DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0125
98
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
the 6859. A small wheel-made bowl of brick-red clay, which had two arched
cemetery handles rising from the rim, now broken off. Inside and out is a blackish wash
clay objects j^g turned red in places from the firing. On the outside there is a red
Polychrome Vases ban(j rQund fche
rim, and the rest is covered by a number of narrow rows of a
continuous loop design in white; while the inside has the elegant pattern of
bands, discs, and dots in white and vermilion that is shown in the plate.
Height -045 m., diameter -12 m.
6861. An elegant wheel-made cup, incomplete, and put together out of
fragments. A model in metal is suggested by the cylindrical upper part and
the sharp angle with which it narrows to the base. The biscuit is fine and
light, and reddish in tinge. There is a coating of red inside and out. The
outside is divided into panels by vertical ridges in relief flanked by rows, white
and deep red alternately, of short slanting lines making a fish-bone pattern.
The panel has three vertical rows of discs joined by slanting lines in white.
Height -055 m., diameter -08 m.
6863. About half also of this conical tumbler is missing. The clay is
fine and light, and of a reddish shade. The outer surface is covered with a
white slip on which is a very light pink wash. Round rim and base are bands
alternately red and black, the last showing traces of white which may perhaps
have covered them; while the central portion has cross-hatching in dark paint
on the pinkish ground. There are no wheel marks. Height -07 m., diameter
•065 m.
There is a remarkable individuality about each of these five vases, and it
is difficult to assign them with certainty to any definite period. But I think
it is more probable that they are M.M. I than M.M. II.
stone objects B. stone objects.
No Palettes It is a remarkable thing that among the very great quantity of stone
objects yielded by the Platanos cemetery there was not a single palette, while
the other tholoi produced a fair number of them. This is another indication
of local variations in the burial customs of different communities, even when,
as here in Mesara, they were quite close together.
1. Stone Vases and Vessels.
stone Vases The stone vases and vessels can be counted by hundreds. About three
hundred were found in the walled trench a in front of Tholos A, while the
rest were distributed between the tholoi, the other tombs, and the store-rooms.
Almost all are small, and some of them so small, with so small a cavity,
that they cannot have been meant for actual use but only for the symbolic
service of the dead. They are classified by shapes, and a specimen or two of
each shape is described and illustrated. The large majority are of steatite
or serpentine, and this material is to be understood in what follows, unless a
different stone is specified,
THE VAULTED TOMBS OF MESARA
the 6859. A small wheel-made bowl of brick-red clay, which had two arched
cemetery handles rising from the rim, now broken off. Inside and out is a blackish wash
clay objects j^g turned red in places from the firing. On the outside there is a red
Polychrome Vases ban(j rQund fche
rim, and the rest is covered by a number of narrow rows of a
continuous loop design in white; while the inside has the elegant pattern of
bands, discs, and dots in white and vermilion that is shown in the plate.
Height -045 m., diameter -12 m.
6861. An elegant wheel-made cup, incomplete, and put together out of
fragments. A model in metal is suggested by the cylindrical upper part and
the sharp angle with which it narrows to the base. The biscuit is fine and
light, and reddish in tinge. There is a coating of red inside and out. The
outside is divided into panels by vertical ridges in relief flanked by rows, white
and deep red alternately, of short slanting lines making a fish-bone pattern.
The panel has three vertical rows of discs joined by slanting lines in white.
Height -055 m., diameter -08 m.
6863. About half also of this conical tumbler is missing. The clay is
fine and light, and of a reddish shade. The outer surface is covered with a
white slip on which is a very light pink wash. Round rim and base are bands
alternately red and black, the last showing traces of white which may perhaps
have covered them; while the central portion has cross-hatching in dark paint
on the pinkish ground. There are no wheel marks. Height -07 m., diameter
•065 m.
There is a remarkable individuality about each of these five vases, and it
is difficult to assign them with certainty to any definite period. But I think
it is more probable that they are M.M. I than M.M. II.
stone objects B. stone objects.
No Palettes It is a remarkable thing that among the very great quantity of stone
objects yielded by the Platanos cemetery there was not a single palette, while
the other tholoi produced a fair number of them. This is another indication
of local variations in the burial customs of different communities, even when,
as here in Mesara, they were quite close together.
1. Stone Vases and Vessels.
stone Vases The stone vases and vessels can be counted by hundreds. About three
hundred were found in the walled trench a in front of Tholos A, while the
rest were distributed between the tholoi, the other tombs, and the store-rooms.
Almost all are small, and some of them so small, with so small a cavity,
that they cannot have been meant for actual use but only for the symbolic
service of the dead. They are classified by shapes, and a specimen or two of
each shape is described and illustrated. The large majority are of steatite
or serpentine, and this material is to be understood in what follows, unless a
different stone is specified,