Pendlebury, John D.: Aegyptiaca: a catalogue of Egyptian objects in the Aegean area (Cambridge, 1930)

XXII. ASINE

Asine on the gulf of Tolon, about six miles south of Nauplia, is mentioned in
Homer. The remains consist of a fort on the promontory running out to sea and a
large number of Late Helladic and Geometric tombs on the hill behind.

The fort commands a magnificent view and would be a very suitable watch-tower
against hostile ships approaching from the south and attempting to beach out of sight
of Nauplia, thus enabling the men to march straight into the heart of the Argolid.

In Mycenaean times it was a fort pure and simple. No surrounding houses of that
period have been discovered.

The stone bowl which Dr Persson discovered here he believes to have been brought
from Crete where it had been an heirloom. It was again an heirloom on the Mainland
and thus managed to pass the two and a half thousand years of its existence above
ground. I should prefer to believe that the owner with whom it was buried had carried
on a little tomb-robbing either when raiding Egypt or when serving Pharaoh as a
mercenary.

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