parians. Moreover, inter-site evaluations where relative with the burial grounds of Orthi Petra of Eleutherna-Crete, Plithos of Naxos, Athenian Demosion Sema, Pythagoreion of Samos, and Rhodes offer comparisons on taphonomy, on cremated materials’ metric analyses, and on aspects of the funerary customs and practices in the interring of cremated war dead.