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According to Greek historian Plutarch, the rulers of Athens told plotters that their lives would be spared if they surrendered peacefully. The followers complied, but were executed any way.

The excavation site known as Phaleron is within a 170,000-square-metre park bordered by a large cultural centre to the south and a large expressway to the east. The graveyard holds more than 1,500 ancient skeletons, nearly a third of which are infants and children contained in ceramic jars.

Chryssoulaki says that the extensive site has helped shed light on ancient Greek society and culture.

“A cemetery is a first and last photography in antiquity of those people that pass from life to death,” she said.

Ancient Greek parents often brought food offerings and personal belongings to the grave site, believing that it would help their children in the afterlife.

Perhaps with the DNA tests that we will do on these skeletons we may confirm or not this hypothesis that these deceased could be part of a coup

Damage on many of the adult skeletons suggests they were beaten or possibly stoned to death, a brutal reminder of a period of war and upheaval that Greek historians often call the “age of tyrants.”

Many of the graves at Phaleron belong to average Greek citizens, not nobility. Their remains could continue to show people what everyday life looked like in the ancient world.

And as for the 80 skeletons found shackled, DNA analysis may help archaeologists determine whether the victims were part of a coup.

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

She hopes to see a museum built on the burial site, so that the public can see firsthand the remains of the world’s oldest democracy.