No. 222. Fragment of a wooden Box (νάρθηξ). (5 M.) Size 6:7.
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.
Mycenæ, December 6, 1876.
No. 223. Plan of Tombstones in the first Tomb.
THE FIRST SEPULCHRE.