DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0031
GOLD CROWNS FIXED TO COFFINS
'5
Gold Crown and Ornaments fixed to Coffins.
As to the detailed arrangement of the gold ornaments attached to the
coffins it is impossible to obtain any certain knowledge. We may at least
suppose that when gold
masks were attached, they
were in each case fixed
to the extremity of the
lid, above the place where
the head would have lain.
Professor Meurer,1 indeed,
from the Egyptian ana-
logies that such an arrange-
ment would suggest, has
gone so far as to attempt
an entire restoration of a
woman's coffin from the
Third Shaft Grave, in the
form of a mummy case—a
diaclem, with pendent ' half-
diadems being placed above the breast. But the whole of Minoan tradition
points to coffins of a shorter and less capacious kind.
The dome-shaped crown (Fig. 8),2 set round with decorative leaves
standing upright on its upper circumference, found in the woman's grave
No. 3, was certainly ill adapted for packing on the head of the contracted
body in a small chest. Rather we must suppose it to have been laid on the
lid of the coffin like the turbans of deceased Turks at the present day.3
A still more convincing example is the type of crown with long pointed
rays as reconstructed by Dr. Karo from the so-called ' half-diadems' from
the First and Third Graves4 according to the analogy supplied by the tiara
of the ' Boston Goddess '. A still closer parallel, as I shall hope to show else-
where, is presented by what seems to have been the companion figure of
a young god.5 A similar rayed crown was also worn by Minoan sphinxes.
Fig. 8. Gold Crown from Third Shaft Grave
(Woman's), set with Decorative Leaves : as re-
stored.
1 Der Goldsck?niick der mykenischen Schacht-
grSber (Jahrlwch d. Arch. Inst., 1912, p. 208
seqq.).
2 Stais, Collection mycfnientte, vol. ii (1915),
p. 8, no. 1.
3 Karo, op. cit., p. 184, no. 2, makes the
comparison.
1 Karo, op. cit., pp. 180-3.
0 I hope to publish this ivory figure in
Palace of Minos, vol. iii.
'5
Gold Crown and Ornaments fixed to Coffins.
As to the detailed arrangement of the gold ornaments attached to the
coffins it is impossible to obtain any certain knowledge. We may at least
suppose that when gold
masks were attached, they
were in each case fixed
to the extremity of the
lid, above the place where
the head would have lain.
Professor Meurer,1 indeed,
from the Egyptian ana-
logies that such an arrange-
ment would suggest, has
gone so far as to attempt
an entire restoration of a
woman's coffin from the
Third Shaft Grave, in the
form of a mummy case—a
diaclem, with pendent ' half-
diadems being placed above the breast. But the whole of Minoan tradition
points to coffins of a shorter and less capacious kind.
The dome-shaped crown (Fig. 8),2 set round with decorative leaves
standing upright on its upper circumference, found in the woman's grave
No. 3, was certainly ill adapted for packing on the head of the contracted
body in a small chest. Rather we must suppose it to have been laid on the
lid of the coffin like the turbans of deceased Turks at the present day.3
A still more convincing example is the type of crown with long pointed
rays as reconstructed by Dr. Karo from the so-called ' half-diadems' from
the First and Third Graves4 according to the analogy supplied by the tiara
of the ' Boston Goddess '. A still closer parallel, as I shall hope to show else-
where, is presented by what seems to have been the companion figure of
a young god.5 A similar rayed crown was also worn by Minoan sphinxes.
Fig. 8. Gold Crown from Third Shaft Grave
(Woman's), set with Decorative Leaves : as re-
stored.
1 Der Goldsck?niick der mykenischen Schacht-
grSber (Jahrlwch d. Arch. Inst., 1912, p. 208
seqq.).
2 Stais, Collection mycfnientte, vol. ii (1915),
p. 8, no. 1.
3 Karo, op. cit., p. 184, no. 2, makes the
comparison.
1 Karo, op. cit., pp. 180-3.
0 I hope to publish this ivory figure in
Palace of Minos, vol. iii.