DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0194
i68
CRETE AND THE NORTH
These three classes of graves, as they are used at Zafer
Papoura, do not mark different stages of culture. They
are contemporary, and they are all three found in the
earliest phase of the cemetery, that dates from Late
Minoan II.1 Nor are the topographical—or shall we say
the geological ?—differences that are postulated by the
divergence of type found on the actual site, or in Crete
as a whole. The Pit Cave people must have originally
developed their style of tomb in a flat country, where if
a man wanted to have his secret sepulchral cell he had
to dig it down vertically into the ground. This would be
waste of labour in a hilly country like Crete, where the
troglodyte instinct would more naturally be satisfied by
burrowing horizontally into the hillside for a rock shelter.2
Such natural, or partially natural, caves or rock shelters
have been found in Neolithic Crete at Prsesos5 and
near Palaikastro,4 and we see, from one of the examples
that have survived to us,5 that they were originally
habitations of the living, and not tombs of the dead.0
An interesting question is whether the square chamber
tomb, with the passage or dromos that led to it, is derived
from these rock shelters. The rectangular stone-walled
Neolithic house near Palaikastro 7 shows that in a stony
country wattled huts are not necessarily the only early
form of dwelling. On the other hand, the round Tholos
tombs from Hagia Triada and from near Gortyna 8 show
1 P.T. pp. 3, 133.
2 Ibid. pp. 18-21.
3 Bosanquct in B.S.A. viii. p. 235.
4 Duckworth, ibid. ix. fig. 2, p. 346.
0 Dawkins in ibid. xi. fig. 1, p. 262. There was here, at Magasa
near Palaikastro, an artificial enclosing wall.
6 See P.T. p. 18.
7 Dawkins, B.S.A. xi. fig. 2, p. 263. The Neolithic houses
excavated by Tsountas at Dimini near Volo are not described
fully enough in C.R.A.C. p. 207, for any opinion to be formed
as to their shape. See above, p. 56.
* See pp. 29, 30.
m
CRETE AND THE NORTH
These three classes of graves, as they are used at Zafer
Papoura, do not mark different stages of culture. They
are contemporary, and they are all three found in the
earliest phase of the cemetery, that dates from Late
Minoan II.1 Nor are the topographical—or shall we say
the geological ?—differences that are postulated by the
divergence of type found on the actual site, or in Crete
as a whole. The Pit Cave people must have originally
developed their style of tomb in a flat country, where if
a man wanted to have his secret sepulchral cell he had
to dig it down vertically into the ground. This would be
waste of labour in a hilly country like Crete, where the
troglodyte instinct would more naturally be satisfied by
burrowing horizontally into the hillside for a rock shelter.2
Such natural, or partially natural, caves or rock shelters
have been found in Neolithic Crete at Prsesos5 and
near Palaikastro,4 and we see, from one of the examples
that have survived to us,5 that they were originally
habitations of the living, and not tombs of the dead.0
An interesting question is whether the square chamber
tomb, with the passage or dromos that led to it, is derived
from these rock shelters. The rectangular stone-walled
Neolithic house near Palaikastro 7 shows that in a stony
country wattled huts are not necessarily the only early
form of dwelling. On the other hand, the round Tholos
tombs from Hagia Triada and from near Gortyna 8 show
1 P.T. pp. 3, 133.
2 Ibid. pp. 18-21.
3 Bosanquct in B.S.A. viii. p. 235.
4 Duckworth, ibid. ix. fig. 2, p. 346.
0 Dawkins in ibid. xi. fig. 1, p. 262. There was here, at Magasa
near Palaikastro, an artificial enclosing wall.
6 See P.T. p. 18.
7 Dawkins, B.S.A. xi. fig. 2, p. 263. The Neolithic houses
excavated by Tsountas at Dimini near Volo are not described
fully enough in C.R.A.C. p. 207, for any opinion to be formed
as to their shape. See above, p. 56.
* See pp. 29, 30.
m