DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0061
34
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
tombs a, E disturbed, and the property of the dead removed, broken, or lost. Neither
and r skulls nor skeletons were in good condition, and it was not possible to determine
Burial strata the method of burial. The fact that the large tomb E was found with its
doorway closed by a slab, and the circuit of its wall intact to the height of
more than a metre, raised high hopes, but only to disappoint them ; for the
excavation showed that before the tholos was closed the burials had been
swept up and the bones heaped together in the north-west segment of the circle
and covered with white clay, while the sepulchral objects, except a very few,
had been removed. It looks as if the accumulated burials of centuries had
been swept away and the tomb tidied up ready for new interments, and that
then, for some reason that is beyond a guess, it had been abandoned.
The Paved Area The pavement of bluish slate lies to the east of the doorway of E as it
does in front of B ; it is one and the same construction, though preserved only
in part. We can only guess at the purpose for which it was used, though we
shall find its like between the two large tholoi at Platanos. The people may
have congregated there for the burial rites, or subsequently for some kind of
memorial service.
Mr. Bradley believes something of the sort of the area in front of the
tomb-sanctuaries of Malta,1 and refers to Sir William Ridgeway's theory 2 that
Greek Tragedy did not take its beginning from the rites of Dionysus, the usual
view, but from rites performed before the tomb of a dead hero in order to
induce him to look kindly on the flocks and crops of his worshippers.
V. CONTENTS OF TOMBS A, E, T, ETC.
CLAY OBJECTS A. CLAY OBJECTS.
{a) EM. I Vases.
Ten E. M. i Vases Ten vases of grey clay (bucchero) like 4188 and 4193 from Tholos B
above, p. 9. (Plates I and XXV.)
4194 from the square tomb, V. This is the most interesting, consisting
of three spherical cups joined together in the middle and standing on a flat disc
surmounting a hollow cylindrical support which ends in a broad foot. Each
little cup has a pair of projections opposite to one another. These projections
are themselves double, and each half is pierced vertically. The pair of holes
in each double projection corresponds with a pair of holes pierced in the edge
of the conical lids. From the junction of the cups springs a tall flat knob
with a wide hole at the end for a string to hang the vessel up by. The clay
is dark inside and out, and the surface shows neither paint nor polish. Thin
incised herring-bone patterns on the lids and round the rims of the cups, and
plain lines on the projections form the only ornament. The height of the
1 Bradley, Malta and the Mediterranean Race (London, 1902), p. 109-
2 Rid geway, The Origin of Tragedy.
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
tombs a, E disturbed, and the property of the dead removed, broken, or lost. Neither
and r skulls nor skeletons were in good condition, and it was not possible to determine
Burial strata the method of burial. The fact that the large tomb E was found with its
doorway closed by a slab, and the circuit of its wall intact to the height of
more than a metre, raised high hopes, but only to disappoint them ; for the
excavation showed that before the tholos was closed the burials had been
swept up and the bones heaped together in the north-west segment of the circle
and covered with white clay, while the sepulchral objects, except a very few,
had been removed. It looks as if the accumulated burials of centuries had
been swept away and the tomb tidied up ready for new interments, and that
then, for some reason that is beyond a guess, it had been abandoned.
The Paved Area The pavement of bluish slate lies to the east of the doorway of E as it
does in front of B ; it is one and the same construction, though preserved only
in part. We can only guess at the purpose for which it was used, though we
shall find its like between the two large tholoi at Platanos. The people may
have congregated there for the burial rites, or subsequently for some kind of
memorial service.
Mr. Bradley believes something of the sort of the area in front of the
tomb-sanctuaries of Malta,1 and refers to Sir William Ridgeway's theory 2 that
Greek Tragedy did not take its beginning from the rites of Dionysus, the usual
view, but from rites performed before the tomb of a dead hero in order to
induce him to look kindly on the flocks and crops of his worshippers.
V. CONTENTS OF TOMBS A, E, T, ETC.
CLAY OBJECTS A. CLAY OBJECTS.
{a) EM. I Vases.
Ten E. M. i Vases Ten vases of grey clay (bucchero) like 4188 and 4193 from Tholos B
above, p. 9. (Plates I and XXV.)
4194 from the square tomb, V. This is the most interesting, consisting
of three spherical cups joined together in the middle and standing on a flat disc
surmounting a hollow cylindrical support which ends in a broad foot. Each
little cup has a pair of projections opposite to one another. These projections
are themselves double, and each half is pierced vertically. The pair of holes
in each double projection corresponds with a pair of holes pierced in the edge
of the conical lids. From the junction of the cups springs a tall flat knob
with a wide hole at the end for a string to hang the vessel up by. The clay
is dark inside and out, and the surface shows neither paint nor polish. Thin
incised herring-bone patterns on the lids and round the rims of the cups, and
plain lines on the projections form the only ornament. The height of the
1 Bradley, Malta and the Mediterranean Race (London, 1902), p. 109-
2 Rid geway, The Origin of Tragedy.