A lady wearing an inverted crown found in an ancient cemetery——

An excavation on the eastern slope of dry Lake Copada in central Greece has unearthed a rich Early Archaic period tomb containing a noble woman wearing an inverted bronze crown. The tomb dates to the second half of the 7th century BC, when the hereditary kingship of Boeotia’s ancestors was declining and the power of the nobility was rising. Her crown symbolized the new power of the non-monarchical elite.

Archaeologists from the Antiquities Directorate of Phthiotis and Evrytania have been conducting salvage excavations ahead of the construction of the PV Park. So far, they have excavated 40 tombs from the Archaic and Classical periods. Different types of burials, including pit tombs, pyres and tile-roofed tombs, were found clustered together.

The crowned lady was found in a group of three pit tombs. Analysis of her teeth showed she was an adult woman between 20 and 30 years old. She was buried wearing a frieze of bronze crown and a large rosette shaped like a radiant sun in the center of her forehead. The border of the crown is embossed with a pair of male and female lions facing each other, symbolizing royal power. The crown is upside down so the lion is lying on his back. This may symbolize the downfall of a monarch, in this case being deposed by death.

Her grave goods included many other valuables, including two very large bronze brooches in the Boeotian style decorated with stylized geometric horses, a necklace with a large vase-shaped amulet in the center, bone and ivory beads, bronze rosettes, copper earrings, bracelets, and spiral rings on all her fingers. This was a woman of great wealth and status in the community, not a queen, but powerful enough to adopt the symbols of the monarchy.

One of the other burial pits with her also contains the remains of a bronze crown with a rosette. This is a girl of about four years old. In addition to the crown on her head, she also wears jewelry similar to that of a noble lady, including a necklace with an amulet in the shape of a vase. The tombs date from the same period, so there may be some connection between the two.

Other notable finds in the cemetery include a Siana-type kylix (drinking cup) decorated with a rooster and a trefoiled wine jar decorated with Hermes as Psychopomp (spirit guide), as well as a harpy, a bronze flask and black patterned and black lettered pottery from Akraphia’s famous ceramics workshop, found in a mid-6th century BC tomb.