On the ›Treasury of Minyas‹ in Roman Orchomenos

Abstract

Original title: Zum ›Schatzhaus des Minyas‹ in Orchomenos in römischer Zeit

The Mycenaean tholos was one of the few notable sights in Orchomenos that Pausanias could report. Its summit must have towered over the surroundings at the time like a pyramid. Pausanias was unable, however, to say anything about how the building was used in his day, because he apparently did not see its interior. When Heinrich Schliemann cleared the ruins, he found fragments of marble sculptures, which today have been lost, and a large Π-shaped base for a statue group consisting of several figures. A table for sacrifices must have stood in front of it. The shape of the letters on the stone sockets of the base, which may have served as assembly marks, make it likely that the base dates to the Augustan period. The complex may have been dedicated to the imperial cult. The use of Mycenaean tholoi in hero cult is attested since the Geometric Period. The threshold, which today lies in the stomion of the tholos, is of post-Mycenaean origin; it may have been installed on the occasion of the repurposing of the tholos. Three holes have been bored through it (to drain seepage?).