Precisely as in the former tomb, all the three bodies had been burnt simultaneously, but separately and at equal distances from each other, nay, in the very place where they now lay. This was proved by the evident marks of the fire on the pebbles below and around every one of the bodies, as well as by the marks of the fire and the smoke on the walls to the right and left, and by the masses of wood ashes which lay on and around the bodies. The bodies were literally laden with jewels, all of which bore evident signs of the fire and smoke to which they had been exposed on the funeral piles. [Sidenote: PLATES OF GOLD.] [Illustration: No. 239. Plate of Gold. Sepulchre III.] [Illustration: No. 240. Plate of Gold: a Cuttle-fish. Sepulchre III.] [Illustration: No. 241. Plate of Gold: a Flower. Sepulchre III.] [Illustration: No. 242. A Plate of Gold. Sepulchre III.] [Illustration: No. 243. Plate of Gold: a Butterfly. Sepulchre III.] [Illustration: No. 244. Plate of Gold. Sepulchre III.] The ornaments of which the greatest number was found were the large, thick, round plates of gold, with a very pretty decoration of _repoussé_ work, of which I collected 701. I found them as well below as above and around the bodies, and there can consequently be no doubt that part of them were strewn all over the bottom of the sepulchre before the funeral pyres were dressed, and that the rest were laid on the bodies before the fire was kindled. In the following engravings[278] I give all the different types of these wonderful plates. It is difficult to say how the Mycenean goldsmiths executed the _repoussé_ work. Professor Landerer thinks they laid the gold-plate on a block of lead, and hammered and pressed the ornamentation into it. No. 239 contains broad round waving bands much resembling those on the fourth sculptured tombstone.[279] The curious ornamentation in the centre, which so often recurs here, seems to me to be derived from the [Illustration], the more so as the points which are thought to be the marks of the nails, are seldom missing; the artist has only added two more arms and curved all of them. No. 240 represents an octopus or cuttle-fish (sepia), whose eight arms have been converted into spirals, the head with the two eyes being distinctly visible. No. 241 represents a flower; No. 242 a splendid spiral ornamentation; No. 243, a beautiful butterfly; this type is exceedingly frequent. Whether, as in the later Greek art, the butterfly is here the symbol of immortality, as Mr. Chas. T. Newton reminds me, I do not dare to decide. No. 244 presents a curious ornamentation of spirals in the form of six serpents, round a central circle. In No. 245 we at once recognise again the ornamentation of the sepulchral _stêlé_ (No. 142), as in No. 239, which this one very much resembles. No. 246 has a most curious pattern, which shows within a broad circular border six spirals, all very cleverly finished off, each of them surrounding seven concentric circles, and