DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0030
CHAPTER II
KOUMASA
L KOUMASA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The spot at which the tombs of Koumasa were found is called Tsachalias and tombs and
lies below the village close to the path leading eastwards to the village of Loiikia. settlement
Immediately above the group of tombs, about a hundred metres to the south, AT k0umasa
rises a two-peaked hill, bare rock in parts, called Korakies, on which were
found remains of the Minoan settlement to which the tombs belonged
(Plate XVI a).
The tombs lie on ground that has a slight slope towards the plain. Their
collapse in antiquity had produced a low mound of earth and stones of which
the length from north to south before excavation was 27-50 m. and the width
20 m. The height varied from 1 m. to 1-60 m. Before the excavation there
was no sign of the existence of tholos tombs, and at first I supposed that we
had to deal with a large tumulus. When, however, the excavation had pro-
ceeded a little way, three circular tombs and one square tomb were clearly
to be distinguished, all built up above the ancient surface of the ground
(Plate LXI).
The owners of the land had made surreptitious excavations haphazard
into the top and west side of the mound at various times in 1903 and 1904,
and in places they had disturbed the burial stratum of the second tholos, B.
They had broken down parts of the west side of the circuit wall both in Tholos
A and Tholos B. Their operations had yielded the objects brought to the
museum, and in addition some vases of clay and stone and some fragments
of daggers, which they had kept in their houses and now handed to me on the
spot. All these objects they had taken from the earth above Tholos B.
I began to dig on the west side low down where the villagers had done most
of their digging, which accounted for my finding at first a mixture of small and
large stones in the earth. But a few centimetres deeper we came upon a fair
number of objects that had not been seen, or at any rate had not been taken, by
the village people, small clay and stone vases, necklace beads of steatite and
bits of obsidian, and gradually there began to appear sections of the circuit
walls of the two tholoi, the large one, B, and the small one, A.
The height of the mound above the living rock was not great. At most The Mound
points there was a thickness of 1 m. or less, and it only reached a thickness of
1*50 m. on the east side of the two tholoi, where the greatest height of wall was
KOUMASA
L KOUMASA. GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The spot at which the tombs of Koumasa were found is called Tsachalias and tombs and
lies below the village close to the path leading eastwards to the village of Loiikia. settlement
Immediately above the group of tombs, about a hundred metres to the south, AT k0umasa
rises a two-peaked hill, bare rock in parts, called Korakies, on which were
found remains of the Minoan settlement to which the tombs belonged
(Plate XVI a).
The tombs lie on ground that has a slight slope towards the plain. Their
collapse in antiquity had produced a low mound of earth and stones of which
the length from north to south before excavation was 27-50 m. and the width
20 m. The height varied from 1 m. to 1-60 m. Before the excavation there
was no sign of the existence of tholos tombs, and at first I supposed that we
had to deal with a large tumulus. When, however, the excavation had pro-
ceeded a little way, three circular tombs and one square tomb were clearly
to be distinguished, all built up above the ancient surface of the ground
(Plate LXI).
The owners of the land had made surreptitious excavations haphazard
into the top and west side of the mound at various times in 1903 and 1904,
and in places they had disturbed the burial stratum of the second tholos, B.
They had broken down parts of the west side of the circuit wall both in Tholos
A and Tholos B. Their operations had yielded the objects brought to the
museum, and in addition some vases of clay and stone and some fragments
of daggers, which they had kept in their houses and now handed to me on the
spot. All these objects they had taken from the earth above Tholos B.
I began to dig on the west side low down where the villagers had done most
of their digging, which accounted for my finding at first a mixture of small and
large stones in the earth. But a few centimetres deeper we came upon a fair
number of objects that had not been seen, or at any rate had not been taken, by
the village people, small clay and stone vases, necklace beads of steatite and
bits of obsidian, and gradually there began to appear sections of the circuit
walls of the two tholoi, the large one, B, and the small one, A.
The height of the mound above the living rock was not great. At most The Mound
points there was a thickness of 1 m. or less, and it only reached a thickness of
1*50 m. on the east side of the two tholoi, where the greatest height of wall was