DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0059
32
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
tholos b known. In Egypt, too, the ox-amulet was in use from the earliest predynastic
period.1
139, 139 a, 854. These three objects found in the covering earth would
Handles seem to be the hilts of daggers or the handles of some kind of small tool.
854 is of white limestone and shaped like a canoe. There is a long mortise
in the middle to take the tang of the blade. Length -07 m.
The same shape but much smaller, -045 m. long, appears in 139 a, which
is of ivory and may have been the head of a pin. In addition to the vertical
mortise it has a pair of horizontal rivet-holes.
139, upside down in the plate, is the ivory handle of some small tool.
The blade end is mortised and the upper end pierced. Length -038 m.
TOMBS A, E IV. KOUMASA. TOMBS A, E, AND F
AND r
Tholos A The smallest of the tholoi is A, situated 2-50 m. north of B (Plate LXI).
One-third of the circular wall on the west has disappeared. The inner diameter
is 4-10 m. and the thickness of the wall 1-30 m. The greatest height, preserved
by the doorway, is 1-20 m. The floor slopes slightly down from east to west.
The circuit wall is built of large and small unhewn stones packed with clay,
and has a distinct inclination inwards. The doorway, on the east as in the
other tholoi, is -85 m. wide and the same in height, and is built of two upright
slabs which support one huge block of limestone covering the whole depth of
the doorway (Plate XVI b). The small rectangular sunk area 2 in front of the
door, measuring 1-45 m. by -80 m., gave entrance to the tholos proper. The
walls stand to a height of -75 m.
Tomb r Tholos E lies a few metres east of A and Tomb T almost touches E to the
north. Of V the whole of the western wall and a little of the adjoining portions
of the north and south walls are gone, having fallen down the slope. The width
inside is 4-20 m., the length of what is left 4-10 m., the thickness of the walls
is about '50 m., and their greatest height 1-35 m.
The south wall is slightly bowed outwards, an unusual feature, while the
other walls are straight. Entrance and doorway have disappeared, and may
have been in the vanished west wall. The tomb is like the Mochlos square-
built tombs,3 and it is possible that it had a wooden roof of beams with reeds
or branches laid across them, but no trace of anything of the kind was brought
to light, which leads me to suspect that this was not properly a tomb, but a
simple burial enclosure like those at Palaikastron 4 and Gournes.5
Tholos e Tholos E has its circuit wall complete. The dimensions are : Extant
1 Petrie, Prehistoric Egypt (1920), p. 11. 3 Seager, Mochlos, p. 14, figs. 2 and 3.
2 This feature exists in the Cycladic tombs of
Euboea (cf. V. IlaTra/WiAttoD, op. cit., o-tA. 2, 4 B.S.A., VIII, pp. 290 fF., fig. 5.
IIiv. A), and in the tholos of Praesos {B.S.A.,
VIII, pp. 240 fF.). 5 >Apx. A£At., to/x, 1 (1915), treA. 59, <£. tut. I, 2.
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
tholos b known. In Egypt, too, the ox-amulet was in use from the earliest predynastic
period.1
139, 139 a, 854. These three objects found in the covering earth would
Handles seem to be the hilts of daggers or the handles of some kind of small tool.
854 is of white limestone and shaped like a canoe. There is a long mortise
in the middle to take the tang of the blade. Length -07 m.
The same shape but much smaller, -045 m. long, appears in 139 a, which
is of ivory and may have been the head of a pin. In addition to the vertical
mortise it has a pair of horizontal rivet-holes.
139, upside down in the plate, is the ivory handle of some small tool.
The blade end is mortised and the upper end pierced. Length -038 m.
TOMBS A, E IV. KOUMASA. TOMBS A, E, AND F
AND r
Tholos A The smallest of the tholoi is A, situated 2-50 m. north of B (Plate LXI).
One-third of the circular wall on the west has disappeared. The inner diameter
is 4-10 m. and the thickness of the wall 1-30 m. The greatest height, preserved
by the doorway, is 1-20 m. The floor slopes slightly down from east to west.
The circuit wall is built of large and small unhewn stones packed with clay,
and has a distinct inclination inwards. The doorway, on the east as in the
other tholoi, is -85 m. wide and the same in height, and is built of two upright
slabs which support one huge block of limestone covering the whole depth of
the doorway (Plate XVI b). The small rectangular sunk area 2 in front of the
door, measuring 1-45 m. by -80 m., gave entrance to the tholos proper. The
walls stand to a height of -75 m.
Tomb r Tholos E lies a few metres east of A and Tomb T almost touches E to the
north. Of V the whole of the western wall and a little of the adjoining portions
of the north and south walls are gone, having fallen down the slope. The width
inside is 4-20 m., the length of what is left 4-10 m., the thickness of the walls
is about '50 m., and their greatest height 1-35 m.
The south wall is slightly bowed outwards, an unusual feature, while the
other walls are straight. Entrance and doorway have disappeared, and may
have been in the vanished west wall. The tomb is like the Mochlos square-
built tombs,3 and it is possible that it had a wooden roof of beams with reeds
or branches laid across them, but no trace of anything of the kind was brought
to light, which leads me to suspect that this was not properly a tomb, but a
simple burial enclosure like those at Palaikastron 4 and Gournes.5
Tholos e Tholos E has its circuit wall complete. The dimensions are : Extant
1 Petrie, Prehistoric Egypt (1920), p. 11. 3 Seager, Mochlos, p. 14, figs. 2 and 3.
2 This feature exists in the Cycladic tombs of
Euboea (cf. V. IlaTra/WiAttoD, op. cit., o-tA. 2, 4 B.S.A., VIII, pp. 290 fF., fig. 5.
IIiv. A), and in the tholos of Praesos {B.S.A.,
VIII, pp. 240 fF.). 5 >Apx. A£At., to/x, 1 (1915), treA. 59, <£. tut. I, 2.