Hellenistic Tombs Greek Main Land

Hellenic Tombs

One of the ways in which the art, history and architecture of ancient cultures can be understood and investigated is through what is left behind to be examined. Some of the most permanent artifacts that are available for examination are ancient tombs which have stood the test to time. From these tombs one can not only understand and form opinions of the architecture and historical context of the time, but the content of many tombs reveals a plethora of information and insight into the culture being studied. Many experts concur with this view and emphasize the archelogivla significance of ancient tombs, monuments and burial sites.

In view of the chancing conditions under which primitive people have always lived, it is not surprising that they should have left no more permanent memorials of their existence than their tombs. All else is apt to be swept away by subsequent civilization. The graves remain, and it is to them that we must first turn in Greece, is in other ancient countries.

As Murray, A.S. (1892) states, there is a wealth of data in the tombs of ancient Greece which provides us with insight into the culture and architecture of the period. For example, there is evidence of Greek pottery and vases as well as other artifacts found in primitive Greek tombs which provide access to ancient history. He also refers to the construction of ancient Greek tombs on the islands of Amorgos and Antiparos.

These graves, he says, were of irregular shape, oblong, triangular, or square, with three stone slabs forming three sides, the fourth side being built up of rubbish, while on the top was always a covering slab. On an average the graves were only three feet long, two feet wide, and seldom more than two feet deep. Most of them contained bones of more than one person. In one small grave were two skulls.

The artifacts found in these tombs as well as their architectural attributes, are also extremely important in ascertaining the level of sophistication of the society at the time. For example, Murray describes a figure found in the tombs at Amorgos.

There is in Athens a small marble figure found in one of the tombs at Amorgos, representing a person playing on the lyre. The attempt to sculpture such a subject implies a state of civilization no small measure in advance of the general contents of these tombs. We may therefore conclude that the contents of these tombs indicate both poverty and primitiveness -- a poverty in which primitive ways of vase-making and such-like were retained, when in more favoured districts a considerable advance had been achieved. Small marble figures, of varying degrees of rudeness, have been found from time to time in the Greek islands, and have constantly been associated with primitive civilization.

In discussing the tombs of ancient Greece, cognizance must be taken of the inextricable relationship between architecture and art; between sculpture as part of the architectural edifice and art for its own sake. Art and architecture are often aligned in the understanding and appreciation of ancient tombs in Greek architecture.

Ancient Greek architecture is usually seen in terms of two essential categories. The first class is comprised of "what may be called works of substantive art, statues or groups made for their own sake and to be judged by themselves."

This category includes statues if Gods and Goddesses associated with temples and shrines. The second class is comprised of sculptures, made particularly for the decoration of temples and tombs. These are intended as an addition to the architectural effect of the tombs and monuments.

This paper will attempt an overview and discussion of some of the most pertinent aspects of Hellenistic tombs. The paper will focus on their architectural significance as well as on the related architectural and historical connotation and implications of these tombs. One of the aspects that the paper will focus on will be the antecedents of Hellenic forms of architecture, their forms design and meaning.

2. Historical and architectural overview

Before the age initiated by Alexander the Great, the Greeks erected stone buildings which were exclusively for religious purposes. In this sense they were similar to the Egyptians, and Hindus. In terms of architectural design, Greek Temples and tombs usually have a simplicity and directness of form. This aspect is related to the idea of the Grecian rationalism and a more sophisticated approach to art and architecture that replaced more primitive perceptions of the world and art.

It is important to note that in terms of the development of Hellenistic architecture and art, there was a dramatic change after Alexander the Great.

Alexander the Great, conquered Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and parts of India, transforming the whole into the most powerful state in the civilized world. Greek architecture suddenly became that of this rich, powerful Hellenic empire and was forced to break out of the fixed, small-scale vocabulary of forms that had been satisfactory for the Periclean temple.

These were factors that were to affect the construction and design of Hellenic tombs.

The roots of Greek culture lie mainly in the Mycenaean culture. This cultural period extended from approximately 1600 to 1100 B.C. This is a period characterized by great kings and fortified cities and palaces. It was particularly a time of "highly developed monumental art and architecture."

Mycenaeans built simple houses of a type that the Greeks continued to build long after the Bronze Age ended. And Mycenaean workshops established a tradition of painted pottery that continued without interruption, though not without great changes, into later periods. In short, much of Mycenaean culture carried over into later Greek society.

However, the Mycenaean culture was destroyed by various wars at the end of the Bronze Age, which resulted in Greece entering a "dark" period of relative impoverishment in art and architecture. Despite this, there were also signs of cultural contact with other nations during this period, especially to the East, with the incorporation of many artistic and architectural concepts. For example, it is during this period that pottery known as protogeometric or 'first geometric' appears.

This was a development that was to reflect on the precision and design of later Greek art and architecture.

During the Archaic Period (750-480 BC), there was a resurgence of monumental buildings and city states. The monumentally designed architecture was largely a result of competition between the various city states. Panhellenic religious edifices such as Delphi were constructed in the Classical Period (480-323 BC) Athens established itself as an independent empire after the Persian wars with the city-state of Sparta as a dominant force during the 5th century. This period is usually considered the culmination of the best forms of Greek art and architecture; for example, the achievement of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Parthenon in Athens.

In essence, the history of Greek architecture begins with, "the simple houses of the Dark Age and culminates in the monumental temples of the Classical period and the elaborately planned cities and sanctuaries of the Hellenistic period."

It is also important to note that the forms and range of the architecture was also largely determined by the availability of raw materials and technologies at the time. The main element used in early Greek architecture was wood and bricks and terracotta,

The principal materials of Greek architecture were wood, used for supports and roof beams; unbaked brick, used for walls, especially of private houses; limestone and marble, used for columns, walls, and upper portions of temples and other public buildings; terracotta (baked clay), used for roof tiles and architectural ornaments; and metals, especially bronze, used for some decorative details. Greek architects of the Archaic and Classical periods used these materials to develop a limited range of building types, each of which served a fixed purpose -- religious, civic, domestic, funerary, or recreational.

The main forms of funerary architecture were "circular earthen mounds covering built tombs, rectangular earthen mounds with masonry facades, and mausoleums (large independent tombs typical of the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods)."

Two major architectural styles developed in Greece by the end of the 7th century BC. These dominant styles are known as the Doric and Ionic. " The Doric order developed on the Greek mainland and in southern Italy and Sicily, while the Ionic order developed a little later than the Doric order, in Ionia and on some of the Greek islands. "

In the Late Classical and Hellenistic Architecture, the Doric style was still maintained except for certain adjustments of ground plans ands columns. The ionic style however evolved. Then Ionic was also applied to the monumental tombs of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, on the coast of Turkey. Interestingly, the architect who designed these tombs, Pytheos, was responsible for the Temple of Athena Polias at Priene.

Late Classical and Hellenic architecture was also characterized by various advances in engineering. This included the development of the circular type of building, known as the Tholos -- for example, the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia at Delphi. There were also other aspects of this period such as the construction of sanctuaries and monumental alters such as the Great Altar at Pergamum.

3. Mycenaean tombs

One of the most famous architectural discoveries of the 19th century was made by Heinrich Schliemann. While excavating a mound called Hissarlik, in what is now Turkey, he found what is believed to be the ruins of Troy. He also discovered the sites of Mycenae in Greece. These finds also unearthed "royal tombs containing gold and other artifacts demonstrated the existence of a well-developed civilization that had flourished about 1500-1200 bc."

The Mycenaean Greeks used shaft graves for royal burials. There were later to adopt the Minoan tholos tomb. This was developed into an elaborate and impressive burial structure.

The tombs were covered with earth tumuli, or artificial mounds, and were entered through long passageways. In the most developed tombs, such as the so-called Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the large, circular spaces were dramatically vaulted with thick canopies of stone.

Further descriptions of the Mycenaean tombs emphasize the circular structure.

The Mycenaeans buried their nobles in beehive tombs (tholoi), large circular burial chambers with a high vaulted roof and straight entry passage lined with stone. They often buried daggers or some other form of military equipment with the deceased. The nobility were frequently buried with gold masks, tiaras, armour, and jeweled weapons. Mycenaeans were buried in a sitting position, and some of the nobility underwent mummification.

In archaeological explorations in 1938 and 1939 the first evidence of Mycenaean pottery and fragments of tablets were found on the Greek mainland. Several cemeteries were explored in the vicinity of the palace of King Nestor "including four Mycenaean beehive tombs with richly provisioned burials and a small Protogeometric tholos tomb."

The Mycenaean tholos tombs were used for centuries by entire villages, or clans and "older corpses and offerings were placed aside to make room for a new burial. Older bones were removed from the tomb and placed in bone chambers outside the tholos structure. Most of the tholos tombs were circular while in Palekastro and Mochlos they were of a rectangular in shape with a flat roof."

While the Mycenaean civilization was distinct from the Greek, they both occupied the same areas in succession; The Greeks were to imbibe aspects of art and architecture from the Mycenaeans, particularly with regard to the building of tombs. In effect the influence of Mycenaean Art extended from 1550 to 1200 BC.

Besides architectural explorations including Cyclopean masonry and "beehive" tombs, the Mycenaeans were awesome goldsmiths and potters. They raised pottery from merely functional to beautifully decorative, and segued right out of the Bronze Age into their own insatiable appetite for gold.

Most of the evidence for early Mycenaean culture is funerary in nature.

Wooden coffins are first used to hold corpses in MM III chamber tombs on Crete. Such coffins become much more popular in the LM II-IIIA1 "Warrior Graves" at Knossos. The few coffins so far known from Mainland Greece come from early LM IIIA Athens. After the LM IIIA period, Minoan coffins are regularly of the terracotta larnax form.

The Mycanaean tombs on the Greek mainland are mostly located in Messenia at Tragana and Nichoria.

The royal Temple Tomb at Cnossus is a special variant of a Mycanaean chamber tomb. Dinsnmoor et al. provide a detailed description of the Cnossos tomb. The following is an extract from their extensive overview of the structure.

... A central square pier and corresponding pilasters at the corners and middle of each side (the entrance being near a corner), framing thinner panels of gypsum lining the walls. Heavy wooden beams crossing on the central pier held the pilasters upright, and the rough rock ceiling above was painted blue. Instead of the usual dromos, the tomb is preceded by several compartments built of masonry: immediately in front is a crypt with two square piers, and before this a covered passage with a door which was locked from within, opening upon a court. Beyond the court, and facing the entrance to the tomb, was a pavilion with two columns between antae; a stairway at one side of the pavilion ascended to the outer ground level. Another stairway, beside the covered passage but outside the locked door, gave access to a terrace with an upper columnar sanctuary built directly above the crypt, its back against the ledge;

4. Hellenic Tombs

In reality architecture seen as buildings constructed and designed to an aesthetically considered design, "..was extinct in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean period (about 1200 BC) until the 7th century.

Most Greek constructions built during the Archaic and Early Classical periods were constructed of wood and mud-brick. Therefore there remain little of these constructions. "Most of our knowledge of Greek architecture comes from the few surviving buildings of the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods (since Roman architecture heavily copied Greek), and from late written sources such as Vitruvius (1st century AD).

The Hellenistic period of Greek history refers to the period "between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the Greek peninsula and islands by Rome in 146 BC. "

The major centers of Hellenistic culture were Alexandria and Antioch, capitals of Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria respectively."

A common form of tomb was the tumulus, which was architecturally important in terms vaulted chambers which were " ... rectangular and covered by a simple barrel vault regularly constructed with stone voussoirs."

Many examples of this form of tomb can be found in Macedonia as well as in other areas such as Asia minor and Egypt. The tumulus " ... might vary from 130 feet in diameter and 28 feet in height ( Eretria) to 250 feet in diameter and 64 feet in height (Langaza). The tomb chamber itself was frequently off-centre. The vaults vary in width from 9 1/4 feet (Vathia) to 17 3/4 feet (the vestibule at Langaza), and in height from 10 feet ( Eretria) to 20 feet 10 inches (the vestibule at Langaza).

An interesting aspect of these chambers was that they often contained carved marble furniture as well as funerary beds and thrones.

The most famous Hellenistic contribution to the tomb-monument type of structure was the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. There is also the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates at Athens.

Another famous tomb, The Belevi Tomb, is estimated to have been built about a century alter than the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. While the Belevi tomb was the smaller of the two it was also of considerable size. "The length of the lowest step of the stylobate on the long side is approximately 98 feet. The corresponding dimension at Halicarnassus cannot have exceeded 127 feet."

The tomb at Belevi is described as a partial "rock-cored structure."

The tomb at Belevi was partially a rock-cored structure. It may have belonged, like the tomb of Mausolus, to a type which has been defined by Lethaby as " a basement, a pyramid and a trophy." Though succinct and good, this is not a complete description, as the pyramid and trophy were raised above, or "suspended over," the basement structure, by means of an intervening order of free-standing columns carrying a normal entablature.

Fyfe describes the design of the tomb as follows:

At Belevi, the core of the basement is a remarkably square rock, hollowed out at the back for a sarcophagus chamber. It may have been shaped considerably to a rectangular form, obviously necessary for the facing of dressed marble to be erected with the minimum of labour and material.

The Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus was a gigantic structure - about 90 feet in height; with overall length stated already at 127 feet over the stylobate.

The tomb was a first-class mid-fourth century quality and the architectural details show a Greek refinement which was perhaps never excelled in the fourth century. The type of its construction was possibly unique and received a great degree of admiration. It was a vast temple-like structure of the Iconic order. It was square in shape and had a pyramid roof "retreating step-wise on all sides to a flattened point on which stood a group of sculpture. Other statues or groups stood between the columns, and above the architrave in the place of the Doric triglyphs and metopes was the usual sculptured Ionic frieze. The interior was adorned with further sculpture, the nature and location of which are now unknown."

The Tomb at Mylasa was a smaller and of the Roman period. It is described by Fyfe as follows:

The upper order is a species of Corinthian and there are square piers at the angles. There is no cella behind the order and the roof consists of stone slabs ingeniously bracketed over in the manner of the Jain tombs of India, as Fergusson pointed out.

This is an interesting example of the survival of the Hellenistic type of structure into Roman times. Similar to this class of building is the Lysicrates monument in Athens, built of marble.

In Athens there are numerous grave stones of the ancient inhabitants. In many parts of the city and near Piraeus, excavations have revealed numerous "inscribed and sculptured slabs and columns"

There are a number of tombs which are superior in size and beauty" by the old road which led through the gate Dipylon from Athens. To Eleusis,"

Gardner describes something of the history of these tombs.

These tombs, in size and beauty superior to the rest, are preserved for us, as is supposed, by a fortunate chance. Sulla, when he attacked Athens and remorselessly massacred the miserable inhabitants, made his approach close to the gate Dipylon. There he erected the long aggeres by which his engines were brought close to the wall, and there his soldiers threw down several hundred yards of the city ramparts, which were formed of sun-baked bricks. Hence a vast mass of ruin which completely overwhelmed and buried the lines of tombs immediately without the gate. (Gardner 1892, 305)

The Tombs of the Kings is the name given a number of tombs located North of Paphos. They are said to have been the tombs of the ruling elite in Hellenic and early Roman times. The tombs are cut into the rock and seem to imitate the houses of the living. "In this respect they echo the tombs of Hellenistic Alexandria and other contemporary complexes such as that recently excavated at Marina el-Alamein, 76 km west of Alexandria."

Some of the most important Hellenistic underground tombs have been discovered at Mustapha Pascha, near Alexandria, Egypt. These tombs consist of two square compartments, separated by a loggia. The treatment, which has a finish of fine stucco, is a completely architectonic one, based on a refined version of Hellenistic Doric.

Fyfe also adds that, "Apart from their piquant plasterwork they show many evidences of colour. In one of the tomb recesses there is also an important sarcophagus, with a coloured plaster imitation of a mattress and of shaped wooden legs.

As Fyfe notes, one of the interesting aspects of these tombs are that,"both rockcut and structural -- is the emphasis that is given to the end treatments of the chambers which gave access to the burial recesses."

There were various influences that shaped the design and aesthetics of Greek tombs and graves. The Egyptians funerary styles were particularly influential. The concept of the commemorative plaque, for example, and its public display, is a case in point. However, as Powers points out, the Greek gravestone was to develop its own unique character.

... from the accidental beginning of the AEgean warrior, the Greek evolves a definite theme for his gravestone, a theme of which the Egyptians knew nothing and which the aegean probably represented only by accident and without formulation. The new theme is very simple in principle. It aims to show the function or status of the deceased in society. Who he was, is a matter of small consequence, to be expressed, if at all, by his name engraved upon the stone.

There are numerous Hellenistic tombs of temple form. These include the following examples.

The so-called "oratory of Phalaris" at Acragas, really the heroum dedicated to a Roman matron at about 85 B.C., had a prostyle tetrastyle Ionic portico raised on a podium, supporting a Doric entablature A tomb-temple at Djambazli in Cilicia has two Corinthian columns in-antis supporting a pediment, with a high double-podium carried forward with parotids to flank the steps of the facade. Numerous examples of such structures were found at Assos. An example at Delphi, a heroum, has a vaulted chamber beneath.

As previously mentioned, the history of Greece and Hellenistic architecture is often reflected in the tombs and tomb architecture of the times. There are various other tombs that can be mentioned in this regard. One which is of particular relevance in terms of the study of the evolution in architecture as it relates to development in the progress of civilization, are Royal Tombs at Vergina, Macedonia. This is an example of the change from the classical city-state to the "imperial structure of the Hellenistic and Roman period."

As Manolis Andronikos states "...the site is of outstanding universal value representing an exceptional testimony to a significant development in European civilization, at the transition from classical city-state to the imperial structure of the Hellenistic and Roman periods."

Vergina, a village in Imathia, is 12 km from Veroia, 75 km from Thessaloniki, and 515 km from Athens has become well-known due to the discovery there of the ancient city of Aigai, the ancient capital of the Macedonian kings, and its cemetery. One of the most important aspects of the site is the tombs of the royal dynasty, most notably King Philip II and a young prince who is identified as Alexander IV, and a cist grave. The royal tombs were discovered in 1977-8 by the archaeologist Manolis Andronikos.

The tombs were constructed in the third century by Antigonos Gonatas, to protect the royal tombs from further pillaging after looting. In 1993 an underground building was constructed to protect the royal tombs. A description of the tomb is as follows.

The first of the tombs is a large Macedonian tomb. While it has been desecrated and almost completely destroyed it is important as it, " ... illustrates the development of Macedonian sepulchral architecture since the time of Philip's tomb (the latter had piers with half columns, while this one had independent columns which simply stood close to the front wall)."