The location is called Palioboukouvina (named after a village that once existed there but was destroyed because of a plague). Its place name hints of a Slavic tribe that settled there – Boukouvar meaning oak in Slavic. In addition to the cemetery with 47 Mycenaean vaulted tombs, 450 intact vases were found and 1,500 other items. The site dates from the late Bronze Age, i.e. between 1400-1100 BC. These burials belonged to women, children and men, with no separation in the burials between them. The large vessels were likely covered with some type of buckram to protect its contents. Each buried artefact belonged to a family or gender. When the main chamber was full of burials, the family built another in the rear wall. In one tomb the dead were placed on a stretcher-like bed, where also the relatives and domestic animals grieved the loss of a beloved.
