It is quite macabre to think that most of the information that we receive about the ancient world is retrieved from the funerary customs. The way they bid farewell to the dead, their thoughts on death, on the afterlife and immortality, reflect the fundamental philosophical values on which they establish their civilization. One of these places is outside the walls of the citadel, to the west of the Gate of the Lions: Grave Circle B. Twenty-six graves were excavated here, situated inside a circular wall which belonged to the prehistoric cemetery. They were discovered scattered in the area without orientation, in a paradoxical for antiquity manner. The findings revealed that their relatives had performed a "nekrodeipnon", a communal meal in honour of the defunct, to bid farewell.
The graves exposed the rank of the dead in the society of Mycenae: the cist graves contained only one burial, while the shaft graves, many skeletons. The burials of warrior men, with evident marks from wounds on their skeleton, were decorated with funerary tombstones, although this element was not found in graves containing women or infants. The custom with the tombstones appeared here for the first time in the Helladic region. It was later adopted by the following generations and is used extensively until today.
From the remnants of Egyptian papyrus leaves, we deduct that the Mycenaeans wrapped the dead with them an element that confirms the commercial relations of Mycenaeans with the Egyptians. The grave goods witness that the deceased were highly ranked in society. Many valuable objects were found that could not belong to simple folk: in a woman's grave, a rare vessel made of crystal with a handle in the shape of a duck's head; in another grave, belonging to a man, a unique burial mask made of amber and a seal depicting a bearded man. But also, many other items as pottery, bronze weapons, gold jewellery and arrow spearheads. As it seems, Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B were related to members of two different royal dynasties.
