Fault-related sanctuaries of Mycenae (Greece): The Shaft Grave Circle A

Abstract

Mycenae, one of the most important cities and sacred sites of antiquity in Greece, was built on a tectonic horst uplifted by active normal faults, and both faults show geologic evidence of recent coseismic slip. The Lion Gate fault, affecting the west slope of Mycenae, is described here through geological and archaeoseismological investigation. The tectonic offset since the Pliocene−Pleistocene sequence is 13−14 m. A 4−5-m-high scarp of the major splay of this fault, well preserved inside the Shaft Grave Circle A, exhibits tectonic geomorphological aspects typical of recent surface faulting. Mycenae experienced two earthquakes in ∼60 yr during its climax, one around 1250 B.C. and the other around 1190 B.C. Seismic damage at Shaft Grave Circle A was found to have occurred on more than one occasion. One event occurred with the earthquake of 1190 B.C., or more likely with a much later one, which cut the circular parapet. Heavy damages were also registered with the earthquake of 1250 B.C. An episode of surface faulting appears to have occurred shortly before the early graves were created in Shaft Grave Circle A (late seventeenth century B.C., Middle/Late Helladic period). The integration of available data suggests that the cults at Mycenae, particularly at Shaft Grave Circle A, deliberately chose specific sites or traits of the seismic fault as the central hub of their main sanctuaries. This occurrence was the result of a deliberate choice dictated by the fact that those sites along the fault trace were considered to be sacred and believed to be gateways to Hades.