{{Short description|Type of burial}} [[File:Grave-Circle-A-Mycenae.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] shaft tombs at [[Grave Circle A, Mycenae]], 16th century BCE in [[Argolis, Greece]], the resting place of the Mycenaean ruling families]] [[File:Tomb Fu Hao YinXu.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The burial pit shaft tomb of the [[Tomb of Fu Hao|Tomb of Lady Fu Hao]], 1200 BCE [[Shang dynasty]], the wife and queen of Chinese general, [[Fu Hao]] and King [[Wu Ding]] in [[Anyang]], [[Henan|Henan Province]], [[China]]]] [[File:ShafttombMNAH.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A shaft tomb exhibit of the [[Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition|Western Mexico shaft tomb culture]], 300 BCE and 400 CE at the [[National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico)|Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México]]]]
A '''shaft tomb''' or '''shaft grave''' is a type of deep rectangular burial structure, similar in shape to the much shallower [[cist|cist grave]], containing a floor of [[pebble]]s, walls of rubble [[masonry]], and a roof constructed of wooden planks.<ref>{{harvnb|Pedley|2011|p=86}}.</ref>
==Practice== The practice of digging shaft tombs was a widespread phenomenon with prominent examples found in [[Mycenaean Greece]]; in [[Bronze Age China]]; and in [[Mesoamerica]]n Western Mexico.<ref name="Kipfer508">{{harvnb|Kipfer|2000|loc="shaft grave", p. 508}}.</ref>
In the Neolithic period Epirus was populated by seafarers along the coast and by shepherds and hunters from the southwestern Balkans who brought with them the Proto-Greek language. These people buried their leaders in large mounds containing shaft graves. Similar burial chambers were subsequently used by the Mycenaean civilization, suggesting that the founders of Mycenae may have come from Epirus and central [[Albania]]. Epirus itself remained culturally backward during this time, but Mycenaean remains have been found at two religious shrines of great antiquity in the region: the Oracle of the Dead on the Acheron River, familiar to the heroes of Homer's Odyssey, and the Oracle of [[Zeus]] at Dodona, to whom [[Achilles]] prayed in the Iliad.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Epirus|title=Epirus | region, Greece and Albania | Britannica}}</ref>
===Mycenaean Greece=== [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] shaft graves originated and evolved from rudimentary [[Middle Helladic]] cists, tumuli, and tholos tombs with features derived from [[Early Bronze Age]] traditions developed locally in mainland [[Bronze Age Greece]] 16th century BCE.<ref>{{harvnb|Dickinson|1999|pp=103, 106–107}}.</ref> [[Middle Helladic]] burials would ultimately serve as the basis for the royal Shaft Graves containing a variety of grave goods, which signified the elevation of a native Greek-speaking royal dynasty whose economic power depended on long-distance sea trade.<ref>{{harvnb|Dickinson|1977|pp=53, 107}}; {{harvnb|Dickinson|1999|pp=97–107}}; {{harvnb|Anthony|2007|p=48}}.</ref>
The depth of Mycenaean shaft tombs would range from {{cvt|1|to|4|m|ft|0}} with a mound constructed for each grave and [[stele|stelae]] erected.<ref>{{harvnb|Komita|1982|pp=59–60}}.</ref> Archaeological examples include [[Grave Circle A]] and [[Grave Circle B]].
===Bronze Age China=== Shaft graves were used by elites from the [[Shang dynasty]] (or Yin dynasty) during the [[Bronze Age]] 1200 BCE of northern China.<ref name="Kipfer508"/>
===Mesoamerican Western Mexico=== The [[Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition]] or shaft tomb culture refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the present day western Mexican states of [[Jalisco]], [[Nayarit]], and, to a lesser extent, [[Colima]] to its south, roughly dating to the period between 300 BCE and 400 CE. An example is the [[La Campana (archaeological site)|La Campana archaeological site]] of the [[Capacha]] and subsequent cultures.
==See also== *[[Grave Circle A, Mycenae]] *[[Grave Circle B, Mycenae]] *[[Grave field]] *[[Ixtlán del Rio (archaeological site)]] *[[Shaft and chamber tomb]] *[[Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition]]
==References== ===Citations=== {{reflist|2}}
===Sources=== {{refbegin|2}} *{{cite book|last=Anthony|first=David W.|title=The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World|year=2007|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey|isbn=978-0-691-05887-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FDqf415wqgC}} *{{cite journal|last=Dickinson|first=Oliver|title=Invasion, Migration and the Shaft Graves|journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies|volume=43|issue=1|date=December 1999|pages=97–107|doi=10.1111/j.2041-5370.1999.tb00480.x}} *{{cite book|last=Dickinson|first=Oliver|title=The Origins of Mycenaean Civilization|year=1977|location=Götenberg|publisher=Paul Aströms Förlag}} *{{citation|last=Kipfer|first=Barbara Ann|year=2000|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology|location=New York|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-306-46158-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XneTstDbcC0C}} *{{cite journal|last=Komita|first=Nobuo|url=http://www.kait-r.com:8080/dspace/bitstream/10368/103/1/kka-007-006.pdf|title=The Grave Circles at Mycenae and the Early Indo-Europeans|journal=Research Reports of Ikutoku Technical University|year=1982|issue=A-7|pages=59–70}}{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} *{{cite book|last=Pedley|first=John Griffiths|year=2011|title=Greek Art and Archaeology|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|publisher=Prentice Hall|isbn=978-0-20-500133-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTEsAQAAMAAJ}} {{refend|2}}
==External links== *{{cite web|editor-last1=Horejs|editor-first1=Barbara|editor-last2=Pavúk|editor-first2=Peter|title=The Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory Project|year=2007|publisher=The Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory Team|url=http://www.aegeobalkanprehistory.net}} *{{cite web|last=Rutter|first=Jeremy B.|title=Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean|location=Hanover, NH|publisher=Dartmouth College|url=http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/index.html|access-date=2013-11-16|archive-date=2009-01-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090101104332/http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/index.html|url-status=dead}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaft Tomb}} [[Category:Burial monuments and structures]] [[Category:Bronze Age Europe]]