Shaft tomb

[1] The practice of digging shaft tombs was a widespread phenomenon with prominent examples found in Mycenaean Greece; in Bronze Age China; and in Mesoamerican Western Mexico.

[2] In the Neolithic period Epirus was populated by seafarers along the coast and by shepherds and hunters from the southwestern Balkans who brought with them the Proto-Greek language.

Similar burial chambers were subsequently used by the Mycenaean civilization, suggesting that the founders of Mycenae may have come from Epirus and central Albania.

Epirus itself remained culturally backward during this time, but Mycenaean remains have been found at two religious shrines of great antiquity in the region: the Oracle of the Dead on the Acheron River, familiar to the heroes of Homer's Odyssey, and the Oracle of Zeus at Dodona, to whom Achilles prayed in the Iliad.

[2] The Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition or shaft tomb culture refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the present day western Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and, to a lesser extent, Colima to its south, roughly dating to the period between 300 BCE and 400 CE.

Mycenaean shaft tombs at Grave Circle A, Mycenae , 16th century BCE in Argolis, Greece , the resting place of the Mycenaean ruling families
The burial pit shaft tomb of the Tomb of Lady Fu Hao , 1200 BCE Shang dynasty , the wife and queen of Chinese general, Fu Hao and King Wu Ding in Anyang , Henan Province , China
A shaft tomb exhibit of the Western Mexico shaft tomb culture , 300 BCE and 400 CE at the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México