stylistic:style_transfer, structural:scholar_edition
Burial practices

The usual form of burial during this period was inhumation (burial in the earth, covered by dirt and stones). The earliest Mycenaean burials were mostly in individual graves in the form of a pit or a stone-lined cist and offerings were limited to pottery and occasional items of jewellery. Groups of pit or cist graves containing elite members of the community were sometimes covered by a tumulus (mound) in the manner established since the Middle Helladic. It has been argued that this form dates back to the Kurgan culture; however, Mycenaean burials are in actuality an indigenous development of mainland Greece with the Shaft Graves housing native rulers. Pit and cist graves remained in use for single burials throughout the Mycenaean period alongside more elaborate family graves. The shaft graves at Mycenae within Grave Circles A and B belonging to the same period represent an alternative manner of grouping elite burials. Next to the deceased were found full sets of weapons, ornate staffs as well as gold and silver cups and other valuable objects which point to their social rank.

Beginning also in the Late Helladic period are to be seen communal tombs of rectangular form. Nevertheless, it is difficult to establish whether the different forms of burial represent a social hierarchization, as was formerly thought, with the "tholos" being the tombs of the elite rulers, the individual tombs those of the leisure class, and the communal tombs those of the people. Cremations increased in number over the course of the period, becoming quite numerous in the last phase of the Mycenaean era. The tholos was introduced during the early 15th century BC as the new and more imposing form of elite burial. The most impressive tombs of the Mycenaean era are the monumental royal tombs of Mycenae, undoubtedly intended for the royal family of the city. The most famous is the Treasury of Atreus, a tholos. A total of nine of such tholos tombs are found in the region of Mycenae, while six of them belong to a single period (Late Helladic IIA, c. 1400 –1300 BC). It has been argued that different dynasties or factions may have competed through conspicuous burial.