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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 933 
art—we may leave them aside. As, moreover, Attica, which was not conquered 
by the Dorians, shows Mykenzean remains, we may boldly reject the Dorian claim. 
2, It then rests between Achzeans and the older race, who were called Pelas- 
gians by the Greeks. Homer gives us a picture of a culture which Schliemana 
and Helbig (till lately), followed by most scholars, have sought to identify with 
that of Mykenze. This involves many difficulties: (1) The age of Mykenee is that 
of Bronze; that of Homer's Achieans is distinctly of Iron. (2) Engraved gems are 
characteristic of Mykenze, but such engraved gems, used either as signets or as 
ornaments, are unknown to Homer. (3) No fibude have been found in the Acropolis 
of Mykenze, but Homer’s Achieans use them to keep on their dress. (4) The My- 
kenzans were skilled in painting, but when Ilomer mentions it he speaks of it as 
‘Carian’ art. (5) The Mykenwans had a peculiar oblong shield, like the figure 8 ; 
they had no breastplate, no greaves of metal, and wore their hair in three locks 
behind ; whilst the Achzans had round shields, bronze breastplates and greaves, 
and wore their hair flowing. 
To obviate such difficulties Reichel,' followed by Leaf, would make wholesale 
excision of passages which describe Achzean warriors as armed with round shields, 
breastplates, and greaves. But such passages cannot he ‘late, even though 
later than some other parts of the poems; for if interpolation had been practised 
in late times, we should have the use of coined money, signets, and alphabetic 
writing, colonies in Asia Minor and Italy, and Dorians in Peloponnese, alluded to as 
they are by the tragic poets when they treat of the Heroic Age. 
3. The Greelis themselves thought that Mykene and Tiryns were built before 
the Achveans entered Peloponnese, and by the Pelasgians. The Greek historians 
declared that Attica was never inhabited by any other race than the Pelasgians, 
and as Mykenzean remains have been found in abundancein Attica, the conclusion 
is that it was the same race who made similar monuments in Peloponnese. 
There is no need to cut Homer to pieces to fit the Mykenean Age. The 
Acheans came into Peloponnese marrying the heiresses of the kings of the older 
race—e.g., Menelaos married the daughter of Tyndaros. 
The Mykenzean culture is that of the Bronze period, which was supplanted by 
the Iron Age, which was introduced by the Achzans into Greece. 
2. Preclassical Chronology in Italy and Greece.” 
By Dr. Oscar Monve.ivs. 
For chronological purposes, Italy and Greece must be taken together, because 
their early culture has a large common element, and because whereas Greek 
evidence supplies the more accurate date-marks, Italy affords a vastly larger mass 
of material hitherto, owing to the more scientific manner in which the content of 
each tomb has been registered in recent Italian excavations. 
The author’s examination of the extant evidence enables him to construct a 
relative chronology of short intervals, which divides the Bronze Age into seven 
periods, and the lron Age in Central Italy, down to the end of the VIth century, 
B.C., into stv’ more. 
During the Bronze Age the evolution was the same in Northern and in 
Central Italy; but from the beginning of the Iron Age the development in 
Etruria, south of the Apennines, is quite distinct from that in Northern Italy. 
The typological analysis shows evolution within each period; the periods them- 
selves, therefore, must have been of considerable length, each period of the Iron 
Age in Central Italy being of the approximate length of a century 
The absolute chronology is fixed by the occurrence of a series of exactly 
dateable objects imported from Greece in the eighth to fifth centuries B.c., and 
associated in Italian tombs with objects characteristic of successive periods in the 
lower part of the series. The result of the Author’s analysis is to raise to the 
ninth century B.c. certain tombs (the Regulini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri, &c.) com- 
' Homerische Waffen. Wien, 1895. 
2 The Paper will be published in full in Journ. Anthr. Inst., Feb. 1897. 
