Tombs and treatment of the dead
The Mycenaeans used both (a) built domed circular (tholos) tombs of stone and (b) chambers cut into the rock to accommodate their dead. The types may have been inherited from the Minoans, and like them, the tombs were also designed so that one could open them with ease to install the following generations.
There were also simple tumuli and shaft tombs, the latter in particular being designed to accommodate several generations. Some of the types are found in geographically distinct areas (e.g. in Messenia tholos-tombs dominated and chamber tombs were rare; the people of Eleusis likewise built tombs whereas their Attic neighbours preferred rock-cut tombs). However, rock-cut chamber tombs become much more common everywhere and thus widespread towards the end of the Mycenaean era.The abundance of offerings in the tombs includes weapons such as swords, but also managerial items such as seals and commercial paraphernalia including elaborate balance scales designed exclusively for the grave. Among the most curious items is the extraordinary quantity of amber in the Mycenaean tombs which contrasts with its rarity in the Minoan period, meaning that Mycenaean trading networks reached as far as the Baltic whereas the Minoans had concentrated on contacts to the east (such as Cyprus and the Levantine coast), and the northern islands of the Aegean. The abundance of amethyst in Mycenaean contexts likewise confirms that close contacts were maintained with Egypt. And the elaborate tombs themselves reveal that a bureaucracy was already guiding the skilled craftsmen working on the t/zd/os-tombs.
Iconographic evidence from clay coffins (Jdrnakes) reveals that before the bodies were placed in the tombs, women played a prominent role in both mourning and purification of the body. The body appears to have been on display before burial and this will have been the scene of funerary banquets. Oils were used to prepare the corpse, and it was enveloped in a shroud. Within the tomb, the deceased were placed on the floor, after having been transported there in a procession. From Mycenae, we have the “death masks” that were placed over the face of the deceased. In contrast to the more commonly used glass paste jewellery, some of these masks were made of gold. The rich offerings of cosmetics, food and drink also occasionally include personal items: tools, weapons and paraphernalia of a priest or of a musician have been recovered. After the burial, the tombs may have been opened not merely for additional burials, but also for a ceremony whereby bones were rearranged.