DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8757#0034
AND ASSOCIATED GROUP AT KNOSSOS
f3
18931 has the same dimensions; one from the Vapheio Tomb2 is 1-3 cm. x i-i, and
another from a tomb of the Lower Town at Mycenae:i is 1-2 cm. x m. It can hardly
be inferred that all these rings were intended for young children. It is unreason-
able to suppose that they were made for suspension, and the almost inevitable
conclusion seems to me to be, that this class of signet-ring was specially made
in usum mortuorum, and that the rings were fitted to the fingers at a time when
the flesh was decayed. This conclusion, if warranted, will be seen to have a far-
reaching bearing on Minoan funereal usage.
In the south-west corner of the chamber were found a few fragments of
painted vases of the Palace style (fig. 17), including the top of a ' Btlgelkanne'
(fig. 17, a). There were also two plain clay chafing dishes 4 resembling one from
Fig. 18. Clay chafing-pan, with charcoal.
Tomb 32 at Zafer Papoura, here reproduced (fig. 18).6 By these, and partly con-
tained in them, were bits of charcoal and some lumps of resinous material of
a translucent yellow hue with an outer layer of milky white. Professor Otto
Olshausen, of Berlin, who kindly analysed a fragment of this, informs me that it
is pure resin from which the oil of turpentine has mostly disappeared, thus form-
ing a kind of natural colofthoniuni? Enough of the oil, however, remains to give
it a resinous smell when burnt. The milky appearance of the exterior was due to
the deterioration of the surface by natural causes in the course of over 3000 years.
The juxtaposition of the charcoal and resinous lumps points to the use of
the latter—perhaps in company with other odorous materials—for the ritual
fumigation of the sepulchral chamber.
(For Tomb 2, see below, p. 33 seqq., ' The Tomb of the Double Axes'.)
1 Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Worship, p. 72, and fig. 48. 2 'Etfirjfi. dpx-, 1889, pi. x, 39.
3 Ibid., 1888, pi. x, 42. It represents an antelope and tree.
4 One of these was 12-8 cm. high, by the handle, and its recipient 24 cm. wide. The proportions
°f the other respectively were 5-8 cm. and 12-8 cm.
Preh. Tombs of Knossos (Archaeologia, lix), p. 49, fig. 46.
0 Colophonium is turpentine from which the oil has been distilled away.
f3
18931 has the same dimensions; one from the Vapheio Tomb2 is 1-3 cm. x i-i, and
another from a tomb of the Lower Town at Mycenae:i is 1-2 cm. x m. It can hardly
be inferred that all these rings were intended for young children. It is unreason-
able to suppose that they were made for suspension, and the almost inevitable
conclusion seems to me to be, that this class of signet-ring was specially made
in usum mortuorum, and that the rings were fitted to the fingers at a time when
the flesh was decayed. This conclusion, if warranted, will be seen to have a far-
reaching bearing on Minoan funereal usage.
In the south-west corner of the chamber were found a few fragments of
painted vases of the Palace style (fig. 17), including the top of a ' Btlgelkanne'
(fig. 17, a). There were also two plain clay chafing dishes 4 resembling one from
Fig. 18. Clay chafing-pan, with charcoal.
Tomb 32 at Zafer Papoura, here reproduced (fig. 18).6 By these, and partly con-
tained in them, were bits of charcoal and some lumps of resinous material of
a translucent yellow hue with an outer layer of milky white. Professor Otto
Olshausen, of Berlin, who kindly analysed a fragment of this, informs me that it
is pure resin from which the oil of turpentine has mostly disappeared, thus form-
ing a kind of natural colofthoniuni? Enough of the oil, however, remains to give
it a resinous smell when burnt. The milky appearance of the exterior was due to
the deterioration of the surface by natural causes in the course of over 3000 years.
The juxtaposition of the charcoal and resinous lumps points to the use of
the latter—perhaps in company with other odorous materials—for the ritual
fumigation of the sepulchral chamber.
(For Tomb 2, see below, p. 33 seqq., ' The Tomb of the Double Axes'.)
1 Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Worship, p. 72, and fig. 48. 2 'Etfirjfi. dpx-, 1889, pi. x, 39.
3 Ibid., 1888, pi. x, 42. It represents an antelope and tree.
4 One of these was 12-8 cm. high, by the handle, and its recipient 24 cm. wide. The proportions
°f the other respectively were 5-8 cm. and 12-8 cm.
Preh. Tombs of Knossos (Archaeologia, lix), p. 49, fig. 46.
0 Colophonium is turpentine from which the oil has been distilled away.