Cyclopes Tomb (Mycenae)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Access and collapsed gateway of the Cyclops tomb
Collapsed tholos of the tomb

Kyklopengrab ( Greek Τάφος Κυκλώπειος ) is a tholos tomb in Mycenae called. The grave was named after its Cyclopean construction of the gateway (stomion) and the grave dome. Unprocessed field stones were stacked on top of one another and small stones were placed in the remaining spaces. The Tholos tomb is located on the western slope of the Panagitsa hill about 650 m west of the upper town of Mycenae and 60 m south of the tomb of the genii . According to the classification of Alan Wace , it belongs to the first Tholos group and dates to the Late Helladic Period (SH II A Early). It is probably the oldest Tholos tomb in Mycenae and was built around 1500 BC. Built in BC.

The access path ( dromos ) was dug into the rock. Side walls as in the later graves are missing. The dome, which collapsed today, had a diameter of 8 m and the height is also estimated to be around 8 m. The grave appears as early as 1878 on Vasilios Drosino's plan of Mycenae. In 1891 it was excavated by Christos Tsountas . In 1922 Alan Wace carried out additional excavations. He examined the dromos, the stomion and the rubble that Tsountas had removed from the grave. He made only a few finds: a spindle whorl made of steatite ( SH III ), a late Helladic and a geometric pottery shard and a Hellenistic brick fragment.

In the National Archaeological Museum in Athens more finds are on display: an ivory staff , which was covered with gold, a bronze ring and a bronze knife.

literature

  • Richard Speicher: Peloponnese . 2nd Edition. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-17-010031-9 , pp. 126; 129 .
  • Carla M. Antonaccio: An Archeology of Ancestors: Tomb Cult and Hero Cult in Early Greece . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1994, ISBN 0-8476-7942-X , pp. 32 ( books.google.de [accessed on May 1, 2014]).

Web links

Commons : Lions Tomb  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan Wace, Leicester Bodine Holland: Excavations at Mycenae. The Tholos tombs . In: The Annual of the British School at Athens . tape 25 , 1923, pp. 283-402 , doi : 10.1017 / S0068245400010352 .
  2. ↑ Heinrich Schliemann : Mycenae . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1964, Plan D ( digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de [accessed on April 25, 2014]).

Coordinates: 37 ° 43 ′ 43.3 "  N , 22 ° 44 ′ 57.8"  E