DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0035
SHAFT GRAVES NOT EVOLVED FROM EARLIER CISTS 19
Mycenae Shaft Graves sui generis.
The Shaft Grave type of sepulture itself was new on the spot and
revolutionary in character. It is hard to understand the statement, more
than once repeated in archaeological works,1 that the pit-graves in Mycenae
in general, with their walled sides, are evolved from the small cist-graves, or
mere shallow pits at that time
in use in Mainland Greece—
Minyan and Helladic—with
their stone slabs and con-
tracted skeletons. The Shaft
Graves proper are sui generis,
spacious vaults representing
an enlargement of the plain
pit form. The coffins con-
taining crouched bodies form
themselves a series parallel
to the cists, inasmuch as they
fulfilled an analogous function.
But the pit burial with an ex-
tended skeleton, as we see it
in the Sixth Shaft Grave,
really corresponds with a Mi-
noan sepulchral type of which
we have abundant evidence in the cemetery of Zafer Papoura and else-
where, belonging to a date corresponding with the last Palace Period
(L. M. II), and which like other forms of sepulture there found, such as the
chamber tombs, may well go back to a considerably earlier time.2 The
type is also paralleled by the elongated graves covered by a slabbing above
and often with walled sides seen in some of the bee-hive tombs or their
adjacent chambers. Fig. 9 shows a section of the Grave sunk in the floor
of the vault of the Royal Tomb of Isopata, with its interior, slightly battered
walls, in this case of good masonry, and with the roof-slab (restored) resting
on its upper face. A common feature in the Cretan graves appears,
moreover, in the ledges frequently cut into the upper part of the shaft,
above the level of the roof-slabs, to facilitate access. A good example of
this with a broad ledge at one end is afforded by the ' Carpenter's Grave'
1 e. g. by Mr. Wace, and by Dr. Karo, 2 The Chamber Tombs are now shown to
op. cit., p. 133. go back in Crete to the M. M. II £ Period.
C 2
Fig. 9.
Section of Shaft Grave in Royal Tomb
at Isopata, near Knossos.
Mycenae Shaft Graves sui generis.
The Shaft Grave type of sepulture itself was new on the spot and
revolutionary in character. It is hard to understand the statement, more
than once repeated in archaeological works,1 that the pit-graves in Mycenae
in general, with their walled sides, are evolved from the small cist-graves, or
mere shallow pits at that time
in use in Mainland Greece—
Minyan and Helladic—with
their stone slabs and con-
tracted skeletons. The Shaft
Graves proper are sui generis,
spacious vaults representing
an enlargement of the plain
pit form. The coffins con-
taining crouched bodies form
themselves a series parallel
to the cists, inasmuch as they
fulfilled an analogous function.
But the pit burial with an ex-
tended skeleton, as we see it
in the Sixth Shaft Grave,
really corresponds with a Mi-
noan sepulchral type of which
we have abundant evidence in the cemetery of Zafer Papoura and else-
where, belonging to a date corresponding with the last Palace Period
(L. M. II), and which like other forms of sepulture there found, such as the
chamber tombs, may well go back to a considerably earlier time.2 The
type is also paralleled by the elongated graves covered by a slabbing above
and often with walled sides seen in some of the bee-hive tombs or their
adjacent chambers. Fig. 9 shows a section of the Grave sunk in the floor
of the vault of the Royal Tomb of Isopata, with its interior, slightly battered
walls, in this case of good masonry, and with the roof-slab (restored) resting
on its upper face. A common feature in the Cretan graves appears,
moreover, in the ledges frequently cut into the upper part of the shaft,
above the level of the roof-slabs, to facilitate access. A good example of
this with a broad ledge at one end is afforded by the ' Carpenter's Grave'
1 e. g. by Mr. Wace, and by Dr. Karo, 2 The Chamber Tombs are now shown to
op. cit., p. 133. go back in Crete to the M. M. II £ Period.
C 2
Fig. 9.
Section of Shaft Grave in Royal Tomb
at Isopata, near Knossos.