Die Dipylongräber und die Dipylonvasen

Published in 1905 by B.G. Teubner, Frederik Poulsen’s Die Dipylongräber und die Dipylonvasen serves as a foundational academic study of the archaeological finds discovered in the Kerameikos cemetery of Athens. The work emerged from a period of intense interest in the Geometric period of Greek art, focusing specifically on the large burial vessels found near the Dipylon Gate. Poulsen, a Danish archaeologist, sought to categorize these distinctive ceramics and analyze the burial customs associated with the site, providing a structural framework that helped define the field of classical archaeology at the turn of the twentieth century.

The text was crafted during an era when scholars were formalizing the chronology of Attic pottery. Poulsen’s design approach favored rigorous typological analysis and meticulous description, intending to provide researchers with a reliable reference for the vast quantities of material unearthed in the late nineteenth-century excavations. While the scholarship has been updated and superseded by more recent stratigraphic excavations and stylistic analysis, the volume remains a significant historical document representing the early systematic study of monumental Geometric pottery.