MYCENAEAN BURIALS
Bronze Age Burials:Greece
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• Enduring Understanding: The Mycenaeans
were a religious people and had great
respect for their dead. They took time and
care to provide their dead with proper
burials. Evidence from these burials reveals
a form of class structure in Mycenae.
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• Introduction:
– History
– Grave Circles
• Shaft Burials
• Cist Burials
– Tholos Tombs
– Chamber Tombs
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• History:
– Toward end of Bronze Age there was growth in
prosperity and wealth.
• Proof: burial goods
– Greatest expansion took place at Mycenae from
1600-1200 BC, the period of the Warrior
Kings.
– Within Mycenae were two grave sites: called
grave circles.
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• GRAVE CIRCLES:
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Found and dug up by Schliemann.
Two grave circles found: Grave Circle A and B.
Grave circle B is older than A.
Cist Grave: simple box built of stone slabs
Shaft Grave: deeper and larger than a cist
grave, lower sides lined with stone and wood
beams placed across top of walls to form a roof.
Covered with stone slabs then earth.
MYCENAEN BURIALS
• Grave Circle A:
– Lies directly inside and to right of Lion Gate
entrance.
– 6 shaft graves: 19 bodies: 9 men, 8 women, 2
kids.
– Considered Royal graves because of how they
were buried and what they were buried with.
– In 5 of these, Schliemann discovered embalmed
bodies and lots of grave goods.
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• GRAVE CIRCLE A:
– It was girded by a double wall, the middle of
which was filled with rubble.Limestone slabs
were then placed on top.
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• GRAVE CIRCLE A:
GRAVE CIRCLE A DISCOVERIES
Both items were found in Grave IV. Both inspired
by Minoan art. Both are from the 16th BC. Both are
ritual vessels.
Gold Lion’s Head Rhyton
Silver Bull’s Head
Rhyton with gold horns
GRAVE CIRCLE A DISCOVERIES
Grave Masks: The mask of
Agamemnon
– Named by Schliemann, he
thought he was looking at
the grave mask of the great
king.
– The mask came from Grave
IV.
– He is beardless.
– Made with gold plating
pounded over wood mold.
– Very few wore these.
Strictly funeral masks.
Another mask
Mask of Agamemnon: shaft grave 5
GRAVE CIRCLE A DISCOVERIES
• Daggers: These are bronze daggers. Inlaid
with gold and silver. The scene is a hunt.
GRAVE CIRCLE A DISCOVERIES
• Gold:
Gold crown
Part of a warriors protection
Gold medallions
GRAVE CIRCLE A DISCOVERIES
• Other goods from Grave Circle A:
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Gold cups, vessels, rings
Faience jars
Silver vessels
Bronze vessels
Pottery (lots)
• These graves show the wealth of Mycenae
at this time (1400-1200).
GRAVE CIRCLE A DISOVERIES
• Jewelry:
Gold Ring: top
GRAVE CIRCLE A
• Aerial View:
MYCENAEAN BURIALS
• GRAVE CIRCLE B:
– Lies 130 meters west of Lion’s Gate.
– Not within walls as A is.
– Circle is 28 meters across and contains more cist than
shaft graves.
– Dates: 1625-1520 BC.
– 16 men, 6 women, 2 kids.
– Earlier than Grave Circle A.
– Reflect a society not as wealthy as in Grave Circle A.
– Still, there are very nice grave goods.
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• This circle is beyond the citadel walls. It is where the graves of
the earliest kings of Mycenae and their families are found. It
dates to 1650- 1550 BC.
• They were enclosed by a low circular wall about 28 meters in
diameter. The circle partly underlay a later tholos tomb, known
as the Tomb of Klytemnestra, and was discovered in the course
of restoration work to it in 1951.
• Only a small segment and a few stones of the encircling wall
have survived In part this is due to the construction of the Tomb
of Klytemnestra
• but most of the destruction resulted from the building of the
modern road to the site.
• It was a double wall of roughly cut stone slabs with a fill of earth
and smaller stones.
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• Plan:
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• The small cemetery contained 10 small
cist graves, with little evidence of wealth
or status.
• The rest of the graves, 14 in all, shaft
graves. Often containing more than one
burial. They were much richer too.
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• The Shaft Graves are rectangular and anywhere up to
4 meters deep.
• The lower sections of the side walls were shored up
with masonry or brickwork forming a ledge a meter
or so up. This was used to support a roof which was
made of either timber beams or flagstones.
• The rest of the shaft was filled with dirt forming a
small mound at the top.
• Finally, some sort of marker— usually a carved stele
— was erected on top. All of this, of course, had to be
removed to permit the interment of additional bodies.
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• The bodies were laid out, normally extended and on
their backs, on a bed of pebbles at the bottom of the
shaft.
• They were decked out in all of their finery, their
robes decorated with gold ornaments and wearing
their best jewelry.
• Grave goods: pottery, weapons, masks, vase of rock
crystal carved in shape of duck.
• Overall, grave goods of less quality (less wealth) than
Grave Circle A. But it does represent an increase over
pervious periods.
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• DUCK VASE:
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• A BURIAL:
Grave goods
skeleton
Grave goods
GRAVE CIRCLE B
• Burial
Mycenaean Burials
• THOLOS TOMBS:
– Consists of a circular subterranean burial chamber called a
thalamos.
– Roofed by a corbelled vault.
– Approached by an entrance passage or dromos. This narrows as
one approaches the doorway or stomion. Doorway is of
monumental proportions.
– The burial chamber is built out of stone not hewed from bedrock.
– Usually they are set into hillsides. (subterranean).
– Burial could either be on floor, pit, shaft, cist.
– Reserved for wealthy/powerful.
Mycenaean Burials
• Tholos Tomb:
Mycenaean Burials
• THOLOS TOMBS: 3 groups.
– Group 1:
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Diameters: from 8 –13 meters.
Total number: 3
No cut stone employed.
No blocking wall at end of dromos.
Larger stones in door jambs.
No relieving triangle above lintel.
No walls line the dromos (except in the tomb of Aegisthus)
Mycenaean Burials
• Group 1: Tomb
of Aegisthus
Mycenaean Burials
• GROUP 2:
– Diameters: 8-14 meters.
– Dromoi: lined with mix of hard limestone and
porus ashlar.
– Blocking wall at end of dromos.
– Relieving triangle above lintel
– Lion Tomb is an example of this group.
Mycenaean Burials
• Lion Tomb (Group 2)
Mycenaean Burials
• Group 3:
– Diameters: 8.4-14.5 meters
– Dromoi lined with ashlar masonry
– Tomb chambers constructed of ashlar
conglomerate masonry
– Relieving triangles above lintel.
– Ex. Treasury of Atreus and Tomb of
Clytemnestra.
Mycenaean Burials
• Treasury of Atreus:
Mycenaean Burials
• Treasury of Atreus:
Mycenaean Burials
• Tomb of Clytemnestra:
Mycenaean Burials
• Chamber Tombs:
– Look somewhat similar to Tholos tombs but
smaller, cheaply made.
– For use by “everyday” people.
– Used by entire families.
Mycenaean Burials
• Essential Questions:
• How do you know the Mycenaeans had
respect for their dead?
• What were the different ways in which
Mycenaeans buried their dead?
• How can you tell from their burial practices
that the Mycenaeans had a society based on
some form of class system?