DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0020
4
MASKS AND JEWELLERY FIXED TO WOODEN COFFINS
stones and the marks of the fire and the smoke on the stone wall, which at
the bottom of the sepulchre lined all four sides, can leave no doubt on this
point.' He observes, nevertheless, that the three 'pyres' of which he
believed he had found distinct traces 'could not have been large', and as
the bones and skulls were preserved, could only have been intended to con-
sume the clothes and flesh. This, at most, would have been a very partial
cremation. In the case of the Fourth Grave he again insists on the
abundance of ashes around each corpse and the marks of fire on the pebbles
and schist wall.1
Fumigation and deodorization—like that practised in the still earlier
sepulchral vaults of Crete—there may well have been, and in that and other
cases this often led to a blackening of skulls and bones, and possibly to
a superficial burning of their envelopes. The most extreme instance of this
superficial burning of which I am aware was in the L. M. I a chamber tombs
recently excavated by Dr. Blegen near the Argive Heraeum, and some of
which I had the opportunity of visiting at the time of excavation. There,
below a burnt layer that covered the whole floor, were charred bones of the
interred persons and other much carbonized remains. Other skeletons,
however, lying in cavities had not suffered. But the carbonized wood found
in connexion with many of the interments within the Shaft Graves—apart
from what may have been due to the falling in of the beams above that
supported the roof of the vaults—is capable of a very simple explanation.
The carbonization of wood in such positions is not by any means
necessarily the result of fire, but is also effected by chemical processes, and
it seems highly probable that what Schliemann regarded as traces of small
pyres under each bod)' should really be explained as the remains in each
case of the wooden chest or coffin in which the body had been deposited.
Masks and Jewellery fixed to Wooden Coffins.
This conclusion is supported by some interesting observations made by
the late Director of the Athens Museum, Dr. Stais, with regard to certain
objects of thin gold plate found in the Shaft Graves.2 He pointed out that
several classes of ornaments bore clear traces of having been attached to
a wooden framework. One example, of particular importance, is supplied by
a stellate ornament from Grave III (Fig. 1) with six radiating embossed
plates, to the centre of which was attached a bronze nail, preserved to
1 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 214. conclusions are to a large account accepted by
' 'E<£. 'A/jx-, 1907, p. 3: seqq. Dr. Stais's Dr. G. Karo {Ath.Mitth., 1927, p. 135 seqq.).
MASKS AND JEWELLERY FIXED TO WOODEN COFFINS
stones and the marks of the fire and the smoke on the stone wall, which at
the bottom of the sepulchre lined all four sides, can leave no doubt on this
point.' He observes, nevertheless, that the three 'pyres' of which he
believed he had found distinct traces 'could not have been large', and as
the bones and skulls were preserved, could only have been intended to con-
sume the clothes and flesh. This, at most, would have been a very partial
cremation. In the case of the Fourth Grave he again insists on the
abundance of ashes around each corpse and the marks of fire on the pebbles
and schist wall.1
Fumigation and deodorization—like that practised in the still earlier
sepulchral vaults of Crete—there may well have been, and in that and other
cases this often led to a blackening of skulls and bones, and possibly to
a superficial burning of their envelopes. The most extreme instance of this
superficial burning of which I am aware was in the L. M. I a chamber tombs
recently excavated by Dr. Blegen near the Argive Heraeum, and some of
which I had the opportunity of visiting at the time of excavation. There,
below a burnt layer that covered the whole floor, were charred bones of the
interred persons and other much carbonized remains. Other skeletons,
however, lying in cavities had not suffered. But the carbonized wood found
in connexion with many of the interments within the Shaft Graves—apart
from what may have been due to the falling in of the beams above that
supported the roof of the vaults—is capable of a very simple explanation.
The carbonization of wood in such positions is not by any means
necessarily the result of fire, but is also effected by chemical processes, and
it seems highly probable that what Schliemann regarded as traces of small
pyres under each bod)' should really be explained as the remains in each
case of the wooden chest or coffin in which the body had been deposited.
Masks and Jewellery fixed to Wooden Coffins.
This conclusion is supported by some interesting observations made by
the late Director of the Athens Museum, Dr. Stais, with regard to certain
objects of thin gold plate found in the Shaft Graves.2 He pointed out that
several classes of ornaments bore clear traces of having been attached to
a wooden framework. One example, of particular importance, is supplied by
a stellate ornament from Grave III (Fig. 1) with six radiating embossed
plates, to the centre of which was attached a bronze nail, preserved to
1 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 214. conclusions are to a large account accepted by
' 'E<£. 'A/jx-, 1907, p. 3: seqq. Dr. Stais's Dr. G. Karo {Ath.Mitth., 1927, p. 135 seqq.).