A shaft tomb or shaft grave is a type of burial structure formed from a deep and narrow shaft sunk into natural rock. Burials were then placed at the bottom. A related group of shaft and chamber tomb

Shaft and chamber tomb

A Shaft and chamber tomb is a type of chamber tomb used by some ancient peoples for burial of the dead. They consist of a shaft dug into the outcrops of rock with a square or round chamber excavated at the bottom where the dead were placed....

s also incorporate a small room or rooms cut laterally at the base of the shaft for the placing of the dead.

The practice of digging shaft tombs was widespread but the most famous examples are those at Mycenae

Mycenae

Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...

 in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 which date to between 1650 BC and 1500 BC, associated with the arrival of the Greeks

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 in the Aegean

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 (in some scenarios, with a second wave of Greek arrivals, assuming a Proto-Greek migration in the 23rd to 22nd centuries at the beginning of the Early Helladic III horizon). These shaft tombs were around 4m deep with the dead placed in cist

Cist

A cist from ) is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East....

s at the bottom along with rich grave goods. The position of the shaft was sometimes marked by a stone stele

Stele

A stele , also stela , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab...

.

See also

• Grave Circle A, Mycenae
  Grave Circle A, Mycenae
  Grave Circle A in Mycenae is a 16th century BC royal cemetery situated on the southeast of the Lion Gate, the main entrance of the Bronze Age citadel of Mycenae, southern Greece...
  
  
• Grave field
  Grave field
  A grave field is a prehistoric cemetery, typically of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe.Grave fields are distinguished from necropoleis by the former's lack of above-ground structures, buildings, or grave markers.-Types:...
  
  
• Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition
  Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition
  The Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition or shaft tomb culture refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the 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, although there is not wide...
  
  
• Ixtlán del Rio (archaeological site)
  Ixtlán del Rio (archaeological site)
  Ixtlán del Rio is an archaeological site located in the Ixtlán del Rio municipality, on the south west region of the Nayarit State, Mexico. It is also known as “Los Toriles” and contains the only vestiges of the western cultures in Nayarit....