At least 80 skeletons lie in an earthen grave in an ancient Greek cemetery, their wrists bound in iron shackles.

They are the victims, archaeologists say, of a mᴀss execution. But who they were, how they got there, and why they seem to have been buried with some respect remains a mystery.

Skeletal remains, with iron shackles on their wrists, are laid out in a row at the ancient Falyron Delta cemetery in AthensCredit: Reuters

A worker pushes a cart past chained skeletal remains lying in a row at the ancient Falyron Delta cemetery in AthensCredit: Reuters

They were found earlier this year in part of the Falyron Delta necropolis, a large ancient burial ground discovered during the construction of a national opera and library between central Athens and the port of Piraeus.

Few people have been able to enter to see it up close.

But in a rare tour of the site, archaeologists carefully showed Reuters the skeletons, some lying in a long, neat row in the excavated sandy soil, others piled one on top of the other, arms and legs twisted and jaws gaping. .

“They have been executed, all in the same way. But they have been buried with respect,” said Dr. Stella Chryssoulaki, head of excavations.

“All are handcuffed and most are very, very young and in very good health when they were executed.”

Experts hope that DNA testing and research by anthropologists will uncover exactly how the lines of people died. What happened was violent: most had their arms tied above their heads, their wrists tied together.

But the orderly way in which they were buried suggests that they were dealing with more than slaves or common criminals.

The cemetery dates from between the 8th and 5th centuries BC.

“It is a period of great unrest for Athenian society, a period when the aristocrats, the nobles, are fighting each other for power,” Chryssoulaki said.

Chained skeletal remains are stacked one on top of the other in the ancient Falyron Delta cemetery in AthensCredit: Reuters

The remains belonged to men who had been brutally executedCredit: Reuters

One of the strongest theories is that they were supporters of the Cylon, an Athenian nobleman and Olympian champion who staged an attempted coup in Athens in 632 BC. C. with the help of his father-in-law, the tyrant of Megara.

The coup failed and the Cylon hid in a temple on the Acropolis. He managed to escape, but the people who supported him were killed.

“Perhaps with the DNA tests that we will do on these skeletons we can confirm or not this hypothesis that these deceased, these young people could be… part of a coup… an attempt by a nobleman to seize power by force,” Chryssoulaki said. .

More than 1,500 bodies lie throughout the cemetery, some children lying in ceramic jars, other adults burned on funeral pyres or buried in stone coffins. A coffin is made from a wooden boat.

A child’s skull is seen inside a clay pot, a common practice for the burial of infants and children in ancient GreeceCredit: Reuters

Unlike Athens’ renowned ancient Kerameikos cemetery, the last resting place of many prominent ancient Greeks, these appear to be regular neighborhood dwellers.

The excavation sits within a 170,000 square meter landscaped park, in the shadow of the sprawling new modern library and opera buildings being built by the Stavros Niarchos philanthropic foundation.

High-rise apartments dot the skyline to the north, while a noisy freeway meanders through the eastern side of the site.

Chryssoulaki wants to see a museum built on the site, as a monument to the daily life of Athenians from another era.

“A cemetery is a first and last photograph in antiquity of those people who pass from life to death,” he said.