Mycenae Revisited Part 3. The Human Remains from Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Behind the Masks: A Study of the Bones of Shaft Graves I–V

IN BSA 104 we described how the ʹMycenae Revisitedʹ project came into being, how the rediscovery in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens in 2003 of two skeletons excavated in 1877 by Stamatakis in Shaft Grave VI at Mycenae led to a proposal to study those remains in detail and to reconstruct their faces, and how this in turn spawned a number of other projects (ʹMycenae Revisited Part 1ʹ: Papazoglou-Manioudaki et al. 2009). The first of these follow-up actions—ʹMycenae Revisited Part 2ʹ—was a study of the remains of the majority of the individuals from Grave Circle A (GCA) by strontium isotope analysis, intended to discover their geographical origins (Nafplioti 2009). The next, a catalogue and full reappraisal of the skeletal remains from the other graves in Circle A, is presented here in the context of their recovery with the associated finds. At the time of writing two more articles are planned, one considering the problem of the ʹmummyʹ from Shaft Grave V (Part 4) which is touched on below, and finally as ʹMycenae Revisited Part 5ʹ a reassessment of the occupants and the use of the graves in Circle A in the light of the new discoveries.