GREECE PELOPONNESE ACHAIA SPALIAREIKA

Looking for Eleochori (just 3 km away), I accidentally found the Mycenaean cemetery of Spaliareika, of which I had not known before. Rescue excavations in 1990 brought to light nine chamber tombs, but the actual cemetery is believed to be much larger. An additional tenth tomb could not be investigated due to its collapsed roof. The site is fenced and guarded but freely accessible with a roof protecting the tombs. - Above right is a plan of the cemetery with gray areas denoting covered parts of the tombs.

The tombs were dug into the soft rock and show the characteristic tripartite structure of Mycenaean funerary architecture: a dromos, mostly not very long in this cemetery, slopes down to the stomion, the actual entrance to the tomb. This was closed by dry masonry, partly still in place, which was opened and renewed with each successive burial. Behind the stomion comes the thalamos, the tomb chamber, circular or square in plan, where the dead were placed on the ground or in burial pits. For more information about Mycenaean burials: see here.

According to the rich burial gifts the graves were believed to be typical Achaian warrior burials. Meanwhile it is clear that, although the context is quite rural, the deceased belonged to an elite engaged in supra-regional networks encompassing Italy, Cyprus, the Aegean and all of the eastern Mediterranean.

The tombs of Spaliareika are dated to the Late Helladic IIIC period (13th - 12th century BC). This implies that in the post-palatial period, generally associated with decline of the Mycenaean world and deterioration, a highly developed community survived in western Achaia with access to interregional networks "that made them share in all kinds of Mediterranean items and ideas."