Mycenean cemetery in achaia. Comenius project 2010-12

1. 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.

2. Mycenaean and Submycenaean
period in western Achaea
1.500 – 1.000 B.C.

3. Architecture
• Settlements
• Cemeteries
• Tombs
• Walls

4. Mycenaean settlements in Western Achaea

5. Chalandritsa: One of the most important Mycenaean settlements
in Achaea.

6. Road Room with a child’s burial
Chalandritsa

7. Portes
an important Mycenaean
settlement
(17th -11th cent. B.C.)
The settlement
The cemetery

8. 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

9. 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- Stomion: Chamber
sloping ramp the entrance 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.

10. The chamber of grave 29 with burial pits
Chamber tomb 3

11. 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
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.
Differences from chamber tombs:
1.Both dromos and burial chamber were built.
2.Their chamber had always round shape.

12. Mycenae:The tomb of Agamemnon
Dromos and entrance (1.250 B.C.)
Tholos tomb with reconstructed
Two tholos tombs tholos near the palace of Pylos
(15th cent. B.C.)

13. Tholos tomb in Portes

14. 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.

15. Built chamber tomb in
Portes
Reconstructed built chamber
tomb from Portes in the Museum
of Patras

16. 4. Cist graves
•They were pits dug on the ground.
•They were lined and covered usually with stone
slabs.
( cist: box shaped)
Cist graves in Portes

17. 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

18. Voudeni: The Mycenaean settlement survived a few more
decades than any other settlement in Achaea until 1.000 B.C.
The Mycenaean The cemetery
settlement

19. The archeological The cemetery
area

20. Tomb 5

21. Tomb 77

22. Tomb 75 with stomion
closed with stones.

23. Terracotta burial asaminthos (Minoan style) from Voudeni.

24. Part of defending wall of Voudeni settlement

25. Teichos Dymaion: The Dymaion wall
A Cyclopean Mycenaean fortification.

26. The main entrance

27. The tower: the Mycenaean and the Medieval part