Abstract

Tombs have been important from the very beginning of Greek prehistoric archaeology. witness the early nineteenth century explorations of the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae, the excavation in 1868 by Biliotti of the Late Bronze Age chamber tombs on Rhodes, and the appreciation by Charles Newton of their significance and date, Schliemann's discovery eight years later of the Shaft Graves, Tsountas' excavations of the Early Cycladic burials on Syros and other Cycladic islands, the chamber and tholos tombs at Mycenae, the Vapheio tholos tomb, and the list could go on. The architecture of the tombs, finds from tombs and burial customs form a very significant stratum in our consciousness of Greece's past.
   However, there is still no detailed overview covering burial customs in prehistoric Greece over a long span of time. We believe there is a need for such a book, and we have written it with a number of potential readers in mind: certainly fellow Aegeanists, and other archaeologists who might be interested in our approach to the archaeology of death; also undergraduate and postgraduate students of archaeology, ancient history, classical and Mediterranean studies; ancient historians concerned with the prehistoric background to Classical Greece; anthropologists with an interest in approaches to the interpretation of the social and ritual aspects of funerals.