The treasury of Atreus
- Audio guide stop: 209
- Gallery: Room 6
- Culture: Mycenaean
- Date: 1350BC-1250BC
- Object type: tomb
- Materials: rosso antico
- Museum number: 1816,0610.180
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
In front of you is a striking fragment of red marble from the Treasury of Atreus, a monumental tomb from ancient Greece built around 1350 to 1250 BCE. This piece once adorned the building’s grand façade with its intricate design. You’ll notice three bands of swirling spiral patterns, carved with careful precision. The top and bottom bands are subtly raised, while the central band is more forcefully carved and features small hollows in the middle of each spiral—these were likely for colorful glass inlays.
The marble, known as rosso antico, is rich in color and texture, and the back of the fragment shows signs of weathering and wear. Two deep holes at the base may once have held wooden dowels used in construction. This fragment is a rare and valuable piece of a tomb that still captivates visitors with its ancient beauty and engineering.
See it in person
The treasury of Atreus is on display in Room 6 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 209, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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