Distinctive features of its construction are the use of megalithic elements in the entrance such as jambs and lintel and its carefully coated masonry. It was never buried by earth and remained always visible, attracting the attention of ancient and later travellers. The tholos was entered from an inclined uncovered hall or dromos, 36 meters long and with dry-stone walls.

If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The scale, the level of craftsmanship, and the display of architectural skill in the Treasury of Atreus has been studied and analyzed since it was discovered. Great care was taken in the positioning of the enormous stones, to guarantee the vault's stability over time in bearing the force of compression from its own weight. Archaeologists surmise that the larger entry chamber existed for ritual use while the adjacent chamber was the site of the burials. Orchomenus, the setting for many early Greek myths, is best known as a rich archaeological site in Boeotia, Greece, that was inhabited from the Neolithic through the Hellenistic periods.


The room was constructed by digging vertically into the hillside, like a well, and then walling and roofing the space with stone from the floor level of the chamber, and finally back-filling the earth above. He beheaded the Gorgon Medusa for Polydectes and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. It was originally a neologism of Heinrich Schliemann, a 19th-century archaeologist, who excavated at Mycenae, a geographic location in the northeast Peloponnesus.

The Tomb of Clytemnestra with its imposing façade is together with the Treasury of Atreus the most monumental tomb of that type.

on What to Know About the Treasury of Atreus (Tomb of Agamemnon), Get to Know the Atalanta Character of Greek Mythology, About the Battle of Delium of Peloponnesian War. The Treasury of Atreus, also known as the Tomb of Agamemnon, is the best-preserved and most well-known of nine beehive tombs, referred to as “tholos” in Greek, that have been found in Mycenae, Greece.

It has been held by the Guildhall Art Gallery since 1893. A heroön or heroon, also latinized as heroum, is a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero. Top 3 Best restaurants in Positano Italy with a view, Algarve Portugal: best beaches in Portugal, Pompeii Ruins: Amphitheater Pompeii, Villa of Mysteries …. The best preserved, mistakenly named The "Treasury of Atreus", is a huge circular chamber built of finely cut rectangular stones. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. So don’t make the mistake of buying the same ticket twice! It was erected during the 13th century BC, around 1250 BC in the northwest side of the acropolis and is named after the relief sculpture of two lionesses or lions in a heraldic pose that stands above the entrance. The monumental facade was decorated with a variety of materials. The side walls are cut out of the rock and lined with ashlar. The Treasury of Atreus, the best preserved tomb in Mycenae, is located at least 300 meters away from the city walls of the citadel at Mycenae. Contemporary archaeologists believe that an earlier ruler was buried there… Mycenaean pottery is an assemblage of terra cotta ceramics and ceramic styles originated, manufactured, or heavily used by the civilization termed Mycenaean in Greek history and prehistory. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. This surviving architectural structure of the Mycenaean civilization is a pointed dome built up of overhanging (i.e., corbeled) blocks of conglomerate masonry cut and polished to give the impression of a true vault. Once the room was excavated, stone from the floor level was used to wall and roof the space. Grave Circle A is a 16th-century BC royal cemetery situated to the south of the Lion Gate, the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae in southern Greece. The tomb was used for an unknown period. Mycenaean Artifacts in the Mycenae Museum An open triangular space lies just above the lintel and funnels weight off of the lintel and onto the sides of the structure. Historians believe that the Bronze Age tomb was built between 1350 and 1250 BC and was one of the final tholos tombs constructed at Mycenae. This space, which is known as a relieving triangle, is meant to funnel the weight of the structure off the lintel and into the sides of the structure, preventing the lintel from breaking due to pressure. The stone lintel above the doorway weighs 120 tons, with approximate dimensions 8.3 …
We understand the size of the Treasury of Atreus by comparing the size of the door with a person placed at the entrance. The tomb was found robbed, like all the tholos tombs, and there is no information on either the grave goods or the burials it once housed. The Tholos Tombs”, Annual of the British School at Athens 25, 1923, 283-402, A Classical and Topographical Tour Through Greece: During the Years, Edward Dodwell, A different light inside Treasury of Atreus, Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki. The site is 19 kilometres inland from the Saronic Gulf and built upon a hill rising 900 feet above sea level.

It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. A discharging arch or relieving arch is an arch built over a lintel or architrave to take off the superincumbent weight. Would love your thoughts, please comment.

[ citation needed ] The historicity of the Trojan War, to which Schliemann sought to connect both Mycenae and Hisarlik, is a matter of long-standing and ongoing debate. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name. The stone lintel above the doorway weighs 120 tons, with approximate dimensions 8.3 x 5.2 x 1.2m, [2] the largest in the world. Treasury of Atreus, also called Tomb of Agamemnon, a beehive, or tholos, tomb built about 1350 to 1250 bc at Mycenae, Greece.