On the Trail of a Large Burial Monument of Patras

Yannis Lolos
University of Thessaly, Greece

In October 1829, the members of the Architecture and Sculpture Section of the Expdition
Scientifique de More led by the architect Abel Blouet , arrived in the city of Patras, only a year
after the liberation of that city from the Ottoman rule.1 There, Abel Blouet and the other mem-
bers of the team were disappointed by not finding the remains seen by Pausanias, and the only
antiquities that drew their attention were those of a Roman burial monument, discovered by the
engineer of the city who interpreted it as a tomb or a sepulchral chamber.2
No more details are given in the text, but Blouet and his team managed to provide a plan
and sections of the monument of remarkable accuracy (Fig. 1). In the accompanying legend of
these drawings it is stated that the tomb is of Roman construction, made of bricks covered with
unpainted stucco, and that it has a mosaic pavement buried at that time.3
The monument was preserved almost intact except for one corner that shows missing. The
inner dimensions of the burial chamber are 5.60 by 3.90 m, and it is barrel vaulted across its long
side.4 The visible inner height of the chamber came to ca. 2.70 m of which 1.64 m corresponds
to the height of the vault. Four rectangular niches were provided for each of the four sides of
the chamber in a symmetrical manner. All were drawn except for the two that correspond to the
missing corner. The niches along the long sides measured ca. 0.28 by 0.20 m with their larger side
opening onto the chamber. The niches along the short sides measured ca. 0.23 by 0.32, these
ones with their short side opening onto the chamber. Both kinds of niches contained two funer-
ary urns, set into the floor. The urns were arranged side by side in the case of the wide and shal-
low niches, and one behind the other in the case of the narrow and deep niches. All niches were
arched and their height came to ca. 0.68 m. A projecting fillet stretched horizontally at the level
of the spring of the arches, another one framed each arch, whereas a cornice-like feature ran
continuously above the arches. The profiles of these decorative moldings were precisely drawn.
Unfortunately, the Expdition provides no indication as to where this monument was located
within the city but the reference to the engineer of the city gives us a hint. The engineer in
question can be no other than the Italian N. Cerulli who was then in charge of the implemen-
tation of the new town plan drafted by Stamatis Voulgaris by order of the Governor Ioannis
Kapodistrias.5 When the Expdition came to Patras, Cerulli and his crew were busy building the
city-hall (), the School ( ), and the Market-place () of the new

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 Yannis Lolos

Figure 1. The burial monument drawn by the Expdition scientifique de More. Source: Blouet
1838, pl. 87.

town. These large complexes were located at the heart of the new city, around King George and
National resistance (former Queen Olgas) squares. Perhaps then it is in this area that the monu-
ment seen and drawn by the Expdition was located.
We hear nothing more about this monument and its destiny6 but in 1976, more than a cen-
tury and a half since its discovery, the Ministry of Culture excavated a mausoleum on 80, Ermou
Street, which is a block or so from King Georges square (Fig. 2).7 This structure, characterized as
the most important funerary edifice of Roman Patras, is a temple-like monument standing on a
podium and dating from the 1st century AD (Fig. 3).8 The podium, made of concrete faced with
opus quadratum, housed a vaulted, rectangular columbarium with four niches along its sides for
the placement of the funerary urns, similar to the columbarium drawn by the Expdition (Fig. 4).
The temple had a cella, ca. 4 by 6 m, a pronaos 8.50 m wide fronted by probably four columns,
and a -shaped exedra with a stone bench across the faade. Most remarkably a sarcophagus
was placed in the porch, ca. 1 m below the floor of the temple, i.e. within the fill of the podium.
It appears that the sarcophagus was not a later burial, but arranged from the beginning, and
that it belonged to a young male, member of the citys elite. Access to the temple was possible

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 On a Large Burial Monument of Patras

Figure 2. Map of modern Patras with the location of the cemeteries. Source: Rizakis 1998, Carte 1. The ar-
row points to the location of the tomb excavated by Dekoulakou.

through a short staircase leading to the back wall of the cella. Under this staircase two flights of
steps led to the vaulted chamber arranged underneath.
The dimensions of the vaulted room are 5.60 by 3.80, i.e. almost identical to the dimensions
of the room drawn by the Expdition and its height came to 3.60 m which may well have been
the original height of the Expditions monument had the latter been dug down to floor level.
This we can deduce by considering that the floor of the niches with the funerary urns is set at ca.
0.9 m above the floor of the chamber whereas in the sections of the Expdition they are shown
level with the bottom of the chamber. The walls of Dekoulakous monument are 2 m thick with
a core in opus caementicium faced (towards the interior) with opus testaceum, which must have
also been the construction technique of the Expditions monument. The simple architectural
moldings of Dekoulakous monument, made of bricks, are just like the ones drawn by the Expdi-
tion. In addition, thanks to the 1976 excavation, we know that a projecting fillet also decorated
the base of the side-walls of the chamber. On its short, southeastern side, it originally had an en-
trance later blocked with bricks by the Christians when they reused the chamber as a cult-place.

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Figure 3. Plan of the mausoleum excavated by I. Dekoulakou 1980, fig. 2.

Figure 4. Sections of the mausoleum: Dekoulakou 1984, Drawing 1.

It was presumably at that time that the original plastered surface of the walls of the chamber
was covered with paintings of Christian repertory stylistically dated to the late 14th century (Fig.
5). A prominent figure depicted on the wall is that of Agios Andreas to whom the structure must
have been now dedicated.9 Could this be, then, the building seen by George Wheler in 1675?10
The type of monument described by Wheler is rather clear: a temple-tomb with a columbari-
um underneath it.11 Based on the description of the vaulted room and its topographical relation to
the arched structure - almost certainly the Odeion - that Wheler was describing earlier, it is almost
certain that the traveler is not talking about the crypt with the holy water () under the
modern church of Agios Andreas but about a different Agios Andreas.12 The northern cemetery of
Patras stretched a few blocks away from the Odeion, and was certainly the closest cemetery to it in
relation to the other two cemeteries of the city, the southern and the eastern (Fig. 2). Thus we can
argue with a fair degree of certainty that the monument seen by Wheler was part of the northern
cemetery of Patras, and is probably to be associated with the one published by Dekoulakou.

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 On a Large Burial Monument of Patras

Figure 5. View of the interior of the vaulted chamber excavated by Dekoulakou

2009, fig. 23.

The northern cemetery of Patras was the oldest and most prestigious cemetery of the city, in
use from the mid-5th century BC to the late 7th century AD (Fig. 2).13 The cemetery developed
along the axis of a major artery of northeasterly orientation in the direction of Corinth. The
publishers of this monument, I. Dekoulakou and I. Papapostolou, do not discuss the relationship
between the excavated structure and the one drawn by the Expdition. On the other hand, other
researchers thought that the two monuments were one and the same.14 However, a closer look
at these structures shows that we are dealing with different burials:
a) Dekoulakous chamber has an entrance located on one of its short sides and taking the place
of two central niches along that side. No such entrance is shown on the Expditions chamber.
b) Dekoulakous columbarium has deep niches along its long sides, each housing four funer-
ary urns, and shallow niches along its short sides each containing two urns. On the contrary
the chamber of the Expdition has shallow niches along its long sides and deep niches along its
short sides, all containing two urns. In addition, the dimensions seem to differ considerably:15 in
Dekoulakous columbarium the niches along the long sides are ca. 0.6 by 0.7 m, and those along
its short sides ca. 0.5 (back side) to 0.6 (front side) by 0.5 m. They are significantly larger to the
estimated dimensions of the niches drawn by the Expdition (which I give above).
c) One corner of the Expditions chamber is shown missing. No such feature was observed in
Dekoulakous underground chamber.
d) Dekoulakous monument was converted into a Christian chapel. No such transformation
is indicated by the members of the Expdition who state that the brick surface was covered
with stucco without painting.
e) No superstructure is reported or drawn in the case of the Expditions monument although
this does not necessarily mean that it was not there.

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Given that the northern cemetery of Patras was the preferred burial ground for the citys
elite, and that its southernmost section was found with the new city drafted by Stamatis Voul-
garis and where the citys engineer operated when the members of the Expdition arrived, I
think that we can safely assume that the monument drawn by the Expdition was also part of
that cemetery, probably located not far from the burial excavated by I. Dekoulakou. Most likely
it too faced the major road artery that led to the northeast. Considering its size, as well as the
number of archaeological excavations that have taken place in Patras over the last few decades,
it is rather odd that this monument has not been re-found. Possibly it was destroyed then with-
out leaving a trace.
A puzzling matter is the absence of an entrance to the columbarium. It is almost certain that
had it been preserved the Expdition would have shown it on the plan. A possibility, if not the only
possibility, is that the entrance was not centrally arranged as in the case of Dekoulakous colum-
barium but was located to the side, and that the missing corner was where the entrance was.16
Did this monument have a temple-like superstructure as the one excavated by Dekoulakou?
Blouet and his team make no reference to such structure, but an argument ex silentio is not very
strong in this case, since reference to this monument is reduced in one sentence. On the basis
of the close similarity between their columbaria, I believe that we can legitimately suggest that
the Expditions burial was also a temple-tomb with a vaulted chamber underneath to house the
ashes of the members of the noble family. However this case may be, I hope to have now con-
vincingly shown that Dekoulakous and the Expditions monuments were not one and the same
and that they both belonged to the northern cemetery of the city.
The choice of cremation has implications as to the chronology of the burial and the identity
of the deceased. As was correctly pointed out by Dekoulakou17 the absence of arcosolia points
to a date before the 2nd century AD. Given the degree of similarity of these two monuments,
I would place the Expditions burial to the 1st century AD, i.e. when Dekoulakous monument
was erected. The choice of cremation befits the Roman customs of that period in contrast to the
inhumation practiced by the Greeks throughout the Roman period.18 Columbaria with vaulted
chambers and niches for the placement of the urns along the sides were found in all three cem-
eteries of Patras, but were all of smaller dimensions, and none matches the monumentality of
the mausoleum excavated by Dekoulakou.19 If the size of these twin monuments corresponds
to the importance of the deceased within the community of Patras, we may be in front of the
burials of two of the highest officials of the city and their families.20 In addition, the specific type
of monument, established in the case of Dekoulakous and postulated in the case of the Expdi-
tions burial, was quite extraordinary for its time since it is one of the earliest temple- tombs with
a crypt discovered in Greece.21

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the editors of this volume, Dr. Elena Partida and Dr. Dora Katsonopou-
lou, for kindly inviting me to participate in the Festschrift and the dedicatee, for everything he
has taught me both inside and outside the classroom. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Michalis
Petropoulos, former Ephor of Antiquities of Patras, for sharing with me his unparalleled knowl-
edge of the archaeology and history of Patras.

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NOTES

1. The Expdition Scientifique de More, ordered by the French government and directed by the Institut
de France, was the first interdisciplinary expedition of scientific purpose in modern Greek history: see
Saitas 2011.
2. Les seules antiquits que lon retrouve Patras consistent, indpendamment de quelques ruines ro-
maines en briques, en une excavation dcouverte par lingnieur de la ville, et quil supposait un tom-
beau ou une chambre spulcrale. Il ne reste point de vestige des difices vus et dcrits par Pausanias
(Blouet 1838, 42).
3. Ce tombeau de construction romaine, est excut en briques recouvertes de stuc sans peinture. Le
pavement, maintenant cach, est en mosaque.
4. Whenever I use approximate numbers (introduced by circa) it means that I estimate them on the basis
of the drawings. Otherwise the measurements were marked on the drawings.
5. See Loukatos 1990, 333-336.
6. I was unable to find any information on this excavation in the National Archive of Monuments ()
of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
7. Dekoulakou 1980, 1984, 97-102 and 2009, 191-196 ; also Papapostolou 1985.
8. On the basis of the architecture and of the movable finds: see Dekoulakou 1980, 569, Papapostolou
1985; Dekoulakou 2009, 192.
9. On the paintings see Koumousi 2012, 463 and figs. 10-11. That the vaulted room of the excavated mau-
soleum was converted into the church of Agios Andreas is endorsed by Rizakis and Petropoulos 2005, 48.
10. Not far thence [from the arched structure that he was describing earlier - most likely the Odeum] is
the foundation of a church, dedicated to St. Andrew; where they believe that apostle baptized the king
he had converted to the faith. The building seemeth to have been formerly a Roman Sepulcher. That
which induceth me to think so is a Vault underneath it; round which are Niches; in every one of which
are two holes at the bottom, made with Earthen Pots; which are plastered up, around about, to the top:
just such as I saw several at Baia, by Puzzuolo in Italy. That they are in Niches so by pairs, argueth, that
it was done with design to put the Ashes of the Husbands and Wives of the Family, near each other. But
the Greeks say, The Pots were made to put Holy Water in; which they preserve in Pots, making it but
once a Year. How true this is I know not; but it is certain, this Place hath since been made use of for a
Church; and, perhaps, those Urns, or Ollae, made use of to hold Holy Water, in later times. (Wheler
1682, 292)
11. Wheler certainly knew what he was talking about. The columbaria of Pozzuoli (ancient Puteoli) are very
characteristic: see von Hesberg 1992, 40-41.
12. In antiquity this underground room was probably connected with the oracular spring of Demeter or
with a Roman bath excavated nearby: see Dekoulakou 1980, 556, note 5 ; Osanna 1996, 118-120; Pet-
ropoulos 2009, 62-63.
13. Dekoulakou 2009, 163-166; Rizakis-Petropoulos 2005, 16.
14. I. Dimakopoulos, former head of the Anastylosis section of the Greek Ministry of Culture, M. Petropou
los, former director of the Ephorate of Patras and an expert on the topography of the Roman colony, as
well as E. Saranti, an expert on the history of the Byzantine city. Dimakopouloss opinion is expressed in
a letter addressed to K. Triantafyllou and published in the 3rd edition of the Historical lexicon of Patras
(Triantafyllou 1995, 779). Michalis Petropoulos is actually the one who excavated the mausoleum as a
contract archaeologist (Petropoulos, per epistulam). See also Saranti 2005, 168.
15. Neither Dekoulakou nor Blouet give dimensions for these niches, therefore my calculations are based
on the plans.

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16. There are many examples of columbaria with off-centered entrances: see, e.g. a columbarium from
Ostia: Toynbee 1971, 116, fig. 10.
17. Dekoulakou 1980, 568-569.
18. Cremation was the norm in Italy and the western provinces of the Empire up to the mid-2nd century
AD in accordance with the Roman mos: see Toynbee 1971,40. However, in Greece and the eastern
Mediterranean, inhumation has always been the normal burial practice throughout. In a recent survey
of the burial monuments of Greece during the Empire (Flmig 2007), columbaria are a clear minority,
even in areas with strong Roman connection, such as Corinth and Nikopolis. The same is true for burial
monuments of Asia Minor under the Empire (catalogued by Cormack 2004, 161-332).
19. See, for example, the one found at the southern cemetery of the city (Dekoulakou 1980, p. 563 and fig. 6),
or the one from the eastern cemetery (Dekoulakou 1980, 565 and fig. 7); also Dekoulakou 2009, 186-191.
20. On the duoviri and the other high officials of the Roman colony see Rizakis 1998, 28-31.
21. Most other examples, such as the burial monument of Herodes Attikos in Kefissia, a vast temple-tomb
from Argos or the Corinthian heroon of Delphi, date from the 2nd century AD: see Moretti 2006,
115-120.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Cormack, S. 2004. The Space of Death in Roman Asia Minor. Wien: Phoibos.
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. 1984. . ArchDelt 31 (1976) B1:97-115.
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Papapostolou, I. 1985. . ArchEph 1983:1-34.
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ABSTRACT

ON THE TRAIL OF A LARGE BURIAL MONUMENT OF PATRAS

In 1829 the members of the Architecture and Sculpture Section of the Expdition Scientifique
de More came to Patras and drew a large funerary monument of the columbarium type that
had just come to light. Based on its dimensions this is one of the largest burials of this type in
Greece. In 1976 a very similar monument dated to the 1st century AD was excavated in Patras (on
Ermou street) and is considered as the most important burial monument of the city. This mauso-
leum has the same dimensions to the one of the Expdition but its inner arrangement is different
enough to show that we are not dealing with the same monument. Unfortunately the text of the
Expdition provides no information on the location of this monument. On the other hand, the
excavator of the tomb of Ermou street does not relate the two monuments, while other scholars
who have studied it since believe that it is the same to the one drawn by the Expdition. In the
present study, we draw attention to this long forgotten monument, and attempt to define the
area of its discovery and its relationship to the burial excavated in 1976.

1829
(Expdition) colum-
barium .
.
1 . .. 1976 ( )
.
Expdition
Blouet.
Expdition
.

Expdition.

1976.

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