The Emergence and the Architectural Development of the Tumulus Burial Custom in NW Greece (Epirus and the Ionian Islands) and Albania and its Connections to Settlement Organization

During the post-war era, excavations of tumuli constituted the bulk of our knowledge of Albania’s prehistory, as attested by the large number of these burial monuments known so far. In contrast, the numbers of tumuli in NW Greece seems to be limited. In the Ionian Islands the earliest tumuli (Leukas-R Graves) are erected at the end of EH II, in Northern Albania at the end of the local EBA (1900/1800 B.C.), in Central Albania (chronologically) at the end of MH, while in southern Albania and Pogoni in mainland Epirus in 12th c. B.C. At Ephyra, at the estuary of the Acheron river, the first tumulus is erected during LH IIIA. This paper aims to pinpoint the emergence of these burial monuments in Albania and NW Greece and their main architectural features, while attempting to describe their architectural development both in space and through time. Finally, an attempt will be made to connect tumuli with settlements and to analyze, wherever possible, their role in the formation of a cognitive landscape in the minds of their builders.Oikonomidis Stavros, Papayiannis Aristeides, Tsonos Akis. The Emergence and the Architectural Development of the Tumulus Burial Custom in NW Greece (Epirus and the Ionian Islands) and Albania and its Connections to Settlement Organization. In: Ancestral Landscape. Burial mounds in the Copper and Bronze Ages (Central and Eastern Europe – Balkans – Adriatic – Aegean, 4th-2nd millennium B.C.) Proceedings of the International Conference held in Udine, May 15th-18th 2008. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 2012. pp. 185-201. (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée. Série recherches archéologiques, 58