Reconstruction of Spatial Organization and Cemetery Structure of Preadult Burials at the Phaleron Burial Ground (Archaic Athens, Greece) Using Deciduous Dental Morphology.

OBJECTIVES: This paper uses deciduous dental morphology to evaluate the spatial structure of the Archaic period site of Phaleron (Athens, Greece) with the goal of identifying possible biological kin- or community structuring of the burial ground.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Deciduous morphological data (77 total root-trait combinations) were collected by the author using published standards for 231 preadult individuals from Phaleron. After pre-analysis data treatments evaluating the effects of age, sex, and inter-trait correlation, remaining variables were compared among burial subsectors using Mean Measure of Divergence statistics, with statistical significance assessed following both standard protocols and with bootstrapping methods.

RESULTS: Results are consistent with, but not identical to, those presented using permanent dental morphology, with deciduous data presenting stronger evidence of spatial structuring. This suggests that the same principles governing grave placement applied to both adults and preadults, which I argue reflects biological kinship as a structuring principle of Archaic period burial grounds.

DISCUSSION: This paper makes three contributions: (1) enhances understanding of ancient Greek burial practices, particularly of the non-elite individuals who lived during the critical centuries of Athenian political development, (2) demonstrates the complementary value of using both deciduous and permanent dentition in analyses of biological distance, and (3) presents the first large sample of deciduous trait frequencies from ancient Greece, thus informing future comparative studies.