Tholos: A beehive-shaped stone
tomb of Mycenaean Greece, roofed by corbeling and usually built into the side of
a hill.
"Tholoi were used for burial in several
cultures in the Mediterranean and West Asia, but in some cases they were used
for different purposes such as homes (Cyprus), ritual (Syria), and even
fortification (Spain, Sardinia). Although Max Mallowan used the same name for
the circular houses belonging to the Neolithic culture of Tell Halaf (Iraq,
Syria and Turkey), there is no relationship between them.
In Greece, the
vaulted tholoi are a monumental Late Bronze Age development. Their origin is a
matter of considerable debate: were they inspired by the tholoi of Crete which
were first used in the Early Minoan period or were they a natural development of
tumulus burials dating to the Middle Bronze Age. In concept, they are
similar to the much more numerous Mycenaean chamber tombs which seem to have
emerged at about the same time. Both have chamber, doorway stomion and entrance
passage dromos but tholoi are largely built while chamber tombs are
rock-cut.
The earliest stone-built tombs which can be called "beehive" are in
Oman, built of stacked flat stones which occur in nearby geological formations.
They date to between 3,500 and 2,500 years BCE, to a period when the Arabian
peninsula was subject to much more rainfall than now, and supported a
flourishing civilisation in what is now desert, to the west of the mountain
range along the Gulf of Oman.
The entrances of these stone-built
tombs are usually an undifferentiated part of the circular walling of the
tomb. Currently there are three areas where these tombs can be found: Al Hajar
Region, Hat Region, and Hadbin area close to Barka. The Hajar tombs are very
numerous and one or two have been restored, allowing you to crawl into the
centre of a 5-6m tall stone structure.
No burial remains have ever been retrieved from these "tombs",
though there seems no other purpose for their building. They have only
superficial similarities with the Aegean tombs (circular shape) as they are
built entirely above ground level and do not share the same tripartite structure
."
While the Aegean tombs which are called tholoi the plural
of "tholos" may mean vault, vaulted
building, or subterranean tombs, strangely enough, the Arabian ones
are called "thalla-h".
For more details and translation click
the URL below:
http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/LINKS/THLL.htmlويقال: ثَلَلت الترابَ في القبر والبئر أَثُلُّه ثَلاًّ إِذا أَعَدْتَه فيه
بعدما تَحْفِره Ishinan
5/20/12