Mycenaean & Dark Age Tombs & Burial Practices

Mycenaean Tomb Types• Cist Grave• Grave Circle• Tumulus• Tholos• Chamber Tomb

Tholos, Tholoi:The Treasury of Atreus

Tholos Terms• Tholos

Beehive• Dromos

Passage• Stomion

Doorway• Side

Chamber

The Facade

Views of the Treasury

Roof Constructio

n• Treasury of Atreus

Orchomenos: Ceiling of the Treasury of Minyas

Tholos Plan at Vapheio

Tholos at Vapheio

Chamber Tomb

Chamber Tomb Burials: Section Drawing

Chamber Tomb Multiple Burials

Grave Goods• Not just for the

elite• Veneration of

dead but only until next burial…

Chamber Tomb

Inhumation

Larnax, larnakes

Tanagra Larnakes

Burial Procedure• Prothesis• Ekphora• Taphe

Pithos Burials

• Dark Age • Iron Age • Protogeometric

, Geometric

Protogeometric Shapes: the pedestal foot

The Heroon at Toumba, Lefkandi

• Long apsidal building

• Krater

The Heroon Reconstructed

Early Iron Age Burial Practice

Dark Age Burial

Section of Burials at Heroon

Heroon Figurine

Dark Age Burials in Attica• Dipylon Belly-handled

amphora• Elaborate Vases

– to hold bones of cremated

– to mark site of burial

Prothesis: laying out the dead

Dipylon Krater: Prothesis Details?

Homer on Burial?• Inhumation

or Cremation?

• Tomb style?• Bronze Age

or Dark Age practices?

Funeral of Patroclus

Funeral of Patroclus: Red Figure Apulian Vase