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)
All these objects of glass lead us to the conclusion that the sepulchre
of Spata belongs to a much later time than the royal tombs of Mycenæ. But
we find a much stronger proof of this in the carved works discovered in
the Spata sepulchre, which are generally thought to consist of ivory, but
which by the investigation of Professor Landerer are proved to consist
of common bone. All these carved works appear to belong to a late period
of Assyrian art; perhaps the most remarkable object among them is a
beardless man's head covered with a very high Assyrian mitre, the lower
part of which is ornamented all round with a diadem, whilst the upper
part is divided by three double bands into four compartments. As usual
in the Assyrian hair-dress, the hair hangs down on the neck in three
tresses, lying the one on the other. I also mention a comb 5·8 in. long,
3·4 in. broad, the upper part of which is divided by narrow borders into
two horizontal compartments; the upper one containing in the midst a
flower and on either side a female sphinx; the lower one containing three
female sphinxes. There are also two bone plates with female sphinxes.
All these sphinxes have very large and broad wings and exhibit a most
excellent Assyrian style of art. In comparison with them the golden
sphinxes of the Mycenean tombs, of which I have represented one under No.
277, on p. 183, show a most ancient and very primitive style of art.
Among the carved works found in the tomb at Spata particular attention is
due to a plate of bone, on which is represented a lion devouring an ox;
the whole body of the former is represented as hovering in the air, and
his long outstretched hind-legs vividly remind us of the representation
of the lions on the Mycenean goblets and plates of gold. On the other
hand the lion's head and the ox which he devours most decidedly show an
Assyrian style of art.
I repeat here that no trace of Assyrian art was found at Mycenæ.
Another of the carved works from Spata which deserves attention is a disk
of bone of 4·6 in. in diameter, with a border formed by two double lines,
the whole interior space being in the form of a net, divided by treble
wave-like lines into small triangles.
Professor Landerer asserts that these large plates and disks of bone
prove beyond any doubt that the art of softening bone in water, and
pressing it, and thus preparing very large pieces of bone, was known in
Attica at a remote antiquity.
I still call attention, among the objects found at Spata, to the small
disks of stone, which have on one side in the centre a small tube, and
may have been used as ornaments on the house doors. They are mostly
similar to objects which I found at Mycenæ;[23] but they were also found
in the sepulchre at Ialysus, and may be seen in the British Museum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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