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Garters—Quiver Ornaments?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Axel W. Persson
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Extract

With the knowledge we now possess of the Mycenaean civilisation, obtained not least through examination of the Mycenaean tombs and their rich contents, it seems to me that the present is the time to take note not only of those objects found in the tombs, but also of those which are missing and which one would expect to find. Because of the apparent absence of lamps, I was able to point out that an earthenware object which was earlier taken for a drinking vessel or a scoop was probably a clay lamp. In the relatively dark tomb chambers artificial light was undoubtedly needed, especially in secondary burials, when the whole wall blocking the doorway was not removed, but a small opening, made in the upper part of the filling, sufficed for the introduction of the corpse into the tomb. Careful examination of the dromos and the wall blocking the doorway have proved that in many cases such a procedure took place. In the larger and richer tombs excellent stone lamps have been found. The occurrence of such lamps in the more pretentious tombs gave me the idea of looking for clay ones in the ordinary tomb chambers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 46 , November 1951 , pp. 125 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1951

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References

1 Cf. Persson, , ‘New tombs at Dendra near Midea’, Acta Reg. Societatis Hum. Litt. Lundensis XXXIV, Lund 1942, 102Google Scholar f.

2 Cf. Schliemann, , Mycenae and Tiryns, London 1878, 230Google Scholar, fig. 338.

3 Cf. Schuchhardt, , Schliemann's Ausgrabungen, Leipzig 1890, 261Google Scholar: ‘Sie sassen jedenfalls in der Weise, dass das ornamentirte Band mit Hilfe eines Drahtes die Partie zwischen Knie und Wade umschlang, der verticale Streif aber nach unten hing und mit seiner Öse einen Knopf der Gamasche fasste.’

4 Cf. Reichel, , Homerische Waffen 2, Wien 1901, 58Google Scholar f.

5 Reichel misinterpreted the footwear which also covers the lower calf of the otherwise unclothed figure depicted on a gold ring. They are definitely not gaiters but only the common footwear of an athlete. In the matter of this interesting representation, cf. Persson, , The Religion of Greece in Prehistoric Times, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1942, 36Google Scholar f.

6 Cf. Karo, , Schachtgräber von Mykenai, München 1930, 77.Google Scholar

7 Karo, op. cit., 220.

8 Karo, op. cit., 273, note 2.

9 Ibid., 280.

10 Cf. Asine, Results of the Swedish Excavations 1922–1930, Stockholm 1938, 256.

11 Cf. Karo, , Results of the Swedish Excavations 1922–1930, Stockholm 1938, 38.Google Scholar

12 Cf. Karo, ibid., 113, and also 208.

13 Cf. Karo, ibid., resp. nos. 394 and 605–607.

14 Bonnet, , Die Waffen der Völker des alten Orients, Leipzig 1926, 174.Google Scholar

15 Cf. Wolf, Walther, Die Bewaffnung des altägyptischen Heeres, Leipzig 1926, 51Google Scholar: ‘Die Feststellung, dass das im M.R. zum ersten Male überlieferte Wort für den Köcher isp. t ein hebräisch und keilschriftlich überliefertes semitisches Wort ist und dass ihn ein Mitglied der in Beni Hasan dargestellten Semitenkarawane trägt, verstärkt die Vermutung, dass der Gebrauch des Köchers sich von den Semiten auf die Ägypter übertragen hat’.

16 For this decoration, cf. Karo, op. cit., 81, fig. 19, no. 292.

17 Cf. Persson, New tombs at Dendra near Midea, 176 ff.

18 Cf. Minns, , Scythians and Greeks, Cambridge 1913, 67Google Scholar ff., and Index s.v. ‘Quiver’.