DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0026
IO
GOLD MASK FROM BOEOTIA
chamber tombs such as we know to have existed throughout Mycenaean
Greece. (See Fig. 4, a, b.)
The plate is small, 167 millimetres (6^ in.) by 155 (6| in.), and the
face, which is that of a bearded man, is about two-thirds the natural size.
Obviously, from its small size, this was not a death mask to be placed on the
face of the departed, but a more or less reminiscent plate made to be fixed
above the coffin. The closed eyelids are at the same time significant of
a dead person. The upper extremities of the ears alone are indicated, the
hair is drawn back off the forehead in a symmetrical manner, and the beard
indicated by straight ridges radiating from below a very wide mouth. The
whole is uncouthly and mechanically modelled, though not more grotesque
than one of the gold masks from the Fifth Shaft Grave at Mycenae.1
Since we have here a face of reduced dimensions—in contrast with the
masks from royal tombs of Mycenae, which are of the natural size—we may
suppose that it belonged to some one of lesser rank. But the analogy that
nevertheless it affords points to a similar usage, and it conforms to the
others not only as showing the relief rising from a fiat border, but in the
perforations on its margin. These are in this case visible near the four
corners of the plate, and, again, near the middle of the upper border, and
were doubtless made for the small nails by which it was tacked on to the
wooden board. The lower surface of these holes, moreover, shows a slight
pushing out, clue to the downward thrust of the nail.
But the flat part of the plate presents a feature that has not been
noted on any of the other gold masks. The corner perforations for the
tacks in all cases just miss the clear impress of small bosses. There is every
reason to conclude that these bosses represent the caps—probably of
precious metal, such as those abundantly forthcoming in the Mycenae
Graves—that covered the heads of nails already driven into the woodwork
below, and forming part of the construction of the coffin.2 Some traces of
a black substance are visible, adhering to the lower surface of the mask,
which seems to represent glue, such as has been recognized in the black
substance on the lower surface of some of the gold ornamental plaques in
the Shaft Graves.:;
A large number of circular gold plaques, indeed, presenting embossed
1 Stais, op. cit., p. 54, Fig. 8 (as readjusted p. 269, No. 574, has rightly observed these
in the Athens Museum); Schliemann, My- bosses and explained their meaning: 'klaar-
cenae, p. 221, Fig. 332) in its original con- blijkelijk werden daarmede de koppen der
dition). nagels bedekt, waarmede de kist gesloten was.'
2 Or. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Catalogus, &>c.t * Stais, op. cit., pp. 47, 48.
GOLD MASK FROM BOEOTIA
chamber tombs such as we know to have existed throughout Mycenaean
Greece. (See Fig. 4, a, b.)
The plate is small, 167 millimetres (6^ in.) by 155 (6| in.), and the
face, which is that of a bearded man, is about two-thirds the natural size.
Obviously, from its small size, this was not a death mask to be placed on the
face of the departed, but a more or less reminiscent plate made to be fixed
above the coffin. The closed eyelids are at the same time significant of
a dead person. The upper extremities of the ears alone are indicated, the
hair is drawn back off the forehead in a symmetrical manner, and the beard
indicated by straight ridges radiating from below a very wide mouth. The
whole is uncouthly and mechanically modelled, though not more grotesque
than one of the gold masks from the Fifth Shaft Grave at Mycenae.1
Since we have here a face of reduced dimensions—in contrast with the
masks from royal tombs of Mycenae, which are of the natural size—we may
suppose that it belonged to some one of lesser rank. But the analogy that
nevertheless it affords points to a similar usage, and it conforms to the
others not only as showing the relief rising from a fiat border, but in the
perforations on its margin. These are in this case visible near the four
corners of the plate, and, again, near the middle of the upper border, and
were doubtless made for the small nails by which it was tacked on to the
wooden board. The lower surface of these holes, moreover, shows a slight
pushing out, clue to the downward thrust of the nail.
But the flat part of the plate presents a feature that has not been
noted on any of the other gold masks. The corner perforations for the
tacks in all cases just miss the clear impress of small bosses. There is every
reason to conclude that these bosses represent the caps—probably of
precious metal, such as those abundantly forthcoming in the Mycenae
Graves—that covered the heads of nails already driven into the woodwork
below, and forming part of the construction of the coffin.2 Some traces of
a black substance are visible, adhering to the lower surface of the mask,
which seems to represent glue, such as has been recognized in the black
substance on the lower surface of some of the gold ornamental plaques in
the Shaft Graves.:;
A large number of circular gold plaques, indeed, presenting embossed
1 Stais, op. cit., p. 54, Fig. 8 (as readjusted p. 269, No. 574, has rightly observed these
in the Athens Museum); Schliemann, My- bosses and explained their meaning: 'klaar-
cenae, p. 221, Fig. 332) in its original con- blijkelijk werden daarmede de koppen der
dition). nagels bedekt, waarmede de kist gesloten was.'
2 Or. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Catalogus, &>c.t * Stais, op. cit., pp. 47, 48.