DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0012
vi
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
Middle Kingdom, but to an epoch at least as early as the Fourth Dynasty.1
This conclusion, which at that time was in flat contradiction to the pronounce-
ments of eminent Egyptologists as to the comparative late date of the first
contact between the Nile Valley and any European shore, is now seen to have
fallen very far short of the truth.
The discovery ten years later by the Italian Mission under Professor Halb-
herr of extensive remains of two early tholos ossuaries at Hagia Triada with
similar contents at once placed the deposit at Hagios Onouphrios in its true setting.
In 1904, a few months after the first discovery at Hagia Triada, Dr. Xanthou-
dides began the excavation of a group of similar sepulchral structures at
Koumasa, and his methodical investigations, continued through a series of
years, have enabled him to recognise and explore a succession of such monu-
ments distributed along the borders of the Mesara plain, by far the largest
tract of potentially fertile country in the island. In almost all cases the ossuary
vaults, often containing many hundreds of interments, stood in relation to
settlements of the same early date, showing that even the rugged hill country
round the plain was at that time already thickly populated.
The careful and detailed description of the contents of these primitive
ossuary vaults by Dr. Xanthoudides, and their copious illustration not only
by photographic reproductions, but from drawings by the skilled hand of
Monsieur GillieronjSZs will be a real boon to students, since most of this interest-
ing material has been hitherto only accessible through an actual visit to the
Candia Museum. That it should have been published at last in so full and
excellent a form reflects great credit on the Press of Liverpool University.
It is always difficult to obtain sufficiently precise chronological data in
the case of ossuary deposits, but Dr. Xanthoudides has made a good use of the
more datable material supplied by early tombs of a more individual character,
such as those explored by Mr. Seager at Mochlos.
It results from these comparisons that pottery occurs in many of these
sepulchral vaults dating back to the First and Second Early Minoan Periods,
and, with one exception, it is probable that all of them contained a certain
amount of relics at least as early as E.M. III. On the other hand, it is clear that
the great bulk of the material belongs either to the concluding Early Minoan phase
or to the initial part of the succeeding Middle Minoan age. Of this apparent
inconsistency in the evidence, well marked by a general lack of such objects as
the finer class of stone vessels represented by the E.M. I and E.M. II tombs of
Mochlos, Dr. Xanthoudides himself has supplied a very sufficient explanation.
It appears that in these early ossuaries the bones were liable at certain intervals
of time to be swept on one side, the skulls sometimes being rnled together in
heaps, to make room for fresh occupants of the floor space. At the time of
these disturbances, moreover, most of the relics that had originally lain beside
1 Evans, Cretan Piclographs and Prae-Phoenician Script and the Sepulchral Deposit of H. Onuphrios
(Quaritch, 1895).
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
Middle Kingdom, but to an epoch at least as early as the Fourth Dynasty.1
This conclusion, which at that time was in flat contradiction to the pronounce-
ments of eminent Egyptologists as to the comparative late date of the first
contact between the Nile Valley and any European shore, is now seen to have
fallen very far short of the truth.
The discovery ten years later by the Italian Mission under Professor Halb-
herr of extensive remains of two early tholos ossuaries at Hagia Triada with
similar contents at once placed the deposit at Hagios Onouphrios in its true setting.
In 1904, a few months after the first discovery at Hagia Triada, Dr. Xanthou-
dides began the excavation of a group of similar sepulchral structures at
Koumasa, and his methodical investigations, continued through a series of
years, have enabled him to recognise and explore a succession of such monu-
ments distributed along the borders of the Mesara plain, by far the largest
tract of potentially fertile country in the island. In almost all cases the ossuary
vaults, often containing many hundreds of interments, stood in relation to
settlements of the same early date, showing that even the rugged hill country
round the plain was at that time already thickly populated.
The careful and detailed description of the contents of these primitive
ossuary vaults by Dr. Xanthoudides, and their copious illustration not only
by photographic reproductions, but from drawings by the skilled hand of
Monsieur GillieronjSZs will be a real boon to students, since most of this interest-
ing material has been hitherto only accessible through an actual visit to the
Candia Museum. That it should have been published at last in so full and
excellent a form reflects great credit on the Press of Liverpool University.
It is always difficult to obtain sufficiently precise chronological data in
the case of ossuary deposits, but Dr. Xanthoudides has made a good use of the
more datable material supplied by early tombs of a more individual character,
such as those explored by Mr. Seager at Mochlos.
It results from these comparisons that pottery occurs in many of these
sepulchral vaults dating back to the First and Second Early Minoan Periods,
and, with one exception, it is probable that all of them contained a certain
amount of relics at least as early as E.M. III. On the other hand, it is clear that
the great bulk of the material belongs either to the concluding Early Minoan phase
or to the initial part of the succeeding Middle Minoan age. Of this apparent
inconsistency in the evidence, well marked by a general lack of such objects as
the finer class of stone vessels represented by the E.M. I and E.M. II tombs of
Mochlos, Dr. Xanthoudides himself has supplied a very sufficient explanation.
It appears that in these early ossuaries the bones were liable at certain intervals
of time to be swept on one side, the skulls sometimes being rnled together in
heaps, to make room for fresh occupants of the floor space. At the time of
these disturbances, moreover, most of the relics that had originally lain beside
1 Evans, Cretan Piclographs and Prae-Phoenician Script and the Sepulchral Deposit of H. Onuphrios
(Quaritch, 1895).