Akanthos is not excavated fully yet, but the research for the necropolis had started in 1973 and since then more than 1300 tombs have been currently recorded. The cemetery was used from the archaic period until the Roman period and probably with some interruptions until 17th century B.C. The tombs are in two or at least three superimposed layers, usually parallel to the coastline. According to the known ancient customs, children and adults were buried in the same place.

There are several types of tombs, such as simple or clay-coated, rectangular pits with clay urns or embossed or painting decorated, box-shaped, tile-roofed tombs.

Some burials in jars or smaller vessels are also recorded, which consist of the largest percentage of the children's’ and babies’ tombs. The funeral gifts are of great variety, most of them are clay vessels and many were the private property of the dead or were relevant to the profession or their occupation: among them, jewels, pins, brooches, mirrors, strigils, needles, hooks, knives, etc.

Clay figurines in the form of gods, cupids, actors, humans, animals are often found in women’s and mainly children’s tombs. Similar burial customs, tombs, and findings are found in cemeteries of other cities of Macedonia and Thrace.

The influences, the cultural contacts and the trading with the Greek-speaking countries of the East and the island centers of the Aegean Sea with Euboea, Athens, Corinth, and Boeotia are obvious. The workshops of Akanthos, where amphorae for the transportation of the famous “akanthio" wine were constructed, were situated between the ancient cemetery and the city.

Between the years 2007 -2013, a particular part of the cemetery was covered by a shelter for the in situ protection and designation of the antiquities.