Mycenaean tombs discovered might be evidence of …

Hercules' Land - The Royal Tombs of Mycenae

The Mycenaeans traditionally used tholos tombs for burial, ..

The graves actually date from the very beginnings of Mycenaean civilization in 1800-1700 BCE, when there is no evidence of contact with Troy. The walls of Mycenae were built later, in the 1400s BCE, and the shaft graves had long been there.

The Mycenaean culture (~1600–1100BC) ..

(g) Relieving triangles above the blocks of the stomion, blocking walls at the exterior end of the , and the cutting of the innermost block of the stomion to match the twin curves of the tomb chamber’s vault are all features of this group which are also characteristic of Group II. The size of some of the blocks in the tombs of Group III is gigantic: the innermost block in the Treasury of Atreus, for example, is estimated to weigh some 120 tons.

Mycenaean culture was based around its main cities in Mycenae, ..

(h) The Lion Tomb had a wooden door at the exterior end of the stomion to control access into the tomb chamber, rather than the rubble blocking wall in this position typical of the other tombs in both this group and Group I. The evidence for this door consists of cuttings in the [underside) of the outermost block to hold the pivots on which the two leaves of this door were hung.

The Mycenaean civilization flourished in the ..

(e) The exterior facades of the stomia in two of these three tombs are faced by which covers the masonry of the rest of the stomion (cf. the secondary facade of the Tomb of Aegisthus in Group I).

The names of the tombs derive ..

These tombs have diameters of 8.0, 11.0, and over 13 meters respectively. They are characterized by the following distinctive constructional features:

MINOAN & MYCENAEAN CULTURE | Museum of …

The nine tholoi at Mycenae constitute by far the largest collection of monumental tholos tombs of Mycenaean type to have been found at a single site. This series of tombs spans the period from LH IIA to early LH IIIB (i.e. ca. 1525 to 1300/1275, or a period of some eight to ten generations). The names of the tombs derive from their locations (Epano Phournos, Kato Phournos, Panagia), from finds made in them (Lion Tomb, Tomb of the Genii), from architectural features (Cyclopean Tomb, Perfect Tholos), or from members of the mythical ruling house of Mycenae (Aegisthus, Atreus, Clytemnestra); these names are traditional and have no particular significance with respect to the protohistory of the Aegean Late Bronze Age (i.e. they could just as well be numbered serially from 1 to 9). The tholoi are spread apart at quite some distance from one another, but three cluster near the entrance to the of Mycenae and face either north (Lion Tomb) or south (Tombs of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra). The largest tholos (the Treasury of Atreus, so named following the identification of the tomb provided in the 2nd century A.D. guide to the monuments of Greece written by Pausanias) flanks the main approach road to the at Mycenae from the plain below and faces east. The remaining five tholoi are all located on the opposite side of the Kalkani ridge from the Treasury of Atreus and face west. The British archaeologist Alan Wace assigned these nine tombs to three distinct groups on the basis of their use of particular raw materials and of cut as opposed to undressed stone, as well as on the employment of certain decorative and engineering refinements.

Minoan Art Sculpture and Art in Ancient Greece

These tombs have diameters of 14.5, 13.4, and 8.4 meters respectively. They are characterized by the following distinctive constructional features: