Mycenae - Lions' gate & grave circle A
Europe, Greece, Peleponnesos, Agrolida, Mycenae (Mykinis), Lions' gate, Grave circle a (uncut)
In the Argolida region there are many traces of the pre-historic (1550–1100 BC) and for the time very advanced Mycenaean civilization.
Argolida actually formed the core of it: a loose coalition of towns, some of them fortified, spaced around a fertile alluvial plane, connected through transportation infrastructure. These traces are all substantial – 4 acropoli (Mycenae itself is one of them), several burial grounds and ‘Tholos’ bee-hive graves, a dam, bridges and even short stretches of road. When you drive around the region you often encounter signs directing one to one or more of them.
Like most Mycenaean strongholds, Mycenae is located on a hill and consists of a palace with its spaces for civic and religious collective functions, storage facilities and artisan’s workshops and houses. They are enclosed by a big boulder ‘Cyclopean’ wall.
Displayed here is Lion’s gate, one of the main entrance to the ancient town, ‘grave circle A’ and of course the characteristic Cyclopean walls. Together with one of the four beehive graves, the Lion’s gate is the only part of Mycenae that was neither demolished nor covered with earth during its 33 centuries-long history. They were there in plain sight.
Archaeological excavation started in 1867 by Heinrich Schliemann and the beehive grave ( ‘the treasury”) was looted long before that. He dug up ‘grave circle a’ where he amongst other things, discovered shaft graves of people with a very high societal status. The rich set of artefacts they were was buried with (gold, jewellery, weapons) pointed to that. One of the things he found was a golden burial mask which made Schliemann write the classic but erroneous “I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon!”. Schliemann operated under the assumption that Homer’s Iliad was based upon historical facts (which it partly was) and thot that he discovered the grave of the warrior-king Agamemnon, one of the protagonists of the saga of Troy. Research later showed that the grave was 2 centuries too old to be of Agamemnon.
Schliemann spend 14 weeks digging up ‘grave circle a’ and he was succeeded by Christos Tsountas who spend 14 years excavating major parts of the palace, some houses and the subterranean cistern. After Tsountas the excavations came to a halt for twenty years. Nowadays there’s still a lot archaeological excavation work going on, within and outside the city walls.
Shot from the ramp that leads to the palace.
A capture of the wall from outside the town is with some info about the nature of these walls is here: Mycenae - Cyclopean wall & tourists.
This one is for Dominique K’s mother ;-)
Mycenae - Lions' gate & grave circle A
Europe, Greece, Peleponnesos, Agrolida, Mycenae (Mykinis), Lions' gate, Grave circle a (uncut)
In the Argolida region there are many traces of the pre-historic (1550–1100 BC) and for the time very advanced Mycenaean civilization.
Argolida actually formed the core of it: a loose coalition of towns, some of them fortified, spaced around a fertile alluvial plane, connected through transportation infrastructure. These traces are all substantial – 4 acropoli (Mycenae itself is one of them), several burial grounds and ‘Tholos’ bee-hive graves, a dam, bridges and even short stretches of road. When you drive around the region you often encounter signs directing one to one or more of them.
Like most Mycenaean strongholds, Mycenae is located on a hill and consists of a palace with its spaces for civic and religious collective functions, storage facilities and artisan’s workshops and houses. They are enclosed by a big boulder ‘Cyclopean’ wall.
Displayed here is Lion’s gate, one of the main entrance to the ancient town, ‘grave circle A’ and of course the characteristic Cyclopean walls. Together with one of the four beehive graves, the Lion’s gate is the only part of Mycenae that was neither demolished nor covered with earth during its 33 centuries-long history. They were there in plain sight.
Archaeological excavation started in 1867 by Heinrich Schliemann and the beehive grave ( ‘the treasury”) was looted long before that. He dug up ‘grave circle a’ where he amongst other things, discovered shaft graves of people with a very high societal status. The rich set of artefacts they were was buried with (gold, jewellery, weapons) pointed to that. One of the things he found was a golden burial mask which made Schliemann write the classic but erroneous “I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon!”. Schliemann operated under the assumption that Homer’s Iliad was based upon historical facts (which it partly was) and thot that he discovered the grave of the warrior-king Agamemnon, one of the protagonists of the saga of Troy. Research later showed that the grave was 2 centuries too old to be of Agamemnon.
Schliemann spend 14 weeks digging up ‘grave circle a’ and he was succeeded by Christos Tsountas who spend 14 years excavating major parts of the palace, some houses and the subterranean cistern. After Tsountas the excavations came to a halt for twenty years. Nowadays there’s still a lot archaeological excavation work going on, within and outside the city walls.
Shot from the ramp that leads to the palace.
A capture of the wall from outside the town is with some info about the nature of these walls is here: Mycenae - Cyclopean wall & tourists.
This one is for Dominique K’s mother ;-)