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A chariot larnax from Mycenae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2013

Elizabeth French
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Extract

The two unusual fragments illustrated in Plate 14 and Fig. I were found at Mycenae in 1950, but were not identified until 1957, when the pottery from the Cyclopean Terrace Building Area was being restudied for the publication which appears in this volume. They come from the East Trench which ran east-west immediately east of the east wall of the Cyclopean Terrace Building proper and which disclosed the drain marked in the plan. They were found at a depth of more than 2·40 m., i.e. below the level of the drain. It seems likely that the fill of this area dates mainly from the period of the building of the Cyclopean Terrace Building (when the drain also must have been built) in the early part of L.H. IIIB, but the pottery in all layers of this trench was contaminated by stray sherds of later Mycenaean, Geometric, and Hellenistic wares. Therefore, though a date in the period preceding early L.H. IIIB is very likely, it cannot be assured.

The pieces, which are 0·02 m. thick, are made of a heavy buff clay with considerable grit and chaff covered with a light wash through which the grit shows, giving the appearance known as ‘oatmeal’. The paint is a semi-lustrous red-brown. This fabric is similar to, though heavier than, that of the stirrup jars from the nearby House of the Wine Merchant. It is clear from the scene on the outside that the two fragments are not adjoining, but come from the opposite sides of the same vessel. The shape, fabric, and schemes of decoration seem to indicate that these are fragments of a bath larnax (FS 1).

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 56 , November 1961 , pp. 88 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1961

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References

1 BSA xlix. 270, fig. 11.

2 For a general discussion of the elements of chariot compositions see Furumark, , MP 433.Google Scholar

3 This feature is fully discussed by V. Karageorghis in his thesis, as yet unpublished.

4 MP 585.

5 Schliemann, , Tiryns pl. 24d, e.Google Scholar

6 Blegen, , Prosymna 54, 249.Google Scholar

7 CMP 131.

8 Mylonas, , Agios Kosmas 61.Google Scholar

9 AJA 63, 123, fig. 8; 124, fig. 11.

10 AJA 60, 99 f., fig. 20.

11 BSA xlix. 273.

12 The question is discussed at length by Persson, (New Tombs at Dendra 111).Google Scholar For the use of larnakes and coffins in Crete see Hood, , BSA 51, 86.Google Scholar Unexplained is the stone example from Kontogenada in Kephallenia, which is of Cretan type (AE 1933, 79, fig. 22).

13 This is in the Hierapetra Museum and is to be published by Dr. Platon. The style is rough though vigorous, and quite unlike the Mycenae example.