80 shackled skeletons in ancient Athens were locals, study shows

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A fresh scientific study has resolved a decade-long debate over nearly 80 shackled men buried in a mass grave at the Phaleron cemetery in ancient Athens. Using strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel, researchers found that more than 95 per cent of the men grew up in the Attica region, meaning they were locals, not foreign mercenaries or invaders as previously speculated.

The Esplanada group, as the skeletons are known, were laid in orderly rows with iron restraints on their wrists and died violently at the end of the seventh century BC. The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, compared their chemical signatures with other burials at the same cemetery, overturning the outsider theory and pointing to violence originating within the community itself.