[CHAPTER VI.]
The SECOND GREAT TREASURY; ACROPOLIS; AND CYCLOPEAN REMAINS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MYCENÆ.
Further excavations of Mrs. Schliemann's Treasury—The dromos, doorway, and threshold—Objects found there—Hera-idols—Cyclopean water-conduits and cisterns in the Acropolis—Bronze rings—Pottery with marks like letters—Earrings like those found at Troy—Hand-made painted pottery—New forms of Hera-idols—Terra-cotta tripods and cradles, probably votive offerings—A comb, stilettos of opal, beads and buttons—A bronze sword—Iron tongs of late date—State of the débris left at the Lions' Gate—The excavations visited by the Emperor of Brazil—Ascent of Mount Eubœa—The Cyclopean enclosure on its summit; was probably a very ancient sanctuary—Other Cyclopean remains near Mycenæ—State of the excavations [139]
NOTE [149]
[CHAPTER VII.]
THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD TOMBS IN THE ACROPOLIS.
Discovery of the Tomb indicated by the three sculptured stêlæ—Curious gold-covered buttons, objects of ivory, baked clay, gold, glass, bronze, &c.—Pottery, both wheel and hand-made—Second Tomb below the unsculptured stêlæ—Discovery of three human bodies, which had been partially burnt where they lay—Fifteen diadems of thin gold plate found on the bodies—Also crosses of golden laurel-leaves—Other curious objects, proving a knowledge of the art of glass-working and colouring—Knives of obsidian—A silver vase with a bronze mouth plated with gold, and other objects—Terra-cotta vases—The horned Hera-idols found in the tomb, a proof of that symbolic worship in the earliest times at Mycenæ—Its duration to the last age of the city—Primitive painted wheel-made vases of terra-cotta—Further discovery of sepulchral slabs—Various objects found with them—The Third Tomb—Several skeletons of men, not burnt, and objects found with them—A curious double-bladed bronze dagger—Narrow escape from a falling rock—Internal walls of the tomb—Three skeletons of women in it, evidently burnt where they lay—Laden with jewels of gold—Layers of round plates of gold with ornamentation of repoussé work under and over the bodies—Description of their many types—The other jewels described—Other chased and embossed beads—Golden griffins—Legend of the griffins of Indian origin—Heart-shaped and lion-draped gold ornaments—Curious brooches formed of palm-trees, stags, and lions—Women with pigeons—Golden cuttle-fish, butterflies, swans, hippocampi, eagles, sphinxes, trees, and birds—The splendid gold crown on the head of one of the bodies—Signs upon it—The second gold crown—Five more diadems of gold—Crosses of double leaves of gold—Golden stars—A gold brooch, and other ornaments—Necklaces and bracelets—Two pairs of golden scales—Golden plates—A child's mask of gold—Other ornaments—Balls, &c. of rock crystal, silver, and bronze, probably the handles of sceptres—Lentoid gems of agate, sardonyx, &c., with intaglios—A lentoid gem of amethyst engraved with a cow suckling her calf, as on the old coins of Corcyra—Gold wheels—A gold comb with bone teeth, &c.—Amber beads—Other ornaments—Pieces of gold-leaf strewn below and about the bodies—A gold goblet—A curious gold box, and gold vases with lids fastened on by wires—A silver vase and golden sceptre-handle—Boxes of copper-plate filled with wood, perhaps pillows for the dead bodies—Other objects found in the third sepulchre—Hand-made and very ancient wheel-made pottery [150]
[CHAPTER VIII.]
THE FOURTH TOMB IN THE ACROPOLIS OF MYCENÆ.
Further search within the Agora, without the guide of tombstones—Discovery of an altar of Cyclopean masonry, over the centre of the great Fourth Tomb, containing the bodies of five men, burnt where they lay, laden with jewels, and covered with a layer of white clay—Objects found—Copper caldrons, one containing 100 gold-plated buttons with intaglio work—Homeric mention of caldrons—A silver cow's head with gold horns and a gold sun on its forehead: it represents Hera—Cow-heads with axes—Swords and lances of bronze—Gold-plated wooden sword-sheaths and hilts with gold pins—Three masks of gold covering the faces of the bodies—A fourth mask, representing a lion's head—Two seal-rings and a bracelet, with ornaments—The state of art corresponds with that described in Homer—Golden breastplates on two of the bodies—Golden crown by the head of another—Golden ornament of the greaves—Borax used then, as now, for soldering gold—More than one δέπας ἀμϕικύκελλον, and other vessels of gold and silver—The large gold goblet, with doves on the two handles, like Nestor's cup in the Iliad—Two-handled terra-cotta vases, hand-made, like those at Troy—Ornaments of alabaster—Gold shoulder-belts (τελαμῶνες)—Other objects found in the tomb, of rock crystal, amber, alabaster—Golden diadems, some seemingly for children; also a child's belt and frontlet, or "belle Hélène," and other ornaments of gold—Double edged battle-axes—Their use by the Greeks as a symbol, especially at Tenedos—A funeral fork of copper—Vase-lids of bone—Vessel of silver and lead in shape of an animal—Buttons of wood, plated with gold, splendidly ornamented—Their patterns and workmanship—Hundreds of gold flowers, plain buttons, and other ornaments of gold—Larger gold buttons, splendidly ornamented—Leaves of gold strewn under, over, and around the bodies—Wooden comb with gold handle—Gold models of temples—Many golden cuttle-fish—Gold knobs for sword hilts, highly ornamented—Arrow-heads of obsidian—Boars' teeth—Large copper vessels—Custom of placing such vessels in tombs—A copper tripod—Uses of tripods in Homer—Bronze swords, lances, and knives—Some swords with parts of their wooden sheaths, alabaster handle-knobs, golden studs, &c.—Remnants of linen sheaths—Oyster-shells and unopened oysters—Broken pottery, indicative of a still existing funeral custom—The bones of the deceased—Alabaster vases—Hand-made and very ancient wheel-made pottery—Fragments of a characteristic form of goblet, both of terra-cotta and of gold—Another type of goblets—Two whetstones—A handle of unique work, gold encrusted with rock crystal, "θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι." [211]
NOTE ON THE ROYAL PALACE [288]