A Mycenaean chamber tomb is a very common type of tomb in this region. It is dug right out of the rock.

In a tomb, an entranceway (dromos) leads down to a wall of stones (stomion) that block the entrance. Inside the stomion is a chamber (a room), usually circular in shape.

The Mycenaens tended to bury people in pits or to place them directly on the floor of the chamber. The tombs often contain more than one burial.

In excavations of these kinds of tombs, archaeologists have found pieces of broken pottery (sherds) in the entranceway. Some archaeologists think that these sherds show that there might have been special feasts or rituals before a body was placed in the tomb.

SIDE VIEW OF A TOMB
You can see the section drawing of a tomb we excavated in 2006. A section drawing is when you pretend to cut something right in half and then draw it.  The light brown line is the ground, the dark brown line is the bottom of the tomb. The colored lines show different sections running across the tomb the other way.