The fabrication of glass was evidently in its very beginning at the time the tombs were constructed; but it seems to have made no progress here, for, except a few white glass pearls and some small ornaments of a glass paste, nothing was found of this article even in the upper strata, and it appears certain that at the capture of Mycenæ by the Argives (468 B.C.) even the small glass bottles, often found elsewhere, were still entirely unknown.
I further found a number of small knives of obsidian, many fragments of a large silver vase with a mouth of copper, which is thickly plated with gold and splendidly ornamented with intaglio work; unfortunately it has suffered too much from the funeral fire to be photographed. It appears that the Mycenean goldsmiths found it much easier to plate on copper than on silver; hence they made the mouth of this silver vase of copper. I also found a long and a short rusted bronze knife; a silver cup (φιάλη) with one handle, much damaged by the fire; four long perforated necklace-beads (two of agate and two of a glassy composition); a bronze vase handle; two horned Hera-idols of terra-cotta, of the usual form; and finally, many fragments of beautiful hand-made and of very ancient wheel-made pottery, among which was part of a vase with two tubular holes on either side for suspension with a string, like the vases in the lowest prehistoric city of Ilium.[274] There are also fragments of terra-cotta tripods, of which I found such an enormous quantity at Troy,[275] but which are less frequent at Mycenæ, nearly all the vases having a flat bottom. In this tomb was also found the fragment of a vase, ornamented with a sign which is nothing else than a 卍, the four arms of which have merely been converted into a spiral form.
ANTIQUITY OF HORNED FEMALE IDOLS.
The most important objects found in this tomb are no doubt the two two-horned Hera-idols previously mentioned, because they prove to us that the goddess was already worshipped, in this shape, in that remote antiquity to which the sepulchre belongs. As the very same type of the idol is found in all the strata of prehistoric ruins, and even in the débris of the houses which just preceded the later Hellenic city, it appears certain that it was still in use at the time of the capture of Mycenæ by the Argives (468 B.C.), and consequently it remained here unchanged for more than a thousand years. It is true that in all the prehistoric strata of débris above the tombs there are also found female idols of a different shape, which we cannot but assign to Hera; but, as their number is only very small as compared to the mass of horned idols, we may take it for granted that the horned idol was the most ancient, and that therefore the Myceneans clung with tenacity to that form.
The most remarkable wheel-made terra-cottas found in this tomb represent the lower parts of birds, in black colour on a light yellow dead ground. I also found two fragments of a hand-made vase belonging to the upper part of the bulge, with two female breasts; a large fragment of a most ancient wheel-made vase, presenting on a light yellow dead ground a beautiful and fantastic ornamentation of plants, circles or wave-like lines, painted in a very dark red colour (see Nos. 232, 233). These two fragments give a good illustration of Mr. Chas. T. Newton's remarks on the 9th June in the Royal Institution of London: "The floral ornaments of the Mycenean vases have a certain vague freedom and straggling lawless luxuriance, which seems to imply the facility of hand which long practice gives. The animal forms are ungainly and constrained in action, and the anatomy is for the most part entirely ignored or most feebly rendered. The floral and animal patterns seem to be the result of impressions from nature sufficiently vivid to awaken the mimetic faculty in an uncultivated mind, but which the untrained hand was unable to render in art."
Nos. 232, 233. Fragments of a very ancient wheel-made Vase. Sepulchre II. Size 1:3, about.
I also found here five fragments of very ancient wheel-made vases, having an ornamentation, in similar colours, of network, waving lines, plants, lines of points, &c.; and finally some fragments of very ancient wheel-made vases. Six of these fragments, which evidently belong to the same vase, have, on a light red dead ground, an ornamentation of crosses with four points. One has in its pointed bottom a perforation, and may have served as a sort of funnel. Another has the most curious ornamentation of all; it shews above what appears to be intended for the head of a serpent; to the right is a circle surrounded by points, and in its centre a crescent and six points; to the left of this is another circle, filled with and surrounded by points.
THE THIRD SEPULCHRE.
Encouraged by the success obtained in the second tomb, I took out the two large unsculptured tombstones of the third line, which stood almost due south of the former. One of them is 6 ft. 4 in. long, and 4 ft. broad; the other is 4 ft. 10 in. long and 4 ft. 4 in. broad. They were extremely well fastened by square blocks, so that they could not be got out without great efforts. These tombstones stood precisely 13 ft. 4 in. below the surface, as I found it when I began the excavations. Two feet below them, and thus 15 ft. 4 in. below the former surface, I found two large slabs in the form of sepulchral monuments, lying horizontally. At a depth of 5 ft. lower I brought to light three more slabs, the one lying, the other two standing, as follows:—