Prehistoric Cemetery Research Articles

Part VII. A Bronze Founder's Hoard

The bronzes described below were found about 0·20 m. below the surface in the central part of the Prehistoric Cemetery area excavated at Mycenae in 1952. (Cf. BSA XLVIII 6f., with pl. 2—hereinafter referred to without the volume reference.) They lay together in a small heap as though they had been buried in a bag of some material which had entirely perished. The numbers attached to the objects here are those of the 1952 excavation inventory.The combination of cruciform hilt, flanged throughout, with a blade narrow but without midrib, is not very common, though there is a good L.M. III parallel from Palaikastro. Cruciform swords are rather more familiar; one from Prosymna is virtually a longer version of our dagger (44 cm. against 29) except that the flange does not continue round the butt end oil the hilt—perhaps because the larger weapon had a pommel of another material, in one piece, while for a dagger the pommel was made as part of the hilt. Other L.H. III daggers from Prosymna have the flanged hilt (not cruciform) with a broad thin blade.

Part V. Four Tombs

This is a true cist burial, in that the skeleton, of an infant, was placed in a stone casket. The casket is a single block of poros, roughly hollowed out until the requisite depth was reached. Its dimensions are 0·60 m. × 0·50 m., but the block is not a perfect rectangle by any means. The depth is c. 0·30 m. Underneath the block a group of seven roughly circular shallow holes and two shallow rectangular depressions are to be seen; the only explanation I can suggest for these is that it was perhaps originally intended to hollow out the block from this side. Over the casket two blocks of sandstone were placed; both have a shallow depression underneath. At the west end of the casket and closely adjoining it lay a triangular block of poros about 0·48 m. wide and 0·35 m. high (only partially visible on Plate 43). This, from the similarity of material and workmanship, seems to have had some connection with the burial. Could it have been a small unsculptured stele? The unsculptured stelai from Schliemann's Grave Circle are triangular at the top.The burial lies partially over a wall which may have been intended as a boundary for the Prehistoric Cemetery area, thus showing that the height of the wall mentioned can have been no higher at this point at the time of this burial, and suggesting that, if in fact this is an enclosure wall, it was not felt desirable to bury the dead outside the enclosure, either in the case of this burial or in that of the Geometric cist and pithos burials, and arguing some continuity in the cult of the dead. The wall itself, so far as has yet been ascertained, cannot be later than the L.H. IIIA period, and is probably considerably earlier.

Mycenae, 1952

The British excavations at Mycenae in 1952 were conducted with a research grant from the American Philosophical Society assisted by contributions from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trustees, and the British School at Athens, under whose aegis the work was carried out. The principal objectives were the ruins by side of the modern carriage road once tentatively called a Hellenistic Gymnasium, further investigation of the Prehistoric Cemetery outside the Lion Gate to the west, the clearing of the House of the Oil Merchant (found in 1950 and formerly called the House of Stirrup Jars) and of the House ofthe Wine Merchant (found in 1951 and part of the Cyclopean Terrace Building).The so-called Hellenistic Gymnasium, now completely cleared, proved to be a Fountain House to be identified with the Perseia Krene seen by Pausanias among the ruins of Mycenae. Here presumably Tsountas found the inscribed poros base which mentions Perseus and clearly belonged to a fountain. There are two basins, one wide and one narrow, built against a terrace wall of ashlar poros of late classical date. The existing ruins are Hellenistic, but overlie an earlier water channel. The water was probably led down from the well-known spring (now called neromána) which lies about twenty minutes above the acropolis to the east. Built into one of the basins is an inscription dating from the second quarter of the fifth century B.C., a boundary stone from a shrine of Hera. The identification of this Fountain House as the Perseia Krene confirms yet further the accuracy of Pausanias' account of Mycenae.

Part III. Commentary

Tsountas, as a result of his own excavations in the prehistoric cemeteries of Mycenae, came to the conclusion that the geographical distribution of the tombs in well-defined groups was not accidental, but designed. He found that the tombs were arranged in groups of eight, ten, or more lying close together in definite localities clearly separated from one another. This division of the cemeteries which lie near the Acropolis of Mycenae to the north, north-west, west, and south-west at the foot of the mountain of Hagios Elias, and in the sides of the various ridges that run south-westwards from it, he interpreted as meaning that the inhabitants of Mycenae lived in small villages or townships on these hills, and buried their dead in cemeteries hewn out of the sides of the ridges whereon they dwelt. The Acropolis was little more than a fortified palace protecting with its cyclopean walls the royal house, the great officers of state, chamberlains, captains of the guard, and the necessary servants or slaves, together of course with enough trusty guards to defend the walls in case of danger. The inhabitants of the separate villages were the ordinary civilian population, and Tsountas suggests that they lived in clans or groups of families, and that they continued in the tomb the clanship they had maintained in life. With the knowledge at present available these conclusions of Tsountas are eminently reasonable, and nothing found in the course of our excavations in the prehistoric tombs of Mycenae leads us to disagree with him on these points, for, as has been seen above and as will be explained below, the tombs we excavated have every appearance of being family sepulchres used by the same families over a considerable period of years.

Excavations at Ur of the Chaldees, 1926–19271

THE excavations started last year on Oct. 28 abd were closed down on Feb. 19. With the exception of Father Burrows, who replaced Dr. Legrain as epigraphist, my staff was the same as in the former season, Mrs. Keeling being responsible for the drawings, Mr. Whitburn for the architectural side, and Mr. Mallowan acting as general archaeological assistant; as foreman I had again Hamoudi from Jerablus, while his two sons were engaged, one as photographer, one as junior foreman. The number of workmen employed was smaller than usual, in view of the nature of our programme, and averaged about 130. The work fell into two distinct parts: the excavation of building sites, principally the houses of the Larsa period, and the examination of a large prehistoric cemetery.

40. A Prehistoric Cemetery at El Amrah in Egypt: Preliminary Report of Excavations.

40. A Prehistoric Cemetery at El Amrah in Egypt: Preliminary Report of Excavations.

The Prehistoric Cemetery of Frögg, at Rosegg, Carinthia

The Prehistoric Cemetery of Frögg, at Rosegg, Carinthia

A Prehistoric Cemetery

A DUNFERMLINE correspondent writes that another cemetery of prehistoric times has been discovered on the estate of Pitreavie. About two and a half miles to the north-east of the former discovery a number of workmen were, some days age, engaged in collecting rough stones to form an embankment. Ere the work had proceeded far it was noticed that the stones, which lay on a moor, formed a circle, partly covering- a mound 200 feet in diameter. In the centre of the mound, and about 36 inches below the surface, a cyst measuring 46 inches in length and 24 inches in width was found. The cyst was three-parts filled with a dark mould, and in it was discovered a beautifully-formed urn which stands 5 inches in height and measures 6 inches across the mouth. There was nothing in the urn but soil, but in the cyst some large calcined bones were found. Explorations were continued in the vicinity of the cyst and within the stone circle, with the result that no fewer than eleven other urns were found. All these urns contained calcined human bones and much vegetable charcoal, both in dust and in pieces, and numerous pieces of burnt bones were also found in the mound—a circumstance which indicates that a good many interments had taken place without urns. The urns measured from 5 to 12 inches in height, are hand-made, and of the type usually known as “food-vessels.” They have everted rims, and are ornamented with varied designs, formed by oblique lines and dots on the upper part, and encircling projecting rings at the bulged part. The urns are of a reddish colour, but the pottery section shows a black interior with a mixture of coarse sand. There are several interesting features attached to the discoveries. In the first cemetery a row of cysts with an urn in each were discovered—circumstances which unmistakably indicate the predominance of inhumation over that of cremation. No bones were found in the urns. In the second discovery only one cyst was found, and eleven of the urns were simply buried in the mounds, and all contained burnt bones—facts suggestive of cremation. The second discovery corresponds more than the first with most of the prehistoric local cemeteries which have been laid bare in the county of Fife. The chronological relationship between the two kinds of interment—inhumation and cremation—as presented to us in the two Pitreavie cemeteries, opens up a most interesting field of inquiry to the enthusiastic archaeologist. Dr. Worsaae, the late distinguished archæologist, says cremation was the outcome of higher and more advanced religious principles than characterised the people of the Stone Age, who were in the habit of burying their dead in dolmens and other megalithic tombs, with food-vessels, weapons, ornaments, and such articles as were supposed to be serviceable beyond the grave. Founding upon Dr. Worsaae's idea, it is not unreasonable to assume that the two discoveries under notice belong to the Stone and Bronze ages. The urns are all in the hands of the proprietor of the estate, Mr. Beveridge, and are likely to be handed over to the National Society of Antiquaries.