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Keramikos卫星地图 (希腊奥运会场馆)

The "ceramics" -- tombs of the illustrious.

Keramikos, today, is the area housing the ancient cemetery of Athens and is so called because it lay near the ancient potters quarter where much of the famous pottery you will see in museums and read about in books was made. Our English words 'ceramics' and 'cemetery" come from this ancient Greek word: "Keramika". Keramikos is still called Keramikos even today.

Keramikos was divided into innner and outer sections which were delienated by the ancient city walls and city gates. Pre-dating the ancient Romans, who had a similar custom, tombs of important personages lined the roads entering the city. Lesser personages seem to have been buried within the walls and a slave could be intered next to his master appartently equal in the eyes of the gods. Today there are no modern tombs but Athens modern roads still roughly follow the ancient.

Incidentally, the shards of pottery that were inevitably broken here and there during the vast process of making all this pottery for export were called ostraka. When the Athenian city council wanted to exile somebody or to ostracize them it took a vote of 6000 citizens to do it. The votes were cast using these pottery shards called ostraka.

Ground view