social hierarchy and the use of chamber tombs: relatively simple tombs, such as those at Aidonia, with relatively simple grave goods are found alongside monumental examples, such as Tomb 4 at Voundeni – a large LH IIIA chamber tomb with a dromos of 19.8m and a thalamos 28m2 in area, whose extensive and valuable grave goods have led to the scholarly consensus that the single original burial in the tomb represents a local ruler. Rather than carrying a universal meaning, it is likely that the social and symbolic significance of chamber tombs, as well as the nature of the communities using them, varied across the Mycenaean world according to local practices and concerns. Except in Thessaly and Crete, the construction of chamber tombs ceased after the Late Bronze Age Collapse (), though some examples continued to be re-used for votive offerings, hero cult and occasionally burials during the Early Iron Age. Nearly a third of the chamber tombs excavated by Carl Blegen at Prosymna showed evidence of votive offerings from the Geometric or Archaic periods, and the practice is observed elsewhere in the Greek world between 1050 and 600 BCE, particularly in Messenia, Attica and Boeotia. Construction Chamber tombs are cut from bedrock and usually divide into a tripartite structure of dromos ('passageway'), stomion ('threshold') and thalamos ('chamber'). Some examples include pits, side chambers or niches into which primary or secondary burials may have been deposited. The division between dromos, stomion and thalamos has been interpreted as the creation of a 'boundary zone between the living and the dead'. Scholars debate the relationship in design between chamber tombs and tholoi, which appeared in Greece approximately simultaneously at the end of MH III, and were both first used in Messenia. According to one school of thought, chamber tombs became popular in imitation of tholoi, following the same fundamental form but avoiding the significant expenditure of resources and labour in constructing a tomb from ashlar masonry. Another interpretation sees chamber tombs as a successor to Middle Helladic tumulus burial, developing in parallel with tholoi rather than as an imitation of them. The specific design of chamber tombs could vary according to local geographic and social considerations. At Thorikos, for instance, 'built' chamber tombs of limestone masonry, with short passages approaching one side of the thalamos, were constructed, likely in response to the hard limestone ground, which would have made cutting a long