Mycenaean Thebes’ three large cemeteries developed on this hills around Kadmeia.
From the 16th century BC, the Theban dead were buried outside Kadmeia on the surrounding hills of Agia Anna-Kolonaki, Kastellion, and Ismenios.
A monumental 13th century BC chamber tomb has been found in the cemetery on Kastellion. It is decorated with unique, high quality frescoes, which show female forms paying their respects or making their farewells to the deceased. The tomb seems to have been intended for the burial of members of the palace’s upper class. In the past, it was identified with the tomb of ‘Oedipus’s Children’, mentioned by Pausanias: Eteoklis and Polyneikis, who killed each other in a dual before the walls of Thebes in the ‘Seven against Thebes’ campaign.
It is one of the largest known tombs of the Mycenaean period. It was made by joining two burial chambers, which had been carved into the hill at different levels with separate entrance corridors. The main corridor was 25 metres long, 10 metres in height, and 4 metres wide. The second corridor, which seems to have been added later, is 1.30m higher than the first and leads to a chamber, which was formed as an extension of it (the total area of the chamber is 11.5m by 7m and 3.5m in height).
