Gravestones (stelai) with the names of the fallen were placed over the public grave. There were originally ten markers with the lists of the fallen, corresponding to the ten tribes of Attica. Later there was just one monument, but it often had vertical furrows to simulate the ten markers. The earliest list of dead found on a public grave can be dated to 464 B.C.
The annual ceremony in honour of the fallen was the analogue of the household's annual nomizomena for its dead. It was a public ritual, funded by the city and organized by the Polemarch. Competitions in music, athletics and horsemanship were part of the ceremonies (Plato, Menexenus 249B).
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