DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0277
SOME PHASES OF MYCENAEAN ART
225
fashioned separately and soldered on, as was originally the
case, and as it is actually found on gold objects from Troy
(second city), whose civilization culminated many centuries
before the Mycenaean.1
Figs. 105-112. Engraved Gems from Vaphio
Enough has been said to account for the marked supe-
riority of the tomb-offerings as .compared with the tomb-
stones in the Royal Cemetery at Mycenae; but it Refining
is to be noted that at Troy, also, the goldsmith's tendencies
is found to be the most advanced of all the arts. The fact
should not surprise us, for every barbarous or semi-barba-
rous society — and such was not only the Trojan but the
early Mycenaean as well — is characterized by a fondness
for excessive adornment of the person with flashing jewels
and a passion for the display of costly arms and equipage.
And all this is prized not simply for its artistic merit, but
1 An example is the gold hairpin (Fig. 70). Compare the two heavy gold
bracelets figured and described by Dr. Schliemann (Mios, p. 495). They are
of thick gold plate and nearly an inch broad. One has 72, the other 54, spiral
ornaments made of gold wire and soldered on to the plate. To set aside the
adverse evidence of these soldered spirals from the Burnt City (now dated by
Dorpfeld 2500-2000 b. a), Evans refers them to the Sixth or Mycenaean city.
225
fashioned separately and soldered on, as was originally the
case, and as it is actually found on gold objects from Troy
(second city), whose civilization culminated many centuries
before the Mycenaean.1
Figs. 105-112. Engraved Gems from Vaphio
Enough has been said to account for the marked supe-
riority of the tomb-offerings as .compared with the tomb-
stones in the Royal Cemetery at Mycenae; but it Refining
is to be noted that at Troy, also, the goldsmith's tendencies
is found to be the most advanced of all the arts. The fact
should not surprise us, for every barbarous or semi-barba-
rous society — and such was not only the Trojan but the
early Mycenaean as well — is characterized by a fondness
for excessive adornment of the person with flashing jewels
and a passion for the display of costly arms and equipage.
And all this is prized not simply for its artistic merit, but
1 An example is the gold hairpin (Fig. 70). Compare the two heavy gold
bracelets figured and described by Dr. Schliemann (Mios, p. 495). They are
of thick gold plate and nearly an inch broad. One has 72, the other 54, spiral
ornaments made of gold wire and soldered on to the plate. To set aside the
adverse evidence of these soldered spirals from the Burnt City (now dated by
Dorpfeld 2500-2000 b. a), Evans refers them to the Sixth or Mycenaean city.