In 1876, the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, following the successful discovery of the site of Troy at the hill of Hissarlik in Turkey, decided to investigate the site of Mycenae in Greece, the home of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks during the Trojan War detailed by the poet Homer. He discovered there a circle of graves containing six "shaft graves", five of which contained multiple burials. In two of these were discovered gold "death masks" covering the faces of the dead. This led Schliemann to announce in a telegram to England that he had "gazed upon the face of Agamemnon" - unfortunately the graves date from two or three hundred years before the accepted date of the Trojan War.

In 1951, a second and earlier circle was discovered on a low knoll a little to the west of the citadel of Mycenae. The twenty-six graves within it were excavated between 1952 and 1954 by the Archaeological Society of Athens, under the direction of Dr John Papadimitriou, Professor Spyridon Marinatos and Professor George Mylonas. The remains of thirty-five skeletons were discovered, with some grave goods, although nowhere near the riches of Schliemann's discoveries. The graves were all catalogued using letters of the Greek alphabet in the order in which they were excavated.

In 1984, four skulls from this second circle (Grave Circle B) were chosen for reconstruction on the basis of their condition and interest to the team - the skulls known as Gamma 51 (a man of around twenty-eight, with evidence for a trephining operation), Beta 52 (a large man perhaps two years older than Gamma 51), Zeta 59 (a powerful man of around 50) and Sigma 131 (another powerful man of around 50, but suffering from gallstones and arthritis, and perhaps the founder of the Dynasty). In 1987, a further three skulls were cast for reconstruction - Alpha 62 (a young man in his early twenties, and with a massive physique), Gamma 55 (a tall man of around 33, and the only skull with a death mask from Grave Circle B) and Gamma 58 (a damaged skull, but the only female with a skull of which sufficient remained to allow a reconstruction).

The seven skulls which were reconstructed were all from the ruling family of Mycenae, and may even have been related - a relationship which we hoped the reconstructions may be able to illuminate.