472 



NATURE 



[March 29, 1877 



whereas Dr. Schliemann's instinct led him to infer that 

 Agamemnon and his companions were buried within the 

 wall of the citadel. Following this clue he began three 

 years ago to sink many shafts in different parts of the 

 Acropolis, and met with such encouraging results near 

 the Lions' Gate mentioned by Pausanias that he devoted 

 his main attention to diggings in this quarter. There 

 were, however, so many hindrances, that it was only in 

 last July he was able to carry out his plans. 



In the Acropolis Dr. Schliemann had entirely cleared 

 the famous Lions' Gate, which he went on to describe, 

 discussing also the old question of the symbolism of the 

 lions surmounting the gateway, and of the altar sur- 

 mounted by a column, on either side of which rest the 

 fore paws of one of the two lions. One theory was 

 that the column related to the solar worship of the Per- 

 sians, another that the altar is a fire altar, guarded by 

 the lions ; a third that we have here a representation of 

 Apollo Agyieus. Dr. Schliemann himself was of this last 

 opinion, which, he thought, was borne out by the Phry- 

 gian descent of the Pelopidae. The lion-cult of the 

 Phrygians was well known. Besides, among the jewels 

 found in the tombs, and especially in the first tomb, this 

 religious lion symbolism re-appeared. On two of the 

 repousse gold plates there found was seen a lion sacrificing 

 a stag to Hera Bowttis, who was represented by a large 

 cow's head, with open jaws, just in the act of devouring 

 the sacrifice. On entering the Lions' Gate were seem- 

 ingly the ancient dwellings of the doorkeepers, of whom 

 some account was given. Further on, as at Troy, was 

 quadrangular Cyclopean masonry, marking the site of a 

 second gate of wood. Still further on were two small 

 Cyclopean water-conduits ; to the right of the entrance 

 passage were two Cyclopean cisterns. A little further on 

 came to light that large double parallel circle of closely- 

 jointed, slanting slabs, which has become so famous 

 during the last three months. Only about one-half of it 

 rests on the rock, the other half rests on a 12-feet high 

 Cyclopean wall, which has been expressly built to support 

 it in the lower part of the Acropolis. The double circle 

 had been originally covered with cross slabs, of which six 

 are still in situ. Inside the double slabs was, first, a 

 layer of stones for the purpose of holding the slabs in 

 their position. The remaining space was filled up with 

 pure earth mixed with long thin cockles, in the places 

 where the original covering remains in its position, or 

 with d'tbris of houses mixed with countless fragments of 

 archaic pottery wherever the covering was missing. This 

 circumstance could leave no doubt that the cross slabs 

 were removed long before the capture of Mycenje by the 

 Argives (B.C. 468). The entrance to the double circle 

 was from the north side. In the western half of the circle 

 Dr. Schliemann discovered three rows of tomb steles, 

 nine in all, made of calcareous stone. All stood upright ; 

 four only which faced the west had sculptures in relief. One 

 stele, piecisely that beneath which was found the body with 

 the golden plates representing the lion sacrificing the stag 

 to Hera Bowttis-, represents a hunting scene. The two next 

 sculptured sepulchral slabs represent each a battle scene. 

 The Mycena; slabs, Dr. Schliemann said, were unique of 

 their kind. The manner in which they fill up the spaces 

 not covered by men and animals with a variety of beauti- 

 ful spiral ornaments reminds us of the principles of the 

 painting on the so-called Orientalising vases. But in the 

 Mycenaean sculptures nowhere do we see a representation 

 of plants so characteristic of ancient Greek ornamentation 

 of this class. The whole is rather linear ornamentation, 

 representing the forms of the bas-relief. Hereby we have 

 an interesting reference to the epoch in Greek art pre- 

 ceding the time when that art was determined by Oriental 

 influences, an epoch which may approximately be said to 

 reach far back into the Second Millennium (B.C.). 



Here then in the Acropolis of Mycena; are tombs which 

 are no myth, but an evident reality. Who were these great 



personages entombed here, and what were the services 

 rendered by them to Mycenae which deserved such splen- 

 did funereal honours ? It was argued at length that the 

 inhabitants of these tombs could be none other than the 

 very persons spoken of in the extract Dr. Schliemann had 

 cited at the outset from Pausanias. Dr. Schliemann then 

 proceeded to state the details of what he had found below 

 the ruins of the Hellenic city. He spoke of the vast 

 masses of splendidly archaic vases. Iron, he remarked, 

 was found in the upper Hellenic city only, and no trace 

 of it in the prehistoric strata. Glass was found now and 

 then in the shape of white beads. Opal glass also oc- 

 curred as beads or small ornaments. Sometimes wood 

 was found in a perfect state of preservation, as in the 

 board of a box (vapdrj^), on which were carved in bas- 

 relief beautiful spirals. Rock-crystal was frequent, 

 for beads and also for vases. There were also beads 

 of amethyst, onyx, agate, serpentine, and the like 

 precious stones, with splendid mtaglio ornamenta- 

 tion representing men or animals. When towards 

 the middle of November he wished to close the ex- 

 cavations. Dr. Schliemann excavated the spots marked 

 by the sepulchral slabs, and found below all of them 

 immense rock-cut tombs, as well as other seemingly much 

 older tombstones, and another very large sepulchre from 

 which the tombstones had disappeared. These tombs 

 and the treasures they contained, consisting of masses of 

 jewels, golden diadems, crowns with foliage, large stars of 

 leaves, girdles, shoulder-belts, breast-plates, &c., were 

 described in detail. He argued that as 100 goldsmiths 

 would need years to prepare such a mass of jewels, there 

 must have been goldsmiths in Mycenoe from whom such 

 jewels could have been bought ready-made. He spoke 

 of the necklaces, too, and of the golden mask taken from 

 one of the bodies, which must evidently be a portraiture 

 of the deceased. Dr. Schliemann then proceeded to show 

 that in a remote antiquity it was either the custom, or, at 

 least, that it was nothing unusual that living persons wore 

 masks. That also immortal gods wore masks was proved 

 by the bust of Pallas Athene, of which one copy was in 

 the British Museum and two in Athens. It was also 

 represented on the Corinthian medals. The treasures of 

 Mycenae did not contain an object which represented a 

 trace of Oriental or Egyptian influences, and they 

 proved, therefore, that ages before the epoch of Pericles 

 there existed here a flourishing school of domestic artists, 

 the formation and development of which must have 

 occupied a great number of centuries. They further 

 proved that Homer had lived in Mycenas's golden age, 

 and at or near the time of the tragic event by which the 

 inmates of the five sepulchres lost their lives, because 

 shortly after that event Mycenoe sank by a sudden 

 political catastrophe to the condition of a poor powerless 

 provincial town, from which it had never again emerged. 

 They had the certainty that Mycenae's flourishing school 

 of art disappeared, together with its wealth ; but its 

 artistical genius survived the destruction, and when, in 

 later centuries, circumstances became again favourable 

 for its development, it lifted a second time its head to the 

 heavens. 



No doubt Dr. Schliemann's theories will be subjected 

 to much criticism when the full details and drawings 

 appear in his forthcoming work. Of the value of the 

 discoveries themselves there can be but one opinion 

 Those alone which have been made in the Acropolis of 

 what many have been inclined hitherto to regard as a 

 half mythical city are of themselves sufficient to entitle 

 him to an important place in the field of scientific re- ^ 

 search. Both to the historian and ethnologist his re- , 

 searches nmst prove of the greatest value, and all who 

 have been stirred with the recital of the deeds of the j 

 Homeric heroes will rejoice to have henceforth reasonable 

 external evidence for regarding thqm as something more 

 than myths. 



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