Treasury of Atreus
Creators: Tom Elliott, April Kissinger, Eric Shea, Chelsea Lee, Sterling Wright
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https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/190863456
37.726806, 22.753603
- Representative Locations:
- Imagery location of Treasury of Atreus (1600 BC - 1200 BC) accuracy: +/- 5 meters.
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- Kuppelgrab, sog. Schatzhaus des Atreus (Kuppelgrab: German, modern)
- Treasury of Atreus (English, modern)
- Treasury of Atreus located at Mycenae (unspecified date range)
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tomb
Pleiades
The "Treasury of Atreus" was built at Mycenae between 1300 and 1250 BC. It was not a treasury, but rather a tholos tomb for an important individual or family, and it remains the best preserved example of this form at the site. The tomb's facade consists of a large door approached through a corridor flanked by ashlar walls. The 16-foot door was once surrounded by engaged red and green columns with a decorative style suggestive of Minoan influence. These columns were covered in ornaments, rosettes, chevrons and spiral motifs. Above the entrance is a relieving triangle to reduce the weight of the superstructure on the monolithic lintel of the door. The interior of the tomb is shaped like a beehive, with stone corbeled courses laid around a circular base to create a dome-like structure. The enormous vault has a diameter of 48 feet and a height of 43 feet. There is an additional side chamber which is thought to have been used to store bodies from previous burials when the tomb was re-used. Unfortunately, the Treasury of Atreus was heavily looted before its discovery and therefore the original grave goods have been lost.
Tom Elliott, April Kissinger, Eric Shea, Chelsea Lee, Sterling Wright, Jeffrey Becker, and Adam Rabinowitz, 'Treasury of Atreus: a Pleiades place resource', Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2021 <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/190863456> [accessed: 13 October 2024]
{{cite web |url=https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/190863456 |title=Places: 190863456 (Treasury of Atreus) |author=Elliott, T., A. Kissinger, E. Shea, C. Lee, S. Wright |accessdate=October 13, 2024 4:16 am |publisher=Pleiades}}