BRONZE AGE TUMULI AND GRAVE CIRCLES IN CENTRAL GREECE
THE CURRENT STATE OF RESEARCH
Maria-Photini Papakonstantinou *
Abstract
The tumuli1 were simple but impressive structures, built to mark an important grave or a group of graves of members of the same family or of the same social group. The tumulus is the oldest monumental burial structure in the Greek Mainland, whose presence has been associated with the radical changes of the end of the EH period, 2 as well as with the “ kurgan tradition”. 3 In Greece, we can not talk about a “ civilization of tumuli”, as for example in south Russia, the Balkans and Europe, in spite of their increasing number with the progress of research. Tumuli appear at the end of the EH II period (Leukas4 and Thebes5) and at the beginning of the EH III in the Northern Peloponnese (Lerna6 and Olympia7). Their number increases impressively during the MH
* G reek Ministry of Culture, 14th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Castle of Lamia, Lamia 35 100, Greece, tel. 0030 22310 29992, Fax 0030 22310 46 106, e-mail manipapak@ yahoo. gr. This paper is based on the dissertation : “ The Grave Circles of Antron in the frame of the Tumuli and Grave Circles of Central Greece”, first elaborated at the University of Durham under the supervision of Prof. O. T. P. K. Dickinson and presently at the University of Athens, under the supervision of Prof. George Korres.
1. P elon 1976 ; Müller 1989. 2. M üller 1989, p. 1, 35. 3. M üller 1989, p. 4 ; Forsén 1992, p. 18-19. 4. Kilian-Dirlmeier 2005, p. 86. 5. S pyropoulos 1981 ; Müller 1989, p. 18-19 ; Forsén 1992, p. 133-134, 232-233 ; AD 51 (1996), B1, p. 259-261 ; AD 52 (1997), B1, p. 353-359. AD 53 (1998), B1, p. 323-327. Aravantinos, Psaraki in this volume. 6. M üller 1989, p. 19-20 ; Forsén 1992, p. 36-37, 232-233 ; Wiencke 2000, p. 297-298. 7. M üller 1989, p. 16-18 ; Kyrieleis 1990, p. 177-188 ; Forsén 1992, p. 88, 92, 233.
Ancestral Landscapes.
TMO 58, Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée, Lyon, 2011
