DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0064
40
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY NILOTIC
Were
Mesark
tholoi re-
lated to
Mycen-
aean ?
Round
huts N.
of Gulf
long
super-
seded.
Round
building
at Tiryns
also un-
con-
nected.
themselves beehive shelters of rough blocks for their cheese-making and
storage1 which may be of ancient tradition. But the prevailing type of
the Cretan house, as far back as Neolithic times, presented, as we now
know, a rectangular plan.2 Early Minoan tombs, such as those of Mochlos,
themselves go back to ' but and ben' dwellings of that type.3 The Early
Cycladic evidence points to the same conclusion.4 So far, moreover,
as the central Aegean culture dominated that of the Peloponnese under
its Early and Middle Helladic aspect the same is also true. When, then,
from the Third Middle Minoan Period onwards we see at Mycenae, the Argive
Heraeon, and elsewhere on various sites of the Peloponnese, in Attica and
Boeotia widely disseminated groups of magnificently built beehive tombs
the possibility of these having an origin not unconnected with the earlier and
more primitive vaults of this Cretan region can hardly fail to suggest itself.
It is clear, indeed, that there did exist North of the Gulf of Corinth
a very early class of circular dwellings built of sun-dried bricks on a stone
foundation,5 and the complicated circular building presenting a similar
structural combination brought to light in recent years beneath the Palace
at Tiryns,6 with its originally tiled roof, inner circles of walls, and tongue-
shaped cells, may well be a glorified example of such. But the whole
extent of the Middle Minoan and Middle Helladic Age intervenes between
the destruction of this circular building and the first appearance of these bee-
hive vaults, with which indeed, structurally, it had little in common. This
interval, moreover, is largely occupied on the soil of the Peloponnese by
an intrusive culture akin to the Minyan of the Northern shores of the Gulf
and characterized by apsidal dwellings, which there superseded the round
huts, and by more or less superficial cist graves with contracted burials.
Nowhere in this intervening cultural phase has any type of building come
to light that could supply the antecedent stage of the great tholos
Fig. 461, &c.
6 See H. Bulle, Orchomenos, i, p. 36 seqq.,
and PI. IV. The apsidal dwellings and pits
(bothroi) are in the stratum immediately
superimposed on the round houses, and, again
on that, the stratum equivalent to the Early
Mycenaean.
6 K. Miiller, Tiryns: Vorbericht iiber die
Grabungen, 190J-1912 (Ath. Mitth., xxxvii)
(1913), p. 78 seqq. and p. 84, Fig. 2 ; G. Karo,
Filhrer durch die Ruinen von Tiryns (Athens,
1915), p. 8 seqq. and Fig. 1.
1 Dr. Xanthudides has pointed out this
parallel in Vaulted Tombs ofMesara, Appendix,
p. 136 (see Plate LX, a, b).
2 The M. M. I oval house at Chamaezi,
P. ofM., i, p. 147, Fig. 108, seems to be quite
exceptional.
3 P. of M., i, p. 102, Fig. 73.
4 The well-known Melian stone ' pyxis'
with a raised rectangular enclosure presenting
round turret chambers is an exceptional phe-
nomenon (Tsuntas-Manatt, Mycenaean Age,
p. 259, Fig. 133 (cf. Lubbock, Prehistoric
Times, p. 57); Perrot et Chipiez, vi, p. 910,
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY NILOTIC
Were
Mesark
tholoi re-
lated to
Mycen-
aean ?
Round
huts N.
of Gulf
long
super-
seded.
Round
building
at Tiryns
also un-
con-
nected.
themselves beehive shelters of rough blocks for their cheese-making and
storage1 which may be of ancient tradition. But the prevailing type of
the Cretan house, as far back as Neolithic times, presented, as we now
know, a rectangular plan.2 Early Minoan tombs, such as those of Mochlos,
themselves go back to ' but and ben' dwellings of that type.3 The Early
Cycladic evidence points to the same conclusion.4 So far, moreover,
as the central Aegean culture dominated that of the Peloponnese under
its Early and Middle Helladic aspect the same is also true. When, then,
from the Third Middle Minoan Period onwards we see at Mycenae, the Argive
Heraeon, and elsewhere on various sites of the Peloponnese, in Attica and
Boeotia widely disseminated groups of magnificently built beehive tombs
the possibility of these having an origin not unconnected with the earlier and
more primitive vaults of this Cretan region can hardly fail to suggest itself.
It is clear, indeed, that there did exist North of the Gulf of Corinth
a very early class of circular dwellings built of sun-dried bricks on a stone
foundation,5 and the complicated circular building presenting a similar
structural combination brought to light in recent years beneath the Palace
at Tiryns,6 with its originally tiled roof, inner circles of walls, and tongue-
shaped cells, may well be a glorified example of such. But the whole
extent of the Middle Minoan and Middle Helladic Age intervenes between
the destruction of this circular building and the first appearance of these bee-
hive vaults, with which indeed, structurally, it had little in common. This
interval, moreover, is largely occupied on the soil of the Peloponnese by
an intrusive culture akin to the Minyan of the Northern shores of the Gulf
and characterized by apsidal dwellings, which there superseded the round
huts, and by more or less superficial cist graves with contracted burials.
Nowhere in this intervening cultural phase has any type of building come
to light that could supply the antecedent stage of the great tholos
Fig. 461, &c.
6 See H. Bulle, Orchomenos, i, p. 36 seqq.,
and PI. IV. The apsidal dwellings and pits
(bothroi) are in the stratum immediately
superimposed on the round houses, and, again
on that, the stratum equivalent to the Early
Mycenaean.
6 K. Miiller, Tiryns: Vorbericht iiber die
Grabungen, 190J-1912 (Ath. Mitth., xxxvii)
(1913), p. 78 seqq. and p. 84, Fig. 2 ; G. Karo,
Filhrer durch die Ruinen von Tiryns (Athens,
1915), p. 8 seqq. and Fig. 1.
1 Dr. Xanthudides has pointed out this
parallel in Vaulted Tombs ofMesara, Appendix,
p. 136 (see Plate LX, a, b).
2 The M. M. I oval house at Chamaezi,
P. ofM., i, p. 147, Fig. 108, seems to be quite
exceptional.
3 P. of M., i, p. 102, Fig. 73.
4 The well-known Melian stone ' pyxis'
with a raised rectangular enclosure presenting
round turret chambers is an exceptional phe-
nomenon (Tsuntas-Manatt, Mycenaean Age,
p. 259, Fig. 133 (cf. Lubbock, Prehistoric
Times, p. 57); Perrot et Chipiez, vi, p. 910,