MINOAN CEMETERIES

Evening Star, Issue 21007, 22 January 1932, Page 11

MINOAN CEMETERIES

DISCOVERIES IN CRETE A DOUBLE SEPULCHRE Sir Arthur Evans, the famous archreologist, described his (discoveries at Crete to the Royal Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House, Piccadilly, recently. “ The two former campaigns of excavation in the Mino'an cemeteries of Knossos have had a remarkable sequel,” Sir Arthur said. “ Diodorus, whose sources of information as to the pre-Hellenic traditions of Crete were apparently largely due to the latterday prophet Epimenide, has described a tomb of the last Minos who met his death in Sicily as of a dual character, a tomb hidden beneath the earth and a temple of Aphrodite—in other words, of the great Minoan goddess—above the surface of the ground. “ The hope cherished during my original researches of finding a sepulchre of this double kind proved vain. But this year the chance discovery of a gold signet ring of truly royal character supplied a clue that led to the actual excavation of such a tomb at Knossos, in the rocky hillside within view of the palace to the south. “The basement part of this, which forms the approach to the tomb, was constructed in a cutting in the slope, and culminated in a columnar shrine above ground. The lower entrance led through a pavilion, seemingly designed for memorial feasts, to a small paved area adapted for funeral sports, and overlooked by roof terraces. A doorway between two pylons gave access thence to a hall opening on a pillar . the blacks of which were finely incised with sacred double axe symbols.” “ VISION OF THE SKY.” “ A portal in the inner wall of this led into the rock-cut sepulchral chamber itself, with a central pier and brilliantly lined with gypsum slabs and pilasters. The rock ceiling above, where visible between the huge rafters, had been painted a brilliant Egyptian blue, to convey to the dead a vision of the sky. Flowers in pots were placed outside the temple tomb in its earlier period of use. “ From the hall a staircase ran up to a roof terrace giving access to the upper bilcolumnar shrine, or temple proper. This had been partly ruined by an earthquake that also did much dariiage to the palace about 1520 n.c., and it was probably on this occasion that the plundering of the original interments took place which led to the loss of the gold ring. “ The signet illustrates the advent of the Minoan goddess to a new sanctuary, conveying her little pillar-shrine in a bark across an arm of sea. A separate scene shows her seated on ah altar base and offered the juice of a sacred tree by a youthful attendant, while a small handmaiden descends to her from above. LAST OF THE LINE. “ The sepulchral chamber itself, as its sunken pavement and central pillar indicate, was also a scene of worship, and a characteristic stone block for libations, with five tubular cavities, represents in an almost unchanged form an early Nilotic cult object. An in-cense-burner of later date was also remarkable as having been painted inside as well as out with bright-coloured decoration for the benefit of the dead. “In the last age of the palace (around 1400 n.c.) the vault was again opened for thd interment—probably of some last scion of the House of Minos —in a corner pit. This, though it had been rifled for precious objects, contained many interesting relics, and there was also evidence of a renewed funeral cult, illustrated by a series of offertory bowls and goblets, among which were miniature jugs otherwise associated with domestic snake worship. _ “ Some of the bones had drifted outside the entrance of tho sepulchral chamber, and tho skull with which they are associated, according to the report kindly made for me by Dr L. H. Dudley Buxton, is intermediate between tho old Mediterranean type of Crete and the intrusive Armenoid, a type to bo expected in a late Minoan dynast. The remains are those of an elderly man whose limbs attest athletic training.”