DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0032
KOUMASA
5
Europe.1 Here in Tholos B both the large side uprights and the great tholos b
lintel had been taken away by the villagers, but one large piece of the
lintel, which had fallen, has been preserved and can be seen in Plate XVII a
and b. The two slabs that closed the doors from outside and had to be
rolled away before the tomb could be re-entered had also disappeared, but
can be restored from those preserved in the other two tholoi here and the tholos
at Porti.
The inside diameter of Tholos B on the floor is 9-52 m. The thickness Dimensions
of the circular wall varies from 1-60 m. to 2 m., so that reckoning in the thickness
of the wall the outside diameter at the bottom is roughly 13-50 m. The circuit
wall is preserved all round, but to a varying height, greatest on the east side
where on either side of the door it attains to 1-60 m. On the west and south-
west only a few centimetres are left above the ground.
A peculiar feature of the doorway of this tholos is its division into two by
a large upright rock deeply fixed in the ground (Plate XVII a and b, inside and
outside view). The height above the ground is -93 m., its length through the
depth of the doorway east and west 1-30 m., and its thickness on the outer edge
•52 m. It has two natural holes on the north side about half-way up and one on
the south side, which may perhaps have served as the sockets of bars. The
width of the southern opening of the double door is 1 m. and of the northern
•90 m. The natural rock was left as a floor, which thus is not level, but slopes
down slightly from east to west. This is so also in the tholoi at Hagia Triada
and Platanos.
On the outer side of the northern wall there are five slabs preserved in situ External
which project from -15 m. to -20 m. from the outer surface of the wall at a height Projecting Slabs
of about 1 m. from the ground. They are a few centimetres apart in a row.
Similar projecting slabs have been noticed in other of the Mesara tholoi, some-
times only on the one side, sometimes round the whole circuit where this is
preserved. Their purpose is uncertain. They may have served as scaffolding
to give foothold to the masons while they built the upper part of the tomb. Or
it may be that the tholos was covered either wholly or up to a certain point
with earth heaped up, and that the projection of these slabs was to act as a
key binding the tholos with the earth and making the building firmer and more
compact.2 Probably they served both purposes.
Before the doorway must once have been the square pit lined with stones The stone-lined
usual in these tholoi, and found in A and E here, and in others elsewhere. A Pit
good many stones were observed in excavating at the spot where this structure
1 D&helette, Manuel d'Archeologieprehistorique, p. xi.—J. P. D.
celiique et gallo-romaine. I (Paris, 1908), p. 374, fig.
134. 2 Sig. Paribeni (Mow. Ant., XIV, p. 683, figs. 1,
Sir Arthur Evans suggests that the arched 2, 7) leans to the second supposition for the small
upper surface of the lintel block was intentional, tholos at Hagfa Triada, which is preserved to
with the object of throwing the weight of the an outside height of 1-90 m. and has three rows
upper courses off" it to the sides. See preface, of such slabs, one above the other.
5
Europe.1 Here in Tholos B both the large side uprights and the great tholos b
lintel had been taken away by the villagers, but one large piece of the
lintel, which had fallen, has been preserved and can be seen in Plate XVII a
and b. The two slabs that closed the doors from outside and had to be
rolled away before the tomb could be re-entered had also disappeared, but
can be restored from those preserved in the other two tholoi here and the tholos
at Porti.
The inside diameter of Tholos B on the floor is 9-52 m. The thickness Dimensions
of the circular wall varies from 1-60 m. to 2 m., so that reckoning in the thickness
of the wall the outside diameter at the bottom is roughly 13-50 m. The circuit
wall is preserved all round, but to a varying height, greatest on the east side
where on either side of the door it attains to 1-60 m. On the west and south-
west only a few centimetres are left above the ground.
A peculiar feature of the doorway of this tholos is its division into two by
a large upright rock deeply fixed in the ground (Plate XVII a and b, inside and
outside view). The height above the ground is -93 m., its length through the
depth of the doorway east and west 1-30 m., and its thickness on the outer edge
•52 m. It has two natural holes on the north side about half-way up and one on
the south side, which may perhaps have served as the sockets of bars. The
width of the southern opening of the double door is 1 m. and of the northern
•90 m. The natural rock was left as a floor, which thus is not level, but slopes
down slightly from east to west. This is so also in the tholoi at Hagia Triada
and Platanos.
On the outer side of the northern wall there are five slabs preserved in situ External
which project from -15 m. to -20 m. from the outer surface of the wall at a height Projecting Slabs
of about 1 m. from the ground. They are a few centimetres apart in a row.
Similar projecting slabs have been noticed in other of the Mesara tholoi, some-
times only on the one side, sometimes round the whole circuit where this is
preserved. Their purpose is uncertain. They may have served as scaffolding
to give foothold to the masons while they built the upper part of the tomb. Or
it may be that the tholos was covered either wholly or up to a certain point
with earth heaped up, and that the projection of these slabs was to act as a
key binding the tholos with the earth and making the building firmer and more
compact.2 Probably they served both purposes.
Before the doorway must once have been the square pit lined with stones The stone-lined
usual in these tholoi, and found in A and E here, and in others elsewhere. A Pit
good many stones were observed in excavating at the spot where this structure
1 D&helette, Manuel d'Archeologieprehistorique, p. xi.—J. P. D.
celiique et gallo-romaine. I (Paris, 1908), p. 374, fig.
134. 2 Sig. Paribeni (Mow. Ant., XIV, p. 683, figs. 1,
Sir Arthur Evans suggests that the arched 2, 7) leans to the second supposition for the small
upper surface of the lintel block was intentional, tholos at Hagfa Triada, which is preserved to
with the object of throwing the weight of the an outside height of 1-90 m. and has three rows
upper courses off" it to the sides. See preface, of such slabs, one above the other.