Tomb of Kato Phournos

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).

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