Account of a Cinerary Vase, 76 



in question, for there it was evident that the graves had been 

 already ransacked, and their contents removed ; even the flat 

 stones which had covered them had been taken away. 



As the vase had a piece broken from the side, which was 

 lying within it, and was without any foot or cover, it would 

 appear that it had been discovered at some former period; 

 but why it should have been left when every thing else was 

 removed, and how the gold especially had so long escaped, it 

 is hard to determine. 



Our unsought good fortune induced us to search many times 

 afterwards, in and about the same spot, but we never found any 

 other object of interest. 



One of the most remarkable circumstances attending this 

 vase was its situation, for though it is evident, from its con- 

 tents that it was used as a cinerary urn, yet it was found placed 

 with an interred body, the niche in which it stood forming part 

 of the grave, as shewn in the diagram. 



Grave 



It is probable that the remains which occupied each the 

 grave and the vase, were those of persons nearly connected, 

 yet why this one body should have been burnt and all the others 

 interred, at periods of time probably not very distant, has hi- 

 therto baffled the conjectures of persons conversant with the 

 usages of antiquity. I am not aware that there exists any other 

 example of the two modes of sepulture being thus united. 



Though I had got the vase safe in my possession, which, by 

 the right of my being the finder, became my property, I had still 

 to apprehend that it might be stolen, or maliciously broken, 

 during my residence at Athens. Such dangers, however, it 

 happily escaped, though not without causing me some solici- 

 tude and anxiety. 



On leaving Athens for Constantinople, I placed it under the 



