DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0399
346 - THE MYCENAEAN AGE
blood. In manners and culture there could have been but
little difference between them, for the Achaeans had already
entered the strong current of Mycenaean civilization.
Indeed, we discern a reciprocal influence of the two
peoples. Within certain of the Achaean tombs (as we may
now term the beehives and rock-chambers) we find separate
shaft-graves, obviously recalling the Danaid mode of burial.
On the other hand, it would appear that the typical Achaean
tomb was adopted by the ruling classes among other Myce-
naean peoples. Otherwise we cannot explain the existence
of isolated tombs of this kind as at Amyclae (Vaphio),
Orchomenos and Menidi — obviously the sepulchres of
regal or opulent families j while the common people of
these places — of non-Achaean stock — buried their dead
in the ordinary oblong pits.
Achaean ascendency is so marked that the Achaean name
prevails even where that stock forms but an inconsiderable
element of the population. Notably this is true of Laconia,
where the rare occurrence of the beehive tomb goes to show
that the pre-Dorian inhabitants were mostly descended from
the older stock, which we have encountered at Tiryns and
at Orchomenos.1
1 That Minyans were established in Laconia and assisted in the Laconiau
colonization of Thera we are told by Herodotus (iv. 145 f.). Cf. Curtius,
Griech. Gesch., i. 163.
blood. In manners and culture there could have been but
little difference between them, for the Achaeans had already
entered the strong current of Mycenaean civilization.
Indeed, we discern a reciprocal influence of the two
peoples. Within certain of the Achaean tombs (as we may
now term the beehives and rock-chambers) we find separate
shaft-graves, obviously recalling the Danaid mode of burial.
On the other hand, it would appear that the typical Achaean
tomb was adopted by the ruling classes among other Myce-
naean peoples. Otherwise we cannot explain the existence
of isolated tombs of this kind as at Amyclae (Vaphio),
Orchomenos and Menidi — obviously the sepulchres of
regal or opulent families j while the common people of
these places — of non-Achaean stock — buried their dead
in the ordinary oblong pits.
Achaean ascendency is so marked that the Achaean name
prevails even where that stock forms but an inconsiderable
element of the population. Notably this is true of Laconia,
where the rare occurrence of the beehive tomb goes to show
that the pre-Dorian inhabitants were mostly descended from
the older stock, which we have encountered at Tiryns and
at Orchomenos.1
1 That Minyans were established in Laconia and assisted in the Laconiau
colonization of Thera we are told by Herodotus (iv. 145 f.). Cf. Curtius,
Griech. Gesch., i. 163.