At a depth of 20 ft. below the former surface of the mount I struck an almost circular mass of Cyclopean masonry, with a large round opening in the form of a well; it was 4 ft. high and measured 7 ft. from north to south, and 5¼ ft. from east to west.[301] I at once recognised in this curious monument a primitive altar for funeral rites, and was strengthened in this belief by two slabs, in the form of tombstones, 2 ft. 9 in. long, and 1 ft. 6 in. broad, and a short column, which lay in a horizontal position below the altar, and which, in my opinion, must have once been erected on the spot to mark the site of a sepulchre. Fragments of beautiful hand-made or very archaic wheel-made pottery and knives of obsidian continued to be the only objects of human industry I met with.
AN ALTAR UPON A TOMB.
At last, at a depth of 26½ ft., and at a distance of only 4 ft. 7 in. from the tomb last described, I found a sepulchre, 24 ft. long, and 18½ ft. broad, which had been cut into the rock to the depth of 6 ft. on its west side, 10 ft. on the north side, 8 ft. on the south side, and on the east side 6½ ft. deep, its bottom being 33 ft. below the former surface of the mount.[302]
It deserves particular notice that the funeral altar marked precisely the centre of this tomb, and thus there can be no doubt that it had been erected in honour of those whose mortal remains reposed therein. All round the four sides of the bottom of this tomb was, on a foundation of large common stones, a slanting wall, 7 ft. 8 in. high, of large pieces of schist, of irregular form, which had been joined with clay. This wall projected 4 ft., and thus considerably diminished the size of the sepulchre. As in all the other tombs, the bottom was covered with a layer of pebbles, on which, at about equal distances from each other, lay the bodies of five men; three of them were lying with the head to the east, and the feet to the west; the other two were lying with the head to the north and the feet to the south. The bodies had evidently been burned on the very spot on which each lay; this was shown, as well by the abundance of ashes on and around each corpse, as by the marks of the fire on the pebbles and on the wall of schist. The cremation of all the bodies on the layer of pebbles on the very bottom of this, as well as of all the other tombs, has been officially authenticated by the three government clerks, whom the Director-General of Antiquities at Athens, Professor Panagiotes Eustratiades, has sent here to assist me in guarding the treasures, as well as by the Professor of Archæology, Phendikles, who remained here two weeks with me, and by the thousands of people who flock hither from all parts of the Argolid to see these wonders; and, therefore, any one who doubts the exactness of my statements as to the cremation is requested to apply to the said Director-General or to the Ministry of Public Instruction at Athens.
The five bodies of this FOURTH TOMB were literally smothered in jewels, all of which—as in the other tombs—show unequivocal marks of the funeral fires.
Here, as well as in the first and third tombs, I have noticed that, for a reason unknown to me, the burned bodies, with their golden ornaments, had been covered, after the cremation, with a layer (3 in. to 4 in. thick) of the same white clay which has been employed to join the pieces of schist of the slanting internal wall. On this layer of clay was put the second layer of pebbles. Down to about one foot above the upper layer of pebbles, the work of excavation is not difficult, for we have merely to direct our labourers to dig here or there. But from that point we have to do the work ourselves; the task is exceedingly difficult and painful to us, particularly in the present rainy weather, for we cannot dig otherwise than on our knees, and by cutting the earth and stones carefully away with our knives, so as not to injure or lose any of the gold ornaments.
COPPER VESSELS: NO SOLDERING.
Beginning the excavation of the lower strata of this tomb from the south side, I at once struck on five large copper vessels (λέβητες, 'caldrons'), in one of which were exactly one hundred very large and smaller buttons of wood, covered with plates of gold, with a splendid intaglio work of spirals and other ornamentation. Three of the copper vessels measure 14 to 20 in. in diameter each, and have two upright handles; the fourth is of the same form, but has three handles; the fifth is a can, 1 ft. 9 in. high, with two handles, of which the one is nailed to the mouth-piece and the upper part of the body of the vessel, and the other to its lower part. These five copper vessels stood all upright, close to the southern interior wall.
We find copper vessels (λέβητες) continually referred to in the Iliad, together with tripods, as prizes in the games or as presents.[303] But they are generally referred to in the Odyssey as basins, in which the hands were washed at the sacrifice or before dinner.[304] They were also used for the foot-bath.[305] It deserves particular attention that three of the five copper vessels, and particularly the large can, show unequivocal marks of long use on the fire. It deserves particular attention that there is no soldering in any one of the large copper vessels found in this or any other of the Mycenean tombs; these large vessels consist merely of copper plates, solidly joined together with innumerable small pins. All the handles are likewise attached with broadheaded nails.
Close to the copper vessel with the gold buttons, I found a cow's head of silver, with two long golden horns, which I represent in the engravings Nos. 327 and 328.