DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0036
20 VOID BELOW ROOF-SLABS: CLAY INFILTRATIONS
/'s.
S 'Sf
(No. 33) at Zafer Papoura 1 (Fig. 10). This feature is also conspicuous in
the Shaft Graves of Mycenae.
The vaults above the remains in the Shaft Graves were, as we know,
originally void, the material found within being due, as Doerpfeld first pointed
out, to the decay and falling in of the wooden beams that had supported
the roof-slabs, and the copper end-casings
of which have been preserved in the case
of the Third Grave.2 This, no doubt,
caused a certain disturbance, involving the
breakage and distortion of some of the
buried objects. We have also to allow for
the intrusion, in fallen materials above, of
relics derived from much earlier Helladic
cist-graves on the steep, as well as of very
late Mycenaean objects such as the painted
terra-cotta 'idols'. That a considerable in-
terval of time had elapsed between the
deposition of the interments and the falling
in of the roofs was shown by a phenomenon
of which we have repeated evidence in
Schliemann's account—the covering, name-
ly, of the sepulchral deposit with a layer
of fine clay. This was not, as he imagined,
a part of the funereal arrangement, but,
in fact, represents a natural process with
which all who have excavated vaulted
tombs must be very familiar, the deposit,
namely, by means of the infiltration of muddy water from above, of finely
grained laminations of clay. These laminations are seasonally produced
and careful sections of the clay, as in the case of the Swedish glacial
deposits examined by Baron de Geer, might be productive of some
chronological results. In any case, this clay shroud informs us that from
--- I 25 m
Lcriqc
/ /, " '"J/,"/' V/S't /, //'//
',////////////////,/, ///s//
'//////'/'
Fig. 10. Plan ok 'Carpenter's'
Grave, Zafer Papoura, with sur-
rounding Ledges.
1 A. E., Prehistoric Tombs ofKnossos(Arch.,
lix), p. 13, Fig. 8 b, and cf. p. 50, Fig. 47 : See,
too, P. of M., ii, Pt. II, p. 557. I have there
ventured to derive them from the Chamber
Tombs of Middle Empire Egyptian cemeteries.
The pits for interments found within the Cham-
ber Tombs of Mavro Spelio (Knossos) also
show an analogy with the mummy pits of the
Egyptian rock tombs, as seen at Beni Hasan.
2 Schliemann, Mycenae, pp. 207, 208, and
Fig. 323. He described them as 'four little
boxes of stout sheet copper', and quaintly
suggested that they had served as head-pieces
for the dead, and perhaps also for the living.
Cf. Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excavations,
p. 160, and Fig. 143.
/'s.
S 'Sf
(No. 33) at Zafer Papoura 1 (Fig. 10). This feature is also conspicuous in
the Shaft Graves of Mycenae.
The vaults above the remains in the Shaft Graves were, as we know,
originally void, the material found within being due, as Doerpfeld first pointed
out, to the decay and falling in of the wooden beams that had supported
the roof-slabs, and the copper end-casings
of which have been preserved in the case
of the Third Grave.2 This, no doubt,
caused a certain disturbance, involving the
breakage and distortion of some of the
buried objects. We have also to allow for
the intrusion, in fallen materials above, of
relics derived from much earlier Helladic
cist-graves on the steep, as well as of very
late Mycenaean objects such as the painted
terra-cotta 'idols'. That a considerable in-
terval of time had elapsed between the
deposition of the interments and the falling
in of the roofs was shown by a phenomenon
of which we have repeated evidence in
Schliemann's account—the covering, name-
ly, of the sepulchral deposit with a layer
of fine clay. This was not, as he imagined,
a part of the funereal arrangement, but,
in fact, represents a natural process with
which all who have excavated vaulted
tombs must be very familiar, the deposit,
namely, by means of the infiltration of muddy water from above, of finely
grained laminations of clay. These laminations are seasonally produced
and careful sections of the clay, as in the case of the Swedish glacial
deposits examined by Baron de Geer, might be productive of some
chronological results. In any case, this clay shroud informs us that from
--- I 25 m
Lcriqc
/ /, " '"J/,"/' V/S't /, //'//
',////////////////,/, ///s//
'//////'/'
Fig. 10. Plan ok 'Carpenter's'
Grave, Zafer Papoura, with sur-
rounding Ledges.
1 A. E., Prehistoric Tombs ofKnossos(Arch.,
lix), p. 13, Fig. 8 b, and cf. p. 50, Fig. 47 : See,
too, P. of M., ii, Pt. II, p. 557. I have there
ventured to derive them from the Chamber
Tombs of Middle Empire Egyptian cemeteries.
The pits for interments found within the Cham-
ber Tombs of Mavro Spelio (Knossos) also
show an analogy with the mummy pits of the
Egyptian rock tombs, as seen at Beni Hasan.
2 Schliemann, Mycenae, pp. 207, 208, and
Fig. 323. He described them as 'four little
boxes of stout sheet copper', and quaintly
suggested that they had served as head-pieces
for the dead, and perhaps also for the living.
Cf. Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excavations,
p. 160, and Fig. 143.