NA TURE 



173 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1876 



DR. SCHLIEMANN'S DISCOVERIES AT 

 MYCENJE 



OF all the archaeological discoveries which this nine- 

 teenth century has witnessed, that which Dr. 

 jchliemann has just reported from Mycen^ will certainly 

 )e regarded as among the most important. Indeed, as 

 hrowing a light on those early days of Greece, the glories 

 )f which are reflected in the Homeric poems, it will stand 

 )re-eminent, and cast even the researches made by the 

 lame ardent explorer at Hissarlik into the shade. There 

 vas in that case always some degree of uncertainty, and 

 ;ven his most sincere admirers and sympathisers could 

 lot but feel that among the successively disinterred cities 

 t was doubtful which, if indeed any, was the Troy of 

 ;he Iliad, and whether " the treasure of Priam" was in 

 -eality that of the unburied father of Hector. 



At Mycence, on the contrary, the claim of the 

 uins which bear that name to be regarded as the 

 epresentatives of the ancient city founded by Perseus, 

 he massive walls of which were built by the Cyclopes, 

 ppears to be indisputable. It is true that Strabo relates 

 hat not a vestige of the town had survived to his time, 

 |)ut the account of Pausanias fully identifies the spot 

 vhere modern geographers place Mycense as having been 

 n his days the traditional site of the city. 



In returning to Tretus, on the way to Argos, the ruins 

 f Mycence are," he says, " seen on the left, nor is there any- 

 hing recorded of greater antiquity in the whole of Argolis. 

 A^hen Inachus was king he called the river which flows 

 y after his name, and consecrated it to Juno. In the 

 jins of Mycenee is the fountain called Perseia. There 

 re also the underground buildings of Atreus and his sons, 

 which were kept their treasures. There is, too, 

 le tomb of Atreus and of all those whom ^gistheus 

 ew at the banquet after their return with Agamemnon 

 om Troy. As to the tomb of Cassandra, it is dis- 



Iuted by the Lacedaemonians who live about Amychi. 

 ut there is the tomb of Atreus himself and of the 

 larioteer Eurymedon, and that in which Teledamus 

 id Pelops lie together (who were the twin sons of 

 assandra, and were slaughtered as infants by ^^gis- 

 leus at their parents' tomb), and the grave of Electra. 

 ut Clytemnestra and ^gistheus were buried a little 

 ithout the walls as they were not thought worthy to be 

 iterred within, where Agamemnon himself, and those 

 ho were slain with him, lie." 



Such was the legend 1,700 years ago, and making 



1 allowance for the reconstruction of history or legend 



|> which local guides arc so prone, there is enough to 



liow that a strong tradition remained upon the spot of 



^arly race of kings whose deeds were famous in the 



remote days when the Iliad was composed. 



en now the gate with the lions still stands in the 



opean walls, the subterranean buildings and various 



ilchres still exist, and the tradition of the treasures of 



jtreus and his sons appears not to have been without a 



od foundation. Who were the occupants of the tombs 



|)w rifled by Dr. Schliemann must of course be conjec- 



jrcd, but he seems to have brought to light more than 



Vol. XV.— No. 374 



one of the kings of the golden city, more than one 

 /Sao-iX^a Tro\vxpv(Toio MvKi]vr]s. 



Until we receive photographs of the various objects 

 discovered in the tombs it is idle to speculate upon their 

 forms, which are of course but vaguely described in a hur- 

 ried account such as that furnished to the Times by Dr. 

 Schliemann. Though many of them appear to be novel 

 in character and the general contents of the graves rich 

 beyond all comparison, yet the results of the excavations 

 do not as yet appear to be at all out of harmony with 

 what might have been predicated of the contents of a 

 royal tomb belonging to what prehistoric archaeologists 

 would term the close of the Bronze period of Greece— a 

 country where notoriously much allowance must be made 

 for Egyptian influences. The bronze knife, the curious 

 bronze dagger, the bronze swords and lances, the former 

 having scabbards ornamented with gold, the gold-covered 

 buttons, which from the description would seem to be 

 not unlike those found by Sir R. Colt Home in some of 

 our Wiltshire barrows, the long flakes or knives of obsidian, 

 the style ot ornamentation of the gold with impressed 

 circles and spiral lines, are all in keeping with such a 

 period. But though in general harmony with what might 

 have been expected, there are, as already observed, also 

 important and special features of novelty in the dis- 

 covery. 



The unprecedented abundance of the gold ornaments, 

 the masks, the great diadems — which possibly may throw 

 some light on the Scandinavian bronze ornaments which 

 go by that name, and also on the Irish gold "minds" and 

 the golden crosses in the form of laurel leaves — the silver 

 sceptref with the crystal balls, the engraved gems, the 

 vases, the great gold pin with the female figure crowned 

 with flowers— possibly the Juno Antheia worshipped in 

 the city of Argos — in fact the whole find will attract the 

 attention of both classical and prehistoric antiquaries. 



The pottery discovered appears also to be of peculiar 

 fabric and material, and will no doubt contribute much 

 to our knowledge of ancient fictile art. As all the originals 

 will go to enrich the already important Museum of 

 National Antiquities at Athens, it will be mainly from 

 photographs and drawings that these wonderful objects 

 will be known in this country. Let us in passing express 

 a hope that the photographic and artistic representations 

 of the Mycense treasure may be more satisfactory than 

 those which constitute Dr. Schliemann's Hissarlik Album. 

 With regard to the antiquity to be assigned to these 

 interments, it will be well to bear in mind that they lay at 

 a considerable depth below the slabs first discovered by 

 Dr. Schliemann, the ground beneath which he origi- 

 nally regarded as virgin and undisturbed ; that above 

 these slabs lay a great thickness of debris, probably 

 accumulated at a time when the city was inhabited, and 

 yet that Mycenae was destroyed by the Dorians of Argos, 

 about B.C. 468, at a period so early in Greek history that 

 no authenticated coins of the city are known. It seems 

 to have been from the depth at which the interment lay 

 that they escaped the researches of former excavators, 

 including Lord Elgin, upon the site. The reputed tomb 

 of Theseus, which was rifled by Cimon the Athenian 

 the year after the destruction of Mycenae, must have 

 lain nearer the surface, but the bronze spear and sword 

 which were found in it, and which were brought with the 



