DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0126
CHAPTER V
THE DWELLINGS OF THE DEAD : SHAFT-GRAVES
From the abodes of the living, we- turn directly to a
study of the tombs. This order is suggested, as we trust
it will appear warranted, by two considerations. In the
first place, we thus bring into proper relation and connected
view all the great branches of architecture, military, do-
mestic, and sepulchral, of which the age has left us monu-
ments. Indeed, such is the close relation of the primitive
house and tomb that neither can be well studied apart from
the other. In the second place, it is the tombs which have
yielded our chief data for the further study of the age;
and it is of great practical convenience to look on, as it
were, at the unearthing of these precious relics, before
taking them up as documents for the history of primitive
culture.
The Mycenaean tombs are of two general types. The
first is that of the oblong pit sunk vertically in the ground,
very much like the modern grave ; the second Tw01
includes the beehive or tholos-structure and the of tomb
rock-hewn chamber, approached alike by an avenue {dro-
mos) cut horizontally into a hillside. It is the second which
offers the great monuments of sepulchral architecture;
but the shaft-graves are obviously earlier in origin, as they
were the first and are still the foremost in their contribu-
tion to our knowledge of the age to which they belong.
They are, therefore, entitled to the first consideration.
THE DWELLINGS OF THE DEAD : SHAFT-GRAVES
From the abodes of the living, we- turn directly to a
study of the tombs. This order is suggested, as we trust
it will appear warranted, by two considerations. In the
first place, we thus bring into proper relation and connected
view all the great branches of architecture, military, do-
mestic, and sepulchral, of which the age has left us monu-
ments. Indeed, such is the close relation of the primitive
house and tomb that neither can be well studied apart from
the other. In the second place, it is the tombs which have
yielded our chief data for the further study of the age;
and it is of great practical convenience to look on, as it
were, at the unearthing of these precious relics, before
taking them up as documents for the history of primitive
culture.
The Mycenaean tombs are of two general types. The
first is that of the oblong pit sunk vertically in the ground,
very much like the modern grave ; the second Tw01
includes the beehive or tholos-structure and the of tomb
rock-hewn chamber, approached alike by an avenue {dro-
mos) cut horizontally into a hillside. It is the second which
offers the great monuments of sepulchral architecture;
but the shaft-graves are obviously earlier in origin, as they
were the first and are still the foremost in their contribu-
tion to our knowledge of the age to which they belong.
They are, therefore, entitled to the first consideration.