Prehistoric tumulus [grave mound] in Amfeio
The Amfeio tumulus, which has survived to a maximum height of 2m and a diameter of 21m, was constructed in around 2600-2400 BC on the summit of a natural hill in Amfeio. It is conical and consists of two lower earth layers and a higher layer, which is covered by earth and rectangular unfired bricks of different sizes. The tumulus covered an important older burial ground, which was found on the top of this hill and dates from the first quarter of the 3rd millennium BC. The total area of the burial ground is still unknown, as is whether, apart from the graves, the tumulus covered some structural remains, as is the case in Lerna, and in the corresponding case of the hill where the museum is located. However, the short emergency excavation carried out by the 7th EPKA [Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities] in 2007, immediately below the tumulus, discovered three chamber tombs dug into the natural rock of the hill, as well as a shallow carved grave for a women with a baby in her arms. Chamber tombs are a typical example of the kind of burial of the time, as similar ones have been found in other cemeteries in Boeotia, such as Lithares, Paralimni, Likeri, Ypato, and in neighbouring Manika in Euboea. The tombs in Amfeio have been found to hold one or two individuals in the foetal position, and the grave gifts that accompanied them were items imported from the Cyclades and date from the PC1 period.
At a later phase, either during the following period, in which the tumulus was still under construction (2300-2000 BC) or during the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1700 BC), the top of the brick tumulus at Amfeio was dug into to build a monumental cube-shaped tomb, in which there were one or more burials, with rich funeral gifts. The actual chronological relationship between the tumulus and the tomb is not clear, as the grave had been robbed, possibly in Antiquity, while the gold jewellery collected outside it is precisely that which escaped the grave robbers. However, the tumulus as a whole and the impressively large grave found at its centre would be an important and special point of reference for the inhabitants of Thebes, from prehistoric times, a kind of monument-memorial.
