Treasury of Atreus

Treasury of Atreus

1300-1250 BCE

1865

Single Built Works

Greece (nation)

Mycenae (deserted settlement)

Mycenaean

tholos tombs

doorways

lintels

View of the entrance to the Treasury of Atreus. "This tholos tomb with stone dome, the largest known, was plundered in antiquity. An access passage (dromos), bordered by a peudo-isodome wall, leads to a faade 10.5 metres (34 feet) high. The door opens on to a rotunda, 14.6 metres (48 feet) in diameter and 13.5 metres (44 feet) high, with a masonry domed vault of 33 regular courses; some blocks bore a metal decoration, probably of 'patera' form. This door has a pyramidal shape which is also found in Egypt, and which reappears in classical architecture. The lintel is made up of two enormous blocks; the inner one weighs about 120 tons. The void triangle above it is characteristic of Mycenaean architecture: it serves to deflect the thrusts of the upper part of the building on to the supports of the door...No other Mycenaean building can boast such exact stone cutting, nor such refined proportions; not for another 1,000 years in Greece was such technical perfection put at the service of such a grandiose architectural design,"--John Julius Norwich. The World Atlas of Architecture. p135.

14.60 m. in diameter, 13.40 m. high.

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