![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Early Minoan tombs
no evidence for cult of the dead in the Neolithic
Minoan house tombs EMII - MM II
seem to mimic domestic architecture, may have been intended to serve as "houses of the dead"
can get impressively monumental
Chrysolakkos has weird non-Minoan features that may be Egyptian-inspired
no preserved entrances in the second phase of construction. access may have been through the roof
Cist tombs
rare, not beyond EM
result of strong Cycladic influence
Tholos tombs of the Mesara
more than 75, from FN to LM I or even LMIIIA
circular, founded on bedrock
Mycenaean subterranean tholoi corbelled to redistribute the weight, keep the lintels from snapping
Not so the Minoan tholoi, with one known exception
annexes, some with rooms that can only have been entered from the roof
but no doorways to the tomb so small to suggest that burials were made from the roof
big debate whether they were roofed with a stone vault
hundreds of inhumations, no attention to earlier burials
period fumigations
social groups served by tholoi quite small, clan or nuclear family
suggests more egalitarian society
grave goods: personal belongings, food & drink
EM I - EM II, fewer grave goods, relatively small numbers of celebrants
EM III expansion
Theories on the origin of the tholos tomb form
External origin
1. mudbrick tholoi of the Syrian Halaf culture (5th millennium BCE, too early, evidently domestic)
2. circular tombs in Nubia or OK vaulted Egypt tombs (Egyptian imports EM I, so too late to be evidence)
3. EN circular Cyprus houses by way of small FN Keos circular tombs (too small, geographic restrictions, no good reason to connect EN Cyprus houses with FN tombs on Keos)
Internal origin
1. free-standing imitations of caves
Larnax
low, elliptical, no legs, never painted
Pithos
end of EM period, more popular in MM
mostly used for children & infants
Regional burial styles:
house tombs: north
tholoi: south central (Mesara)
cave: far east & far west
cist: northeast
collective burials in large numbers, sometimes same structure used for 1,000 years
lived at Knossos together for 1500 years before spreading out in 5th millennium BCE
maybe more traditional here than elsewhere in the Aegean
Minoan house tombs EMII - MM II
seem to mimic domestic architecture, may have been intended to serve as "houses of the dead"
can get impressively monumental
Chrysolakkos has weird non-Minoan features that may be Egyptian-inspired
no preserved entrances in the second phase of construction. access may have been through the roof
Cist tombs
rare, not beyond EM
result of strong Cycladic influence
Tholos tombs of the Mesara
more than 75, from FN to LM I or even LMIIIA
circular, founded on bedrock
Mycenaean subterranean tholoi corbelled to redistribute the weight, keep the lintels from snapping
Not so the Minoan tholoi, with one known exception
annexes, some with rooms that can only have been entered from the roof
but no doorways to the tomb so small to suggest that burials were made from the roof
big debate whether they were roofed with a stone vault
hundreds of inhumations, no attention to earlier burials
period fumigations
social groups served by tholoi quite small, clan or nuclear family
suggests more egalitarian society
grave goods: personal belongings, food & drink
EM I - EM II, fewer grave goods, relatively small numbers of celebrants
EM III expansion
Theories on the origin of the tholos tomb form
External origin
1. mudbrick tholoi of the Syrian Halaf culture (5th millennium BCE, too early, evidently domestic)
2. circular tombs in Nubia or OK vaulted Egypt tombs (Egyptian imports EM I, so too late to be evidence)
3. EN circular Cyprus houses by way of small FN Keos circular tombs (too small, geographic restrictions, no good reason to connect EN Cyprus houses with FN tombs on Keos)
Internal origin
1. free-standing imitations of caves
Larnax
low, elliptical, no legs, never painted
Pithos
end of EM period, more popular in MM
mostly used for children & infants
Regional burial styles:
house tombs: north
tholoi: south central (Mesara)
cave: far east & far west
cist: northeast
collective burials in large numbers, sometimes same structure used for 1,000 years
lived at Knossos together for 1500 years before spreading out in 5th millennium BCE
maybe more traditional here than elsewhere in the Aegean