Bronze Age in Greece (3.000-1.100 B.C.)

Cycladic civilization in Cyclades Islands

3.000-1.450 B.C.

Minoan civilization in Creta

3.000-1.450 B.C.

Mycenaean civilization in mainland Greece

1.600-1.100 B.C.

Mycenaean and Submycenaean

period in western Achaea

1.500 – 1.000 B.C.

Architecture

• Settlements

• Cemeteries

• Tombs

• Walls

Mycenaean settlements in Western Achaea

Chalandritsa: One of the most important Mycenaean settlements

in Achaea.

Road Room with a child’s burial

Chalandritsa

Portes

an important Mycenaean settlement

(17th -11th cent. B.C.)

The settlement

The cemetery

There are four types of Mycenaean tombs all represented in the cemetery of Portes

1. Curved chamber tombs

2. Tholos tombs

3. Built chamber tombs

4. Cist graves

1.Chamber tombs : curved out of soft rocky hillsides. The most common Mycenaean graves for ordinary people. They were part of an organized cemetery.

Dromos: a downwards-sloping ramp

Stomion: the entrance

Chamber of many shapes

After the burial stomion was built with drystone walling and dromos was filled with earth. A “sema” (stone or wooden mark) was often placed on the entrance.

Chamber tomb 3

The chamber of grave 29 with burial pits

2. The tholos tombs: were built of stones

only for rulers and their families.

They had the same structure with chamber tombs.

Dromos Stomion Chamber

Differences from chamber tombs:

1.Both dromos and burial chamber were built.

2.Their chamber had always round shape.

Each horizontal row of stones projected slightly from the lower one. As the height rose the diameter of rows decreased. By this way the roof was formed like a cone with curved sides.

Mycenae:The tomb of Agamemnon Dromos and entrance (1.250 B.C.)

Tholos tomb with reconstructed tholos near the palace of Pylos (15th cent. B.C.)

Two tholos tombs

Tholos tomb in Portes

3. Built chamber tombs

• They were subterranean with rectangular shape.

• Their sides were built with flat stones in horizontal layers.

• The roof was made of horizontal big slabs.

• The entrance was in one of the short sides.

• They had a short dromos.

• After the burial stomion was closed with dry masonry and dromos was filled with soil.

Built chamber tomb in Portes

Reconstructed built chamber tomb from Portes in the Museum of Patras

Cist graves in Portes

4. Cist graves

• They were pits dug on the ground.

• They were lined and covered usually with stone slabs.

( cist: box shaped)

Tumulus : an artificial earthen mound surrounded by a stone circle or by a built enclosure

Tumulus with built chamber tombs and cist graves in Portes

The Mycenaean The cemetery

settlement

Voudeni: The Mycenaean settlement survived a few more

decades than any other settlement in Achaea until 1.000 B.C.

The archeological

area

The cemetery

Tomb 5

Tomb 77

Tomb 75 with stomion closed with stones.

Terracotta burial asaminthos (Minoan style) from Voudeni.

Part of defending wall of Voudeni settlement

Teichos Dymaion: The Dymaion wall

A Cyclopean Mycenaean fortification.

The main entrance

The tower: the Mycenaean and the Medieval part