Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/26

 Funereal Rites. impossible.^ There is no occasion to resort to an impossible hypothesis in order to explain the presence of calcined bones and traces of fire in the graves. The Spata and Heraeum hypogaea are admitted to have been rifled at an early date ; Stamakis himself recognizes that they were opened for the purpose just referred to and for subsequent burials ; and that bones which had not passed through fire were found in them. But how is it possible to pick out, among these remains, those that belong to the first interment from such as are of more recent date ? As regards the ashes and stains of smoke on the floor and wall of these chambers, they find a natural explanation in the sacrificial fires which went on here in honour of the dead. The passage leading to the tomb of the Herseum was apparently accessible throughout antiquity.^ The country folk who used it as a shelter for themselves and their flocks must not unfrequently have lit a fire in front of the doorway. Stamakis was an intelli- gent and close observer ; yet it is not impossible that, pre- possessed with the notion that he should find here traces of a funereal rite coinciding with that described in the Iliad, he may have seen more than reality warranted. Had Stamakis lived to pursue his researches in this domain, he would doubtless have reached the same conclusions as his successor, based as they are upon the excavations of the bee-hive graves of the lower city at Mycenae (1887 — 1888).^ In the fifty-two graves opened by M. Tsoundas were several skeletons, which had evidently been placed there whole ; they had not been laid out at full length on the ground, but were found in a half-sitting posture, the head raised as if reclining on a pillow, the legs bent, and the knees high. These, however, were exceptional cases. The bones, in most of the graves, had greatly suffered either from damp, aggravated by the falling in of the roof, or later rebuildings and repairs. But none of them, says M. Tsoundas — who examined with minute care these relics — showed certain marks of fire. He does not feel justified to absolutely deny that bodies were not combustion without the help of a strong breeze. As Achylles lights the pyre which is to consume Patroclus, he calls to his aid Boreas and Zephyrus, tempting them to come fan the flame and enliven the fire by the offer of sacrifices. 2 Athenische Mittheilungen^ 1878. ^ Upon these tombs, see ante, p. 355.
 * Experience soon taught the Hellenes how difficult it was to obtain complete