DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0438
APPENDIX C
KECENT MYCENAEAN FINDS IN ATTICA, SALAMIS, AND AEGINA
Within the last three years the exploration of Mycenaean Attica and
the neighboring islands in the Saronic Gulf has been peculiarly active
and fruitful; and, while some main results have been taken up in the
body of this volume, the aggregate work possesses such unity, importance
and freshness as to call for a more full and connected treatment.
Prior to this time, Mycenaean landmarks had been established on the
Athenian acropolis, at Menkli, Spata, and Thoricus. At the last-named
place, two beehive tombs were already imperfectly known, and here the
Greek Archaeological Society in 1893 commissioned Mr. Staes to make
more thorough explorations. A report of his work, with drawings, ap-
pears in the journal of the Society for that year.1
On the slope of a mountain of considerable height a third tomb was
discovered, and on the summit of the mountain were ruins of buildings
belonging, as Staes thinks, to two different periods, — the Mycenaean
proper and a still earlier one nearly synchronous with the oldest known
Island civilization. So slight, however, are the traces of these buildings
that no definite house-plan can be made out. Some houses of the earlier
period had floors paved with flags, underneath which lay graves in the
form of circular or oblong pits. In some of these were huge broken jars
(pithoi) containing human bones. Near by, in the natural cavities of
the rock, lay many small hand-made vases, probably funeral offerings.
Pottery abounded in fragments of nearly every style, from the earliest
monochrome (including vessels of the Trojan type) to the fully developed
Mycenaean. The primitive vases are sometimes ornamented with incised
circles and zigzag patterns. A few fragments of dull-colored unglazed
vases occur, with bands, spirals, and various geometrical designs in black,
red, chestnut, and white. Specimens of the second and third styles of
glazed vases are also found. Of the three domed tombs, two are of
novel form, being elliptical instead of circular. The larger is about 30
feet long by 12 feet wide, with a dromos nearly 19 feet long, which is
1 UpaKTiKii, 1S93, p. 12 ff. Unfortunately his valuable study of " Prehistoric Set-
tlements in Attica and Aegina " (Eph. Arch., 1895—but published only in Sep-
tember, 1S9C) came out too late to be fully utilized in this work.
KECENT MYCENAEAN FINDS IN ATTICA, SALAMIS, AND AEGINA
Within the last three years the exploration of Mycenaean Attica and
the neighboring islands in the Saronic Gulf has been peculiarly active
and fruitful; and, while some main results have been taken up in the
body of this volume, the aggregate work possesses such unity, importance
and freshness as to call for a more full and connected treatment.
Prior to this time, Mycenaean landmarks had been established on the
Athenian acropolis, at Menkli, Spata, and Thoricus. At the last-named
place, two beehive tombs were already imperfectly known, and here the
Greek Archaeological Society in 1893 commissioned Mr. Staes to make
more thorough explorations. A report of his work, with drawings, ap-
pears in the journal of the Society for that year.1
On the slope of a mountain of considerable height a third tomb was
discovered, and on the summit of the mountain were ruins of buildings
belonging, as Staes thinks, to two different periods, — the Mycenaean
proper and a still earlier one nearly synchronous with the oldest known
Island civilization. So slight, however, are the traces of these buildings
that no definite house-plan can be made out. Some houses of the earlier
period had floors paved with flags, underneath which lay graves in the
form of circular or oblong pits. In some of these were huge broken jars
(pithoi) containing human bones. Near by, in the natural cavities of
the rock, lay many small hand-made vases, probably funeral offerings.
Pottery abounded in fragments of nearly every style, from the earliest
monochrome (including vessels of the Trojan type) to the fully developed
Mycenaean. The primitive vases are sometimes ornamented with incised
circles and zigzag patterns. A few fragments of dull-colored unglazed
vases occur, with bands, spirals, and various geometrical designs in black,
red, chestnut, and white. Specimens of the second and third styles of
glazed vases are also found. Of the three domed tombs, two are of
novel form, being elliptical instead of circular. The larger is about 30
feet long by 12 feet wide, with a dromos nearly 19 feet long, which is
1 UpaKTiKii, 1S93, p. 12 ff. Unfortunately his valuable study of " Prehistoric Set-
tlements in Attica and Aegina " (Eph. Arch., 1895—but published only in Sep-
tember, 1S9C) came out too late to be fully utilized in this work.