Definition: Kerameikos was named after Keramos, the son of Dionysus and Ariadne, who was a hero of potters (Pausanias 1.3.1). Kerameikos was the potters' district and lay along the banks of the Eridanos River. Outside the walls of Athens -- constructed by Themistocles, and running through Kerameikos -- was a cemetery, that was used from the 9th century B.C. until the late Roman period, according to the Ministry of Culture's article on Kerameikos (www.culture.gr/2/21/211/21103a/e211ca01.html).
Kerameikos also has an ancient burial pit with bodies from the Peloponnesian War, which Manolis Papagrigorakis, from the University of Athens, has examined. He has determined from DNA in the teeth that the plague that killed perhaps as many as one third of the Athenians was Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, according to the Discovery Channel, reporting on Papagrigorakis' article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Alternate Spellings: Keramikos
