The Chamber Tombs at Prosymna: A New Social and Political Interpretation for a Group of Tombs

by Bernhard F. Steinmann

Hesperia, Volume 89, Issue 3
Page(s): 379-412
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.89.3.0379
Year: 2020
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ABSTRACT:

The cemetery at the Argive Heraion provides an opportunity to study the social structure of a small Mycenaean center. This article will examine closely the tomb group found around the large and richly furnished chamber tomb 2. Both the style of the architectural decoration and the objects found within suggest that the tomb served as the burial place of either the ruling family of the area or one that was close to it. Against the background of the tholos tomb and the other affluent tombs from this necropolis, a picture emerges that speaks of the struggle for power at Prosymna before the Mycenaean palatial system was fully established.