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The re-use of earlier Tombs in the LH IIIC period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

W. Cavanagh  and
C. Mee
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Extract

Mycenaean underground family sepulchres are found in small groups scattered throughout the Greek countryside. It is not unusual for these tombs to hold fewer than a dozen burials, interred over a period of up to six generations, and tombs with only a single burial are not unknown. On the other hand a few tombs in almost every cemetery see continuous use over a period of up to ten generations, and these naturally contain more skeletons. There is a great range in the size of the tombs and the largest seem to have been the tombs of families of high social standing. The more normal tombs average some 7 m.2 in area, and could hold a large number of skeletons thanks to the custom of moving the bones of earlier burials to one side.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 73 , November 1978 , pp. 31 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1978

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References

1 A knowledge of Mycenaean burial practices is assumed. Classic descriptions include Wace, Chamber Tombs 121—46, Blegen, Prosymna 228–63, and Andronikos, , Totenkult— Archaeologia Homerica W (Göttingen, 1960) 37–128Google Scholar, with bibliography. The figures for the number of burials are deliberately imprecise. So few cemeteries have been published with adequate skeletal analyses that it is impossible to be more exact.

2 Chamber Tombs 138.

3 Deiras 246.

4 Charles, R-P., Étude Anthropologique des Necropoles d' Argos (Paris, 1963) 16–18.Google Scholar

5 Deiras 246.

6 Op. cit. 99.

7 Deshayes is less certain, op. cit. 246.

8 Op. cit. 248.

9 Op. cit. 253.

10 Asine 160.

11 Op. cit. 357.

12 Op. cit. 161.

13 OpArch iii (1944) 210.

14 CMP 73.

15 See the section Asine 164 fig. 139.

16 Op. cit. 167.

17 Op. cit. 182.

18 LMTS 83.

19 Pantelidou 85, 91 and pl. 31D.

20 Op. cit. pl. 31E

21 CMP 73–4.

22 BMA 801–970, CVA BM5: 1–8.

23 NT1–60: Annuario vi–vii (1923–4) 83–341.

24 NT61–88: Annuario xiii–xiv (1930–4) 253–345.

25 NT36. CMP 42.

26 Only a fraction of the pottery from the tombs excavated by Maiuri is illustrated. There is a complete catalogue in Mee, 's unpublished Ph.D. thesis ‘The Dodecanese in the Bronze Age’ (London, 1975).Google Scholar

27 Annuario vi–vii (1923–4) 168 fig. 96; Annuario xiii–xiv (1930—1) 255 fig. 2.

28 Annuario xliii–xliv (1965–6) 5–311.

29 BSA lxii (1967) 257.

30 BSA li (1956) pl. 11.

31 Prehistoric Tombs 124 fig. 118.

32 Op. cit. 141 fig. 122.

33 Chamber Tombs 123–4; BICS xxiii (1976) 119.

34 CMP 40–1 and 131—LH IIIA2: 67 deposits, LH IIIB: 65 deposits.

35 Chamber Tombs 110–13.

36 Op. cit. 63–7.

37 Prosymna 69–72.

38 Op. cit. fig. 140 nos. 196 and 1210.

39 Op. cit. figs. 140–1.

40 Op. cit. 93–8.

41 Op. cit., figs. 203–10.

42 Op. cit. 206–15 and 221–3.

43 ADelt iii (1917) 129 ff.

44 In tombs 515, 517, and 529 at Mycenae. In some cases the intervening layers of earth may have been introduced from outside in order to cover the earlier burials. This does not appear to be the case in the Deiras cemetery and in Athens Agora tomb VII, however.

45 OpArch iii (1944) 264; LMTS 235–6; CAH 3 II.2. 207–8.

46 Clara Rhodos vi–vii (1932–3) 146 figs. 171–2. See Asine 397 fig. 260:3.

47 LMTS 155.

48 ADelt xx (1965) 125–6. The pottery can be seen in Salamis museum.

49 LMTS 232–3.

50 ADelt xxiv (1969) pl. 59D.

51 Kerameikos i pl. 5.

52 BSA lx (1965) 334.

53 The amphoriskoi and the double jar—ADelt iii (1917) 158 fig. 118, 163 fig. 121, 192 fig. 137.

54 Mycenae 515, Chamber Tombs 50–63 and Tiryns Piofitis Ilias VII, Tiryns vi 49–54, might be re-used.

55 ADelt xix (1964) 177 and xx (1965) 209.

56 LMTS 97.

57 Fully argued in Cavanagh, 's unpublished Ph.D. thesis ‘Attic Burial Customs c. 2000–700 B.C.’ (London, 1977) 194–9Google Scholar. See also the late chamber tomb cemetery at Amphikleia, ADelt xxv (1970) 237–40.Google Scholar It has been represented to us that the effort of emptying the dromos fill of an earlier tomb was greater than that of cutting one of the smaller tombs at Perati. The figures do not support this contention. The volume of fill removed from the dromos to gain final access to Asine tomb I: 1 was about 2·1 m.3, see the plans and sections Asine 158 fig. 134. Tomb S12, chosen at random to represent the small chamber tombs at Perati, required the excavation of 3·5 m.3 for the chamber, cut into hard bed-rock, and the removal of 0·9 m.3 to form the dromos, see Perati I. 352 fig. 105.