GLYKA NERA, Phouresi - 2006

Glyka Nera, Phouresi, Mesolongiou and Nikopoleos Streets, plot 17 (property of G. Hatzi) and Nikopoleos and Aiolou Streets, plot 1 (O.T. 206, Drakouli-Kalamodakou property). Eleni Andrikou (Β’ ΕΠΚΑ) reports the discovery of two Late Helladic IIIA2 - IIIB chamber tombs from the Mycenaean cemetery at Glyka Nera. The tombs were oriented east-west, with the entrance to the east: their roofs and parts of their walls had collapsed.

Tomb A: the circular chamber (3.7-3.9m in diameter, 2.7m high) had been damaged by a cess pit, but the strata containing the burials were undamaged. The entrance had been sealed with large vertical stones and rubble: in front of it, a burial pit in the dromos contained an inhumation accompanied by six closed vessels, two open vessels and three steatite knobs placed by the feet of the deceased. A niche in the northern wall of the dromos, sealed with a wall, contained burial remains and grave goods (seven closed vessels and three steatite spindle whorls by the feet of the deceased) beneath which was a pit containing human bones and a bronze object. Inside the chamber, piles of poorly preserved bones were placed against the north, south and west/southwest sides of the wall. Twenty-one vessels (mostly closed shapes) were retrieved. Two burial pits were excavated on the west side of the chamber. Pit 1 contained bones (including 11 crania), a kyathos, a jar, an almond-shaped agate bead, a bronze knife, a steatite spindle whorl and fragments of lead wire. Pit 2 had been used for several burials: the lowest burial stratum contained two vessels covered with slabs, and over these lay the second burial stratum with bones, a cranium and six vessels, also covered with slabs.

Tomb B: smaller than tomb A, with a rectangular, sealed chamber (2.1/2.2 x 2.5/2.6m, 2.3m high) and a 5.2m-long dromos. Two contracted inhumations lay in the middle of the chamber, heads to the west: a steatite spindle whorl was associated with them. Six bone piles were excavated in the north/northwest, west and south parts of the chamber, along with 13 vessels, four steatite spindle whirls, fragments of wire, and a seal.