Quantifying the

Abstract

In Early Iron Age Greece, female-sexed graves tended to be wealthier than those of any other demographic—they contain more objects and more high-value materials on average. The motivations behind this differential treatment in death have been the subject of much research, but the answer remains unclear. Who are the recipients of the “Rich Female Grave,” and why do they disappear in the 7th century BCE? This thesis is my own contribution into the investigations of the “Rich Female Grave.” By quantifying the burial wealth of Athenian graves from the Early Iron Age to the Early Archaic period, I distinguish periods of wealth change over time, which allows me to better analyze this phenomenon. Although wealth scores have been assigned to these burials in the past, I apply an improved method which accounts for both the social and the energetic value of the burial assemblages. The results show a marked period of wealth decline for female-sexed burials in the Middle Geometric period, in opposition to their male counterparts. In the Early Archaic period, the “Rich Female Grave” disappears altogether—although not in the way we would expect. Due to the fragmentary nature of the Early Archaic graves, which suffered from environmental and human disruptions, none of the burials are sexed. These results illuminate the possible social and environmental causes for the rise and fall of female wealth over time, and the archaeological biases which may exacerbate the disappearance of the “Rich Female Grave.”