DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0060
36
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY NILOTIC
H. Onu-
phrios
Deposit.
N. Afri-
can paral-
.lels to
Mesara
t/wloi.
Distinc-
tive vesti-
bule or
' Chapel'.
mostly confined to the extensive plain of Mesara and its borders, and which,
both in their form and their geographical distribution,1 best explain them-
selves by connexions beyond the Libyan Sea.
To a similar source must be certainly attributed a remarkable group
of relics found, together with quantities of human bones, at Hagios Onuphrios
near Phaestos, the Egyptian and ' possibly Libyan' affinities of which were
pointed out by me as early as 1895.2 Ten years later, the remains of primitive
tholos ossuaries with similar contents were discovered by Professor Halbherr3
and Dr. Paribeni4 on the neighbouring site of Hagia Triada, and the
excavation of a series of similar sepulchral monuments in the Mesara
region has since been carried out by Dr. Xanthudides, the recent publica-
tion of whose materials in Professor Droop's translation 5 has added much to
our knowledge. That these ossuaries were of true beehive construction is
shown not only by the inward slope of their walls of rough masonry from
their base upwards, as far as preserved, but by the discovery, in the centre
of the floor of the smaller tholos at Platanos, of the coping slab of the
summit of the vault.6 This tholos, which was about 10 metres in inner
diameter, contained fallen stones amounting to 23 cubic metres, and, assuming
the same equality between height and diameter that is observable at Mycenae,
would have been 10 metres high. The dimensions of the larger tholos here,
which is 13-10 metres in inner diameter, must in that case have been only
slightly less than the ' Tomb of Clytemnestra'.
Recent investigations of this group of primitive sepulchral monuments
have led me to a conclusion which throws a new light on the Libyan or early
Nilotic affinities of their most characteristic contents. Several of them show
an annexe consisting of ossuary cells of a well-known Minoan class. But in
the simpler type, as seen at Kumasa,7 there is visible, outside the low
entrance on the East with its massive lintel block, a distinctive feature of
great interest in the shape of a small walled enclosure or vestibule, a sur-
vival of an original pit entrance, which must have served some ritual purpose.8
1 A series of these tholos ossuaries is marked cf. P. oj M., i, p. 107, Fig. 75.
5 The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara, Liverpool
Univ. Press, 1924. In 1923 and 1924 I explored
most of these in company with Dr. Mackenzie
and Mr. Piet de Jong.
6 Op. cii., p. 91, and cf. Karo, Arch. Anz.,
1916, p. 155. The block had a hole at one
end to facilitate lifting.
7 See Fig. 17, d 1-3, and Fig. 19, b.
8 The enclosure must have been entered
from above.
on the Map (opposite p. 71) by means of red
circles. Cf. Xanthudides, op. ell., Frontis-
piece.
2 Sepulchral Deposit of H. Onuphrios,
printed as a supplement to Cretan Photographs,
<s°c, Quaritch, 1895 (p. 105 seqq.). For com-
parisons of stone vases see p. 116 seqq.
3 Memorie del R. Istituto Lombardo, xxi
(1905), p. 248 seqq, Pis. VIII-XI.
4 Mon. Ant., xiv (1904), p. 678 seqq., and
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY NILOTIC
H. Onu-
phrios
Deposit.
N. Afri-
can paral-
.lels to
Mesara
t/wloi.
Distinc-
tive vesti-
bule or
' Chapel'.
mostly confined to the extensive plain of Mesara and its borders, and which,
both in their form and their geographical distribution,1 best explain them-
selves by connexions beyond the Libyan Sea.
To a similar source must be certainly attributed a remarkable group
of relics found, together with quantities of human bones, at Hagios Onuphrios
near Phaestos, the Egyptian and ' possibly Libyan' affinities of which were
pointed out by me as early as 1895.2 Ten years later, the remains of primitive
tholos ossuaries with similar contents were discovered by Professor Halbherr3
and Dr. Paribeni4 on the neighbouring site of Hagia Triada, and the
excavation of a series of similar sepulchral monuments in the Mesara
region has since been carried out by Dr. Xanthudides, the recent publica-
tion of whose materials in Professor Droop's translation 5 has added much to
our knowledge. That these ossuaries were of true beehive construction is
shown not only by the inward slope of their walls of rough masonry from
their base upwards, as far as preserved, but by the discovery, in the centre
of the floor of the smaller tholos at Platanos, of the coping slab of the
summit of the vault.6 This tholos, which was about 10 metres in inner
diameter, contained fallen stones amounting to 23 cubic metres, and, assuming
the same equality between height and diameter that is observable at Mycenae,
would have been 10 metres high. The dimensions of the larger tholos here,
which is 13-10 metres in inner diameter, must in that case have been only
slightly less than the ' Tomb of Clytemnestra'.
Recent investigations of this group of primitive sepulchral monuments
have led me to a conclusion which throws a new light on the Libyan or early
Nilotic affinities of their most characteristic contents. Several of them show
an annexe consisting of ossuary cells of a well-known Minoan class. But in
the simpler type, as seen at Kumasa,7 there is visible, outside the low
entrance on the East with its massive lintel block, a distinctive feature of
great interest in the shape of a small walled enclosure or vestibule, a sur-
vival of an original pit entrance, which must have served some ritual purpose.8
1 A series of these tholos ossuaries is marked cf. P. oj M., i, p. 107, Fig. 75.
5 The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara, Liverpool
Univ. Press, 1924. In 1923 and 1924 I explored
most of these in company with Dr. Mackenzie
and Mr. Piet de Jong.
6 Op. cii., p. 91, and cf. Karo, Arch. Anz.,
1916, p. 155. The block had a hole at one
end to facilitate lifting.
7 See Fig. 17, d 1-3, and Fig. 19, b.
8 The enclosure must have been entered
from above.
on the Map (opposite p. 71) by means of red
circles. Cf. Xanthudides, op. ell., Frontis-
piece.
2 Sepulchral Deposit of H. Onuphrios,
printed as a supplement to Cretan Photographs,
<s°c, Quaritch, 1895 (p. 105 seqq.). For com-
parisons of stone vases see p. 116 seqq.
3 Memorie del R. Istituto Lombardo, xxi
(1905), p. 248 seqq, Pis. VIII-XI.
4 Mon. Ant., xiv (1904), p. 678 seqq., and