The Tombs of Mesara

Download or read book The Tombs of Mesara written by Keith Branigan and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 1970 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tholos Tombs For centuries the Minoans used Tholos Tombs and sacred caves, along with pithoi and larnakes for burial of their dead. Many Tholos Tombs have been found in Crete dating back to prepalatial times. They were usually round in shape with one short entrance, although tholos tombs rectangular in shape were not unusual, like the ones found in Palekastro, and some were cut into hill sides, while most were free-standing structures. What has survived to date consists of the foundations or the lower part of the walls, so it is difficult to gauge their height or their shape at the top. It is believed however that many had a flat wood framed roof. The largest tholos tomb is found in Platanos and measures about 13 meters in diameter. The tholos tombs were used extensively during the Prepalatial and Protopalatial periods (2600-1700 BC), and many were continuously used until historic times."--Http://www.ancient-greece.org/architecture/minoan-archi.html.