Kato Phournos tholos

Kato Phournos tholos

Κάτω Φούρνος
The tomb's stomion (entrance), viewed from over the chamber, in 2013
Kato Phournos tholos Location of the Kato Phournos tholos in the Peloponnese
Location	Mycenae, Argolis, Greece
Coordinates	37°43′53″N 22°44′58″E
Type	Mycenaean tholos tomb
History
Material	Poros stone
Periods	Late Helladic IIA
Site notes
Excavation dates	1893 1922
Archaeologists	Christos Tsountas Alan Wace
Public access	Yes
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Designated	1999
Part of	Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns
Reference no.	941

The Kato Phournos tholos is a Mycenaean tholos tomb at the Bronze Age site of Mycenae in southern Greece. It is one of the earliest tholos tombs (tholoi) at the site, dating to the Late Helladic IIA period (c. 1635/1600 – c. 1480/1470 BCE). Like other examples of the type, it consisted of a round burial chamber surmounted by a corbelled roof, itself entered by a narrow rectangular passage known as the dromos. It is situated on the west side of the Panagia Ridge, approximately 600 m (660 yd) west of the settlement.

The tomb was lined with ashlar masonry and contains a large burial pit in its chamber. It was looted in antiquity, and noted by early travellers to Mycenae. It was first recorded by the antiquary William Gell following a visit to Mycenae in 1805, though Gell mistook it for the remains of a gate. It was excavated by Christos Tsountas in 1893 and by Alan Wace, who also re-examined Tsountas's spoil heaps, in 1922. Finds from the tomb included the remains of several Palace Style storage jars (amphorae), made on Minoan Crete and approximately contemporary with the tomb's construction, as well as several fragments of Mycenaean pottery which postdated it, and a large number of female terracotta figurines from the archaic period (c. 700 – 479 BCE).

Description

The Kato Phournos tholos is a Mycenaean tholos tomb. Tholos tombs, or tholoi, are a form of monumental burial that originated in Messenia, in southwest Greece, at the end of the Middle Helladic III period (that is, c. 1700 – c. 1675 BCE). They may have developed as a more monumental version of the burial mounds, or tumuli, used in mainland Greece throughout the Middle Helladic period; they may also have been influenced by similar styles of built tombs used in Minoan Crete.

Tholoi consist of a narrow rectangular entrance passage, known as the dromos, which leads into an underground burial chamber, separated from the dromos by an entrance-way called the stomion, which would usually be sealed with a dry-stone wall. The walls of the chamber, and sometimes the dromos, were lined with dry-stone masonry. The chamber was capped with a rounded roof constructed by the technique of corbelling, by which courses of blocks were overlapped in increasingly small circles. They were typically used for multiple burials, perhaps of members of the same family, and many were periodically re-opened for additional interments and for ritual activity.

During the Late Bronze Age, a total of nine tholoi were constructed at Mycenae. The Kato Phournos tomb dates to the Late Helladic IIA period (c. 1635/1600 – c. 1480/1470 BCE), the first period in which the tombs were constructed at the site. It is located approximately 600 m (660 yd) west of the settlement, on the western slope of the Panagia Ridge.

The tomb's dromos is 12 metres (39 ft) long and 3 metres (10 ft) wide, and was lined with blocks of poros stone cut and dressed with hammers and chisels into ashlar masonry. The stomion is 4 metres (13 ft) high, 2 metres (6.6 ft) wide, and 4 metres (13 ft) deep, and constructed largely of blocks of coglomerate. The chamber is 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter; Alan Wace, who investigated the tomb in 1922, estimated its original height as about 9 metres (30 ft). The chamber contains a large burial-pit, approximately 5 by 2 metres (16.4 by 6.6 ft) in area and 1 metre (3.3 ft) deep, which follows the southwest part of the wall. The floor of the tomb is cut from the rock, and covered in the stomion and chamber with a layer of cement.

Archaeological investigations

Plan of the tomb, made by Piet de Jong under the direction of Alan Wace in 1920–1922

The existence of the Kato Phournos tholos was known before the first major excavations at Mycenae, led by Heinrich Schliemann and Panagiotis Stamatakis, in 1876. The first recorded sighting of it was made by the antiquary William Gell, who visited Mycenae in 1805, though he mistook it (and the nearby Epano Phournos tomb) for gates. It was also noted by the scientific delegation of the French Morea expedition, which visited Greece in 1829.

As with the other tholoi at Mycenae, the Kato Phournos tholos was not discovered intact, but had been looted in antiquity. It was excavated by Christos Tsountas in 1893; he recovered a large number of terracotta female figurines, dating to the archaic period (c. 700 – 479 BCE). In 1922, Wace re-excavated the tomb's dromos and chamber, and investigated Tsountas's spoil heaps, though he did not excavate the grave-pit through lack of time. He discovered another archaic terracotta female figurine in the dromos. Other finds in the dromos consisted of seventeen sherds of Palace Style storage jars (amphorae), made on Crete and contemporary with the Late Helladic II period (c. 1635/1600 – c. 1420/1410 BCE); two fragments of small cups, dating to the Late Helladic II; and fifty other sherds of Late Helladic material, mostly dating to the Late Helladic III period (c. 1420/1410 – c. 1075/1050 BCE).

In the chamber, Wace excavated two further sherds from Palace Style amphorae, one of which originally came from the same vessel as some of those in the dromos, and a small piece of a Late Helladic II vase. In Tsountas's spoil heaps, he additionally discovered sixteen more sherds from Palace Style amphorae, twenty-eight fragments of small Late Helladic II vessels, six fragments of coarseware that he considered to date to the Late Helladic II, and sixty-one additional sherds from the Late Helladic, mostly dated to the Late Helladic III. In his notebook, Wace recorded finding three additional sherds: he considered these to have been made after the Mycenaean period, and Carla Antonaccio suggests that they may have been Protocorinthian (c. 720 – c. 630 BCE) and classical (c. 480 – c. 323 BCE) in date.

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