<< Text Pages >> Lefkada Beehive Tomb - Burial Chamber or Dolmen in Greece in Greek Islands
Submitted by AngieLake on Tuesday, 15 April 2008 Page Views: 25364
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Lefkada Beehive TombCountry: Greece
NOTE: This site is 4.089 km away from the location you searched for.
Region: Greek Islands Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Latitude: 38.750000N Longitude: 20.666670E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
Beehive Tomb in the Greek Islands. Road works on the western Greek island of Lefkada have uncovered - and partially destroyed - an important tomb with artefacts dating back more than 3,000 years.
The find is a miniature version of the large, opulent tombs built by the rulers of Greece during the Mycenaean era, which ended around 1100 BC.
Although dozens have been found in the mainland and on Crete, the underground, beehive-shaped monuments are very rare in the western Ionian Sea islands, and previously unknown on Lefkada.
The discovery could fuel debate on a major prehistoric puzzle - where the homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus was located.
"This is a very important find for the area, because until now we had next to no evidence on Mycenaean presence on Lefkada," excavator Maria Stavropoulou-Gatsi told The Associated Press.
Stavropoulou-Gatsi said the tomb was unearthed about a month ago by a bulldozer, during road construction work.
"Unfortunately, the driver caused significant damage," she said.
She said the tomb contained several human skeletons, as well as smashed pottery, two seal stones, beads made of semiprecious stones, copper implements and clay loom weights. It appeared to have been plundered during antiquity.
With a diameter of 2.7m, the tomb is very small compared to others, such as the Tomb of Atreus in Mycenae which was more than 14m across and built of stones weighing up to 120 tonnes.
But it could revive scholarly debate on the location of Odysseus' Ithaca mentioned in Homer's poems - which are believed to be loosely based on Mycenaean-era events. While the nearby island of Ithaki is generally identified as the hero's kingdom, other theories have proposed Lefkada or neighbouring Kefallonia.
Stavropoulou-Gatsi said the discovery might cause excitement on Lefkada but it was too soon for any speculation on Odysseus.
"I think it is much too early to engage in such discussion. The location of Homer's Ithaca is a very complex issue," she said.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Location given is very approximate, please let us know if you have an accurate GPS for this site
Source: AP, photo of the site at the Brisbane Times.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Nearby Images from Flickr
The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the areaKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
6.8km SSE 154° Nidri Bronze Age Tumuli* Barrow Cemetery
7.5km NE 34° Nyrikos* Ancient Village or Settlement
10.0km NNE 19° Archaeological Museum of Lefkada* Museum
12.5km ENE 59° Sterna Kastro Hillfort
14.7km S 184° Choirospilia* Cave or Rock Shelter
16.7km NE 55° Palairos* Ancient Village or Settlement
23.4km SSW 207° Cap Doukato* Ancient Temple
29.5km N 11° Nikopolis* Ancient Village or Settlement
30.1km N 10° Nicopolis necropolis boreia* Ancient Village or Settlement
31.0km N 11° Nicopolis stadium* Ancient Village or Settlement
31.2km ESE 106° Alyzia Kastri* Hillfort
31.5km N 11° Nicopolis temple of Apollo* Ancient Temple
32.3km S 184° School of Homer Ancient Village or Settlement
34.2km S 185° Louizos Cave Cave or Rock Shelter
43.1km S 176° Cave of the Nymphs Cave or Rock Shelter
43.9km S 178° Alalkomenes Ancient Village or Settlement
44.0km N 1° Cassope* Ancient Village or Settlement
47.7km S 172° Arethousa Well Holy Well or Sacred Spring
47.9km S 172° Cave of Eumaeus Cave or Rock Shelter
53.2km NNE 31° Ambracia Temple of Apollo* Ancient Temple
53.6km S 180° Kefalonia Acropolis* Ancient Temple
55.3km NNW 348° Necromanteion* Ancient Temple
56.6km E 99° Stratos Temple of Zeus* Ancient Temple
57.3km E 99° Stratos theatre* Ancient Village or Settlement
57.7km E 99° Stratos necropolis* Ancient Village or Settlement
View more nearby sites and additional images