any likely date of the Trojan War. Nevertheless, the Homeric names given by
Schliemann to his finds are still used today. As in the case of the Minoans,
archaeologists have identified various phases in Mycenaean culture, which endured
over four centuries in the different centres such as Pylos and Tiryns. The remains of
the palace at Pylos, traditionally known as the Palace of Nestor, are particularly
impressive and on a scale that looks comparable to the excavations at Cnossus.
The most substantial remains at Mycenae are the finest example of early
monumental architecture. The so-called Treasury of Atreus and the Tomb of
Clytemnestra (the wife of Agamemnon), were built after 1300. The tombs themselves
have the shape of a beehive (called a tholos in Greek); this is forty-three feet high and
forty-seven feet in diameter. The great ‘dome’ has no interior buttress and its form is
self-supporting, being held in shape by the weight of the stones alone. The tomb must
have contained treasures but it had been plundered in antiquity. The focal point of
the city is the megaron, or great hall, situated on the acropolis; it has a columned
6 THE GREEKS
FIGURE 4 Plan of Mycenae
Source:C. Gates, Ancient Cities, second edition (Routledge, 2011), Fig 7.12, p. 130