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The Origin of the Minoan Coffin1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Bogdan Rutkowski
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Extract

At the turn of the nineteenth century there arose an interest in the origin and development of the Minoan larnax. After many years of research it is understandable that we find the views published at that time inadequately furnished with arguments. The scholars of the past investigated only some selected questions, because their studies were prompted by the finding of a single tomb containing larnakes, as when in 1890 the larnakes at Pentamodi and Vasilika Anogeia were discovered, and P. Orsi published a study on the origin of the chest-larnax. Nevertheless in the early stage of these studies no one could imagine that the coffin chest was a shape of short duration and one which was introduced into burial rites rather late. This is of some importance for the study of the origin of the chest-larnax.

There is the very interesting problem of the theoretical background of the views expressed at that time, which we shall here pass briefly in review. The opinions published at the time were influenced by a general theory of culture which was rather vaguely accepted by scholars. The three main ideas were as follows (1) the theory of diffusion, (2) the belief in the evolutionary development of society, and (3) a supposition that there existed an interconnection of shape, plan, and to some degree of furnishing between grave and house.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 63 , November 1968 , pp. 219 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1968

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Footnotes

1

The materials for the study of the Minoan larnakes were collected by me with the aid of a scholarship from the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, which enabled me to work in Greece. In 1963 the materials were used in my doctor's thesis written under the guidance of Professor K. Majewski and discussed in the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The present paper is based on the enlarged thesis: Larnaksy egejskie (Aegean Larnakes) (Warszawa–Wroclaw–Kraków, 1966), in Polish with English summary. I wish to express my thanks to all who have made it possible for me to complete this work. The paper is a modest expression of gratitude to the British School of Archaeology at Athens, where I was received as a student in 1960. I am also very obliged to the former Director of the School, Mr. Sinclair Hood, whose help proved invaluable in my studies.

References

2 We do not know the Minoan or Mycenaean terms for the coffins. There is a term in the Linear B tablets read as re-wo-te-re-jo which may denote a bath-tub (see Cook, J. M., ‘Bath-tubs in Ancient Greece’, Greece and Rome vi 2 (1959) 35 Google Scholar). But there is no indication that it was applied also to coffins. Some other terms, like pyelos, soros, theke, sarkophagos, and larnax, are mentioned in ancient testimonia. The last term was the most general, it denoted a household chest (kibotos), but often also a coffin or a receptacle for the cremated dead. It was rectangular, but may also have been oval (Il. xxiv. 52, 228, 795; Od. ii. 337, xiii, 10, 66 ff., xxi. 51 ff. See also S. Xanthudides, AE 1904, 10–12; von Massow, W., AM xli (1916) 3 Google Scholar; Daremberg–Saglio iv. 2, 1064 ff. and Ginouvès, R., Balaneutikè (Paris, 1962) 47 n. 13Google Scholar).

3 Childe, G., Prehistoric Migrations in Europe (Oslo, 1950) 9–10 Google Scholar; Rouse, J., ‘The Strategy of Culture History’, Anthropology Today (Chicago, 1953) 71 ff.Google Scholar

4 Evans, A. J., ‘The Palace of Knossos in its Egyptian Relations, Progress of Egyptology’, Egypt Exploration Fund Archaeological Reports 1899–1900, 63 Google Scholar: ‘These clay (chest) sarcophagi are, in fact, almost literal copies of painted wooden chests of contemporary Egypt’; idem, ‘The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos’, Archaeologia lix (1904) 8 ff.; idem, Palace of Minos i. 126 and 586; cf. also Bosanquet, R., BSA viii (1901/1902) 299 Google Scholar; Forsdyke, E. J., BSA xxviii (1926/1927) 291 Google Scholar; Hall, H. R., Civilisation of Greece in the Bronze Age (London, 1928) 191 Google Scholar; Persson, A., New Tombs at Dendra near Midea (1942) 115.Google Scholar

5 Orsi, P., ‘Urne funebri cretesi dipinte su vasi allo stile di Micene’, MA i (1890) 209 ff.Google Scholar; see also Tsountas, Ch., AE 1891, 7 ff.Google Scholar; idem, Μυκῆναι καὶ Μυκηναῖος πολιτισμός (Athens, 1891) 137; Perrot, and Chipiez, , Histoire de l'Art vi. 678.Google Scholar The supporters of this theory may have used the representations on some seals with types sometimes depicted as houses or ‘rustic shrines’ with sloping roofs (Evans, Palace of Minos i, figs. 493 and 494; BSA xl (1939/40) 46, fig. 24; Kenna, G., Cretan Seals (London, 1960) 126, no. 254 and 255).Google Scholar This concept was dismissed by Grumach, E., ‘Zwei hieroglyphische Siegel’, Kadmos i. 2 (1962) 153–62Google Scholar, who proved they were cult vessels. But the sloping roof is known from the oval hut-models, e.g. from Zakro, Kato (BCH lxxxvi (1962) 892, fig. 9).Google Scholar

6 For the views of Evans and Bosanquet, see the literature cited in n. 4; Xanthudides, S., AE 1904, 12 Google Scholar; idem, ADelt vi (1920/1) parart. 158; Kulczycki, J., ‘Die Möbelformen des ägäischen Kulturkreises’, Eos xxxiii (1930/1931) 10 Google Scholar; Pendlebury, J., Archaeology of Crete 254 Google Scholar; Matz, F., ‘Die Ägäis’, in Handb. d. Arch. (1950) 272 Google Scholar; Hood, S., BSA li (1956) 86 ff.Google Scholar; also Karo, G., in Ebert, , Reallex. d. Vorgesch. vii (1926) 234.Google Scholar

7 Hayes, C., The Scepter of Egypt (Cambridge, Mass., 1953) i. 13 Google Scholar; see also Petrie, F. and others, Tarkhan i and Memphis v (London, 1913) pls. xxv–xxviii, p. 6 Google Scholar; eidem, Tarkhan ii (London, 1914) 23.

8 Smith, Baldwin, ‘The Megaron and its Roof’, AJA xlvi (1942) 103 Google Scholar, who cites Hayes, , Royal Sarcophagi of the XVIII Dynasty (1935) 63–7.Google Scholar

9 Bossert, Altsyrien, no. 984; Childe, G., New Light on the Most Ancient East (ed. Grove, ) 230 Google Scholar; Albright, F., Archaeology of Palestine (1960) fig. 11.Google Scholar Mr. S. Hood kindly drew my attention to the book of Mellaart, J., The Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Cultures in the Near East (Beirut, 1966).Google Scholar

10 Woolley, C. L., Ur Excavations ii (New York, 1934) 135 ff.Google Scholar; iv (Philadelphia, 1956) 41; also Childe, op. cit. 148; Unger, E., in Ebert, , Reallex. d. Vorgesch. iv. 2, 485.Google Scholar

11 Xanthudides, S., ADelt. iv (1918) 136 ff.Google Scholar

12 For Sphoungaras: Hall, E. H., Excavations in Eastern Crete, Sphoungaras, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum, Anthrop. Public, iii. 2, 48 Google Scholar: ‘it is also possible that larnakes were sometimes used in this period, for among the fragments of pottery found were many heavy sherds of coarse red clay which came from straight-sided vessels like larnakes.’ Seager, R., The Cemetery of Pachyammos, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum, Anthrop. Public, vii. 1 (Philadelphia, 1916)Google Scholar, dated the larnax xviic to E.M. III.

13 The loops on the larnax from Voru ( Marinatos, and Hirmer, , Kreta und das mykenische Hellas (1959) fig. 25, 2Google Scholar; see our Fig. 1, 6) may be compared with knobs on pithoi, so they are of clay origin and have nothing to do with wooden models.

14 R. Seager, op. cit.

15 The list of sites in my Larnaksy egejskie (Aegean Larnakes with English Summary) (Warszawa–Wroclaw–Kraków, 1966) 116 ff. (later cited as RLE).

16 Hall, op. cit. 60.

17 Fragments of larnakes dated to the L.M. IA period were shown to Evans in Pyrgos near Kastelli, Kanli (Palace of Minos ii, 75)Google Scholar; at Trypeti was found a fragment of a larnax with Linear A signs (Evans, op. cit. ii. 83; W. C. Brice, Inscriptions in the Minoan Linear Script of Class A, no. v. 1). The chronology of the Kastelli Pediados larnax, dated by Pendlebury to L.M. IB–L.M. II (BSA xxxiii (1932/3) 80) was established from a description by peasants.

18 Evans, op. cit. i, fig. 424.

19 Hood, S., BSA li (1956) 86 f.Google Scholar; the list of wooden larnakes in RLE, nos. 105–8.

20 Palmer, L., On the Knossos Tablets (Oxford, 1963) xiv Google Scholar, plan 1, no. 4 and J. Boardman, ibid., fig. 1, no. 25, p. 10. See also my paper in Kretika Chronika xviii (1964 (1966)) 269 ff.

21 Hood, S., Fasti Arch. vi. 136 Google Scholar, viii. 116, x. 143; idem, Arch. Reports (1956) 32.

22 List of sites: RLE, nos. 15–104.

23 As the larnax from Palaikastro, , BSA viii (1901/1902) pl. VIII Google Scholar; Marinatos and Hirmer, op. cit. pl. 127; RLE pl. xix. 4.

24 The larnax from Artsa, , AE 1904 pl. ii Google Scholar; RLE, pl. xxi. 2.

25 Hood, S. and others, BSA liii/liv (1958/1959) fig. 24a = RLE, pl. xxi. 4.Google Scholar

26 Specially in Argolis, Attica, Boeotia, and Thessaly, and on the islands of Naxos and Rhodes; see Vermeule, E. T., ‘Painted Mycenaean Larnakes’, JHS lxxxv (1965) 124 n. 3Google Scholar; RLE 128 f.

27 If the Bratsi hypothesis proved to be right: E. T. Vermeule, op. cit. 123 ff.

28 Wace, A., ‘The Chamber Tombs at Mycenae’, Archaeologia lxxxii (1932) passim.Google Scholar

29 From Dikhelia. I owe the drawing of this important find to the courtesy of Dr. V. Karagheorgis.

30 Platon, N., Kretika Chronika xii (1958) 468 (Rhotasion)Google Scholar; idem, PAE (1954 (1957)) 365 f. (Sikias).

31 Minoan clay coffins reused in the Geometric period were found at Liliana, (MA xiv (1904) 628 ff.Google Scholar, and Pendlebury, , Archaeology of Crete (London, 1939) 325.Google Scholar

32 There is a hypothesis that the sarcophagus of H. Triadha was copied in the Greek period ( van Effenterre, H., ‘Pierres inscrites de Dreros’, BCH lxxxii (1961) 544 ff.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar Some scholars are inclined to detect influence of the Cretan coffins in Iron Age Italy ( Müller-Karpe, H., Vom Anfang Roms (Heidelberg, 1959), 54 Google Scholar).

33 Desborough, V., The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors (Oxford, 1964) passim.Google Scholar

34 Nilsson, M., Mycenaean Origins of Greek Mythology (Berkeley, 1932) 40 ff.Google Scholar

35 Persson, A., The Religion of Greece in Prehistoric Times (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1942) 23 Google Scholar; cf. Cook, , Zeus iii. 1, 469.Google Scholar

36 Evans, A., Prehistoric Tombs 560 Google Scholar; Forsdyke, E., BMC Vases i. 1, 125.Google Scholar

37 For the literary testimonia see especially: FGrH i, Pherekydes fr. 10; see also Roscher, , Lexicon i. 1884 ff.Google Scholar and RE iv. 2, 2084 ff.; Cook, op. cit. 455 ff.; Schauenburg, K., Perseus in der Kunst der Antike (Bonn, 1960) 3 ff.Google Scholar

38 The chest is called kibotos, kibotion, or arca.

39 Helbig, W. (Das Homerische Epos 440)Google Scholar believed that the enclosing of Danae in a chest resembles the custom of burying the dead in underground rock-cut tombs of the ‘Golden Age’. Cook, op. cit. iii. 1, 458, thought that the representation of the Danae chest (our Fig. 3), decorated with star-rosettes was related to the decoration of ancient coffins. But it is impossible to accept an influence of Mycenaean coffin decoration on the Athenian art of the fifth century B.C.

40 We believe that there was another tradition which influenced the Clazomenian sarcophagi. Neither did the sporadic use for burials of bath-tubs in classical Greece originate in Mycenaean usage.

41 The late Professor E. Grumach kindly sent me his paper ‘The Minoan Libation Formula again’ which was delivered at the Mycenaean Symposium at Edinburgh in 1966. He wrote: ‘The dead (person) has to cross the sea or river of death in order to seek the Island of the Blessed. …’ We must also call attention to the unpublished larnax from Episkopi in the Ierapetra Museum. It has been mentioned many times: Fasti Arch. i (1946) 96, no. 767; Kretika Chronika i (1947) 633, 638; JHS lxvi (1946) 118; BCH lxxxi/lxxxii (1947/8) 441; Anz. Alt. (Vienna) iv (1951) 15; Kretika Chronika viii (1954) 219; RLE 218, no. 29 c. and discussed at some length by E. T. Vermeule, op. cit. 124. Here also there is—in our opinion—a reflection of the journey to the Island of the Blessed. The main panel possibly depicts a symbolic departure of the dead person, with his attendants who hold disc-shaped standards (not fans) on high sticks. The departed person drives the chariot himself. On the lower part beneath the harnessed animal there is a series of ornaments like reversed V's, which according to the convention prevalent in the Minoan and Mycenaean art denote rocky land (E. T. Vermeule believes they are waves). Above the chariot-pole there is also a row of ornaments similar to those beneath the animal. Here it may mean another indication of the land or—which seems much simpler—a rope on the chariot-pole. In the left corner of the panel, between the harnessed animal and the chariot there is a polypod. In the upper right corner, above the animal, there are three persons with hands uplifted. One of them is holding a kylix, the other is just throwing down a kylix. We may recall that in many tombs the broken kylikes were found in the dromos. Therefore, as we believe, the whole scene could be interpreted as having a double meaning, real and imaginary. At the end of the funeral the libation was made, the mourners pouring out the liquid from the kylikes, and this was the real part of the funeral rite. At the same time the family of the dead believed that the deceased was going to the other world. The moment of setting out on the great journey was indicated and the prospective crossing of the sea marked by the polypod below the chariot. This was the imaginary part of the scene. Of course, there are many other very important questions which will not be properly answered until the larnax is published.

To the list of four L.M. III larnakes from Crete with human figures (E. T. Vermeule, op. cit. 135 f.) I will add a fifth. In 1900 H. A. Boyd saw a fragment of a larnax with human figures much like those on the Warrior Vase from Mycenae. This fragment was not bought by Hall, H. A. and was lost to archaeology (Transactions of the Department of Archaeology, Free Museum of Science and Art i (1904/1905) 20 ff.Google Scholar; see my paper ‘Les sarcophages minoennes et mycéniennes en dehors de la Grèce’, Archeologia xvi (1964 (1966) Warsaw) 158.

42 Cf. Howe, T. Ph., ‘Illustrations to Aeschylus' Tetralogy on the Perseus Theme’ AJA lvii (1953) 263 ff.Google Scholar

43 For the illustrations of the Danae and Perseus theme see Cook, , Zeus iii. 1 Google Scholar, passim; Howe, op. cit. 263, 275; Cressedi, G., Enciclop. dell'arte antica classica e orientale iii (1960) 1 ff.Google Scholar; K. Schauenburg, op. cit. 3 ff. For the later pictorial representation, cf. the works cited above and Engelmann, R., ‘Danae und Verwandtes’, ÖJh xii (1909) 165 ff.Google Scholar (on coins of Elea); and Zahn, R., ‘Disiecta Componenda’, Festschrift für August Oxé (Darmstadt, 1938) 39 ff.Google Scholar (on terra sigillata).

44 Our Fig. 3 is from the Cerveteri crater in Leningrad, no. 637, attributed to the Triptolemos Painter by Beazley, J., ARV 2 360 Google Scholar, 1 (i), found in 1844 by Count Campana; see Gerhard, E., ‘Danae, ein griechisches Vasenbild’, Winckelmannsprogramm 14 (1854) 1–10 Google Scholar; Stephani, R., Die Vasensammlung der kaiserlichen Ermitage ii (St. Petersburg, 1869), no. 1723, p. 281 f.Google Scholar; Mierzynski, A., Danae i Perseusz na wazie cesarskiego Ermitażu w Petersburgu (Danae and Perseus on a vase from the Imperial Hermitage in St. Petersburg), Warszawa, 1875)Google Scholar; K. Schauenburg, op. cit.