DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0079
STELAE WITHIN THOLOS BY ARG1VE HERAEON 63
facing a table for offerings, while at the back of the tomb was a hearth and
a sacrificial platform. It was thus a house of the dead ; but there was no
trace of interment. The stelae here were rude menhirs of oblong shape
and with more or less rectangular projections above—like those of some
Trojan 'idols''—representing the heads.1 In this case the upright slabs—as
in their origin, no doubt, all gravestones—stood for the departed themselves
and supplied material dwelling-places for their ghosts.
That stelae were also connected with sepulchral vaults of the bee-hive
class is shown by the discovery of remains of such in the interior of the
tholos near the Argive Heraeon at the time of its exploration.2 Together
with remains due to the falling in of the vault, there came to light a frag-
ment of a stela of dark stone, 90 centimetres high and 40 cm. broad and
thick, with a piece of lead adhering to its damaged upper surface, which
indicated that another block had been attached to it, or a breakage mended/1
Near this was another smaller fragment of the same or of another stela, in
which was an oblong socket for the insertion of the upright stone. Stama-
takis, who explored the chamber, supposed that there had been some stone
platform on the top of the tholos upon which stelae were set. But the
presence of funereal monuments within chamber-tombs, as well as in the
cenotaph cited above, makes it more probable that in this case, too, the stelae
had been set up on the floor of the vault where their individual relationship
to the interments would be clearly marked. The evidence of careful
socketing in a stone base itself illustrates Schliemann's observations
regarding- the stela found over the Third Shaft Grave.
Towards the close of the second phase, B, of the First Late Minoan
Period, about the middle, that is, of the fifteenth century ?>. c, to which
epoch the latest dated objects in the Shaft Graves belong, we must suppose
that the contents of the original pit-graves in the floors of the great vaults,
having, ex liypothesi, been transferred to their later resting-places, the stelae
were set up—this time in the open—above the remains with which they
were respectively connected.4
Somewhat later again, as the full scheme for the new arrangement was
completed, the more perfect stelae were set up on the slightly sloping pave-
1 Op. cii., p. 147 (Figure). Shallow borings
are visible at intervals, such as often appear
on menhirs for the purpose of anointing.
2 Stamatakis, Ilepi rov irapa to 'Hpcuov
{Atk. Mitth., 1878, p.
271 seqq.).
3 Op. at., p. 276.
4 There is no objection to the view that the
stelae above Grave VI may have been in the
open from the beginning, though originally set
up at a lower level.
facing a table for offerings, while at the back of the tomb was a hearth and
a sacrificial platform. It was thus a house of the dead ; but there was no
trace of interment. The stelae here were rude menhirs of oblong shape
and with more or less rectangular projections above—like those of some
Trojan 'idols''—representing the heads.1 In this case the upright slabs—as
in their origin, no doubt, all gravestones—stood for the departed themselves
and supplied material dwelling-places for their ghosts.
That stelae were also connected with sepulchral vaults of the bee-hive
class is shown by the discovery of remains of such in the interior of the
tholos near the Argive Heraeon at the time of its exploration.2 Together
with remains due to the falling in of the vault, there came to light a frag-
ment of a stela of dark stone, 90 centimetres high and 40 cm. broad and
thick, with a piece of lead adhering to its damaged upper surface, which
indicated that another block had been attached to it, or a breakage mended/1
Near this was another smaller fragment of the same or of another stela, in
which was an oblong socket for the insertion of the upright stone. Stama-
takis, who explored the chamber, supposed that there had been some stone
platform on the top of the tholos upon which stelae were set. But the
presence of funereal monuments within chamber-tombs, as well as in the
cenotaph cited above, makes it more probable that in this case, too, the stelae
had been set up on the floor of the vault where their individual relationship
to the interments would be clearly marked. The evidence of careful
socketing in a stone base itself illustrates Schliemann's observations
regarding- the stela found over the Third Shaft Grave.
Towards the close of the second phase, B, of the First Late Minoan
Period, about the middle, that is, of the fifteenth century ?>. c, to which
epoch the latest dated objects in the Shaft Graves belong, we must suppose
that the contents of the original pit-graves in the floors of the great vaults,
having, ex liypothesi, been transferred to their later resting-places, the stelae
were set up—this time in the open—above the remains with which they
were respectively connected.4
Somewhat later again, as the full scheme for the new arrangement was
completed, the more perfect stelae were set up on the slightly sloping pave-
1 Op. cii., p. 147 (Figure). Shallow borings
are visible at intervals, such as often appear
on menhirs for the purpose of anointing.
2 Stamatakis, Ilepi rov irapa to 'Hpcuov
{Atk. Mitth., 1878, p.
271 seqq.).
3 Op. at., p. 276.
4 There is no objection to the view that the
stelae above Grave VI may have been in the
open from the beginning, though originally set
up at a lower level.