CHS Online Open House | Late Bronze Age burials at Mycenae and what they tell us, with Heleni Palaiologou


We are pleased to welcome Heleni Palaiologou, an archaeologist, retired from the Ministry of Culture of Greece, for a discussion about burials from the late Bronze Age at Mycenae, and what they tell us. The event will take place on Thursday, November 29, at 11 a.m. EST, and will be recorded.

In preparation you might like to read the description of Mycenae in Pausanias 2.16.1–2.16.7.

You can watch the event on the CHS Kosmos website or on the CHS YouTube channel.

Heleni Palaiologou

Heleni Palaiologou graduated from Athens University, Philosophical School, Department of History-Archaeology with specialization in Archaeology (1972), and took postgraduate studies in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age at Bedford College, London (1978–1979). With University College, London, she undertook archaeological research in 1986 on the burial practice of cremations in a tumulus at the site Chania of Mycenae which she had excavated, and became an honorary Research Fellow of University College London (1988–2000), where her research included the cemeteries of Mycenae, burial customs, and social stratification. After a period of temporary work as an archaeologist conducting rescue excavations and archaeological autopsies, and working for museums, she was employed by the Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture from 1979–2011. Her work included directing excavations, conducting autopsies and administration acts in order to protect the antiquities, organizing museum exhibitions, storerooms and archaeological sites, being adapted to new technologies, preparing files for archaeological councils and taking part in these committees. An outstanding moment was the proposal of Mycenae to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Now retired, she continues to research and to transmit the evidence that she has witnessed. Articles include:

  • Un vase géométrique figuratif d’Argos” BCH Suppl. VI, Études Argiennes, (1980) 75-84.
  • “Mycenaean ships and seamanship” in Tropis I (1989), 217-228.
  • Minoan dragons on a sealstone from Mycenae” in Klados, Essays in honour of Nicolas Coldstream, Institute of Classical Studies (1995), 195-199.
  • Late Helladic III C Cremation burials at Chania of Mycenae” in M. Lochner, F. Ruppenstein (eds.) Cremation Burials in the region between the Middle Danube and the Aegean. 1300-750 B. C. Proceedings of the international symposium held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences at Vienna, February 11th-12th 2010, (2013), 248-279.
  • “Water Management, Climatic, Social Changes and Agriculture in the Plain of Mycenae during the 13th B. C. and Later” in G. Touchais, R. Laffineur et F. Rougemont (eds.), PHYSIS. L’environnement naturel et la relation homme-milieu dans le monde égéen protohistorique. Actes de la 14e Rencontre égéenne internationale, Paris, Institut National d’ Histoire de l’Art (INHA), 11-14 décembre 2012 (2014), 141-146.
  • “A Mycenaean building at Chania of Mycenae” in A.-L. Schallin and I. Tournavitou (eds.) Mycenaeans up to date. The archaeology of the northeastern Peloponnese, current concepts and new directions (2015), 53-78.
  • A female painted plaster figure from Mycenae” in H. Brecoulaki, J. L. Davis and S. R. Stocker (eds.) Mycenaean Wall Painting in Context, New discoveries and finds reconsidered. Athens (2015) 95-125.
  • “Monnaies trouvées à Mycènes” forthcoming.