It is obvious from the many tombs that have been excavated, that in very early times it was the practice to bury the body of the dead in a doubled-up position, the knees being drawn up to the breast. In later times the body was laid out at full length. It is not clear whether or not there was any particular significance in this choice of position. There were various kinds of tombs and graves, all of which were used contemporaneously, and of which, perhaps, the most interesting were the “Tholoi.” The word “tholos” properly means a domed building or rotunda, and the particular kind of tomb to which it is applied is a vaulted chamber to which entrance is effected through an underground tunnel, or “dromos.” It is likely that in form these “tholoi” were based upon the huts used--at some period--by the living. There are both round and square “tholoi” found in Crete. The “tholos” of Hagia Triada has a circular ground plan, while the Royal Tomb at Isopata and other elaborate tombs of the great palace-periods are rectangular. The principle of the tholos-tomb was most in use in Mycenæan times, on the mainland of Greece, where the “beehive tombs” almost all retained in the original round formation. The hilly character of Crete led the people to cut out their “tholoi” in the side of the rocky hills, the “dromos,” or tunnel, in this case being driven into the hillside almost horizontally. Another style of grave was the shaft or pit-grave, which consisted of a pit sunk into the ground, at the bottom of which was the grave itself, closed over with slabs of stone. Still another kind was a combination of the first two, and is known as the “pit-cave.” This was made by first sinking a pit and then cutting out the tomb in the form of a side-recess from the bottom of the pit. A simpler form of burial, known as the “pot-burial,” was effected by trussing up the body, placing it under an inverted jar, and then burying it in the earth. A sixth form was that of the simple grave, like our own. Cremation was not practised in Minoan times, although it was introduced into Crete from Greece in the Iron Age. Clay coffins were first used in the Middle Minoan period, being made in the form of deep boxes with sloping tops resembling the roofs of houses.