O. T. P. K. Dickinson

Cist graves and Chamber Tombs

The two categories of tomb are defined. Burial practice in Greece from MH onwards is discussed, chamber tombs being established as canonical in LH I, though these are not universal, and cist and pit burials continue. Chamber and tholos tombs occur over a wide area of the mainland in LH II; after LH II, except for childrens burials, pits and cists are relatively rare, though they are found in chamber tombs. It is argued that chamber tombs were the general form of burial, and that cists and pits were not used, separately, for poor burials. Chamber tombs continue to be general in LH IIIC: simpler requirements and cremation lead to a revival of cists and pits, though chamber tombs do not totally die out, and in Crete continue to be the preferred form in Archaic times.

Schliemann and the Shaft Graves

Though not the earliest excavator, Schliemann is surely one of the best known, and though he is perhaps most famous as the excavator of Troy his work at Mycenae was equally spectacular in its results and ultimately of greater importance for the study of Aegean prehistory. It seems appropriate, in the centenary year of his excavation of the Shaft Graves in 1876, to present an up-to-date assessment of their significance and of Schliemann himself. This study has developed from the chance discovery that in a letter to Max Muller at Oxford Schliemann reported a detail of the excavation that is not in the published account; in an ensuing hunt for other documents contemporary with the actual excavation, I learned much about Schliemann that seemed to me of considerable interest, as I hope it will be to others outside the small circle of Aegean specialists.

MYCENAE REVISITED PART 4: ASSESSING THE NEW DATA

This is the fourth and final part of the series inspired by the rediscovery in 2003 of two skeletons excavated in 1877 in Shaft Grave VI in Circle A at Mycenae by Panayiotis Stamatakis. The contribution of Stamatakis to the excavations, the discrepancies between his unpublished reports to the Archaeological Society and Schliemanns account, and the reliability of that account, are discussed. This is followed by a survey of what can now be said about Grave Circle A, following the restudy of the surviving bones from Graves III–VI and the publication of various details of the arrangement in the graves reported by Stamatakis, and by a final somewhat speculative discussion of what the graves contribute to the study of the development of Mycenae at the time of its rapid rise to prominence and the accompanying major changes in the structure of society, at Mycenae and elsewhere on the Greek mainland. Μυκηνών επανεξέταση Μέρος 4 Το παρόν είναι το τέταρτο και τελευταίο μια σειράς άρθρων εμπνευσμένων από την εκ νέου ανακάλυψη, το 2003, δύο σκελετών που ανέσκαψε ο Παναγιώτης Σταματάκης το 1877 στο λακκοειδή Τάφο VI του Ταφικού Κύκλου Α των Μυκηνών.Συζητώνται η συνεισφορά του Σταματάκη στην ανασκαφική έρευνα, οι ασυμφωνίες μεταξύ των αδημοσίευτων αναφορών του προς την Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία και των όσων αναφέρει ο Schliemann, και η αξιοπιστία των τελευταίων.Τη συζήτηση αυτή ακολουθεί μια επισκόπηση των νέων στοιχείων για τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Α, μετά την επανεξέταση των σωζόμενων οστών από τους Τάφους ΙΙΙ-VI και τη δημοσίευση λεπτομερών πληροφορίων από τις αναφορές του Σταματάκη για τη διάταξη των ευρημάτων στο εσωτερικό των τάφων. Ακολουθεί μια θεωρητική, τρόπον τινά, συζήτηση της συμβολής που έχουν τα συμπεράσματα για τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Α στη μελέτη της ανάπτυξης των Μυκηνών κατά την περίοδο της ταχείας ανόδου τους σε προεξάρχουσα θέση και των συνακόλουθων μείζονων αλλαγών στη δομή της κοινωνίας, στις Μυκήνες και αλλού στην ηπειρωτική Ελλάδα.