Glossary Tombs and burial
Dromos
Also called: dromoi
The passage, often sloping or stepped, cut into the ground or rock to reach the doorway of a chamber tomb.
Most Cypriot chamber tombs, from the Early Bronze Age to the Roman period, were entered down a dromos: a trench or ramp cut into the hillside that ended at the blocked doorway (the stomion) of the burial chamber. At some sites it was a long stepped trench; at others, a deep vertical shaft did the same job. The dromos was filled in after a funeral and dug out again whenever the tomb was reopened for another burial.
In the Iron Age the dromos could become a stage in its own right. In the royal tombs of Salamis, horses in elaborate trappings were killed in the wide dromos in front of the tomb. See Bronze Age chamber tombs for how the form developed.
Full entry: Bronze Age Chamber Tombs
Related terms
- Stomion
The low doorway between the dromos and the burial chamber of a rock-cut tomb, closed with a slab or stones after each burial.
- Collective burial
The use of one tomb for many burials made over years or generations, typically by a family or kin group.
- Royal tombs
The monumental built tombs of the Iron Age kings and elite of Cyprus, best known at Salamis, where horses were killed at the funeral.
Where it appears
- Furniture in Ancient Cyprus
- Architectural Transformations in Ancient Cyprus
- Food and Diet in Ancient Cyprus
- Proto-White Painted Ware
- Society, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Cypriot Mortuary Practice
- Amphora
- Arms and Armour of Iron Age Cyprus
- Cypro-Classical Cyprus
- Cypro-Geometric Cyprus
- From Bronze to Iron: Cypriot Pottery c. 1300–950 BCE
- Horse and Rider Figurines
- Population and Demography in Ancient Cyprus
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