Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/540

 532 Recent Greek AixhcBology and Folk-lore.

but never of sufficient size to contain an extended body^, generally averaging about 3 ft. by 2 ft. On the other hand, there is never a trace of ashes, so that the possibility of incineration is excluded. Dummler supposes that perhaps the bodies were buried in a sitting position ; of course it is a well-known fact that primitive man slept in a sitting position, and had muscles developed specially for this purpose : and instances of this position are not unknown in many Greek necropoleis ; but in these cases the burial is,, I believe, not primitive, and the body is invariably placed within a large earthenware vase of the pithos form, which necessitates the sitting position. On the other hand, the pithos can hardly have been an essential of primitive burial, as the making of so large a vase in terra-cotta is a task which demands considerable skill. This "pithos" is nothing more nor less than the tub of the cynic Diogenes,, concerning which so much ingenuity has been spent ; the story of the philosopher may very well have arisen out of the burial custom ; on the other hand, Aristophanes {Knights, 792) speaks of the Athenian poor as living in tubs (ypithaknai) during the terrors of the Peloponnesian war ; anyhow, the tradition had taken artistic form in Roman times, for we have in the British Museum a Roman lamp showing the cynic in his tub.

Dummler's supposition can hardly be correct in the case of the Oliaros graves at any rate, for most of these recep- tacles, which are much too small for even a single sitting body, actually contain the bones of more than one, heaped in confusion. In one tomb, which was only about 2 ft. square, two skulls were tightly wedged together, side by side, and the bones appertaining were huddled at the foot ; this is being " united in death" with a vengeance I Is it possible that the dead of this primitive race were exposed, like those of the Parsees on the "dakhma" or " tower of silence" ? The only feasible explanation seems to me to be Bent's suggestion that the flesh from these bodies was in some way removed before interment ; but