DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0082
PORTI
55
spots we found a moderate-sized painted Middle Minoan pithos (in height from porti
•80 m. to 1 m.) inverted and containing human bones. Pithos Burials
As a result of the shallowness of the covering soil, never more than -40 m.
deep, the plough and the mattock had found these inverted pithoi and cut
them off, leaving only the lower part, that is, the part with the mouth and
handles and the bridged trough-spout.
In these burials together with the bones were found a few cups, about
ten small vases, one clay lamp with one wick, and the clay ox, 5053 (see p. 62).
Burials in inverted pithoi were widely distributed in Crete in the Middle
Minoan and the first Late Minoan periods, and continue to be found in many
places.1 At Pachyammos, on the isthmus of Hierapetras,2 Mr. Seager has
excavated a whole cemetery of such interments.
There is one point that remains undetermined at Porti, namely whether
these pithoi were simply embedded in the earth as was the case at Pachyammos,
or whether each was inside a walled enclosure which is suggested by the finding
of another such pithos of the ' Kamares ' style in a corner of the small rect-
angular tomb 8. Now, this building, which had a wall length of 2-60 m. and
an entrance hole one metre wide in the south side, was certainly a burial chamber
in which the dead were buried in pithoi, and it looks, therefore, as if the other
pithoi may originally have been inside similar constructions, the disintegration
of which has produced the mass of stones contained in the soil. This small
rectangular tomb § was made partly by cutting into the soft rock, partly by
building up the walls on it. The other pithoi with the bones were found a few
metres further on.
Simultaneously the important tholos, ii, was discovered and excavated. tholos n
It stood on the edge of the cliff at the north-west corner of the plateau and Description
was originally supported by the great northern retaining wall. But the
western end of this wall fell down the slope and carried with it about a
quarter of the circuit wall of the tomb (Plate LXII, where the dotted line
shows the fallen section of the wall). This tomb resembles the tholoi of
Koumasa and Hagia Eirene in all points. It is built in the same way of
unworked stones, small for the most part, bonded with a great deal of clay,
and the entrance is on the east. The dimensions are :—inner diameter 6-65 m.,
greatest extant height 1-15 m., thickness of wall 2-10 m. to 2-70 m. Thus it
has the thickest wall of all in comparison with its size, no doubt to give the
greater stability required by the use of smaller stones. *70 m. to -76 m. is the
width of the doorway, framed as usual by two large stone jambs and a great
lintel 1-75 m. long. It was shut by two large slabs, one inside and one out.
In front of the entrance we found the usual stone-built hollow area or ante-
1 Seager, Mochlos, pp. 14 and 87, fig. 51. to'/*. 4, ere A. 60, e£. Thy. 6.
E. Hall, Excavations at Sphoungaras, pp. 58 ff., 2 Seager, The Cemetery of Pachyammos, Crete :
figs. 31-37, Plate XI. University of Pennsylvania, Anthropological Pub-
Iw. XaT^SctKi, Tttc/>o9 7rapa t<1 Td£i in A.p\. AcA.t., lications, vol. VII, No. 1.
55
spots we found a moderate-sized painted Middle Minoan pithos (in height from porti
•80 m. to 1 m.) inverted and containing human bones. Pithos Burials
As a result of the shallowness of the covering soil, never more than -40 m.
deep, the plough and the mattock had found these inverted pithoi and cut
them off, leaving only the lower part, that is, the part with the mouth and
handles and the bridged trough-spout.
In these burials together with the bones were found a few cups, about
ten small vases, one clay lamp with one wick, and the clay ox, 5053 (see p. 62).
Burials in inverted pithoi were widely distributed in Crete in the Middle
Minoan and the first Late Minoan periods, and continue to be found in many
places.1 At Pachyammos, on the isthmus of Hierapetras,2 Mr. Seager has
excavated a whole cemetery of such interments.
There is one point that remains undetermined at Porti, namely whether
these pithoi were simply embedded in the earth as was the case at Pachyammos,
or whether each was inside a walled enclosure which is suggested by the finding
of another such pithos of the ' Kamares ' style in a corner of the small rect-
angular tomb 8. Now, this building, which had a wall length of 2-60 m. and
an entrance hole one metre wide in the south side, was certainly a burial chamber
in which the dead were buried in pithoi, and it looks, therefore, as if the other
pithoi may originally have been inside similar constructions, the disintegration
of which has produced the mass of stones contained in the soil. This small
rectangular tomb § was made partly by cutting into the soft rock, partly by
building up the walls on it. The other pithoi with the bones were found a few
metres further on.
Simultaneously the important tholos, ii, was discovered and excavated. tholos n
It stood on the edge of the cliff at the north-west corner of the plateau and Description
was originally supported by the great northern retaining wall. But the
western end of this wall fell down the slope and carried with it about a
quarter of the circuit wall of the tomb (Plate LXII, where the dotted line
shows the fallen section of the wall). This tomb resembles the tholoi of
Koumasa and Hagia Eirene in all points. It is built in the same way of
unworked stones, small for the most part, bonded with a great deal of clay,
and the entrance is on the east. The dimensions are :—inner diameter 6-65 m.,
greatest extant height 1-15 m., thickness of wall 2-10 m. to 2-70 m. Thus it
has the thickest wall of all in comparison with its size, no doubt to give the
greater stability required by the use of smaller stones. *70 m. to -76 m. is the
width of the doorway, framed as usual by two large stone jambs and a great
lintel 1-75 m. long. It was shut by two large slabs, one inside and one out.
In front of the entrance we found the usual stone-built hollow area or ante-
1 Seager, Mochlos, pp. 14 and 87, fig. 51. to'/*. 4, ere A. 60, e£. Thy. 6.
E. Hall, Excavations at Sphoungaras, pp. 58 ff., 2 Seager, The Cemetery of Pachyammos, Crete :
figs. 31-37, Plate XI. University of Pennsylvania, Anthropological Pub-
Iw. XaT^SctKi, Tttc/>o9 7rapa t<1 Td£i in A.p\. AcA.t., lications, vol. VII, No. 1.