Mycenaean cemetery of Kokla

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The Mycenaean cemetery of Kokla ( Greek Μυκηναϊκό Νεκροταφείο της Κόκλας ) is located 1.4 km east of the town of Kokla and about 3 km southwest of the city of Argos in Greece . In the north, Koucheika, a district of Kokla, borders the necropolis . The graves were from the 16th to the 13th century BC. Used. So far, a Tholos grave (grave I), nine chamber graves (graves II – X), two shaft graves in a long trench and five simple shaft graves (graves 1–5) have been discovered.

exploration

In 1981 the Tholos tomb was uncovered under the direction of archaeologist Katie Demakopoulou and Dina Kaza. In the summer of the following year, the other graves were discovered under the direction of Katie Demakopoulou, Dina Kaza and Katerina Barakari. In March 1983 the archaeozoologists Joachim Boessneck and Angela von den Driesch examined the animal bones found in grave II in the Archaeological Museum of Argos . The associated settlement has not yet been discovered. It was probably located on the hill 300–400 m north of the cemetery. A Cyclopean retaining wall was found here at the foot of the hill .

The Tholos tomb

The tholos tomb is actually a mixture of chamber and tholos tomb. Contrary to what is usual with tholos tombs, in which the dromos and the entrance are masonry, these are carved into the rock in the tholos tomb of Kokla, as in the Mycenaean chamber tombs. Only the facade of the grave and a small part of the drom directly in front of the facade have stone cladding. The burial chamber is, however, as usual for a Tholos grave, built as a round dome in a corbelled vault .

Access to the grave is from the east via the 23 m long and 2–2.20 m wide dromos. As usual with chamber graves, it narrows slightly towards the top. A low transverse wall was built at the eastern end of the Dromos. On the floor of the dromos were found shards of supply amphorae in palace style and directly in front of the entrance kylikes from the Late Helladic (SH III A1; 1400-1350 BC). With these libations were probably offered at the last burial . Sheep or goat bones were also found near the entrance. Two skeletons without grave goods and another skeleton in a niche at the beginning of the drom were found in a niche in the south wall of the dromos 2 m from the entrance.

The facade of the grave was 6 m high. A 2.65 m high, 1.25 m high and 2.60 m deep entrance led through it. It was plastered inside and out with a layer of clay and sealed with a drywall. A roughly hewn stone block that rested on two pillars served as the lintel. Above that there was not the usual relief triangle, but the rock that served as a facade above. This was plastered with clay and lime. One of the oldest Mycenaean frescoes measuring 1.30 × 0.80 m was painted on it and showed red and blue panes on a cream-colored background. The discs are supposed to represent the ends of round beams.

In a 7 m deep pit, open at the top, a dome with a diameter of 5.40 m in a false vault with large and small roughly hewn stones and a wall thickness of about 0.85 m was built directly on the leveled rock and plastered with clay. It had an original height of 5–5.50 m, but is now only about 1.90–2 m high. Holes were found in the floor, which were presumably used to hold beams of the scaffolding that was needed to erect the dome. A table 2.25 m long, 0.45 m high and 1 m deep was found in the south of the grave. On this table were found four silver kilikes and next to it on the floor three silver cups, a gold hemispherical cup and a gold foil decorated with screw decorations, which probably came from the edge of a wooden, metal or stone vessel. Glass beads were found in and around the gold cup. In addition, an agate seal with a depiction of a lying bull and a seal made of gray-green stone with a depiction of a running bull were found in the grave. In addition, twelve bronze forks, 14 bronze arrowheads, a bronze ring, a small conical weaving weight made of light green steatite , some stone vessels and a large amphora with three handles and spiral decoration (SH III A1) came to light. However, no bones were found in the grave. They were either destroyed by a fire found in the center of the tomb, or later removed. On the basis of the stones with which the grave was closed, it could be determined that the grave was opened again two or three times after the first burial in order to bury other dead. The first burial took place in the transition period from SH II B to SH III A1, i.e. at the end of the 15th century. The last burial took place before the end of SH III A1, i.e. before 1350 BC. Chr.

Chamber and shaft graves

The earliest chamber graves are graves IV, V, VI, VII and VIIA. They are characterized by a broad, short dromos and date in SH II A – B (about 1500–1400 BC). The other chamber graves III, VIII, IX and X date in SH III A – B (approx. 1400–1200 BC). You have a long, narrow dromos. The shaft graves date from the same time. A large amphora made of SH III A1 was found in a grave.

The burial chambers of the chamber tombs are square or ellipsoidal with niches. The dead were deposited on the floor of the graves. When buried again, the bones of the crumbled corpses were placed in pits that were dug in the chambers. In grave II, in addition to human bones, the bones of four horses and a dog were found. A stallion's skeleton was undisturbed and almost completely preserved. It had only 5 lumbar vertebrae and the height at the withers of the horses was 1.31–1.33 m. The bones of the other horses and the dog were scattered in the grave and not all bones were found, so that it is not clear whether the animals were completely or only partially deposited in the grave. Using the ceramic from SH III A2 – B1, the grave is dated between 1350 and 1250 BC. Dated.

A total of 230 vessels from the 16th to the 13th centuries BC were found. Only a few were found from SH I and most came from SH II A to SH III A1. A lot of ceramics also originate from the time SH III A2 – B1. They were all of high quality, and the most common shapes were vaphio cups , hemispherical cups, kylikes, ephyra bowls , askoi , alabastra, and water jugs. Three vessels were imported from Crete : a bell-shaped cup with a clover-leaf decoration , an amphoriskus and a deep, hemispherical cup with a reed decoration. Other additions were bronze weapons and tools as well as jewelry such as a bronze short sword, a large knife, pearls made of amethyst , rock crystal , carnelian , faience and glass paste in various shapes, golden pearls in the form of an eight-shaped shield, seals made of carnelian with amphora images, clay figures of the Tau, Proto-phi, Phi and Psi types and a cattle figure from the 15th century BC. Chr. (SH II B).

literature

  • Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα (θολωτός τάφος) in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 36 (1981), Part B1, Athens 1988, pp. 94-97
  • Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, pp. 83-85
  • Joachim Boessneck, Angela von den Driesch: The zoological documentation of the remains of four horses and a dog from a Mycenaean shaft grave in Kokla near Argos (Peloponnese) in Spixiana Volume 7, 1984, pp. 327–333 ( online )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, p. 83
  2. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα (θολωτός τάφος) in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 36 (1981), Part B1, Athens 1988, p. 94
  3. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, p. 83
  4. ↑ Joachim Boessneck, Angela von den Driesch: The zoological documentation of the remains of four horses and a dog from a Mycenaean shaft grave in Kokla near Argos (Peloponnese) in Spixiana Volume 7, 1984, p. 327
  5. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, pp. 84-85
  6. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, p. 83
  7. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα (θολωτός τάφος) in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 36 (1981), Part B1, Athens 1988, pp. 94-96
  8. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα (θολωτός τάφος) in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 36 (1981), Part B1, Athens 1988, pp. 94-96
  9. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα (θολωτός τάφος) in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 36 (1981), Part B1, Athens 1988, pp. 96-97
  10. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, p. 83
  11. ↑ Joachim Boessneck, Angela von den Driesch: The zoological documentation of the remains of four horses and a dog from a Mycenaean shaft grave in Kokla near Argos (Peloponnese) in Spixiana Volume 7, 1984, pp. 327–333
  12. ↑ Katie Demakopoulou: Κόκλα. Μυκηναϊκή νεκρόπολη in Aρχαιολογικον Δελτιον Volume 37 (1982), Part B1, Athens 1989, pp. 83-85

Coordinates: 37 ° 36 ′ 50 "  N , 22 ° 41 ′ 27.7"  E