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Part VI. Three Geometric Tombs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

V. R. d'A. Desborough
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Extract

During the excavations at Mycenae in 1953, a Protogeometric cist burial was discovered in the House of Shields, sunk into the floor of its west room. This burial, numbered Tomb PG 601, was published, with other burials, in BSA XLIX 258 ff. In the summer of 1954 Professor Wace uncovered three further burials in the House of Shields. These, at his most kind invitation, I publish here.

General situation (Fig. 1). Whereas tomb PG 601 was found at the southern end of the west room of the House of Shields, these three, here numbered 602, 603, and 604, appeared in the north-western corner of this same room. Only a few feet separate the one from the others, as will be clear from the plan, and 602 and 603 seem to have been placed under the shelter of the west wall. The area had been to a certain extent disturbed, but whether there may have been further burials between 601 and this group of three I cannot tell. None was found in the excavation.

Type
Mycenae 1939–1954
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 50 , November 1955 , pp. 239 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1955

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References

1 The graves were excavated by T. L. Shear, Jr., and my report, unfortunately not that of an eye-witness, is based on the excellent notes made by him. I acknowledge, therefore, my debt to him, as also to Professor Wace; and to Dr. J. L. Angel for the information concerning the skeletal remains.

2 Corinth VII 1, 6, pl. 1, 8.

3 Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery 198 and pl. 29 c.

4 It might even have continued into Geometric in Attica: cf. Kerameikos V i, pl. 51.

5 BSA XLIX 259 f.

6 Ibid. 261 f.

7 Ibid. 259.

8 Wace, Mycenae 84 and fig. 106, b; BSA XLIX 264 f.

9 Hesperia XVIII 275 ff.

10 Ibid. XVIII, pl. 68, 4. For Argive parallels, cf. Tiryns I 156, fig. 19 and pl. XVI 12.

11 Kerameikos I, pls. 50 and 61.

12 PAE 1939, 30, fig. 3γ (Tomb 2).

13 Hesperia XVIII, pl. 67, 17–20.

14 The rim of this vase and of the goblet may be compared with the rims of the North Cycladic skyphoi with pendent semicircles: cf. Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery 187.

15 Hesperia XVIII, pl. 67, 8–13.

16 Ibid. pl. 68, 5.

17 Ibid. pl. 67, 16.

18 Ibid. pl. 69, 11.

19 Ibid. pl. 72, 26 and 27.

20 Kerameikos IV, pl. 39.

21 Ibid. V i 190–1, 235–6; the finer of the two is illustrated on pl. 159.

22 Tiryns 128 (Tomb 2).

23 For a detailed discussion see Lorimer, Homer and the Monuments 336 ff.

24 A further probable example of Pie Ware has turned up at Clenia, a few miles from Mycenae. Cf. Charitonidis, , AJA LIX (1955), 125 and pl. 39, 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I think it is definitely later than the vase from G 603.

25 BSA XLIX 261, nos. 1 and 2.

26 Corinth VII i, nos. 22–53.

27 Ibid. pl. 4. References will be found op. cit. 11 to other similar vases.

28 Ibid. pl. 3.

29 BSA XLIX 263 and pl. 45.

30 Ibid. 265.

31 The reader should note that my absolute dates (cf. Protogeometric Pottery 294–5) are c. 40 years lower than those of the excavators of the Kerameikos tombs (see most recently Kerameikos V, i 70 n. 103). In default of new evidence, an open mind should be preserved; I may easily have been wrong.