DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0034
iS
THE SIXTH GRAVE 'IN SITU'
It is the grave of two individuals, one succeeding the other, and there is no
ground for supposing that in this case there had been any transference from
an earlier vault. On the contrary, the vessels of offering—including many
of an indigenous character—were here preserved amply espaced in the
position in which they had been placed, in a manner quite different from the
huddled character of the other interments.
It is probable that in this case the later occupant of the Grave inherited
the peculium of its earlier possessor, while at the same time preserving his
own. Several of the indigenous vases found in this tomb, such as the
Mainland equivalents of the Melian bird-vases, are shown by the evidence of
the parallel remains in the ' Temple Repositories' at Knossos to be con-
temporary with the Cretan M. M. \\\ b. A fluted gold cup presents the
characteristic arcadings, shown from their imitations in fine polychrome
ware to go back at Knossos well into the Second Middle Minoan Period.1
Other examples of this archaic fluting on cups are known from the Shaft
Graves, and all may be reasonably considered, in view of the Knossian
evidence, to be among their earliest elements—going well within the
borders of M. M. III. On the other hand, the date of the later interment
can be approximately fixed by the one painted vessel found in the Grave
that stands out as a Cretan import. This is an ewer which, while preserving
a pure M. M. Ill tradition in its shape and the decoration of the upper
part of its body, displays in its lower half the ceramic fashion of the begin-
ning of L. M. I. Among the weapons is a sword of the 'horned' type in
its early stage, which may be attributed to the same date, about the middle,
that is, of the sixteenth century B. c.2
On the whole we must conclude that the early elements in this tomb
run parallel with the earliest in the Shaft Graves. The Chieftain, there-
fore, here interred in the old native cemetery, was the contemporary of the
Princes whose collected remains were ex hypothesi transferred from their
original resting-places to be laid in the vaults excavated beside it at
a somewhat later date. That the mortal remains of a scion of the con-
quering race should already have been laid here may have supplied an
additional reason for the gathering round of the remains and relics of the
representatives of other princely and royal families.
1 See my P. of M., i, pp. 243-5, ar,d the a somewhat later date than the actual beginning
comparative examples given in Fig. 183a. of the New Empire in Egypt (<r. 1587 B.C.).
'- In P. of j\L, vol. ii, Pt. II (p. 357 seqq., As there shown, the 'post-seismic' phase of
&c.) I have given reasons for bringing down M. M. Ill ^ has to be allowed for.
the full evolution of the L. M. la style to
THE SIXTH GRAVE 'IN SITU'
It is the grave of two individuals, one succeeding the other, and there is no
ground for supposing that in this case there had been any transference from
an earlier vault. On the contrary, the vessels of offering—including many
of an indigenous character—were here preserved amply espaced in the
position in which they had been placed, in a manner quite different from the
huddled character of the other interments.
It is probable that in this case the later occupant of the Grave inherited
the peculium of its earlier possessor, while at the same time preserving his
own. Several of the indigenous vases found in this tomb, such as the
Mainland equivalents of the Melian bird-vases, are shown by the evidence of
the parallel remains in the ' Temple Repositories' at Knossos to be con-
temporary with the Cretan M. M. \\\ b. A fluted gold cup presents the
characteristic arcadings, shown from their imitations in fine polychrome
ware to go back at Knossos well into the Second Middle Minoan Period.1
Other examples of this archaic fluting on cups are known from the Shaft
Graves, and all may be reasonably considered, in view of the Knossian
evidence, to be among their earliest elements—going well within the
borders of M. M. III. On the other hand, the date of the later interment
can be approximately fixed by the one painted vessel found in the Grave
that stands out as a Cretan import. This is an ewer which, while preserving
a pure M. M. Ill tradition in its shape and the decoration of the upper
part of its body, displays in its lower half the ceramic fashion of the begin-
ning of L. M. I. Among the weapons is a sword of the 'horned' type in
its early stage, which may be attributed to the same date, about the middle,
that is, of the sixteenth century B. c.2
On the whole we must conclude that the early elements in this tomb
run parallel with the earliest in the Shaft Graves. The Chieftain, there-
fore, here interred in the old native cemetery, was the contemporary of the
Princes whose collected remains were ex hypothesi transferred from their
original resting-places to be laid in the vaults excavated beside it at
a somewhat later date. That the mortal remains of a scion of the con-
quering race should already have been laid here may have supplied an
additional reason for the gathering round of the remains and relics of the
representatives of other princely and royal families.
1 See my P. of M., i, pp. 243-5, ar,d the a somewhat later date than the actual beginning
comparative examples given in Fig. 183a. of the New Empire in Egypt (<r. 1587 B.C.).
'- In P. of j\L, vol. ii, Pt. II (p. 357 seqq., As there shown, the 'post-seismic' phase of
&c.) I have given reasons for bringing down M. M. Ill ^ has to be allowed for.
the full evolution of the L. M. la style to