Griffin Warrior Tomb at Pylos

Tomb of a Mycenaean Warrior

I’ve written before about the Griffin Warrior tomb, a fabulous unrobbed Mycenaean find at Pylos. But I can’t resist sharing this pleasant write up and photos in National Geographic. The “Griffin Warrior” tomb stands out as one of the great finds of this generation. Even though it was found in 2015, the research and excavation will continue for quite a while.

Griffins and Warriors

As a writer who allows the mythic griffins to live and breathe in my pages, I’m always fond of any artifacts depicting griffins. An ivory plaque with a griffin on it gave this tomb its modern name. While the griffin plaque is beautiful, it is the artwork referred to as the “Combat Agate” that truly takes the breath away with emotional impact and skill of artistry. To appreciate how much the artist accomplished, when you look at the photo of the Agate in NG (I don’t have rights to it to show you here), compare it to this photo of the much less compelling fresco fight scene found at the nearby palace of Nestor. Lovely but it doesn’t reach the Agate’s extraordinary level.

The golden griffin in the top photo is also from Pylos, and, like the fresco, also an earlier find. It’s a Mycenaean griffin from a golden signet bead, unearthed in a tomb in Pylos, by Carl Blegen in 1963 in National Archaeological Museum of Athens, photo on wiki.

An Enjoyable NG Account of the Griffin Warrior Tomb

Here’s the opening of the article:

“An olive grove in Southern Greece was the scene of a spectacular discovery in May 2015 when archaeologists discovered the tomb of a man they dubbed the “Griffin Warrior.” Crammed with artefacts, the grave offers up new insights into the origins of the Mycenaean culture whose mythical heroes starred in the Trojan War.”

Click here for National Geographic, “This 3,500-year-old tomb held the treasures of Greece’s ‘Griffin Warrior’.”

More from me about this tomb

Two earlier posts about the Griffin Warrior tomb here and here.