Monumental funerary architecture in Thessaly in the classical and Hellenistic periods: an overview

The contribution of Thessaly for the study of monumental funerary architecture of the Archaic to Hellenistic periods is little known, despite the existence of distinctive local styles and tomb monuments. As will become clear from the discussion below, the number of monumental tombs dating from the Archaic to Hellenistic periods is surprisingly small, especially when one considers the proverbial wealth of the Thessalian elite landowning families and the oligarchic systems by which the Thessalian cities were governed. Even so, the variability of the tomb monuments and their structural peculiarities make them unique both to the region and mainland Greece as a whole, and therefore worthy of discussion. During the late Archaic and Classical periods typical for the region is a series of built tombs that most likely deliberately imitate monuments of the ›heroic‹ (Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age) past, namely tholos tombs covered by mounds. At the same time, in the late 5th and 4th centuries, some Thessalians, most characteristically the Pharsalians, adopted grave periboloi of the Attic type, alongside a new, tomb-type, peculiar to Thessaly: built chamber tombs of square plan and a corbelled pyramidal roof. Both tholos and chamber tombs with pyramidal roofs cease to be made by the late 4th century B.C.. In the Hellenistic period, monumental funerary architecture is rare; tombs of the Macedonian type are the most elaborate funerary monuments in Thessaly although their number is small compared to the very strong presence of Macedonians in the region