DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0380
THE PROBLEM OF THE MYCENAEAN RACE 327
Again, we have seen reason to refer the shaft-graves to a
race or tribe other than that whose original dwell-
ing we have recognized in the sunken hut. To story dweii-
this pit-burying stock we have assigned the upper-
story habitations at Mycenae. If we are right, now, in
explaining this type of dwelling as a reminiscence of the
pile-hut, it would follow that this stock, too, was of north-
ern origin.1 The lake-dwelling habit, we know, prevailed
throughout northern Europe, an instance occurring, as we
have seen, even in the Illyrian peninsula; while we have no
reason to look for its origin to the Orient or the Aegean.
It is indeed true that the Island-folk were no strangers to
the pile-dwelling, but this rather goes to show that they
were colonists from the Mainland.
But, apart from the evidence of the upper-story abodes,
are there other indications of an element among the Myce-
naean people which had once actually dwelt in lakes or
marshes ?
Monuments like the stone models from Melos and Amor-
gos have not indeed been found in the Peloponnese, or on
the Mainland, but in default of such indirect tes-
timony we have the immediate witness of actual indicate
settlements. Of the four most famous cities of laiTe-dweii-
the age, Mycenae, Tiryns, Orchomenos and Amy-
clae, it is a singular fact that but one has a mountain site,
while the other three were once surrounded by marshes.
The rock on which Tiryns is built, though it rises
to a maximum elevation of some sixty feet above
the plain, yet sinks so low on the north that the lower cit-
adel is only a few feet above the level of the sea. Now
this plain, as Aristotle asserts (see page 18), and as the
nature of the ground still bears witness, was originally an
\ Cf. Murray, Nineteenth Century, v. 112.
Again, we have seen reason to refer the shaft-graves to a
race or tribe other than that whose original dwell-
ing we have recognized in the sunken hut. To story dweii-
this pit-burying stock we have assigned the upper-
story habitations at Mycenae. If we are right, now, in
explaining this type of dwelling as a reminiscence of the
pile-hut, it would follow that this stock, too, was of north-
ern origin.1 The lake-dwelling habit, we know, prevailed
throughout northern Europe, an instance occurring, as we
have seen, even in the Illyrian peninsula; while we have no
reason to look for its origin to the Orient or the Aegean.
It is indeed true that the Island-folk were no strangers to
the pile-dwelling, but this rather goes to show that they
were colonists from the Mainland.
But, apart from the evidence of the upper-story abodes,
are there other indications of an element among the Myce-
naean people which had once actually dwelt in lakes or
marshes ?
Monuments like the stone models from Melos and Amor-
gos have not indeed been found in the Peloponnese, or on
the Mainland, but in default of such indirect tes-
timony we have the immediate witness of actual indicate
settlements. Of the four most famous cities of laiTe-dweii-
the age, Mycenae, Tiryns, Orchomenos and Amy-
clae, it is a singular fact that but one has a mountain site,
while the other three were once surrounded by marshes.
The rock on which Tiryns is built, though it rises
to a maximum elevation of some sixty feet above
the plain, yet sinks so low on the north that the lower cit-
adel is only a few feet above the level of the sea. Now
this plain, as Aristotle asserts (see page 18), and as the
nature of the ground still bears witness, was originally an
\ Cf. Murray, Nineteenth Century, v. 112.