DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7525#0002
392
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
bronze tripod,a of a form identical with one found at Enkomi in Cyprus, in a
Late Myceneean connexion. The remaining tomb,b a vaulted chamber 8 feet
square, approached by a dromos 16 feet long, contained disturbed remains of its
original Minoan contents, without any Geometrical admixture. Parts of a male-
skeleton were scattered on the floor just within the tomb. Fragments of five
painted Mycenaean vases, including a large squat aryballos in greenish ware with
black spiraliform ornament, were found in the tomb, and parts of two bronze
depilatory tweezers. Hardly covered by the earth, just outside the entrance to-
the dromos, lay another skeleton accompanied by a bronze mirror and a small
object in blue paste with rosettes in relief.
Mr. Hogarth searched in vain for more Minoan tombs along the cliff face
to the south,0 and these indications of early interments remained isolated till in
1904 the renewed explorations, made under my direction in quest of a burial place
in connexion with the prehistoric town, led to the discovery of an extensive-
cemetery on the eastern slope of the hill. The credit of finding the first tombs
here was due to my mender Joannes Papadakis, and the successful tracing out of
the ramifications of the necropolis was mainly owing to the extraordinary flair of
the foreman Antonios Gregoriou, who had also worked here for Mr. Hogarth, and
whose life-long application to this congenial pursuit on early Cypriote sites has
made him probably the most expert tomb-hunter of the Levant.
I was fortunate both here and on the site of the Royal Tomb subsequently
explored in having the expert assistance of Dr. Duncan Mackenzie in directing
the works, and have also had at my disposal his daybooks of the excavations.
The objects illustrated below were for the most part drawn by the Danish artist
Mr. Halvor Bagge.
The eastern slope of the hill along which the cemetery extends is composed
of soft rock, a kind of rotten limestone, locally known as houslouras, in most
places covered with a very shallow deposit of surface soil. Wherever there had
been an ancient shaft or the cutting of a tomb-passage this deposit was naturally
deeper, and it was thus possible in many cases to locate the graves from the
occurrence of certain herbs with exceptionally long roots.
In all a hundred tombs were opened. Of these a small proportion may be
a From Tomb 3.
b Op. cit. p. 82, No. 1. The tomb had been originally closed by a door of dry walling.
0 Mr. Hogarth concludes (op. cit. p. 85) : " The native diggers seem never to have found graves
earlier than Geometric ; and after a two months' search I fear I leave the solution of the Knossian.
cemetery problem but little advanced."
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
bronze tripod,a of a form identical with one found at Enkomi in Cyprus, in a
Late Myceneean connexion. The remaining tomb,b a vaulted chamber 8 feet
square, approached by a dromos 16 feet long, contained disturbed remains of its
original Minoan contents, without any Geometrical admixture. Parts of a male-
skeleton were scattered on the floor just within the tomb. Fragments of five
painted Mycenaean vases, including a large squat aryballos in greenish ware with
black spiraliform ornament, were found in the tomb, and parts of two bronze
depilatory tweezers. Hardly covered by the earth, just outside the entrance to-
the dromos, lay another skeleton accompanied by a bronze mirror and a small
object in blue paste with rosettes in relief.
Mr. Hogarth searched in vain for more Minoan tombs along the cliff face
to the south,0 and these indications of early interments remained isolated till in
1904 the renewed explorations, made under my direction in quest of a burial place
in connexion with the prehistoric town, led to the discovery of an extensive-
cemetery on the eastern slope of the hill. The credit of finding the first tombs
here was due to my mender Joannes Papadakis, and the successful tracing out of
the ramifications of the necropolis was mainly owing to the extraordinary flair of
the foreman Antonios Gregoriou, who had also worked here for Mr. Hogarth, and
whose life-long application to this congenial pursuit on early Cypriote sites has
made him probably the most expert tomb-hunter of the Levant.
I was fortunate both here and on the site of the Royal Tomb subsequently
explored in having the expert assistance of Dr. Duncan Mackenzie in directing
the works, and have also had at my disposal his daybooks of the excavations.
The objects illustrated below were for the most part drawn by the Danish artist
Mr. Halvor Bagge.
The eastern slope of the hill along which the cemetery extends is composed
of soft rock, a kind of rotten limestone, locally known as houslouras, in most
places covered with a very shallow deposit of surface soil. Wherever there had
been an ancient shaft or the cutting of a tomb-passage this deposit was naturally
deeper, and it was thus possible in many cases to locate the graves from the
occurrence of certain herbs with exceptionally long roots.
In all a hundred tombs were opened. Of these a small proportion may be
a From Tomb 3.
b Op. cit. p. 82, No. 1. The tomb had been originally closed by a door of dry walling.
0 Mr. Hogarth concludes (op. cit. p. 85) : " The native diggers seem never to have found graves
earlier than Geometric ; and after a two months' search I fear I leave the solution of the Knossian.
cemetery problem but little advanced."