DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0032
16 BURIALS WITHOUT COFFINS IN SIXTH GRAVE
Such decorative elements on the crowns, and masks like that of Schlie-
mann's 'Agamemnon',' that seem actually to attempt a portraiture of the
deceased may well, as in the case of analogous funereal records of medieval
times, have never been intended to be hidden in the grave pit itself. It
may be surmised that the wooden coffins themselves with their decorative
plates were often set up on the floors of the chambers, as was so frequent
in the case of the clay coffers or larnakes containing the mortal remains,
from the close of the Early Minoan Age onwards.2 The fringed borders
of the Hagia Triada sarcophagus suggest that embroidered cloths were at
times spread over the coffins.
The absence, in many cases, of pits within the bee-hive tombs itself
suggests a usage parallel to that of which we have the evidence in the rock-
cut chambers where the clay coffins were found ranged on the floors.
It is at the same time clear that many of the ornaments found in the
Mycenae Shaft Graves were actually attached to the bodies. In this con-
nexion it is useful to recall the gold bands actually found, according to
Schliemann's statement, round an arm-bone 3 and the gold mounting of the
ereaves found attached to a thigh-bone in Grave IV.4
Burials without Coffins: Grave VI, Exceptional Example.
So too, although there seems to be a fair presumption that many of
the bodies found in the Shaft Graves were originally contained in wooden
coffins, it is of course not necessary to suppose that they were in all cases
so enclosed.
In the later discovered Sixth Grave, the contents of which are recon-
structed in a Case of the Athens Museum 6 as far as possible in the position
in which they lay, no traces of carbonized wood seem to have been found.
On the other hand, a skeleton is seen stretched out at full length on the
1 The fact that there are in this case only - Clay coffins had contained some of the
perforations to the ears led Dr. Karo (pp. a'/., remains of the Early Minoan ossuary at
p. 137) to suppose that this portrait mask had Pyrgos, Crete. So, too, in the newly dis-
originally been tied round the head of the covered cemetery of Mavro Spelio, Knossos,
corpse. But it is tempting to believe, accord- consisting of chamber tombs cut in the rock,
ing to the suggestion already made, that, and going back at least to M. M. II b. Some
when the prescribed period of exposure was of the larnakes set on the floors are of Middle
over, it may have been transferred to the lid Minoan type.
of the coffin. The holes in the ears would 3 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 302, Fig. 459.
have given sufficient attachment, and the * Ibid., p. 230, Fig. 338.
absence of a margin round the mask made it r' Stais, Collection mycc'nienne, ii (1915),
undesirable to perforate part of the actual pp. 72, 73, Vitrine 50.
effigy.
Such decorative elements on the crowns, and masks like that of Schlie-
mann's 'Agamemnon',' that seem actually to attempt a portraiture of the
deceased may well, as in the case of analogous funereal records of medieval
times, have never been intended to be hidden in the grave pit itself. It
may be surmised that the wooden coffins themselves with their decorative
plates were often set up on the floors of the chambers, as was so frequent
in the case of the clay coffers or larnakes containing the mortal remains,
from the close of the Early Minoan Age onwards.2 The fringed borders
of the Hagia Triada sarcophagus suggest that embroidered cloths were at
times spread over the coffins.
The absence, in many cases, of pits within the bee-hive tombs itself
suggests a usage parallel to that of which we have the evidence in the rock-
cut chambers where the clay coffins were found ranged on the floors.
It is at the same time clear that many of the ornaments found in the
Mycenae Shaft Graves were actually attached to the bodies. In this con-
nexion it is useful to recall the gold bands actually found, according to
Schliemann's statement, round an arm-bone 3 and the gold mounting of the
ereaves found attached to a thigh-bone in Grave IV.4
Burials without Coffins: Grave VI, Exceptional Example.
So too, although there seems to be a fair presumption that many of
the bodies found in the Shaft Graves were originally contained in wooden
coffins, it is of course not necessary to suppose that they were in all cases
so enclosed.
In the later discovered Sixth Grave, the contents of which are recon-
structed in a Case of the Athens Museum 6 as far as possible in the position
in which they lay, no traces of carbonized wood seem to have been found.
On the other hand, a skeleton is seen stretched out at full length on the
1 The fact that there are in this case only - Clay coffins had contained some of the
perforations to the ears led Dr. Karo (pp. a'/., remains of the Early Minoan ossuary at
p. 137) to suppose that this portrait mask had Pyrgos, Crete. So, too, in the newly dis-
originally been tied round the head of the covered cemetery of Mavro Spelio, Knossos,
corpse. But it is tempting to believe, accord- consisting of chamber tombs cut in the rock,
ing to the suggestion already made, that, and going back at least to M. M. II b. Some
when the prescribed period of exposure was of the larnakes set on the floors are of Middle
over, it may have been transferred to the lid Minoan type.
of the coffin. The holes in the ears would 3 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 302, Fig. 459.
have given sufficient attachment, and the * Ibid., p. 230, Fig. 338.
absence of a margin round the mask made it r' Stais, Collection mycc'nienne, ii (1915),
undesirable to perforate part of the actual pp. 72, 73, Vitrine 50.
effigy.