Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and TirynsSchliemann, Heinrich
History
Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns
Schliemann, Heinrich
Mycenae (Extinct city); Tiryns (Extinct city)
Inclusive of the gold buttons already mentioned, there were found in
this first tomb in all 340 such buttons, from most of which the wooden
mould has disappeared, so that only the gold plates remain. Of these,
eighty-four are plain and without any ornamentation; namely, thirty-five
very large ones, being 2 in. in diameter, thirty-six of a less size,
measuring 1½ in. in diameter, and thirteen small ones, measuring 1 inch
or less. The remaining 256 gold buttons are ornamented with intaglio
work. The total number consists of thirteen very large ones of 2 in.
in diameter, thirty-nine of about 1½ in. and 194 of 1 in. or less, and
eight large and two smaller ones, in form of crosses; making in all ten
cross-shaped buttons, all of which have retained their wooden moulds.
As before-mentioned, two of the cross-like buttons have each two small
gold handles. Not to fatigue the reader, I give no engravings of the
plain buttons, and even of the richly ornamented ones I represent in
the accompanying plates only those whose ornamentation shows a variance
from that of the types of the buttons of the Fourth Tomb. The reader
may therefore take it for granted that, of the large buttons of this
First Tomb, those represented under Nos. 485-491 are the only ones whose
ornamentation exhibits new types.
On No. 485, we see around three concentric circles, and within a border
of two circles, a star-like ornament with curved sides and obtuse points,
each of the latter containing a small circle, the space between each
curve and the border being filled up by a crescent and a small circle.
In 486 we see six concentric circles around a magnificent central
ornamentation of spirals of a new form; in the border an uninterrupted
row of a sign which resembles the letter _koppa_.
[Illustration: Nos. 485, 486. Ornamented Gold Buttons. Sepulchre I.
Actual size.]
[Sidenote: ORNAMENTED GOLD BUTTONS.]
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