The Roman cemetery in the ancient port of Kechreon, Corinth, dates from the 1st to the 7th century. A.D. It is a wonderful archeological site and completely unknown to the general public
A dense cemetery chambers and pit tombs dating from the 1st to the 7th c. AD, testifies to the existence of an important settlement of Roman and Early Christian times in the ancient port of Κεγχρεών Κορινθίας.
This is a wonderful archeological site, completely unknown to the general public, and unfortunately quite neglected.
As specifically mentioned in Dronedays.gr, it is located on the hill “Koutsogila ridge” next to the ancient port.
It is accessible from the northern arm of the port. Impressive is the fact that in some of the tombs one can see the painted decoration.
Despite the fact that the burials had been breached by poachers, the systematic investigation revealed important facts about the burial practices and the community of the port city of Kechrei.
The chambered tombs are built initially in the middle and towards the end of the 1st century AD. until the middle to the end of the 3rd century AD. Then, they are used sporadically for burials until the 5th-6th century AD. and later.
The chambered tombs are the most impressive burial structures in Keghres. They were usually covered by buildings bearing epitaphs which named the owner of the tomb and dedicated the construction to him and his family, his descendants and sometimes to their free slaves.
The burial chambers were accessible by descending stairs (roads) and had burial sites on the walls. These places used to be elongated for burials (loculi), or they had the form of a small niche for placing urns in cases of cremation of the dead.
The walls of the tombs were covered with colorless mortar or painted with architectures, flowering plants, garlands, animals (herons, swans, ivory, dolphins), and mythical creatures (seahorses).
The dead were endowed with a multitude of offerings: coins in the mouth or above the chest, gold rings and earrings, bone forks, silver spatulae, clay figurines, marble statuettes, lead inscriptions as well as curses, unguards amphorae and household utensils, cups, flasks, shovels, tables.
The scientific analysis of the bones from various chambered tombs proved that during the use of the monument, about 50-100 people of all ages, men and women, were buried in it in loculi or in niches.
Examination of the bones from burns showed that the dead bodies were placed on fire and burned completely for a long time at a high temperature (at least 700o C).
A small amount of bone was then collected from the ashes and placed in an urn. The cremation took place in an official cremation site near the cemetery, where the mourners waited a long time for the cremation to take place before accompanying him to the grave.
The special diligence found in the construction, decoration and use of the tombs leads to the conclusion that they belonged to members of the upper class in the local community. In addition, the relative uniformity that prevails in the design of tombs in Keghres shows the will of their owners to identify themselves as members of a prominent social class.
Today it is an important archeological site, which unfortunately has not been exploited. A necropolis of different eras that unfortunately no one knows and is abandoned at the mercy of illegal excavations.
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