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