DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0065
CONNEXIONS: LIBYAN AND EGYPTIAN FACTORS 41
tombs of Mycenae. These, too, make their appearance with architectonic
details of a fully ' Minoized' type and associated with pottery and other
relics of a purely Minoan character, including in the case of the ' Atreus' and
' Clytemnestra' tombs a series of stone vessels of typical M. M. Ill forms.1 Myce-
As compared with the Mesara tholoi, the most recent of which were not in ^0/0i
use later than the early part of M. M. II, this in itself represents a gap first
in time of over a century, and the architectural stage is naturally higher, already
A truly megalithic spirit breathes in these spacious vaults, which seem to ;ze(j. '
have been reared by conquerors of royal stock who, like the Pharaohs, could
command the labour of slave-gangs belonging to a subject race.2 Monuments
built under such conditions naturally contrast with the simply constructed
burial chambers of rustic communities, though some of these, containing, as
they often did, many hundreds of bodies, were almost as spacious.
A marked divergence is visible in the shape of a regular entrance passage
or dromos in place of the pit-like quadrangular enclosure immediately in
front of the doorway. There is, however, one hitherto unregarded structural
feature common to both groups which may prove to have considerable signi-
ficance. At Kumasa I noticed two lintel blocks, one in position3 (see Figs. 18,
19, b, and 19, c), the other fallen from the doorway of another tholos, presenting
a distinctly gabled upper outline. This raising of the centre was undoubtedly The
designed to enable the superincumbent blocks to exercise pressure sideways as ijn"™?6
well as downwards, and thus to relieve the weight on the middle section of the at Ku" ,
0 masa and
lintel—a purpose served later by the tympanum of the Mycenae monuments. Mycenae.
We see here a natural step towards the evolution of the relieving triangle
above. It is moreover of special interest to observe that in more than one
case at Mycenae what may be called the ' humped lintel' survives in
connexion with the triangular tympanum arrangement which really made it
unnecessary. The massive conglomerate block that surmounts the doorway
of the so-called 'Treasury of Atreus' shows, above its architectural mouldings,
a raised ridge beneath the tympanum opening, against the side slopes of
which the blocks forming the triangular arch rest.4 The more or less con-
1 See my remarks J. H. S., xlv (1925), Seuls les dynastes de Tirynthe et de Mycenes
p. 74 seqq. avaient peut-etre a. leur service des bandes,
2 G. Glotz, La Civilisation Egeenne, p. 208. nullement comparables, mais tres nombreuses
' Nulle part les materiaux de construction n'y encore, de sujets ou d'esclaves.'
donnent par leur masse cette impression d'ef- 3 The view, Fig. 18, is from a photograph
farement qu'on ressent en Egypte devant les taken by me in July, 1923. The left extremity
Pyramides ou devant les architraves de Karnak. of 19, b, is completed.
C'est qu'aux Pharaons, maitres absolus, la 4 This is best shown in Fr. Thiersch's
corvee fournissait des travailleurs a discretion, elevation (Ath. Mitth., iv (1879), PI. XIII.
tombs of Mycenae. These, too, make their appearance with architectonic
details of a fully ' Minoized' type and associated with pottery and other
relics of a purely Minoan character, including in the case of the ' Atreus' and
' Clytemnestra' tombs a series of stone vessels of typical M. M. Ill forms.1 Myce-
As compared with the Mesara tholoi, the most recent of which were not in ^0/0i
use later than the early part of M. M. II, this in itself represents a gap first
in time of over a century, and the architectural stage is naturally higher, already
A truly megalithic spirit breathes in these spacious vaults, which seem to ;ze(j. '
have been reared by conquerors of royal stock who, like the Pharaohs, could
command the labour of slave-gangs belonging to a subject race.2 Monuments
built under such conditions naturally contrast with the simply constructed
burial chambers of rustic communities, though some of these, containing, as
they often did, many hundreds of bodies, were almost as spacious.
A marked divergence is visible in the shape of a regular entrance passage
or dromos in place of the pit-like quadrangular enclosure immediately in
front of the doorway. There is, however, one hitherto unregarded structural
feature common to both groups which may prove to have considerable signi-
ficance. At Kumasa I noticed two lintel blocks, one in position3 (see Figs. 18,
19, b, and 19, c), the other fallen from the doorway of another tholos, presenting
a distinctly gabled upper outline. This raising of the centre was undoubtedly The
designed to enable the superincumbent blocks to exercise pressure sideways as ijn"™?6
well as downwards, and thus to relieve the weight on the middle section of the at Ku" ,
0 masa and
lintel—a purpose served later by the tympanum of the Mycenae monuments. Mycenae.
We see here a natural step towards the evolution of the relieving triangle
above. It is moreover of special interest to observe that in more than one
case at Mycenae what may be called the ' humped lintel' survives in
connexion with the triangular tympanum arrangement which really made it
unnecessary. The massive conglomerate block that surmounts the doorway
of the so-called 'Treasury of Atreus' shows, above its architectural mouldings,
a raised ridge beneath the tympanum opening, against the side slopes of
which the blocks forming the triangular arch rest.4 The more or less con-
1 See my remarks J. H. S., xlv (1925), Seuls les dynastes de Tirynthe et de Mycenes
p. 74 seqq. avaient peut-etre a. leur service des bandes,
2 G. Glotz, La Civilisation Egeenne, p. 208. nullement comparables, mais tres nombreuses
' Nulle part les materiaux de construction n'y encore, de sujets ou d'esclaves.'
donnent par leur masse cette impression d'ef- 3 The view, Fig. 18, is from a photograph
farement qu'on ressent en Egypte devant les taken by me in July, 1923. The left extremity
Pyramides ou devant les architraves de Karnak. of 19, b, is completed.
C'est qu'aux Pharaons, maitres absolus, la 4 This is best shown in Fr. Thiersch's
corvee fournissait des travailleurs a discretion, elevation (Ath. Mitth., iv (1879), PI. XIII.