DESCRIPTION
INFORMATION
 
 
The tomb in the settlement of Katakalou is the best preserved Mycenaean tholos tomb on Evia island. It lies approximately 2 klm to the north of the settlement and almost 5 klm away from the highway linking the city of Halkis to the city of Aliveri.

The tomb interior is accessed through a 5.40m long dromos (entrance passageway) laterally paved with small flat rubble stones, ending to the stomio (doorway into funerary chamber) which was 1.65m high and 0.80m wide, and led to the tholos (the funerary chamber). The stomio is covered by a stone lintel bearing the typical relieving triangle. The tholos of local schist stone was built in the load-displacing technique, measures 5.30m in internal diameter and is preserved up to a maximum height of 4.70m. From the interior of the pillaged tomb were collected only the fragments of a Minyan kylix, while potsherd and a bronze coin were found during more recent clearing and bracing works at the monument.

The excavation was conducted by G. Papavasiliou in 1907. The first fixing works between 1984 and 1987 were executed from the personnel defined by the administration of the lignite mine run by the Public Power Corporation of Aliveri (city on Evia island). In the course of restoration, the tholos, the lintel and the entrance were braced. In 2002, the Directorate for the Restoration of Ancient Monuments pertaining to the Ministry of Culture issued a study on the complete bracing of the tomb and the construction of a shelter.
Author
Ath. Chatzidemetriou, Archaeologist
Dr. D. Mylonas, Archaeologist