society. Excavations The site of Mycenae was the first in Greece to be subjected to a modern archaeological excavation. The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated it in 1876 along with Panayiotis Stamatakis, a Greek archaeologist appointed to supervise the excavations. Schliemann, inspired by Homer’s descriptions in the Iliad, in which Mycenae is termed "abounding in gold," began digging there. He was also following the accounts of the ancient geographer Pausanias who described the once-prosperous site and mentioned that according to a local tradition during the 2nd century AD. The grave of Agamemnon included his followers, his charioteer Eurymedon and the two children of Cassandra, all of whom were buried within the citadel. What Schliemann discovered in his excavation satisfied both his opinion of Homer's historical accuracy and his craving for valuable treasures. Among the objects he unearthed in Grave Circle A was a series of gold death masks, including one he proclaimed "The Death Mask of Agamemnon." Schliemann cleared five shafts and recognized them as the graves mentioned by Pausanias. He stopped after the fifth grave was excavated entirely, believing that he had finished exploring the Grave Circle. However, a year later, Panagiotis Stamatakis found a sixth shaft grave. It has since been demonstrated that the burials in Grave Circle A date from 16th century BC, before the traditional time of the Trojan War (13th-12th century BC), in which Agamemnon is supposed to have participated. See also Grave stelai from Grave Circle A, Mycenae Gold grave goods at Grave Circles A and B Mycenaean Collections in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens References Citations Sources Hood, Sinclair, The Arts in Prehistoric Greece, 1978, Penguin (Penguin/Yale History of Art), Further reading Buildings and structures completed in the 16th century BC Mycenaean_tombs Mycenae 1876 archaeological discoveries 2nd-millennium BC establishments Ancient Greek metalwork Minoan art