Evidence of Ancient Ritual to “Kill” the Dead and Destroy Their Tombs in a Final Feast 4,000 Years Ago Found in Crete

On the island of Crete, famous for its Minoan palaces and legends like the labyrinth of the Minotaur, an international team of archaeologists has discovered something even more intriguing: how the ancient Cretans symbolically “killed” their dead. This was not a violent act, but rather a carefully planned ritual to close a chapter of their history. The study, published in the journal Antiquity, reveals that about 3,800 years ago, the inhabitants of the city of Sissi held a major ceremony in which they demolished their collective tombs, held a feast, and buried them forever.

During the Bronze Age (between 3000 and 1600 BCE), the Cretans buried their dead in collective tombs, large rectangular or circular structures where generations of the same family rested. These sites were not just places to store remains but also gathering spaces where rituals were performed and social bonds were strengthened. However, around 1900 BCE, something changed: they began abandoning these practices and adopting new forms of burial, more discreet and less visible archaeologically.

Until now, it was believed that this abandonment had been gradual and peaceful. But the cemetery of Sissi, excavated by the Belgian School at Athens since 2007, tells a different story. Here, the tombs were not left to die slowly—they were ritually “killed.”

kill dead crete ritual bronze age — Compartment 9.6, with the location of clay containers FE147, FE148 and FE149 (left) and details of the clay containers during excavation (right). Credit: N. Kress, A. Schmitt / Belgian School at Athens

The Final Party in the Cemetery

In the area called “Zone 9” of the cemetery, archaeologists found evidence of a unique ceremony. First, the people of Sissi buried their last dead in small pits and ceramic containers. Then, they carefully dismantled the walls of the tombs, partially crushed some remains to “level” the ground, and organized a large feast.

The evidence is clear: a layer of soil was found containing thousands of broken pottery fragments, remains of cups and kitchen plates, all dated to the same period (around 1700 BCE). This wasn’t mere garbage, the researchers explain, it was the remains of a communal feast, a symbolic act that marked the end of an era.

Finally, they covered everything with a layer of soil and stones, sealing the site forever. Interestingly, when centuries later they resumed burying their dead in the area, they respected this space, as if they knew it was “forbidden” to disturb it.

Why Did They “Kill” Their Tombs?

Researchers believe this ritual was not a random act, but a response to profound social changes. Around that same time in Crete, the first palaces, like Knossos, began to be built, and communities started to organize in a more centralized way. The collective tombs, tied to families or clans, lost importance in favor of new ritual spaces, such as mountain sanctuaries or sacred caves.

By actively burying their tombs, the people of Sissi were not merely abandoning them—they were making them part of their collective memory, archaeologists note. It was a way of saying: this no longer represents us, but we will not forget it.

The Sissi cemetery is not the only one where similar rituals have been found. In Moni Odigitria, in southern Crete, a circular tomb was emptied and its bones buried in a pit, accompanied by hundreds of broken cups. In Kephala Petras, some tombs were filled with stones in an act archaeologists call a “symbolic killing.”

However, not all Minoan tombs ended this way. Many fell into disuse gradually, and some continued to be visited for centuries for non-funerary ceremonies. This suggests that each community made different decisions in the face of the same social changes.

A Unique Discovery Thanks to Modern Archaeology

What makes the Sissi discovery special is the level of detail with which it has been documented. Thanks to modern techniques like bone analysis and stratigraphy, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct the exact sequence of events: from the last burials to the feast and the final sealing.

Before, many Minoan cemeteries were excavated quickly and published with little information, the researchers admit. Now we know that these closure rituals were more common than we thought, but only careful excavations allow us to detect them.

The study reinforces the idea that the Minoans were not a monolithic culture, but rather a mosaic of communities with diverse traditions. While some resisted change by clinging to old customs, others, like Sissi, closed them off with a ceremonial act. These rituals were not just about the dead—they were about the living, the archaeologists conclude. They were a way to come together in the face of uncertainty, to say: ‘this is who we are now’.

SOURCES

Déderix S, Schmitt A, Caloi I. The death of collective tombs in Middle Bronze Age Crete: new evidence from Sissi. Antiquity. Published online 2025:1-19. doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.38