DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.808#0075
' THE RING OF NESTOR,' ETC. 73
The evidence afforded by the pottery of the tholos tombs of' Nestor's Pylos'
or Kakovatos described and illustrated by Dr. Kurt Miiller90 fully squares with
these conclusions. The great bulk of it is of the same date as the Vapheio
vases, L.M. I. 6. Two large amphoras, however, one of which is given above in
Fig. 41,91 stand apart from most of the other specimens both as more archaic
in form and as showing a decorative technique of another class, in which
white paint is still applied, and these must be certainly regarded as typical
representatives of the earlier L.M. I. style (a). We may infer that these
earlier vases indicate the actual date of the construction of the tomb and of
the original interment in the grave itself, and this conclusion best agrees with
certain details already referred to in the design upon the signet-ring. In
this way we reach a date which may be approximately given as the middle
of the sixteenth century B.C.
Is it possible that the signet-ring itself had served as a record of some
personal bereavement suffered by its owner? The old funereal tradition
illustrated by its pendant type has already been pointed out, and the tale
that its subject tells of reunion in the after life is in keeping with this
sepulchral distinction. But those who ransacked the tomb left no remains,
alas ! of the illustrious dead that had occupied its sepulchral cell. We
cannot tell, therefore, if there were, indeed, two skeletons answering to the
youthful couple on the ring. Its suggestion of a pathetic history is in truth
all the record that remains to us. It has been found convenient, indeed, to
retain for the ring, the popular name attaching to the tomb itself, and there
is no occasion to deny the probability of Dr. DoTpfeld's identification of the
site of Kakovatos, where the remains of these beehive tombs were found,
with the Pylos of Nestor. But Nestor, the Methuselah of Greek Epic, can
hardly have had to do with such a story as is here set forth.
Nestor himself, though he is credited with having lived three times the
ordinary span of human life, could not, even were that possible, have carried
his memory back to the days when such an object as the signet-ring before us
was executed by a Minoan craftsman. How far, however, he may have
been identified with the royal race that went before him it is impossible to
say, but, judging by analogy, we may well believe that some attempt of the
kind was made.
A hint of such a process indeed is conveyed by the Homeric description
of Nestor's Cup92 with the doves about the handles, and the two supports which,
except for the number of handles, is so curiously paralleled by the dove
chalice from the Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae.93 This, in fact, represents a
cup of the Vapheio type with a pedestal and the twin supports for the handles
added. We are thus brought within the upper chronological limits of the tholos
tombs, and the ' Cup of Nestor' in all probability represents a Minoan work
90 Alt.-Pylos, ii., ' Die Funde aus den 93 Schliemann, Mycenae, pp. 235-237,
Kuppelgrabern von Kakovatos' {Ath. Mitth., and Fig. 346 (unrestored). See too Tsountas
xxxiv., 1909, p. 269 seqq. and Manatt, Mycenaean Age, p. 100, and
91 Op. eit., pp. 315-317, and Fig. 16. Fig. 36.
92 Iliad, xi. 632-635.
The evidence afforded by the pottery of the tholos tombs of' Nestor's Pylos'
or Kakovatos described and illustrated by Dr. Kurt Miiller90 fully squares with
these conclusions. The great bulk of it is of the same date as the Vapheio
vases, L.M. I. 6. Two large amphoras, however, one of which is given above in
Fig. 41,91 stand apart from most of the other specimens both as more archaic
in form and as showing a decorative technique of another class, in which
white paint is still applied, and these must be certainly regarded as typical
representatives of the earlier L.M. I. style (a). We may infer that these
earlier vases indicate the actual date of the construction of the tomb and of
the original interment in the grave itself, and this conclusion best agrees with
certain details already referred to in the design upon the signet-ring. In
this way we reach a date which may be approximately given as the middle
of the sixteenth century B.C.
Is it possible that the signet-ring itself had served as a record of some
personal bereavement suffered by its owner? The old funereal tradition
illustrated by its pendant type has already been pointed out, and the tale
that its subject tells of reunion in the after life is in keeping with this
sepulchral distinction. But those who ransacked the tomb left no remains,
alas ! of the illustrious dead that had occupied its sepulchral cell. We
cannot tell, therefore, if there were, indeed, two skeletons answering to the
youthful couple on the ring. Its suggestion of a pathetic history is in truth
all the record that remains to us. It has been found convenient, indeed, to
retain for the ring, the popular name attaching to the tomb itself, and there
is no occasion to deny the probability of Dr. DoTpfeld's identification of the
site of Kakovatos, where the remains of these beehive tombs were found,
with the Pylos of Nestor. But Nestor, the Methuselah of Greek Epic, can
hardly have had to do with such a story as is here set forth.
Nestor himself, though he is credited with having lived three times the
ordinary span of human life, could not, even were that possible, have carried
his memory back to the days when such an object as the signet-ring before us
was executed by a Minoan craftsman. How far, however, he may have
been identified with the royal race that went before him it is impossible to
say, but, judging by analogy, we may well believe that some attempt of the
kind was made.
A hint of such a process indeed is conveyed by the Homeric description
of Nestor's Cup92 with the doves about the handles, and the two supports which,
except for the number of handles, is so curiously paralleled by the dove
chalice from the Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae.93 This, in fact, represents a
cup of the Vapheio type with a pedestal and the twin supports for the handles
added. We are thus brought within the upper chronological limits of the tholos
tombs, and the ' Cup of Nestor' in all probability represents a Minoan work
90 Alt.-Pylos, ii., ' Die Funde aus den 93 Schliemann, Mycenae, pp. 235-237,
Kuppelgrabern von Kakovatos' {Ath. Mitth., and Fig. 346 (unrestored). See too Tsountas
xxxiv., 1909, p. 269 seqq. and Manatt, Mycenaean Age, p. 100, and
91 Op. eit., pp. 315-317, and Fig. 16. Fig. 36.
92 Iliad, xi. 632-635.