DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0037
BURIALS CONTEMPORARY IN EACH PIT
the time of the deposit of the last dated objects in the tombs to the date of
the concluding phase of the last Mycenaean Period to which the clay idols
belong—with the one exception mentioned below—there had been no in-
trusion into the vaults.
Burials in each Pit contemporary: none later.
The almost inevitable conclusion, indeed, to which a general survey of
the evidence leads is that there was no later burial. No one, I imagine,
who has had to do with secondary interments in rich tombs can doubt that,
had there been any fresh interments in these tombs, they would have been
accompanied by a wholesale plundering of the precious relics within. In no
age do the possessions of the dead seem to have been respected, and this
universal rule held also among the Minoans and Mycenaeans. In one case,
indeed, as Schliemann himself pointed out, there are clear cases of the
descent of a tomb robber. Not only had the ornaments and other objects
been removed from the middle body of Tomb 5, but the 'clay, with which
the two other bodies and their ornaments were covered, and the layer of
pebbles which covered the clay had been removed from this body'. Traces,
moreover, were found of the hurried flight of the robber in the discovery in
the stratum above, at different levels, of gold buttons and disks that seem to
have formed a minor part of his booty. But the breast-cover, gold diadems,
and sword, that, by analogy with the other interments, should have been
found with the body were all missing. This exceptional depreciation only
brings into relief the generally intact character of the deposits.
Shaft Graves (except VI) simultaneously constructed and filled.
Again, it must be repeated, it is in the highest degree improbable that
so many burial vaults—each, it would seem, belonging to some princely
family—should have been constructed within such a limited space except
owing to some special urgency. The rich remains here are quite unnaturally
crowded together. At the same time the symmetry of the arrangements
within the separate pits points to simultaneous interment. Bodies are
grouped similarly oriented. In the case of the Second and the Fifth Grave,
it is specifically recorded that the interments were placed at an approximate
distance of three feet from each other.1 The symmetrical arrangement of
the bodies in Grave IV with three bodies arranged E. to W., two N. to S.2
(Fig. 11) is also a good case in point.
1 Cf. Schliemann, Mycenae, pp. 164 and 2 See Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excava-
294. lions, p. 222, Fig. 222.
the time of the deposit of the last dated objects in the tombs to the date of
the concluding phase of the last Mycenaean Period to which the clay idols
belong—with the one exception mentioned below—there had been no in-
trusion into the vaults.
Burials in each Pit contemporary: none later.
The almost inevitable conclusion, indeed, to which a general survey of
the evidence leads is that there was no later burial. No one, I imagine,
who has had to do with secondary interments in rich tombs can doubt that,
had there been any fresh interments in these tombs, they would have been
accompanied by a wholesale plundering of the precious relics within. In no
age do the possessions of the dead seem to have been respected, and this
universal rule held also among the Minoans and Mycenaeans. In one case,
indeed, as Schliemann himself pointed out, there are clear cases of the
descent of a tomb robber. Not only had the ornaments and other objects
been removed from the middle body of Tomb 5, but the 'clay, with which
the two other bodies and their ornaments were covered, and the layer of
pebbles which covered the clay had been removed from this body'. Traces,
moreover, were found of the hurried flight of the robber in the discovery in
the stratum above, at different levels, of gold buttons and disks that seem to
have formed a minor part of his booty. But the breast-cover, gold diadems,
and sword, that, by analogy with the other interments, should have been
found with the body were all missing. This exceptional depreciation only
brings into relief the generally intact character of the deposits.
Shaft Graves (except VI) simultaneously constructed and filled.
Again, it must be repeated, it is in the highest degree improbable that
so many burial vaults—each, it would seem, belonging to some princely
family—should have been constructed within such a limited space except
owing to some special urgency. The rich remains here are quite unnaturally
crowded together. At the same time the symmetry of the arrangements
within the separate pits points to simultaneous interment. Bodies are
grouped similarly oriented. In the case of the Second and the Fifth Grave,
it is specifically recorded that the interments were placed at an approximate
distance of three feet from each other.1 The symmetrical arrangement of
the bodies in Grave IV with three bodies arranged E. to W., two N. to S.2
(Fig. 11) is also a good case in point.
1 Cf. Schliemann, Mycenae, pp. 164 and 2 See Schuchhardt, Schliemann's Excava-
294. lions, p. 222, Fig. 222.