Shaft grave

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Shaft grave of Hetepheres I (approx. 2600 BC, sketch 2012)

Shaft grave refers to a certain type of grave , which, however, was prepared differently in different cultures.

Antiquity

Especially in antiquity in the Mediterranean area, it describes a mostly artificially created grave, sunk into a rock . These shaft graves were mostly laid out like grottos and closed with stones or otherwise made inaccessible.

In Mycenae there are a total of 20 shaft graves in cave circle A and cave circle B, which date from the transition from the Middle Helladic to the Late Helladic and thus represent the beginning of the Mycenaean culture . They are extremely richly endowed and so far unique for prehistoric Greece.

Sliding tunnel grave

Kurt Galling coined the term sliding tunnel grave for the graves hewn out of the rock from Judea, later also from Galilee, which consisted of rectangular or square chambers with closable tunnels extending from the side walls, each of which could accommodate a corpse. The narrow opening of the tunnels meant that the dead could only be pushed in (where the name came from), head first. The sliding tunnel grave is a development owed to the Ptolemaic , i.e. Egyptian-Hellenistic influence, which started over the Hellenistic Marissa around 200 BC. It finds its way into the country and after about a hundred years it spreads in Jewish Jerusalem . There are sliding tunnel graves in the first century BC. BC and in the first century AD preferred by rich families as family graves for primary and secondary burial over the older form of chamber graves. The Hebrew term for grave tunnel is kokh , plural kokhim , the Latin loculus , plural loculi .

Middle Ages and Modern Times

Since the Middle Ages , a shaft grave has been understood to be a rectangular grave dug in the ground that could be reused. Nowadays this type of grave is the most common. Such graves are usually rented or leased for several years . After the contract has expired , it is normally rebuilt and rented out or leased. It is also often referred to as a mass grave , which is incorrect in this sense.

See also

literature

  • Janice L. Crowley: Mycenaean Art and Architecture . In: The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, pp. 258-288 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Janice L. Crowley: Mycenaean Art and Architecture. 2008, pp. 259-261.
  2. ^ Hans-Peter Kuhnen: Palestine in Greco-Roman times. S. 73 , Munich: CH Beck, 1990 (Handbuch der Archäologie. Vorderasien II, 2.). Access April 14, 2020.
  3. ↑ Martin Leuenberger: God in Motion: Contributions to the history of religion and theology on ideas of God in ancient Israel. P. 132 , Mohr Siebeck, 2011 (Volume 76 of Research on the Old Testament, ISSN 0940-4155), ISBN 978-3-16-150781-6 . Access April 14, 2020.