No. 269. Golden Ornament. Sepulchre III. Actual size.
Nos. 270, 271. Two Golden Cuttle Fish. Sepulchre III. Actual size.
I further found in the same tomb golden ornaments like No. 269, but I find it difficult to explain whether the artist intended to represent a horse, a hippocampus, or a dog. Of golden ornaments in the form of cuttle-fish, or sepias, I found not less than twenty-seven of the shape of those represented under Nos. 270 and 271. All of them are double, that is to say, two sepias are always soldered together, so that the ornament represents a sepia on either side. The Mycenean goldsmith, always eager to convert everything into spirals, has done so here with all the feet of the sepias, every one of which forms a beautiful spiral. Some of the sepias, like No. 270, have in addition four perforations for fixing them with thread. How these ornaments may have been used is altogether a riddle to me. No. 272 represents a flying griffin of gold. Like No. 261, it has the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and is ornamented with spirals. As it has no perforations, it must have been fastened with glue on the drapery.
No. 272. A Flying Griffin of Gold. Sepulchre III. Actual size.
No. 273. Golden Ornament. Sepulchre III. Actual size.
Of the highest interest are two little golden figures, one of which is given under No. 273, each having four perforations in exactly the same places; they appear, therefore, to have been attached to each other, so that the same figure appeared on either side. They exactly resemble each other. Regarding the type of the features nothing can be said with certainty, for it may as well be Hellenic as Asiatic. Nor is there any indication whether the figures represent men or women, though their rich female dress leads us to suppose the latter to be the case. Both have the hands joined on the breast like Aphrodité, but below them we see an object in the form of a disk, which seems to be suspended from the neck. On each side of the breast, as well as on the lower part of the gowns, we see a number of straps, which probably represent ribbons or gold lace; also two rows of twelve small circles in each, which are no doubt intended to represent gold buttons with intaglio work, like those of which such large quantities were found, as we shall see, in two of the tombs.