Cyclopean Tomb

The Cyclopean Tomb is a Mycenaean tholos tomb at the Bronze Age site of Mycenae in southern Greece. Dating to the early Late Helladic IIA period, which itself dates to approximately 1635/1600 –1480/1470 BCE, it is one of the earliest tholos tombs at the site, and comparatively simple in construction. 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. However, unlike later and more elaborate tombs, the dromos was not reinforced with masonry, nor were the stones used to construct the tomb shaped during the building process. The tomb was known before the first modern excavations of Mycenae, which took place in the late nineteenth century, but large parts of it had collapsed prior to its archaeological study. Christos Tsountas excavated the tomb in 1891, recovering modest finds including a bronze dagger; Alan Wace re-studied the tomb and found several sherds of pottery from the tomb's dromos and stomion (threshold). Two of these sherds postdated the Mycenaean period, and have been interpreted as possible evidence for the worship of revered or mythical ancestors (hero cult) at the tomb.

Monument data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).