DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0054
THE THOLOS OF HAGIA TRIADA 20
It was fortunate for the Italians that they were
compensated for the inexplicable barrenness of Phaestos
by the wonderful remains, both of early and mature
Minoan art, that they found on the hill of Hagia Triada,
two miles to the north-west. A round chamber tomb
with a diameter of nearly 30 feet was found literally
packed with skeletons, like a charnel-house ; two hundred
were found in it alone, and fifty in some later chambers
that adjoined it.1 These were not the dead of a single
battle, for among them were the bones of women and
children ; it was rather the tomb of a tribe used for
many years, or an hereditary family vault.1 The incised
and primitive painted pottery, the rude seals and idols
and short copper dagger-blades that were found with
the bodies, belong, as we shall see later,' to the second
and third early Minoan periods that follow soon after
the Neolithic age. It is interesting to notice, therefore,
that the tomb must originally have been of the vaulted
Tliolos type that reached its highest expression in the
beehive tombs of Mycenae, the so-called " Treasury of
Atreus," and the rest. The lower courses of this
Hagia Triada Tholos, which still remain standing along
with those of the narrow three-foot passage or " dromos "
that formed its entrance, show that the circular form
that we find in the mainland was in Crete also an early
form of chamber tomb. Three others have been opened
by Dr. Xanthoudides at Koumasa near Gortyna, while
at Sitia he thinks he has found a trace of the circular
hut of the living, the wigwam on which the Tholos
tombs were modelled.' The Royal Tomb at Isopata,
1 M.I.L. xxi. 5, p. 249, and Plates VIII., IX., figs. 18-20;
Rend. xiv. 1905, pp. 392-7.
2 So Halbherr, op. cit. Does, however, the promiscuity point
to reinterment ? See Bosanquet and others in B.S.A. viii. 305,
ix. 348, x. 229, xi. 292.
3 See p. 49. For the chambers, see p. 52.
* Seea short account in Ath. Mitt. xxxi. i<x>6, pp. 367-S. They
will later be fully published in 'Apx- See below, p. 169.
It was fortunate for the Italians that they were
compensated for the inexplicable barrenness of Phaestos
by the wonderful remains, both of early and mature
Minoan art, that they found on the hill of Hagia Triada,
two miles to the north-west. A round chamber tomb
with a diameter of nearly 30 feet was found literally
packed with skeletons, like a charnel-house ; two hundred
were found in it alone, and fifty in some later chambers
that adjoined it.1 These were not the dead of a single
battle, for among them were the bones of women and
children ; it was rather the tomb of a tribe used for
many years, or an hereditary family vault.1 The incised
and primitive painted pottery, the rude seals and idols
and short copper dagger-blades that were found with
the bodies, belong, as we shall see later,' to the second
and third early Minoan periods that follow soon after
the Neolithic age. It is interesting to notice, therefore,
that the tomb must originally have been of the vaulted
Tliolos type that reached its highest expression in the
beehive tombs of Mycenae, the so-called " Treasury of
Atreus," and the rest. The lower courses of this
Hagia Triada Tholos, which still remain standing along
with those of the narrow three-foot passage or " dromos "
that formed its entrance, show that the circular form
that we find in the mainland was in Crete also an early
form of chamber tomb. Three others have been opened
by Dr. Xanthoudides at Koumasa near Gortyna, while
at Sitia he thinks he has found a trace of the circular
hut of the living, the wigwam on which the Tholos
tombs were modelled.' The Royal Tomb at Isopata,
1 M.I.L. xxi. 5, p. 249, and Plates VIII., IX., figs. 18-20;
Rend. xiv. 1905, pp. 392-7.
2 So Halbherr, op. cit. Does, however, the promiscuity point
to reinterment ? See Bosanquet and others in B.S.A. viii. 305,
ix. 348, x. 229, xi. 292.
3 See p. 49. For the chambers, see p. 52.
* Seea short account in Ath. Mitt. xxxi. i<x>6, pp. 367-S. They
will later be fully published in 'Apx- See below, p. 169.