DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0315
THE ISLANDS IN ART 263
islands. No wonder, then, that the graves do not contain
rich offerings of metal. What would be our estimate of
Mycenaean art, in general, if we had no other data than
we have obtained from the shabby tombs of Pronoia and
others of the same class ?
As regards Thera, where regular excavations have yielded
nothing in metal but a single bronze saw and two gold
rings, an interesting question arises: Was the a<;couilte(i
eruption altogether sudden and unexpected, as at foratThera
Pompeii; or had the people time to escape with their more
valuable effects ? Barley and other cereals were found
heaped up on the floors or stored in huge jars; the ruins
were littered with bones of sheep and goats; and in one
chamber lay a human skeleton. From all this it has been
argued that the catastrophe came without warning, and all
escape was cut off. But the inference is hardly warranted
by the facts. Stores of grain and the like are not unusual
in these prehistoric ruins; Dr. Dorpfeld's guests at Troy, in
1893, supped on pease from Priam's larder !! If the stock
was large at Thera, it may give color to the conjecture that
the eruption occurred soon after harvest — nothing more.
And for the litter of animal bones, we have remarked the
like in the houses at Mycenae, where they were obviously
nothing but the refuse of the table. And even if it be
assumed that the animals at Thera were overwhelmed by the
eruption, — in which case we should expect to find entire
skeletons, — this would not prove that the inhabitants had
no chance to escape, but simply that they lacked time and
means to remove their flocks without loss. As for the
human skeleton, Fouque holds that it had not been buried,
because it was found huddled in a heap instead of being
1 "One large jar alone contained more than 440 lbs. of these pease." —
Schliemann, Report on Excavations at Troy in 1890.
islands. No wonder, then, that the graves do not contain
rich offerings of metal. What would be our estimate of
Mycenaean art, in general, if we had no other data than
we have obtained from the shabby tombs of Pronoia and
others of the same class ?
As regards Thera, where regular excavations have yielded
nothing in metal but a single bronze saw and two gold
rings, an interesting question arises: Was the a<;couilte(i
eruption altogether sudden and unexpected, as at foratThera
Pompeii; or had the people time to escape with their more
valuable effects ? Barley and other cereals were found
heaped up on the floors or stored in huge jars; the ruins
were littered with bones of sheep and goats; and in one
chamber lay a human skeleton. From all this it has been
argued that the catastrophe came without warning, and all
escape was cut off. But the inference is hardly warranted
by the facts. Stores of grain and the like are not unusual
in these prehistoric ruins; Dr. Dorpfeld's guests at Troy, in
1893, supped on pease from Priam's larder !! If the stock
was large at Thera, it may give color to the conjecture that
the eruption occurred soon after harvest — nothing more.
And for the litter of animal bones, we have remarked the
like in the houses at Mycenae, where they were obviously
nothing but the refuse of the table. And even if it be
assumed that the animals at Thera were overwhelmed by the
eruption, — in which case we should expect to find entire
skeletons, — this would not prove that the inhabitants had
no chance to escape, but simply that they lacked time and
means to remove their flocks without loss. As for the
human skeleton, Fouque holds that it had not been buried,
because it was found huddled in a heap instead of being
1 "One large jar alone contained more than 440 lbs. of these pease." —
Schliemann, Report on Excavations at Troy in 1890.