Who is buried in Mycenae?

Who is buried in Mycenae?

The grave of Agamemnon included his followers, his charioteer Eurymedon and the two children of Cassandra, all of whom were buried within the citadel.

What kind of grave did the Mycenaeans use?

Mycenaean shaft graves originated and evolved from rudimentary Middle Helladic cists, tumuli, and tholos tombs with features derived from Early Bronze Age traditions developed locally in mainland Bronze Age Greece 16th century BCE.

What were shaft graves used for?

shaft graves, late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1450 bc) burial sites from the era in which the Greek mainland came under the cultural influence of Crete. The graves were those of royal or leading Greek families, unplundered and undisturbed until found by modern archaeologists at Mycenae.

Where are the treasures of Mycenae?

Over four hundred priceless artifacts, most of them traveling for the first time out of Greece, will be presented at The Schloss Karlsruhe Museum in a one-of-a-kind exhibit.

How did the Mycenaeans bury their dead?

The Mycenaeans practiced a burial of the dead, and did so consistently. The body of the deceased was prepared to lie in state, followed by a procession to the resting place, a single grave or a family tomb. Processions and ritual laments are depicted on burial chests (larnakes) from Tanagra.

Where is King Agamemnon buried?

Treasury of Atreus, also called Tomb of Agamemnon, a beehive, or tholos, tomb built about 1350 to 1250 bc at Mycenae, Greece.

What was the characteristic tomb type for later Mycenaean tombs?

The tholos tomb is a round, beehive shaped structure famously built by the late Bronze Age Mycenean peoples. These were royal examples of the commonly employed chamber tomb.

What is a cist grave?

cist, also called Stone Chest, prehistoric European coffin containing a body or ashes, usually made of stone or a hollowed-out tree; also, a storage place for sacred objects.

How big is the mask of Agamemnon?

about 12 inches
In spite of all the doubts, this distinguished mask of gold which is about 12 inches in height is still known as the Mask of Agamemnon and is one of the most prized discoveries from the ancient Mycenaean ages.

Where was the mask of Agamemnon found?

Mycenae
The “Mask of Agamemnon” is one of the most famous gold artifacts from the Greek Bronze Age. Found at Mycenae in 1876 by the distinguished archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, it was one of several gold funeral masks found laid over the faces of the dead buried in the shaft graves of a royal cemetery.

What happens if you weren’t buried in ancient Greece?

Any one finding an unburied corpse was expected at least to throw a handful of dust over it. If a general neglected to provide for the burial of the slain in war, he was deemed guilty of a capital offence. Burial of the dead was not refused even to the enemy, whether Greek or barbarian.

Where were the dead usually buried in ancient Greece?

At the end of the fifth century B.C., Athenian families began to bury their dead in simple stone sarcophagi placed in the ground within grave precincts arranged in man-made terraces buttressed by a high retaining wall that faced the cemetery road.

Where is the mask of Agamemnon now?

the National Archaeological Museum
Today, the mask of “Agamemnon” resides in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

What architectural technique was used by the Mycenaeans to create domes for their tholos tombs?

A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb (plural tholoi; from Greek θολωτός τάφος, θολωτοί τάφοι, “domed tombs”), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by corbelling, the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones.

How were people buried in the Bronze Age?

The construction and style of the grave itself varied. The remains, burnt or as inhumations, were usually placed in a stone cist or a pit, often accompanied by grave goods of semi precious stones, jewellery or weaponry, some were marked with a mound of earth or a cairn of stones.

What is a Bronze Age cist?

The burials from the bronze age lack the prestige of the earlier megalithic monuments from the Stone age. Instead the most common burial type of the period is known as a cist. Cists are box like structures made of stone slabs set in the ground.

Was Agamemnon a real person?

A hero from Greek mythology, there are no historical records of a Mycenaean king of that name, but the city was a prosperous one in the Bronze Age, and there perhaps was a real, albeit much shorter, Greek-led attack on Troy.

Where is the Mask of Agamemnon now?

Is the death mask of Agamemnon real?

Modern archaeological research suggests that the mask is genuine but pre-dates the period of the Trojan War by 300–400 years. Others date the contents of the find even earlier, to approximately 2500 BC.

Why did they put pennies on eyes?

According to Greek legend, he needed to be paid an obol for his service. An obol was a type of coin from ancient Greece. The only way to make sure he got his payment was to bury the dead with a coin on their eyes or even in their mouths.