It goes without saying that the extensive commercial activity of the Mycenaeans and their administrative dominance over the Greek cities dictated an increase in the city's grain reserves; they were kept in the safest place, i.e. the acropolis. To the right of the Gate of the Lions, a building of stone masonry was discovered; inside it pithoi (large, clay storage jars) with carbonized grains, wheat and barley, were found. This is why it was called the "Granary". The cultivations of Mycenae were managed through a structured system of land ownership and administration. Taxes to the "wanax" (the king) were paid in grains, hence they constituted a valuable transactions' kind in the rural economy of the era. Due to this, its safekeeping demanded strict surveillance. Wheat, a sacred grain for the survival of people all over the planet was the real gold of Mycenae.
There, inside the fort, at the best-guarded spot of the acropolis, they deposited and protected the harvest of the fertile Argolid plain. In this way, they secured the supply of the city, but also the self-sufficiency of the palace in the case of a siege. The building had an interior staircase leading to the first floor and two parallel and narrow corridors that lead to the Granary, offering also the possibility to climb up to the floor above, to the Guardhouse. The premises were used to store grains until the day they were burned down. The art of the pithoi pottery found here defines the late period of the Mycenaean civilization and is called Granary Class.
