The Early Minoan Period: The Tombs

The Early Minoan Period: The Tombs

Cave Burials

Burial in caves was the standard form of burial during the Late Neolithic period in the north and east of the island. There is no evidence so far for LN burials in southern Crete predating the earliest use of tholos tombs in the Final Neolithic. During Early Minoan (EM) I-II, burial in caves continues in the north and east and lasts into EM III and even MM IA in the east.

Burials in caves are almost always found in a highly disordered state with the bones of numerous individuals all jumbled up together (a single exception at Ellenes Amariou was an extended inhumation lying on its back). Often a number (but not all) of the bones are burnt. The reason for the jumbling up of the bones is probably

The tombs of the second class, best represented at Mochlos, have walls built of stone slabs which sometimes still stand to a height of 2.5 meters. In some cases, a bedrock cliff-face is used as the back wall. These buildings were certainly roofed, presumably with flat rather than pitched roofs. Their door jambs were built of several courses of stone, while their entrances were closed with large stone slabs.

Origin – Parallels with contemporary domestic architecture have suggested to some that these tombs were intended to copy houses of the living and hence to serve as true “houses for the dead”.

Distribution and Chronology – This form of tomb is most common in the northeast and east. The earliest dated examples begin to be used in EM II and they generally go out of use during the MM II period, although the latest dated tomb at Mochlos (VI) was used as late as MM III. In the Mesara, complexes of long parallel chambers (i.e. Class 1 above) appear next to the tholoi at Siva and Platanos and seem to be late EM or even MM additions designed to contain bones and grave goods removed from the tholoi proper (i.e. ossuaries).

Late Types – During MM I, monumental versions of this tomb type appear. At Ayia Varvara B, the tomb consists of a complex ca. 13 meters square into which are packed seventeen cells of irregular shape and