Tholos tombs

About a hundred yards to the northeast through an olive grove one reaches a tholos tomb, the dome of which was restored in 1957 by the Greek Archaeological Service.15 Though built mainly of small flat stones, it is a large tomb with a diameter of 9.35 m, or roughly 30.5 feet. The tomb had collapsed and had become filled up to the top of the lintel. It had evidently been plundered in antiquity and was found thoroughly disturbed from top to bottom, but the looters had been unusually careless and much valuable material was left to be recovered. The objects found com¬prise numerous items of gold, including a gold seal bear¬ing the representation of a winged griffin, two rings, ornaments in the form of small owls, and a shield-shaped pendant; also 250 beads of amethyst and still more of amber, an amethyst gem and several other sealstones, fragments of bronze weapons, etc.

Remains of another tomb, published as a "Grave Circle" but probably also a tholos, lie almost equidistant toward the south from the palace hill.16 Almost the whole vault had been cut away down to within 30 cm (12 inches) of the floor,but a considerable part of the floor was found undisturbed (Fig. 30). In six untouched pits or shafts beneath it were un¬earthed a great many valuable objects including four large jars (each containing a skeleton), twenty-two swords and daggers of bronze, several bronze vessels, a large collection of pottery, and a magnificent sealstone representing a wild boar at bay.
About 1 km down the road toward the plain is yet an¬other tholos tomb that likewise must have had some con¬nection with the palace site.17 It was excavated in 1939. This too was found to have been looted, but numerous objects had been overlooked by the robbers, including many pieces of carved ivory and beads of gold, semiprecious stone, and glass paste.
A cemetery of chamber tombs for the ordinary people, who lived in the lower town that surrounded the acropolis, has been found on the slopes of a ridge some 500 m (550 yards) to the west of the palace.18 Three tombs have been excavated, yielding some good pottery and other objects. Two of the vaults were found in a collapsed state and have been refilled with earth.