Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/27

 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. cremated during the period to which these graves belong ; but, as far as his knowledge goes, there is no sufficient data to warrant him to decidedly state that such a case ever occurred. The only mode of burial which has been firmly established here is inhumation. These conclusions have been confirmed by the study of other necropoles of similar date. Thus, the vaults hollowed out in the flanks of Mount Palamidi, having a close resemblance to the similar graves at Mycenae, have disclosed nothing which would point to cremation practices.^ Several skeletons were found whole, laid out on the bare earth ; the traces of fire left on animal bones and broken pottery had come from the sacrificial brazier. Human bones, even when discovered in great confusion and scattered round about, betray no sign of having been placed on the funereal pyre.^ Near Epidaurus, M. Stai's opened several vaults, akin to the Nauplian examples. In one of them he found four skeletons, almost intact ; they lay on the soil, their heads propped up against the wall, and faced the entrance. For obvious reasons, the value of the evidence supplied by the domed-tombs can in no way compare with that which we owe to the shaft- graves. The scanty information which we get from one or two of the bee-hive sepulchres favours rather than not the burial theory. At Menidi, one out of six skulls was almost uninjured ;^ a fact which is inconsistent with burning, however slight. At Vaphio, on the other hand, owing perhaps to the nature of the soil, the body had evaporated without leaving a trace behind ; but the place where it had been was indicated by the position of the weapons and ornaments buried with the defunct.* Finally, Crete has given us a number of specimens of terra-cotta vats, with elegant designs, the dimensions of which approach those of sepulchral urns, into which elsewhere, in Etruria for example, ^ See ante, pp. 385-388. 2 Athenische Miti/teilungen, 1880. Tsoundas formerly states having lighted on none but liliputian hearths in the numerous tombs which he opened at Mycenae, and they naturally occupied a very small space only in the chamber. In the minute pieces of charcoal scattered all over the floor, he thinks he made out chips of resinous wood, such as pine, which the peasantry still use at the present day by way of candles to light their houses. 3 A tomb of the same i)eriod, resting on the rock, to the south-eastward of the Athenian acropolis, has also furnished a skeleton.
 * Das Kuppelgrab,