DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0018
xii
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
partly escaped by the central aperture above in accordance with the simple
arrangement of the primitive hut. That this practice was mainly designed
for purificatory purposes is most probable, and I must here repeat my con-
clusion that two small and shapeless fragments of a substance found in one of
the Port! vaults, described by Professor Mosso as ' Baltic amber,'1 were, like
similar pieces found in connection with a movable hearth in a Late Minoan
tomb at Isopata, simply bits of resin used as a deodoriser. The deposit in
which these fragments were found contained objects belonging almost ex-
clusively to E.M. Ill, and nothing after that date, whereas the first appearance
of amber, either in Crete or mainland Greece, hitherto definitely recorded belongs
to the beginning of the Late Minoan age—at a moderate estimate, that is
four centuries later. The great size of the fires lighted on certain occasions in
these sepulchral chambers is not easily explicable, they were indeed mighty
house-warmings for the dead ! The stone of floor and walls was often splin-
tered by the heat, the clay turned to terracotta, the bones and skulls in many
cases blackened and partly burnt. Dr. Xanthoudides, however, is to be con-
gratulated on a wise sobriety of judgment in rejecting his original conclusion,
still apparently held in certain quarters, that the bodies themselves were in
any sense cremated.
These seem to have been deposited on the rock floor of the chamber in a
contracted attitude, and, as in other Minoan interments, occasionally in clay
cists.2 Such practices are in conformity with those of prehistoric Egypt. Only
a few skulls were found sufficiently preserved to admit of exact measurement,
but these, with the exception of one example of mesocephaly, were all dolicho-
cephalic. This accords with the examination of some of the skulls from the
tholos of Hagia Triada by Professor Sergi, who regarded them as characteristic
specimens of his ' Mediterranean' type. The stature of the men does not
appear to have exceeded 4 feet 4 inches, about two inches less than the
average height of the present-day population.
Dr. Xanthoudides has happily compared these primitive vaults of Mesara
with the stone huts still made by the shepherds of Nida as dairies for
cheese-making and summer storehouses for the cheese when made, and he
suggests that the traditions of such structures may have actually survived in
this mountain glen. That in their origin the beehive ossuaries themselves
were taken from a class of circular dwellings in vogue amongst the living can
not be doubted. Certain intaglio types of M.M. Ill date suggest that a type
1 Mosso, La Preistoria, Vol. II, Le Origini della in the Early Minoan sepulchral cave of Pyrgos.
Civiltd Mediterranea (Milano, 1910), pp. 291, 292. The contracted attitude of the dead in other cases
Owing to a mischance, however, the fragments may be regarded as a fair assumption, though the
were destroyed and the analysis never made. disordered state of the bones made it impossible
2 Dr. Xanthoudides does not seem to have come to ascertain the original position. Visiting the
across the remains of such receptacles in the larger tholos at Hagia Triada at the time of its
original deposits of tholoi excavated by him, but excavation when the outlines of a layer of bones
they were found by Professor Halbherr in the were visible beneath a thin earth stratum, I cer-
large tholos at Hagi'a Triada, and many occurred tainly saw the indications of bent leg-bones.
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
partly escaped by the central aperture above in accordance with the simple
arrangement of the primitive hut. That this practice was mainly designed
for purificatory purposes is most probable, and I must here repeat my con-
clusion that two small and shapeless fragments of a substance found in one of
the Port! vaults, described by Professor Mosso as ' Baltic amber,'1 were, like
similar pieces found in connection with a movable hearth in a Late Minoan
tomb at Isopata, simply bits of resin used as a deodoriser. The deposit in
which these fragments were found contained objects belonging almost ex-
clusively to E.M. Ill, and nothing after that date, whereas the first appearance
of amber, either in Crete or mainland Greece, hitherto definitely recorded belongs
to the beginning of the Late Minoan age—at a moderate estimate, that is
four centuries later. The great size of the fires lighted on certain occasions in
these sepulchral chambers is not easily explicable, they were indeed mighty
house-warmings for the dead ! The stone of floor and walls was often splin-
tered by the heat, the clay turned to terracotta, the bones and skulls in many
cases blackened and partly burnt. Dr. Xanthoudides, however, is to be con-
gratulated on a wise sobriety of judgment in rejecting his original conclusion,
still apparently held in certain quarters, that the bodies themselves were in
any sense cremated.
These seem to have been deposited on the rock floor of the chamber in a
contracted attitude, and, as in other Minoan interments, occasionally in clay
cists.2 Such practices are in conformity with those of prehistoric Egypt. Only
a few skulls were found sufficiently preserved to admit of exact measurement,
but these, with the exception of one example of mesocephaly, were all dolicho-
cephalic. This accords with the examination of some of the skulls from the
tholos of Hagia Triada by Professor Sergi, who regarded them as characteristic
specimens of his ' Mediterranean' type. The stature of the men does not
appear to have exceeded 4 feet 4 inches, about two inches less than the
average height of the present-day population.
Dr. Xanthoudides has happily compared these primitive vaults of Mesara
with the stone huts still made by the shepherds of Nida as dairies for
cheese-making and summer storehouses for the cheese when made, and he
suggests that the traditions of such structures may have actually survived in
this mountain glen. That in their origin the beehive ossuaries themselves
were taken from a class of circular dwellings in vogue amongst the living can
not be doubted. Certain intaglio types of M.M. Ill date suggest that a type
1 Mosso, La Preistoria, Vol. II, Le Origini della in the Early Minoan sepulchral cave of Pyrgos.
Civiltd Mediterranea (Milano, 1910), pp. 291, 292. The contracted attitude of the dead in other cases
Owing to a mischance, however, the fragments may be regarded as a fair assumption, though the
were destroyed and the analysis never made. disordered state of the bones made it impossible
2 Dr. Xanthoudides does not seem to have come to ascertain the original position. Visiting the
across the remains of such receptacles in the larger tholos at Hagia Triada at the time of its
original deposits of tholoi excavated by him, but excavation when the outlines of a layer of bones
they were found by Professor Halbherr in the were visible beneath a thin earth stratum, I cer-
large tholos at Hagi'a Triada, and many occurred tainly saw the indications of bent leg-bones.