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What People Produced the Objects Called Mycenean? Author(S): William Ridgeway Source: the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol

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What People Produced the Objects Called Mycenean? Author(S): William Ridgeway Source: the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol What People Produced the Objects Called Mycenean? Author(s): William Ridgeway Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 16 (1896), pp. 77-119 Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/623941 . Accessed: 21/01/2011 10:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=hellenic. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Hellenic Studies. http://www.jstor.org WHAT PEOPLEPRODUCED THE OBJE(STSCALLED MYCENEAN? AT Mycenaein 1876 Dr. Schliemannlifted the cornerof the veil which had so long enshroudedthe elder age of Hellas. Yearby yearever since that veil has beenfurther withdrawn, and now we are privilegedto gazeon morethan the shadowyoutline of the pictureof a farback abe. The picture is still incomplete,but it is nowpossible to tracethe salientpoirlts. Can we in comparingit with picturesof certainpeoples who have.dwelt in and reignedat Mycenae,pictures preserved for us elsewhere,identify it as that of any previouslyknown ? The objectof this little essayis to make such an attempt. The nameMycenean is now appliedto a whole classof monuments- buildings,sepulchres, ornaments, weapons, pottery, engraved stones which resemblemore or less closelythose foundat Mycenae. I thinkI am right when I say that archaeologistsare unanimousin consideringthem the outcomeof olle and the same civilization,and the productof one and the samerace. These tnonumentsare rjot confinedto the Peloponnesus,nor to t-he mainlandof fIellas. They are foundin many widely distantspots. For instance,certain engraved stones, some bean-likein shape,some glandular, llavebeen so frequentlyfound in the Greekislands as to be knownas ' Island gems.' Suchstones have been found in Cretein considerableIlumbers; and Mr.A. J. Evans'recent brilliant discoveries in Crete,and his masterlypaper on 'PrimitivePictographs,' have rivetedmore closelarthan ever the atten- tion of scholarsnot onlyto suchgems, but to the whole area of Mycenean antiquities. Let us nowenumerate the differentregions in whichMycenean remainshave been found. I. PELOPONNESUS.-(a)Aryolts, (1) Mycenae. The Cyclopeanwalls and gateway;the shaftgraves of the Acropoliswith their rich contentsof gold ornamentsand goldcups, pottery, etc.; the beehivetombs, eight in number, of the lowercity, and the sixty-onequadrangular rock-hewn graves, with their contents. (Schliemann,Mycenae ttnd Sq,ryns,1878; Tsountas,Mykena,m,, 1892.) The potteryis of two kinds. All of fine yellowishbrown clay: but one classis distinguishedby a lustrotlsdark brown varnish, decorated with marine WEAT PEOPLE PRODUCED plants or anilllals,the other by their dull brownand red colouredpainting, and by their decorationand shape. The decorationconsists of narrowbrown lines alternatingwith wide red ones. lIorizon'callines and bands of spiralsare its regularfeatures.l As the pottery is one of the chief features by which the Myceneancivilization is detected, it is importantto note its peculiarities. At Mycenae there have also been fotlnd the remains of a prae-historicpalace similarto that found at Tiryns and on the Acropolisat Athens. (2) Ttryns. Schliemannbrollght to light here the now famous palace, with its fragmentsof wall-paintings(one of them a man with a bull 2), frag- ments of pottery, and the fragments of an alabaster frieze iillaid with blue glass. (3) Naqxplz. This was the port of Tiryns,and must have been in close relationalways to it. Here there is a beehive tomb, the excavationof which has broughtto light the usual formsof Myceneanobjects.3 (4) 7Che]:Eeqlaeqtqn. Professor Waldstein's excavations have brought to light Myceneanpottery and a numberof Myceneangems. To the south-east of the Heraeum a beehive tomb has been excavated,exhibiting Mycenean remainsand also showingby its contents that it was still used for interments in classlca]times.4 (5) Mmdea.Mycenean pottery has been found here. (b) laconia. A beehive tomb openedat Vaphiopro(luced the usualkinds of Mycenean objects,including the gold cups now so famous,the very zenith of Myceneanart. It containedsome £orty-oneengraved gems. (c) Arcadia,though as yet little searched for Mycenean remains,has yielded at least one gem from Phigalia.5 II. ATTICA. The remains of the Cyclopeanwalls and the prae-historic palace and Mycenean pottery have been found on the Acropolis.6 Beehive tombs of great importancehave been discoveredat Menidi,Spata and Thori- cus, containing the usual objects of Mycenean age. That at Menidi is of special interest, as the fragmentsof pottery founclin the drornosor approach to it show an unbroken series of Mycenean,Dipylon, Attic black and red- figured vases. This, as has been pointed out, indicates an unbroken con- tinuity of worshipat the tomb. III. BOEOTIA.-(1) Orchom,ent6s.7The great beehive tomb,knownasthe treasuryof Minyas. Schliemannbrought to light Myceneanremains such as the roof slabs decoratedwith elaboratespirals.8 (2) Cyclopeanremains are found at Goulasin the lake Copais.9 1 Schuchhardt's Schliemann's Excaxostions, 5 Milchhofer, Xnfanye der Kt6nst, p. 54. p. 186-7. (Engl. Trans.) 6 23chuchhardt,p. 298. 2 Schliemann, Tzryns, 1886. 7 lb. 3 Schuchhardt, p. 162-163. 8 Journat of HeZlenicStt4dies, vol. ii. 132 4 Ib, pX151 9 Schuchhardt, pp. 151, 162. THE OBJECTS CAT.T.E.DMYCENEAN ? IV. PHOCIS.I:)elphi. The Frenchhave excavateda tombof Mycenean age nearDelphi. 79 V. THESSALYAt Dimninear Volo the openingof a beehivetomb has revealeda numberof Myceneanobjects of the usualtype, includin^, a gem of lapis laz¢li. The discoveryof a gem of this materialin this regionis llot withoutsome significance. AJI.ASIA MINOR. (l) Sroad. At Hissarlikremains of the Mycenean kindhaUve been found in abundance.The ' SecondCity ' exhibitsthe older kind, but the ' Sixth City' haUsyielded those of the finest period of Myceneanart.l° (2) ltitane in Aeolis. VII. CYPRUS.Mycenean pottery has beenfound in considerablequan- tities in Cyprus. CT6rivrn has yieldedimportant Mycenean remains to Mr.Walters. VIII. RHODES.-Myceneanremains, including pottery and engraved gems,have been found in the tombsof Ialysusand Cameirus. IX. THERA. Myceneanpottery of the earlierperiod. The potteryis foundwith a stratumof pumiceoustufa super-imposed. X. MELOS,THERASIA, NAXOS, IOS, AMORGOSalld PAROShave also yieldedMycenean objects. XI. EGYPT. (1) Kahu,n. (2) lwel-el-Amarna. ProfessorFlinders Petrie found Mycenean pottery at boththese places.ll XII. CRETE. Thereis a prae-historicbuilding at Cnossus,either a palacelike thoseof XIycenae,Tiryns and Athens, or the Labyrinth,or the old CretanCommon Hall; at Goulasthe remainsof a Myceneancity; and Myceneangems llave been foundeverywhere, especially in the south-eastern part of the island. These gems sometimesbear charactersidentified with certaincharacters found on the necksof vasesfrom Mycenae and Attica and closelyresembling those on the Hittite gems fromAsia Minor.12 XIII. ITALY.-(1) Bologna. Bronzeobjects belonging to the late Bronze andearly Iron Age identifiedby Evansas Myceneanin design. (2) Etesqtria. Similarobjects have been found at Corneto. 0 Schuchhardt, op. ctt. p. 190. 19 A. J. Evans, 'Primitive Pictographs,' 11 ' Egyptian Bases of Greek History, ' J.ff. S. J.ff.S. vol. 2riv. vol. xi. WHAT PEOPLE (3) PRODUCED 80 Lati?Xon.The ancient nasonry. townof Signiaexhibits remainsof polygonal (4) MagnaGraecta. There the region are manyremains of afterwardsoccupied by prae-historictowns in hasbeen found, and the Iapygians,where like discoverieshave Myceneanpottery beenmade in Sicily. Archaeologistsare agreed variousand in regardingall the widelydistant regions objectsfound in andthe same as the outcomeof these people. the same civilization Who were the people northern who had the great side of the gift of developing dependentof Mediterraneana culturewhich on the those of Egypt and maybe regardedas in- far-reachinginfluence Mesopotamia? This into central,northern cultureexercised a Hallstadtperiod. For if on and westernEurope receivedin the one handthe duringthe Italy and Greecethe peopleof the Mycenean theirbronze work amberof the Baltic, period into the distantand so they in turnsent ofthe Istrosand the mysteriousregions itwas denseaisles of the beyondthe sources saidby themof Hercynianforest, regions the old time Heracleshad into which Hind of the Golden oncejourneyed in his What Horns. questfor peopleproduced the problemill archaic Mycetleancivilization is the with Greekhistory.
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