DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0101
74
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
Sherds
the tholos B. Clay Objects. (Plate XL a.)
clay objects Only a few sherds of pottery were found in the earth of the tholos, pieces
of small suspension pots and pyxides, some of light grey clay (bucchero), others
reddish. They have small lugs, round or long-shaped, pierced vertically. A
few of these sherds are shown in the top row of Plate XL a. It is safe to place
them in E.M. I and II, and we must suppose that the tholos was built in the
former period.
the settle- Ten metres to the west of the tholos trial trenches laid bare the lowest
'salAmeT course of four or five walls. The houses to which they belonged must have
been wretched hovels, yet the sherds found with them are Middle and Late
Minoan, which shows that the community here must have continued in exist-
ence a long time after the building of the tholos. We noticed the same fact
at Koumasa, and we shall meet it again at Kalathiana.
If, as I suppose, the tomb really belonged to the settlement represented
by these walls, it is, I think, a point worthy of notice that while the settlement
was on the west, the entrance to the tomb was as usual on the east, the side
in this case away from the village.
Convenience may have placed the houses where they are, but religious
reasons were apparently too strong to allow the custom, inviolable in Mesara,
of placing the entrance to a tholos on the east side to be broken merely for
convenience.
the tholos of II. THE THOLOS OF KOUTSOKERA
koutsokera _ . ,
This tholos lay a hundred metres to the north of the tholos of Salame,
which it resembles in all respects, though it is a little larger, and the wall stands
to a greater height.
The inner diameter is 5-55 m., the thickness of the wall 1-50 m., and its
greatest height 1-30 m. The doorway on the east, flanked by two single stones
1 m. high, is from -60 m. to -70 m. wide, but has lost its lintel. Here again
the rectangular sunk vestibule was not found.
As at Salame, in the course of the excavation a few large stones were
found and a great deal of rubble, beneath which were a few scattered bones
and clay potsherds.
Under the bone stratum was found a layer -20 m. to -30 m. thick of foreign
earth trodden down which contained neither bones nor sherds. This tomb
also must have been plundered in ancient times,
clay Potsherds The only finds from this tholos were the clay potsherds that lay in the
earth among the bones (Plate XL a, except the top row). They are far more
numerous than those from Salame, and belong equally to E.M. I and II. The
clay is either brick-red or black with an admixture of carbon (bucchero). The
shapes are mainly two : small cylindrical pyxides with high cylindrical lids
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
Sherds
the tholos B. Clay Objects. (Plate XL a.)
clay objects Only a few sherds of pottery were found in the earth of the tholos, pieces
of small suspension pots and pyxides, some of light grey clay (bucchero), others
reddish. They have small lugs, round or long-shaped, pierced vertically. A
few of these sherds are shown in the top row of Plate XL a. It is safe to place
them in E.M. I and II, and we must suppose that the tholos was built in the
former period.
the settle- Ten metres to the west of the tholos trial trenches laid bare the lowest
'salAmeT course of four or five walls. The houses to which they belonged must have
been wretched hovels, yet the sherds found with them are Middle and Late
Minoan, which shows that the community here must have continued in exist-
ence a long time after the building of the tholos. We noticed the same fact
at Koumasa, and we shall meet it again at Kalathiana.
If, as I suppose, the tomb really belonged to the settlement represented
by these walls, it is, I think, a point worthy of notice that while the settlement
was on the west, the entrance to the tomb was as usual on the east, the side
in this case away from the village.
Convenience may have placed the houses where they are, but religious
reasons were apparently too strong to allow the custom, inviolable in Mesara,
of placing the entrance to a tholos on the east side to be broken merely for
convenience.
the tholos of II. THE THOLOS OF KOUTSOKERA
koutsokera _ . ,
This tholos lay a hundred metres to the north of the tholos of Salame,
which it resembles in all respects, though it is a little larger, and the wall stands
to a greater height.
The inner diameter is 5-55 m., the thickness of the wall 1-50 m., and its
greatest height 1-30 m. The doorway on the east, flanked by two single stones
1 m. high, is from -60 m. to -70 m. wide, but has lost its lintel. Here again
the rectangular sunk vestibule was not found.
As at Salame, in the course of the excavation a few large stones were
found and a great deal of rubble, beneath which were a few scattered bones
and clay potsherds.
Under the bone stratum was found a layer -20 m. to -30 m. thick of foreign
earth trodden down which contained neither bones nor sherds. This tomb
also must have been plundered in ancient times,
clay Potsherds The only finds from this tholos were the clay potsherds that lay in the
earth among the bones (Plate XL a, except the top row). They are far more
numerous than those from Salame, and belong equally to E.M. I and II. The
clay is either brick-red or black with an admixture of carbon (bucchero). The
shapes are mainly two : small cylindrical pyxides with high cylindrical lids