Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/349

 324 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. by fire ? Had this been the case, and however imperfectly we may assume the fire to have done its work, is it likely that we should come across heads almost intact, and with all the signs of having been embalmed (Fig. 107) ? The presumption is in the highest degree improbable. Well, but what of the ashes ? it may be retorted. Our answer is that Schliemann, with his pre-conceived ideas, saw more than existed in reality ; but even allowing that some were found in the pits, their presence can be accounted for on bases other than the cremation theory. That sacrifices were offered to the dead, and the half-consumed flesh, along with ashes and bits of charcoal still adhering to them, thrown into the grave, is abundantly proved by the similar tombs which have been ex- cavated in the flank of Mount Palamidi, near to Nauplia, and which date from this same Mycenian period. They have been carefully examined by Dr. Lolling, who states that ** the corpses have been buried there intact, and that cremation is out of the question."^ However, traces of ashes and smoke have certainly been discovered on two small vases which stood near one of the skeletons. In the space interposing between the heads of the dead and the side of the grave, lay a few thinly-scattered bones of sheep and goats ; bones and horns of the latter animal have also been collected in one of the grave-pits, and similar bones were sprinkled where the body had lain. It is self- evident that the bones of animals and the two vases came from sacrifices that had been made to the dead, and reverently placed in the graves by the friends of the defunct, to supply their wants after death. The habit of burying objects belonging to the defunct has never gone out of fashion in Greece. A glance at the vase section of any museum will suffice to show that more than one specimen has come out of the funereal pyre, whereon it had been exposed, more or less discoloured and blackened by smoke. If the funereal rites were thus able to furnish their contingent of gold and ashes, the yearly sacrifices made to the memory of ancestors over their graves increased the bulk of the refuse. The existence and the persistency of this cult are made manifest by the circular altar standing one metre above the fourth grave (Figs. 102-104), and the bones of animals, of which the subsoil ^ Lolling, Ausgrabtmgen am Palamidi,