DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0396
THE PROBLEM OF THE MYCENAEAN RACE 343
Now our study of the Mycenaean remains has already
constrained us to distinguish in the Argolid two strata of
Mycenaean peoples, one of them originally dwelling on dry
land in sunken huts, the other occupying pile settlements
in lakes and swamps. And since tradition squares so
remarkably with the facts in evidence, may we not venture
to identify the marsh-folk with the Danaans and the lands-
men with the Achaeans ?
But Achaeans and Danaans were not alone in shaping
and sharing Mycenaean culture; they had their congeners
in other regions. Foremost among these were
the Minyan founders of Orchomenos. As lake-
dwellers and hydraulic engineers they are assimilated to
the Danaans, whose near kinsmen thoy may have been, as
the primitive Islanders, whose abodes we have found copied
in the stone vases, must have been related to them both.
Tradition has, in fact, preserved an account of the coloniza-
tion of Thera by a people coming from Boeotia,1 although
it is uncertain whether it refers to the original occupation
or to a settlement subsequent to the great catastrophe.
From the Danao-Minyan stock, it would appear that the
Achaeans parted company at an early date and continuing
for a time in a different — most probably a mountainous —
country, there took on ways of living proper to such
environment. Later than the Danaans, according to the
consistent testimony of tradition, they came down into the
Peloponnese and by their superior vigor and prowess pre-
vailed over the older stock.
To these two branches of the race we may refer the two
classes o£ tombs. The beehive and chamber tombs, as we
have seen, have their prototype in the sunken huts: they
belong to the Achaeans coming down from the colder
1 Studniezka, Kyrene, 45 £F.
Now our study of the Mycenaean remains has already
constrained us to distinguish in the Argolid two strata of
Mycenaean peoples, one of them originally dwelling on dry
land in sunken huts, the other occupying pile settlements
in lakes and swamps. And since tradition squares so
remarkably with the facts in evidence, may we not venture
to identify the marsh-folk with the Danaans and the lands-
men with the Achaeans ?
But Achaeans and Danaans were not alone in shaping
and sharing Mycenaean culture; they had their congeners
in other regions. Foremost among these were
the Minyan founders of Orchomenos. As lake-
dwellers and hydraulic engineers they are assimilated to
the Danaans, whose near kinsmen thoy may have been, as
the primitive Islanders, whose abodes we have found copied
in the stone vases, must have been related to them both.
Tradition has, in fact, preserved an account of the coloniza-
tion of Thera by a people coming from Boeotia,1 although
it is uncertain whether it refers to the original occupation
or to a settlement subsequent to the great catastrophe.
From the Danao-Minyan stock, it would appear that the
Achaeans parted company at an early date and continuing
for a time in a different — most probably a mountainous —
country, there took on ways of living proper to such
environment. Later than the Danaans, according to the
consistent testimony of tradition, they came down into the
Peloponnese and by their superior vigor and prowess pre-
vailed over the older stock.
To these two branches of the race we may refer the two
classes o£ tombs. The beehive and chamber tombs, as we
have seen, have their prototype in the sunken huts: they
belong to the Achaeans coming down from the colder
1 Studniezka, Kyrene, 45 £F.