The ruins of the city of Parion, located in the village of Kemer within the borders of the Biga district of Çanakkale province in the north of the Troad Region, are concentrated on the Bodrum Cape, which extends like a tongue towards the sea to the northeast of the village, and on the coasts (Fig. 1; Başaran 1999, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2012; Keleş and Oyarçin 2019a, 2019b, 2022). As a result of the excavations carried out in the city of Parion to date, a total of 9 chamber tombs have been unearthed (Sulan 2018; Çırak et al. 2019). Among these nine chamber tombs, Chamber Tombs 1–5 are located in the Toprak Kuleler Area; Chamber Tomb 6 is located on the western slope of the hill where the aqueduct of the city is located; Chamber Tomb 7 is located on the northern slope of the hill overlooking the Marmara Sea in the area known as Taşkule; and Chamber Tomb 8 and Chamber Tomb 9 are located in the South (Tavşandere) Necropolis (Sulan 2018).
Chamber Tomb 5, where the Charon coins are found, is located in the southeast of Parion, at the location called Toprak Kuleler, within the Eastern Necropolis of the city. The Eastern Necropolis of Parion is situated in a valley that provides access to the city over a small stream bed running along the outside of the city wall. This area houses four other chamber tombs that are architecturally similar and located in the north-south direction (Fig. 2).
Chamber Tomb 5, one of the five tombs built in the north-south direction in the Eastern Necropolis of Parion, was unearthed for the first time during the excavations in 2017. It measures 3.06x3.00 m and has a height of 2.65 m. the tomb’s interior is organized as a single space measuring 1.86x1.80 m and divided into sections (Keleş, 2020). The floor of the chamber tomb was formed after the bedrock was shaved and levelled. In Chamber Tomb 5, the tomb interior contexts have been disturbed from 0.90 m above the floor and severely damaged architecturally (Sulan 2018). In Chamber Tomb 5, which probably belonged to a family from Parion, the skeletons of many individuals buried at certain time intervals were recovered (Çırak et al. 2019; Kaba et al. 2019; Şarbak et al. 2021).
In the northeast corner of the tomb, where 33 individuals were buried at different times, bone fragments belonging to previous burials were found piled at the bottom of the wall to make room for new individuals for multiple burials (Fig. 3). There is no unity of direction in the skeletons inside the tomb; some of them are oriented in the south-north direction while others are oriented in the north-south direction. Grave gifts were also found next to some skeletons (Çırak et al. 2019).
Paleodemographic analyses of the skeletons from Parion Chamber Tomb 5 revealed the exact ages of many individuals, while the exact age ranges of others could not be determined due to extreme damage. In Parion Chamber Tomb 5, the youngest individual was nine months old, while the oldest female was 57. The oldest male individual in the tomb was 56 years old. The results of the gender analysis on the skeletons from Chamber Tomb 5 revealed that; 13 of the 33 individuals were female, 13 were male, 5 were children, and 2 were infants (Fig. 4). This equality between male and female sexes suggests that the individuals in this tomb may have been spouses. The spouses were likely buried in the same grave (Çırak et al. 2019).
Depending on the morphological structure and usage of the individuals in Room Tomb 5, it was also determined that some diseases occurred in their teeth. Depending on the tooth morphology, some pathologies differ in both male and female individuals. The dental pathology examinations of individuals evinced the following pathologies; 3.6% had dental caries, 17.95% had tartar, 6.4% had antemortem tooth loss, 21.17% had hypoplasia, and 59.72% had alveolar bone loss rate. Antemortem tooth loss rates were 6.45% in males and 5.12% in females (Şarbak et al. 2021).
In addition to the 33 individuals found in Parion Chamber Tomb 5, many grave gifts and a total of 14 coins belonging to Coela (2), Perinthos (1), and Parion (11) were found in the tomb (Cat. No. 1–14; Plate No. 1/1–9, Plate No. 2/10–14). These 14 Charon coins belong to a wide date range of about three centuries from Iulius Caesar to Gallienus. The fact that some of the skeletons in Chamber Tomb 5 were collected and moved to the corner for new burials indicates that the tomb was used for many years (Çırak et al. 2019; Kaba et al. 2019; Şarbak et al. 2021). The contextual finds found together with the coins are further data supporting this result (Keleş 2020).
All 14 Charon coins recovered from Parion Chamber Tomb 5 are Roman provincial coins. The coins date between 45 BC and 253–268 AD and include examples belonging to 11 different emperors/emperor queens. The distribution of the Parion coins found in Chamber Tomb 5 per the emperors showed that Iulius Caesar was represented by (1) coin, Claudius I by (1), Antoninus Pius by (2), Commodus by (1), Geta by (2), Elagabalus by (1), Gordian III by (1), Philip I by (1) and Gallienus by (1). The obverse of the Iulius Caesar coin shows a woman’s head wearing Stephane and the ethnicon [C G I P], while the reverse shows Praefericulum and D on both sides. While seven of the remaining ten coins depict the Priest-Shepherd, two depict Artemis Phosphoros, and one shows she-wolf Lupa standing, r., looking back and feeding twins (Remus and Romulus).
On the reverse of the Perinthian coin of the Tranquillina Period, represented by a single example in Room Tomb 5, Homonoia is standing, holding a patera and cornucopia. Of the two Coela coins recovered from the tomb, one dates to the reign of Severus Alexander and the other to that of Gordian III. A ship’s prow and cornucopia on it constitute the reverse side of both coins.
The excavations to uncover the other 4 Chamber Tombs located just east of Parion Chamber Tomb 5 yielded 13 coins (Fig. 5).
Only 8 of the 13 coins in Chamber Tombs 1–4, which had fewer burials compared to Chamber Tomb 5, are Charon coins. The earliest Charon coin in Chamber Tomb 4 belongs to the reign of Iulius Caesar (45 BC), while the latest to that of Gordian III (238–244 AD). There is only one coin in Chamber Tomb 3, dated to the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161 AD). The earliest coins in Chamber Tomb 2 belong to the reign of Claudius I (41–54 AD), while the latest belong to that of Caracalla (198–217 AD). A comparison of the coins in Chamber Tomb 5 and Chamber Tombs 1–4 periodically shows that the earliest dated coins belong to 45 BC during the reign of Iulius Caesar. When we take into account the coins discovered in the four additional Chamber Tombs, the most recently dated coin is the one from the Gallienus Period found in Chamber Tomb 5. This finding aligns with the observation that this particular coin was in circulation for a longer time.
It is observed that all of the Charon coins recovered from the Chamber Tombs are Roman provincial coins. The primary reason for this is that during the Early Roman Period (1st-2nd century AD) in Parion, the bronze coins circulated were mostly city mints instead of imperial ones (Kızılyalçın Oyarçin 2023). Furthermore, the fact that 11 of the 14 coins recovered from Room Tomb 5 were minted in Parion indicates that Parionites preferred to use their own coins as Charon coins.
Regarding the characteristics of the Charon coin tradition, the coins left in the mouths of individuals in tombs were generally of low value, placed at the time of death, and left to be given to Charon (Stewens 1991; Keleş 2014). An important finding from the bronze Parion Roman provincial coins recovered from the chamber tombs of the Eastern Necropolis is that some of them were covered with a very thin gold leaf (Fig. 6). The same practice was observed on the coin recovered from the mouth of an adult female skeleton in the TSM 1 grave in the South (Tavşandere) Necropolis of Parion, which indicates that this tradition, uncommon in Anatolia, was practised as a burial custom in Parion (Kasapoğlu 2013). (Parion Excavation Archive)