The Treasury of Atreus or Tomb of Agamemnon is a large tholos or beehive tomb constructed between 1300 and 1250 BCE in Mycenae, Greece.
The dromos of the Treasury of Atreus
Atreus (left) serves Thyestes his sons' flesh, portrayed on a medieval manuscript c. 1410.
Piet de Jong's architectural plan of the Treasury of Atreus, drawn for Alan Wace's excavations of 1921–1923.
Pieces of red marble (rosso antico or lapis Taenarius) from the façade of the Treasury of Atreus, in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb, is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by corbelling, the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones. The resulting structure resembles a beehive, hence the traditional English name.
Cross section of Treasury of Atreus, a beehive tomb
Dromos entrance to the Treasury of Atreus
The Lion Tholos Tomb at Mycenae. Of note are the ashlar stomion (of conglomerate) and dromos while the chamber itself remains made of smaller stones, placing the tomb in Wace's second group
Tholos of the Nuraghe Arrubiu