EXCAVATION BY VELI PASHA.
The Professor of Medicine in Athens, Johannes P. Pyrlas, has kindly called my attention to an article he published in the Tripolis newspaper, "Βελτίωσις," of the 19th November, 1857, on the first excavation of the Treasury of Atreus (commonly called in the Argolid the "Tomb of Agamemnon"), of which I give here the translation with all reserve.
"THE TOMB OF AGAMEMNON IN MYCENÆ.
"In 1808, as old people relate, in the month of April, a Mahomedan of Nauplia presented himself before Veli Pasha, who was at that time governor of the Peloponnesus, and told him that he knew there were several statues hidden in the 'Tomb of Agamemnon.' Veli Pasha, who was energetic and ambitious, at once began to excavate the space in front of the tomb with forced labour. When he had dug down to a depth of three fathoms, the workmen descended by means of a ladder into the interior of the dome, and found there a great many ancient tombs, and having opened these they found in them bones covered with gold, which was no doubt derived from the gold embroidered drapery. They found there also other gold- and silver- ornaments, also precious stones in the form of those called 'antiques' (gems), but without any incised work. Outside of the tombs they found about twenty-five colossal statues and a marble table, all of which Veli Pasha transported to the Lake of Lerna (the Mills), and having got them washed and cleaned and wrapped up in mats, he sent them on to Tripolis, where he sold them to travellers and obtained for them about 80,000 gros (then worth about 20,000 francs). Having gathered the bones and all the débris contained in the tombs, he got these also transported to Tripolis, and entrusted them there to the most notable goldsmiths, D. Contonicolacos and P. Scouras, who, after having cleaned the débris and scraped off the gold from the bones, collected about 4 okes (4800 grammes) of gold and silver. The stones in form of antiques as well as the bones were thrown away. I had this account from the mouth of the two goldsmiths when they were still alive, and from my own father, who saw the statues at the Mills."
Now not to speak of the improbability that statues of the heroic age should have been found, the above account is in no way confirmed by the old men of Charvati, the village nearest to the site of Mycenæ, nor by those of the other villages of the plain of Argos, all of whom agree that the excavation took place in 1810, and that the sole objects found in the Treasury were some half-columns and friezes, a marble table, and a long bronze chain suspended from the top of the dome, at the end of which was hanging a bronze candelabrum.[141] I have heard this account repeated so many hundred times by the old people of the Argolid that I believe it to be perfectly correct, except, of course, as to the candelabrum; because, not to speak of candles, even lamps were totally unknown to Homer, and I never found them either at Troy, or at Tiryns or Mycenæ, in the strata of prehistoric house remains. Nay, lamps appear not to have existed at Tiryns or Mycenæ before their capture by the Argives in 468 B.C., because I only found them in the latter place in the débris of the more modern city, and none were found at Tiryns. Thus the object which the villagers had regarded as a candelabrum must necessarily have been something else.
Moreover, this whole story of the excavations by Veli Pasha seems to relate to a spoliation of the treasury which took place at a much more remote period; for Dodwell, who began his journeys in Greece in 1801, and ended them at all events not later than 1806, gives a description and plans of both the exterior and interior of the great chamber. Gell (Argolis), who visited Mycenæ about 1805, also gives exact drawings of the exterior and interior of the Treasury. Clarke (Travels), who visited Mycenæ at the same period, says of the treasury of Atreus (vi. 492): "This chamber has evidently been opened since its construction, and its interior thus revealed; but absolutely nothing certain is known as to the time when this may have occurred. To judge by the present appearance of the edifice, it must have been at a very remote epoch." Dodwell, Colonel Leake, and Ernst Curtius speak also of excavations made by Lord Elgin in the treasury of Atreus. But in the collection of Lord Elgin's drawings preserved in the British Museum, nothing is found which relates to this treasury.
No. 23a. A Terra-cotta Vase. (3 M.) Actual size.
OBJECTS FOUND AT THE ENTRANCE.
According to Professor E. Curtius ('Peloponnes,' II. p. 408), the following fragments of ancient ornaments were found before the entrance of the Treasury:—