AisetoisUnecysitaaa Og tT fae ee tonyntetpieoemi ted ie hed picgeaigiats Reps tole sent secnntr gets este Pe cies tes = site ea ste erage ee: erence Besareeaere rete Ssaai Sereete a Eietcea kee sera i meen a axa 3 ars sett 4 “ Sesbeeate aspen tabeoeceioe SH penetrates a Eels ®t ae WEINBERG SAUL S — oa z ae * : € * ‘ ~ ' j : *~ - -_ dns ‘ a ( = a i : : i | } Pe ZYGOURIES ad PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT IN THE pe VALLEY, OF \CLEONAE ZYGOURIES Meee iSTORIG SETTLEMENT IN THE VALLEY OF CLEONAE BY. GARTL Wr, BLEGEN, PuD. PUBLISHED FOR THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS Be Rv Deu INIVERSULYoSPRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 1928 ‘i , > h . Pn 5 ‘ 7 ; n Z ¥ % ha i ‘ af “ J 4 COPYRIGHT, 1928 g i Ze iz BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF _ CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS { ‘ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 0 TO" THE MEMORY OF RICHARD BERRY SEAGER PREFACE sk excavations at Zygouries, the results of which form the subject of the present monograph, were conducted by the American School of Classical Studies in two campaigns, in the spring of 1921 and in the late summer of 1922. Grateful acknowledgments are due to the late Richard B. Seager (who at one time hoped himself to participate in the digging), to Dr. and Mrs. Edward Robinson, of New York, of m Page 21: ‘8. House L (Nos. 2, 4, 5 on the plan, Plate II; Fig. 18)” eo should read “8. House L (Nos. 2, 4, 5 on the plan, Fig. 18; Trench I, ee Plate I)” ‘ ge Page 24: “‘9. House Y (Plate I; Fig. 21)” should read “9. House Y (Trench XI, Plate I; Fig. 21)” m Page 25: “10. House U... (Nos. 2 and 3 on the plan, Plate I; Fig. oF 22) should read ‘“‘(Nos. 2 and 3 on the plan, Fig. 22; Trench XI, nd Plate I)” to nd he lso he investigation of the southern quarter of the settlement. It is a great pleasure to thank these two gentlemen for their help, and for the willingness and conscientiousness with which they carried out the tasks that fell to them. Dr. L. B. Holland, Architect of the School, arrived on May 11, and there could be no better testimony to his patience and painstaking accuracy than his plans, which accompany this report. His contributions in discussions of architectural problems and in the interpreta- tion of puzzling remains cannot be overstated. Others who rendered assistance for shorter periods were Dr. C. A. Boethius, of Upsala, who superintended, and indeed undertook with his own hands, the removal of most of the cooking pots from the ‘‘Potter’s Shop,” and Miss Wildes, Miss Lamb, and Miss Herford, who all helped extract the cylixes from the same building. The campaign of 1922 began on August 22 and continued until September 27. During the greater part of this period Mr. W. A. Heurtley, Assistant Director of the British School, vil Vill PREFACE was present and gave extremely valuable aid in every way; measured drawings of all the tombs were made by him, and he also provided the additions to the general plan necessi- tated by further digging on the hill itself. George Alexopoulos, of Mycenae, acted as foreman during both campaigns, and his capable, efficient service contributed in no small degree to make operations run smoothly and with dispatch. In the preparation of the manuscript for publication I owe much to the generous assist- ance of Mrs. Blegen and of Miss Anne Blegen. It is a pleasure likewise to acknowledge my great indebtedness to Professors P. V. C. Baur, G. H. Chase, and H. N. Fowler, of the School’s Publication Committee, who have given highly valued advice and help. Professor Chase, in particular, has offered unsparingly of his time and thought in contributing to solve the problems which have arisen. I am also glad to have an opportunity to record my obligation to Professor James M. Paton for his kind offices in connection with the printing of the colored plates in Paris; and to the readers and the staff of the Harvard University Press tor their painstaking care and codperation, to which the appearance of the volume is due. If the Director of the School has been left until the last in this list of those to whom cordial thanks are due, it is only because Mr. Hill’s support and counsel have been con- stantly asked from the inception of the project for the excavation until the completion of this report and have been unfailingly and generously given, together with encouragement and stimulation to the very end. In the campaign of 1921 the whole hill was investigated by means of numerous trial trenches, a considerable section of an Early Helladic settlement was laid bare in the central area, and one house of the same period was uncovered in both the north and the south quarters of the mound. On the steep eastern slope part of a large Mycenaean building, the “Potter’s Shop,” was cleared, and exploration extended down inte the flat ground below the hill and up the bed of the stream to the southward. The campaign of 1922 was devoted chiefly to the quest for and the subsequent explora- tion of the cemetery, which was finally discovered occupying a long, sloping hillside half a mile west of the settlement itself. At the same time supplementary digging at Zygouries clarified not a few problems, yielded the complete plan of an additional Early Helladic house, and permitted the complete excavation of the ‘‘Potter’s Shop.” The work of these two seasons at Zygouries, though conducted on a small scale, yielded much new material for the study of the prehistoric age in Southern Greece. In the field of architecture the most considerable remains of Early Helladic houses yet known were re- covered, giving definite evidence for the plans of dwellings then in use. In the cemetery three Early Helladic tombs of a type not hitherto represented were discovered, throwing new light on the burial customs of the Early Bronze Age. Pottery was found in abundance, and the gratifyingly high number of whole or almost complete vases from this small site forms a noteworthy and useful series. Among the objects of gold, bronze, terracotta, bone, and stone are not a few of unique interest. All the movable finds were transported to Old Corinth and have been deposited in the Corinth museum. The Greek government has generously presented to the Metropolitan Museum a selection of duplicate vases from the excavations. PREFACE 1X The results of the excavations will be discussed in the following chapters, after a brief description of the site itself, under the headings Architecture, Tombs, Pottery, and Miscel- laneous Objects. A preliminary account of the results obtained was written after each cam- paign and published in Art and Archaeology, vol. XIII, 1922, pp. 209-216, and vol. XV, 1923, pp. 85-89. Needless to say, these two brief articles, and any other notices that may have appeared, are superseded by the present report. | Of the illustrations accompanying this volume, the detailed drawings reproduced in Plates I and II were made by Dr. L. B. Holland; the plans of the separate houses and of the tombs, presented in Figures 5, 7, 9, 14, 17, 18, 21-23, 25, 38, 41, 43-46, 48, 51, 58, 62-64, were prepared by Miss D. H. Cox, from the drawings of Dr. Holland and Mr. Heurtley. The water-colors and the sketches for Plates III-X XII and for Figures 12, 69, 71, 81, 87-89, Be 940,1 100, 10g, 113-131, 135-139, 160, 171, 172, 181, 182, 184-187, 189-191, 194- 198, are the work of Mr. Piet de Jong. The water-color from which Figure 134 is taken was made by Mr. William V. Cash. The sketches for Figures 176, 180, 199 were provided by Mr. E. Gilliéron; that for Figure 178 by Mr. J. H. Breiel. The photographs for Figures 34 and 35 I owe to Dr. J. P. Harland; that for Figure 3 to Dr. J. D. Young; that for Figure 183 to Dr. B. D. Meritt. The illustrations of the pottery and of the miscellaneous objects are mainly from photographs taken by A. Petritsis, of the staff of the National Museum in Athens, whose services were kindly placed at my disposal through the courtesy of Dr. Kastriotis, Director of the Museum. The reproductions in color, Plates III—X XII, were made by Daniel Jacomet & Cie., of Paris. Cari W. BLecEN ATHENS, March 5, 1926 ¥ Ea NEOUS OBJECTS CONTENTS . . . . . . . + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E eS AQ Ag ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES I. General Plan of the Excavations. II. Detailed Plan of Walls, Central Area of the Site. III. Fragments of Painted Plaster from the Potter’s Shop. IV. E.H. Ware, Class A I, without Slip, Decorated with Incised Patterns. V. E. H. Ware, Class A II, Slippéd and Polished. VI. E.H. Ware, Class A II, Slipped and Polished, with Incised Decoration. VII. E. H. Ware, Class A II, No. 564 (above); Class B II, No. 577 (below). VIII. E.H. Ware, Class B II, Earliest Type of Glaze Technique. IX. E.H. Ware, Class A II, Sauceboat (No. 317) and Fragments of Yellow Mottled Ware. Dee tae Ware, Class BIJ, Nos. 261, 260, and 238. XI. E. H. Patterned Ware, Classes C I and C II. XII. E.H. Patterned Ware, No. 114, Class C I (a); No. 205, Class C I (4). lead | . Patterned Ware, Two Tankards, 1 (No. 113), Class C I (4); 2, Class C I (a). XIV. Three Pots from Tomb XXII, M. H. Period, Nos. 305, 306, 304. XV. Goblet, No. 276, and Fragments, Ephyraean Ware. XVI. Two Cylixes from the Potter’s Shop, Nos. 70 and 45. XVII. Cylix, No. 48, from the Potter’s Shop. XVIII. Cylix, No. 63, from the Potter’s Shop. XIX. 1. Jar with Three Handles, No. 50, from the Potter’s Shop. 2. Jug, No. 350, from Tomb XXXIII. XX. Miscellaneous Objects, chiefly from Tombs, E. H. Period. XXI. Miscellaneous Objects, E. H. Period. XXII. Stone Implements, E. H. Period. FIGURES General View of the Site from the North . General View of the Site from the West Early Helladic Street from the South . Narrow Lane from the East Plan of House D . House D from the Satin Plan of House A . House A from the South Plan of the “House of the Pithoi”’ sik adjoining Wanites ; Vestibule and Square Chamber, House of the Pithoi, from the West Xill OD ON DAN Ff WD DY — 4 ex OO COnNI Amn SP VN =& _ XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . Square Chamber, House of the Pithoi, from the North, showing ne as Wall in Row of Pithoi Fragments of Clay Berea fan Reon tee fi the Pitho! . General View of Central Area of Excavations from the Southwest . Plan of Houses W and S . House S from the Southeast . Room 39, House S, from the South Plan of House E ; Plan of House: LE. . House L from the East . House L from the North, showing Rares ze Pichou in Roane 4 . Plan of Blouses res, ~ Plan‘of House Ce es . House U from the Northeast . Walls in Trench V, from the East . Plan of the Potters Shop = ew eee . Threshold Slabs in ‘‘ Corridor” of the Potter’s Shop . . Room 13, Potter’s Shop, from the South . . Cooking Pots as they first appeared in Room 13 . . Southwest Corner of Room 12, showing Five Craters, for the Nowe . Southwest Corner of Room 12, showing Doorway to Room 13, and Three Craters - = te a at ce , Pe Th (rm 6 ae r as Sat ; i 7 P ec Pe ey < =| ~ yee fo font ee ttt) an , wie ts ean ey “-,° : 3 : W " na 2. a 5 ois 2 Ce “= Fon MP igs oa ie 7 N.GOU RTE Gam PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT IN THE _ ‘VALLEY OF CLEONAE CHAPTER! Cie SUCE IDWAY between Corinth and Mycenae, shut in by a mountain range on either side, lies the pleasant upland valley of Cleonae. A high, rounded elevation, rising steeply at its western end, bears the ruins of the acropolis of the Cleo- naeans, the excavation of which was undertaken in 1912 by the German Archaeological Institute. Some distance below the acropolis on the east passes an old Turkish road which must follow the line of one of the important ancient routes connecting Corinth with the Argolid. From the Corinthian plain this road ascends the narrow defile of the Longopotamos, cuts through the western part of the Cleonaean valley, and crosses over the ridge toward Mycenae and Argos by the pass which leads through the green wood and gardens surround- Figure I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE SITE FROM THE NorrH ing the modern chapel of Hagios Sostis near the railway station of Nemea. There can hardly be a doubt that this was one of the main highways of traffic in classical as well as prehistoric times. Across the valley to the southeast, in a subsidiary plain below the village of Hagios Vasilios, some two miles from Cleonae and perhaps one and one-half from the presumable course of the ancient road, stands a low hill (Fig. 1) on which grow a few stunted wild pear trees, and here and there, in spots marking an old stone heap, clusters of a pecul- iar shrub called by the local farmers “‘zygouries.”’! From these shrubs, which are its 1 Zygouria = anagyris foetida, familiar along the north shore of the Mediterranean, and occurring in Greece from Thessaly to Crete. In Crete it is also known as “‘azogyron,” so Dr. Hadzidakis tells me; and perhaps Azoria Hill, excavated by Mrs. Harriet Boyd Hawes in Eastern Crete, owes its name to a dialectal form of the name of the same shrub. I 2 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES most conspicuous feature, the hill itself has come to be known by the same name, Zygouries. The situation of Zygouries is a very striking one: close at hand on the south rise the towering cliffs of Mt. Tretus in three well-defined masses now called “Aaguas,” “Kov- Touma, and “ris Tlavaylas 6 Bpdxos,” surmounted by broad plateaus which are much frequented by shepherds with their flocks; to the north a rich agricultural region slopes gently away in a series of undulations draining into the Longopotamos. Far to the west appears the long ridge culminating in flat-topped Phoukas, beyond which may be seen in the remoter distance the mountains of the Arcadian highlands; and on the east a succession of partly wooded hills stretches away to the upland of Tenea. A second highway must have traversed this valley from east to west in ancient times, following approximately the line now taken by the railway and the modern carriage road. Ficure 2.. GENERAL View oF THE SITE FROM THE WEST This route, no doubt the direct road from the Isthmus, coming up through the gap between Mt. Oneion and Acrocorinth, reached the broad watershed at Chiliomodi, then dropped down rapidly to the plain below Hagios Vasilios, and continued westward, climbing again to the saddle at Nemea station in order to descend finally through the Dervenaki Pass to the Argive plain. At some point not far to the northwest of Zygouries this route must have intersected that coming up the Longopotamos from the north. The hill of Zygouries thus offered a highly favorable position for a prehistoric village, lying in a somewhat se- cluded tributary valley of its own, in control of a fertile agricultural district, and not far from an important cross road of traffic. The hill of Zygouries (Fig. 2), somewhat irregular in shape, measures about 165 m. from north to south and has a width of ca. 70 m. at its widest point. It is a natural ridge of conglomerate or gravelly limestone on which lies a deposit of earth and débris, the product of gradual accumulation as a result of successive prehistoric settlements. At the summit of the hill the deposit is very thin; in some places the crumbly rock is not more than 0.30 m. below the surface of the ground. Toward the eastern and western pot Ld Es 5, slopes, however, the accumulation is much thicker, attaining a maximum depth of ca. 3 m. Apparently the top of the hill was at some time — probably more than once — cut down or leveled off, being thus for the most part swept clear of its prehistoric deposit. This operation was certainly carried out in mediaeval times, as was clearly shown by the Byzantine walls and the Byzantine pottery discovered in immediate juxtaposition with Early Helladic remains in Trenches IV and VI; but a similar operation had in all probability already been effected in the Late Helladic Period. Apart from the Byzantine pottery and the walls mentioned above, all the remains found at Zygouries belong to the prehistoric age; nothing of later date came to light. There are no modern buildings on the hill. The whole surface was under cultivation, being planted at the time of the excavations chiefly with vetch and beans. The mound is not, however, very favorable to agriculture, since the numerous stones and stone walls covering it make ploughing difficult. The prehistoric deposit allows itself to be divided clearly into three main layers, though the traces of the middle one in the chronological sequence are much more scanty than those of the other two. These layers are the Early, Middle, and Late Helladic and correspond closely with the stratification observed at Korakou and at other sites. At Zygouries, how- ever, these layers do not all extend continuously over the whole hill, one overlying the other in regular order; as a result of the cutting down and leveling mentioned above, the strati- graphic sequence has been disturbed. In consequence we find that the prehistoric deposit on the central part of the hill is almost purely Early Helladic with only a few remnants of the Middle Helladic layer, which may be seen in the Minyan and Mattpainted sherds from _ Trenches V and VI, and in the Middle Helladic graves; while the Late Helladic Period is here almost entirely unrepresented. Near the eastern edge of the hill, on the other hand, the Late Helladic Period is well represented in at least two of its phases, while below it lie Early Helladic remains to a considerable depth. Farther down the slope again the Late Helladic layer is thick and comparatively well preserved with a clear Middle Helladic stratum resting on native rock below it. The cemetery, finally, appears to have been in use throughout the whole Bronze Age, as graves of all three periods, Early, Middle, and Late Helladic, were included in it. CHAR TE RST ARCHITECTURE I. Earty HeEtvtapic Pertop LMOST everywhere in the central part of the hill where digging was undertaken a maze of walls belonging to the Early Helladic Period came to light (PLares I and IT). These walls lie very close to the present surface of the ground and have suffered no little damage from the plough and from other causes, rendering it difficult to identify clearly their connections and to recognize with certainty the original complete plan of the buildings to which they once belonged. The walls are generally from 0.60 m. to 0.g0 m. in thickness, built of unworked stones of good size, laid in clay. In some cases the lower part of the construction is considerably Ficure 3. Earty Heiiapic SrrEET FROM THE SOUTH thicker than the upper, which gradually diminishes in steplike courses. Some of these walls are ca. 1.50 m. high, but only some 0.50 m. of this projected originally above ground, the remainder having constituted a solid foundation. The superstructure of the house above the stone base was of course built of crude bricks; many more or less complete specimens of such bricks were found. Though the complete plans of the separate houses remain in many respects somewhat uncertain, it is evident that the establishment or village as a whole consisted of numerous small dwellings set close together and separated by narrow crooked streets or alleys. One : ARCHITECTURE 5 such street (No. 27 on the plan, Piare II; Fig. 3) was traced for more than ten metres, running north and south. It averages only 1.25 m. in width and is bounded by walls of houses on either side. It is made of a thick layer of small pebbles and potsherds, very well packed and trodden, and apparently also received much rubbish thrown out from the ad- joining houses, such as animal bones (usually split so that the marrow could be extracted), mussel shells, snail shells, fragments of small objects of bronze, broken pottery, etc. Ficure 4. Narrow Lane FRomM THE East Branching off from this narrow street is a still narrower alley, running westward for a distance of ca. 8.00 m. (No. 18 on the plan, Pare II; Fig. 4). Its width is hardly more than 0.go m., and it was probably merely the approach to a single house. It is constructed of exactly the same sort of material as the street already described. The alley seems to have ended when it reached the door of the house. The street, on the other hand, went on farther to the north, but its continuation could not be traced to any great distance, since it ex- tended into an area which has suffered much disturbance from later building. No extensive architectural remains of the Early Helladic Period have hitherto been published, previous discoveries in this field having been very scanty indeed, and the ten separate houses which could, with some uncertainties, be distinguished at Zygouries seem, therefore, to merit more than passing attention. Before entering upon the detailed descrip- tion, however, which will be given here to make the record complete, a brief summary may be offered of the general conclusions which these remains appear to warrant. 6 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES The ‘dwelling houses at Zygouries are for the most part small and apparently of no standardized shape, though all are rectangular in design and regularly composed of two or more rooms. What seems to be a constant feature in almost all is a tendency to make the chief inner chamber roughly square in plan; indeed, this inner square room, sometimes small, sometimes relatively large, may be taken as one of the characteristic marks of these Early Helladic houses. In some cases there certainly was a fixed hearth in the centre of the room; in others no trace of any such arrangement could be recognized. The outside door in three cases, where satisfactory evidence of its position was preserved, led into the smaller of the two rooms forming the house, and in all three instances was placed on the long side of the building. The roof was undoubtedly flat; no trace of columns was found, and no column bases came to light, but it is possible that wooden supports were used where neces- sary. No rule of orientation was observed; since the houses appear to have stood in groups or blocks formed by intersecting streets and lanes, these latter must have been the determin- ing factor in the orientation of the buildings. There was some slight evidence for the use of party walls; but perhaps the two houses thus connected were not entirely independent dwellings. In a few instances it looks as if the house faced an open court, which may have been surrounded by a wall. It is safe to say that none of these Early Helladic houses at Zygouries is of the so-called “megaron type”; that is, the main element of the plan is in no case a long room with a central hearth and with an entrance through a portico at one end. These houses are of a quite different character and may perhaps be more closely related to the types represented in the Cycladic settlements, like Phylakopi, or in the small towns in Crete, such as Pseira and Gournia (though these latter are naturally much later in date). ie It must be considered a noteworthy fact that no trace of apsidal construction came to light in the Early Helladic layer at Zygouries. All the walls uncovered are straight or were obviously meant to be straight, and the corners are in all cases rectangular or closely approach a right angle. And yet it cannot be doubted that curved construction was known and practiced in contemporary settlements not a great dis- tance away. An apsidal type of house, acutely restored by Bulle, is represented at Orchomenos (Orchomenos, p. 35), and a remarkable further achievement of Early Helladic architects is illustrated in the monumental circular founda- tion discovered beneath the Mycenaean palace at Tiryns (Karo, Fiihrer durch die Ruinen von Tiryns, pp. 7 f.). It must be admitted, however, that the remains at Orchomenos were sadly scanty at best, and in view of the abundant evidence of rectangular construction now available from Zygouries, it cannot be maintained that the apsidal type of house ; was the prevailing type everywhere in the Early Helladic Ficure 5. Pian or House D Period. ARCHITECTURE a] 1. House D (Nos. 16 and 17 on the plan, Piare II; Fig. 5). Standing on the northwest side of the corner formed by the street and the alley which have already been mentioned, is a small building of which the plan seems to be clear and approximately complete. The walls of this house are firmly built of small stones, and measure 0.60 m. to 0.65 m. in thickness. They are well preserved on the east, south, and west sides, but the north end is covered over by a later wall, presumably Mycenaean in date. The house is long and narrow, measuring 5.65 m. from north to south (inside dimensions) Ficure 6. House D rrom THE SouTH by 2.50 m. from east to west. This length is not the original full dimension, since the later wall crossing the north end of the building has shortened the room somewhat; but it is probable that this chamber was originally not much more than 0.50 m. longer. The house is divided into two rooms, a small chamber 1.40 m. by 2.50 m. at the south (No. 16), and a larger room 3.65 m. by 2.50 m. at the north (No. 17). A doorway between the two rooms is clearly marked near the eastern end of the partition wall; it is very narrow, having a width of only 0.65 m. The outside door seems to have opened through the east- ern wall of the small south chamber upon the street passing along the side of the house. Just inside the wall here, on the north side of the presumable door-opening, lies a stone in which a circular hole has been cut or worn. Though not very well cut, this hole was unmistakably intended for a pivot; it is 0.04 m. deep and has a diameter of 0.11 m. at the top, which diminishes to 0.04 m. at the bottom. At the point where the stone was found it would - serve well enough for a simple door, opening from the street. The level of the street is some- what higher than that of the floor within, and a person entering would need to watch his step. Two stones set on edge in the wall, 1.00 m. apart, suggest the width of the door- opening. 8 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES The small south room thus appears to be simply an anteroom, while the larger chamber to the north was evidently the main living room of the house, and we have here, therefore, a good example of the so-called “but and ben” type of construction, or of what may perhaps better be described as a primitive two-room dwelling. A considerable amount of pottery was found on the earthen floor of the north room, including one complete sauceboat and a high cylindrical stand, perhaps the support of a broad, shallow basin (Fig. 108). Against the original north wall probably stood a row of pithoi like those in the House of the Pithoi (p. 11). One of these is still in place and may be seen in the illustration (Fig. 6) at the northwest corner beneath the Mycenaean wall which runs directly over it. The presence of this pithos is the evidence suggesting that the original end of the room was only a short distance farther north. House D lies directly adjoining the House of the Pithoi, but the boundary between the two is not formed by a party wall; each house has its own wall of full width. 2. House A (Nos. 6 and 7 on the plan, Prats II; Fig. 7). This building lies some distance north of the house just described, too near the edge of the hill to have escaped damage at the hands of the builders of the Mycenaean period. One room of the house is, however, still well preserved, and enough of the remainder exists to allow a practically certain reconstruction of the plan. The preserved room (6 on the plan) is a square chamber, measuring ca. 2.70 m. on a side, with solidly built foundation walls. These walls originally continued southward beyond room 6, and it is here that the second chamber may be recognized. Though the upper part of the east wall has been demolished, its substructure still remains in situ and at a point 1.65 m. south of the partition wall reaches a corner from which a foundation in wretched condition may be followed westward. This undoubtedly marks the original south end of the house, and in this direction there are traces of a southwest corner in line with the existing west wall of room 6. We thus have here again a small two-roomed house similar to that described above. In this case, too, the entrance from outside leads into the smaller room. It is clearly marked in the east wall of the latter, where there is an Opening ca. 0.62 m. wide. Just inside it is a large flat slab of limestone which evidently served as a threshold (Fig. 8). This house lies directly in the line of the street coming from the south, and thus made necessary a sharp turn in the roadway. The street could hardly have swung to the west, since the north wall of House D presumably blocked Q ° zm- it in this direction. To the east, however, there is no ob- stacle, and the road was most probably carried on here past the southeast corner of House A. At this point Fioure 7. Puaw or House A it probably turned northward again, and the door of ‘ ARCHITECTURE 9 the house would thus have opened directly from the street, as was the case in House D. A fragment of a pivot stone was found lying on the partition wall between the two rooms, apparently not in its original position. The clay floor was not especially well marked, and no trace of a fixed hearth was observed. The objects found in the house were few, including, apart from broken pottery, only a small vase in the form of a bird, two whorls and a conical object, perhaps a primitive idol, of terracotta, and a piece of flat bronze wire. Ficure 8. House A FroM THE SouUTH 3. The “House of the Pithoi” (Nos. 3, 4, and § on the plan, Piare IT; Fig. g). The largest and most pretentious building uncovered on the hill of Zygouries lies im- mediately to the west of House D, not far from the central part of the mound. It is not approached from the street, nor from the alley mentioned above; perhaps another street ran along the crest of the hill, on the west side of the house, where it had its entrance. The house apparently consisted of a large square chamber entered from the west through an open vestibule (Fig. 10), with a smaller room or rooms adjoining on the northeast, but the plan in this direction may be incomplete. The square chamber is of considerable size and is well preserved. It measures approxi- mately 5.60 m. by 5.55 m. and is built with very solid substantial walls ca. 0.go m. thick. These walls are 1.50 m. high, but only the upper third of this projected above the floor of the fe) THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES house. In its lower part this foundation is much thicker than above. It is constructed in fairly regular courses, which from the floor of the room upward are roughly stepped so that the wall diminishes in thickness (Fig. 11). Almost in the axis of the west wall is a very large doorway leading in from what seems NY Of OO oS / ba ‘ ~~ Figure 9. Pian or tHE “House or THE Prruor” anp Apyorntnc Houses to be a vestibule, which occupies the full width of the square chamber. The doorway is 2.10 m. wide and is paved with a layer of irregular unworked stones, which thus form a threshold. The pavement does not, however, occupy the full depth of the opening, being ca. 0.1§ m. narrower than the thickness of the wall. On the inner side of the threshold, in the centre of the doorway, is a rectangular recess in the pavement, ca. 0.25 m. wide by 0.12 m. deep. This recess looks as if it had been intended for a heavy wooden gatepost dividing ARCHITECTURE II the doorway into two equal parts and helping to support a lintel. The doorway is in any case so wide that a double door would seem to be required. Set into the floor of the room on the south side of the doorway is a small block of poros in the top of which a circular de- pression has clearly been cut. This is without doubt a pivot hole in which a heavy wooden door pivot revolved; no similar stone was found on the north side of the door, but it may be presumed that one originally existed here also. Two such stones not i” situ were brought to light in this area of the excavations. The pivot stone at the south side of the door is set Ficure 10. VESTIBULE AND SQUARE CHAMBER, House OF THE PITHOI, FROM THE WeEsT some 0.30 m. into the room and away from the door. It seems, accordingly, that the door could not be shut without leaving a considerable crack; but this could easily be filled with branches or reeds and clay. In the north wall of the room near the northeast corner is a second doorway, much smaller than the first. It leads into a second square chamber, which, though not so large as the principal room, is still of spacious proportions. Unfortunately the walls have been damaged in this region by constructions of Mycenaean times. The doorway is 0.95 m. wide. This opening is so narrow that there was probably only a single door; no pivot stone was found. Along the east wall of the great room, beginning at the southeast corner, stood a row of large pithoi. Four were found in place, two practically complete, two in part only, and there may well have been originally two or three more. If so, they were destroyed when the Mycenaean walls in this section were built. The pithoi, decorated with raised incised bands, ig THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES and also provided with large cylindrical bosses (Figs. 111, 112), were no doubt storage jars for oil, meal, and other food supplies of the household. As a distinctive feature of the house they have been used to give a name to the building. The floor of the room is made of trodden clay laid on a prepared bed, varying from 0.05 m. to 0.25 m. in thickness, composed of whitish clay, pebbles, potsherds, and the like. The Ficure 11. Square Cuamser, House or THE PITHOI, FROM THE NortH, SHowinc Streppep WALL AND Row oF PirHor variation in thickness of this bed is probably due merely to an attempt to lay a level floor on a sloping or irregular ground. Scattered about on the floor of the room were found sixteen complete vases, four or five intact, the rest in fragments. They are chiefly typical Early Helladic shallow bowls, but among them is an interesting sauceboat, the spout of which is made in the form of a ram’s head (PLare X). Another vessel deserving of mention is a coarse cooking pot which still contained a large beef bone, undoubtedly the remains of the last meal prepared in the house before its destruction by fire (Fig. 10). Several crude bricks, baked hard by the fire which destroyed the house, were found resting on the floor of the room, and there was also here a thick, hard layer of clay from similar dissolved bricks. The dimensions of the whole bricks are 0.14 m. to 0.1§ m. thick, 0.18 m. to 0.20 m. wide, and more than 0.30 m. long. ARCHITECTURE 13 Near the centre of the room an area approximately 1.00 m. broad seemed considerably harder than the surrounding floor and showed indications of having been baked by fire. This was clearly the hearth. Its outline is roughly a circle and its centre seems to have been slightly depressed. Between the hearth and the west door on the floor lay a large mill-stone of the saddle- quern type. Though the walls are very thick and solid and capable of sustaining considerable weight, the great size of the room makes it seem likely that pillars or posts were employed to assist Ficure 12. FraGMents oF Cray Packina From Roor, House oF THE PitrHo! in holding up the roof. No traces of such interior supports came to light, it is true, but if they were merely wooden posts or columns of crude brick they need have left no permanent indication. No stone bases were found. The roof itself was undoubtedly flat. Some fragments of clay packing and surfacing give an idea of the manner of construction. Resting on the walls — and, as mentioned above, probably supported by posts — were heavy wooden beams. These were apparently not squared, but small tree trunks or logs left in the round and placed close together. Over these was spread a layer of clay, filling up the chinks and levelling the platform. Upon this was laid in turn a row of reeds, running not parallel to the heavy beams but diagonally across them. Several fragments of the clay packing were found, bearing on one side the impress of the large logs, on the other that of the reeds (Fig. 12). Above the reeds, finally, was laid a thick surfacing of clay. Fragments of this also were found, preserv- ing on their lower side the impression of the reeds, and smooth on their upper surface. Several other hardened bits bore the impression of reeds both on their top and bottom; where these were employed is not clear. 14 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES A roof of this type of construction must have been very solid and heavy, requiring strong support. But at the same time it must have fulfilled its purpose entirely satisfactorily, being, with occasional attention, proof against the hardest rain. The inner room, No. § on the plan (Fig. 9), entered through the narrow doorway men- tioned above, is approximately square, having an average length from east to west of 3.90 m. and an average width from north to south of 3.70 m. Two later walls, probably Mycen- aean, and a mass of stones in the southern part of this chamber have obliterated the original arrangements here. The southern end of the east wall of the room seems also to have been demolished or at least modified when House A was built; for the northwest corner of this latter 1s superposed on this wall. Along the north and east walls runs a narrow border of small stones set at the level of the floor. What the purpose of this arrangement might have been is not clear; perhaps it formed an edge to the clay pavement of the floor. Apart from numerous potsherds, nothing of consequence was found in this room. Not far from the north wall and almost in the axis of the chamber stood the bottom portion of a small pithos which had been set into a hole in the floor and was thus preserved. It is not certain whether there were other rooms belonging to the house beyond this room or not. The west exterior wall seems to extend on to the north, suggesting that the building continued farther in this direction; but the remains on this side are in a ruinous condition, and the excavations were not extended farther northward. To the west of the large central room is a spacious open area (No. 3 on the plan) which may have served as a vestibule or porch. Its floor is ca. 0.30 m. higher than that of the room itself. It has a solidly built wall on the south, which is in fact a westward continuation of the south wall of the great chamber; but no corresponding wall appears on the north. The western boundary, however, is clearly marked by a broad line of flat stones resembling a pavement; it is somewhat irregular, but averages ca. 1.00 m. in width. The whole area measures about 3.50 m. from east to west by 5.45 m. from north to south, and can hardly be explained as anything other than a covered vestibule before the main entrance to the large room. If this explanation is correct, we might expect a row of columns along its west front, and there are in fact in the strip of pavement here a number of large flat stones which would serve admirably as bases for such supports. These need have been no more than simple posts of wood; and if they ever existed they have left no traces. The line of pavement may thus have been laid in order to mark the entrance to the covered portico, and may also have been useful in preventing rain water from washing in to make the earthen floor muddy. The absence of a wall on the north side is something of a difficulty. At this point, how- ever, native rock comes up to the level of the floor, and certain shallow pits cut here in Mycenaean times suggest that later adjustments may have removed all remains of Early Helladic construction if there ever was a wall here. At the same time the possibility of a simple porch open on two sides, north and west, must be admitted. In the southeast corner of this covered portico stood the bottom of a small pithos fitted into a cutting hollowed out in the floor. Two similar pithoi, of which only the bottom part was in each case preserved, stood in similar cuttings in the northern part of the area. Just to the southwest of this porch is a small isolated quadrangular room, No. 2 on the plan, of which the north wall is interrupted by the line of pavement bounding the court on ARCHITECTURE ° 15 the west. Possibly there was an entrance to the room at this point. This small room is not exactly rectangular; it measures ca. 2.15 m. east and west by 1.45 m. north and south. Its purpose could not be determined; perhaps it was a stable or an outhouse connected with the court. 4. “House of the Snailshells” (Nos. 19 and 20 on the plan, Pate II; Fig. g). Adjoining the “House of the Pithoi” on the south is a small building in a poor state of preservation, but presenting a plan which is fairly clear. This structure, built up against the Ficure 13. GENERAL VIEW oF CENTRAL AREA OF EXCAVATIONS FROM THE SOUTHWEST south wall of the large house, is evidently another example of the two-roomed type of dwelling, similar to House A and House D described above. It appears to have been entered from the narrow alley which here widens into a small open space before the door — No. 18 on the plan. The house consists of two rooms, tg and 20 on the plan. The easternmost is approxi- mately square, measuring roughly 2.00 m. on a side. In the south wall of this room is the outside door, which must have been very narrow, since the opening, indicated by a break in the wall, has a width of only 0.85 m. The western room is somewhat larger, with an aver- age length of 3.30 m. and a width of 2.20 m. The partition wall between these two chambers does not now appear above the level of the floor; its upper part was of course constructed of crude brick. There is consequently nothing to indicate the position of the doorway 16 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES connecting these two rooms. In the south side of the western chamber is a break in the wall, 0.§5 m. wide, which may perhaps mean that there was originally an opening here. If so, it led into a restricted space at the end of the alley, but walled off from the latter and closed also at its west end. Possibly this served as a small cupboard; in any case it is the most interesting feature of this house. The floor of the two rooms, made of trodden earth and clay, was covered with quantities of snailshells, perhaps the débris from the final repast in the house. Scattered about were also a large number of nests of potsherds, allowing the more or less complete restoration of thirty-seven vases of various shapes and sizes, ranging from large jars to diminutive saucers. West of this small house, and separated from it by a substantial wall, 0.60 m. high, in which there is no opening,! is a small area enclosed by walls on three sides. Whether this formed part of the house or not is not now evident. This area, No. 21 on the plan, is 2.40 m. wide and has a length east and west of 3.00 m. It seems never to have had a wall at its western end and must presumably have been open in this direction, though it was probably roofed. The floor is only about 0.15 m. above native rock, but this latter slopes rapidly downward toward the east. At the east end of the room and partly covered by the wall stands a small pithos of which only the lower portion remains, sunk into a depression in the floor. This appears to belong to an earlier period in the use of this area; perhaps there was then a doorway through the wall — or no wall at all. The open west end of the area was partly blocked by the small room, No. 2, mentioned above in connection with the House of the Pithoi, and this compartment too may well have been a dependency of that house. 5. House W (Nos. 23, 24, 25, 26 on the plan, Piate II; Fig. 14). On the south side of the alley (18) and west of the street (27) lies another complex of walls belonging to a system the plan of which is not so clear as might be desired. The house, if indeed it be a house, seems to have consisted of one or two adjoining rooms on each side, east and west, of a central courtyard paved with rough cobblestones (23, 24, 25, 26). The entrance to the court appears to have been from the south, where access is provided by means of another narrow lane (37) branching off westward from the main street. This lane probably served as the approach not only to House W, but also to House S, which will be described below. The lane varies from 1.00 m. to ca. 1.15 m. in width and is made in the same way as the alley already discussed above, except at its west end, where it is paved with small stones. ; The courtyard (24) measures ca. 4.25 m. from north to south by 3.25 m. from east to west. Almost the whole of it is laid with large and small stones, forming a pavement which in the southern half of the area is considerably higher than in the northern part. On the south side there is an opening in the wall ca. 3.07 m. wide, and here there is a step down to the level of the lane which is paved with smaller stones. Nothing of consequence was found in the court. The walls of the structure to the west of the court are in a very ruinous condition and not much can be said of the original arrangement here. The north and south lines are pre- ‘It is possible that an original doorway here has been filled in with stone construction. ARCHITECTURE Ef served and a small fragment of the west wall at the northwest corner makes it possible to fix the approximate dimensions of the building (23) as 3.45 m. from north to south by 2.45 7 a Y, \) 7 Ficure 14. Pian or Houses W anv S m. from east to west. Whether this was all one room or not could not be determined; a mass of small stones lying in disorder in an irregular line across the middle of the area may be the débris from a demolished partition wall which once divided the house into two small 18 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES rooms. At the very centre of the building is a large flat stone which may have had some structural purpose. In the southern half of this area was found the lower part of a large pithos embedded in the clay floor. Around it lay a considerable quantity of broken pottery among which were fragments of many sauceboats. Just south of this ruinous building is an open area (40) measuring some 3.10 m. from north to south by more than 4.00 m. from east to west, surrounded by walls on the north, Ficure 15. House S From THE SOUTHEAST east, and south. The western boundary has disappeared if there ever was one. A break in the north wall near the northeast corner suggests a doorway (ca. 0.90 m. wide) and a similar opening, 0.63 m. wide, appears in the south wall near the southeast corner. It is not clear whether this was a covered room or a small open court; it seems in. any case to have be- longed to the house just described (House W). No objects of importance came to light here. The construction to the east of the court (24) is in an almost equally unsatisfactory state of preservation. Here we have, however, one clearly marked room (25) in the angle formed by the street and the alley. It is very irregular in shape, with an average width from north to south of 1.57 m. and an average length from east to west of 1.80 m. None of the corners are rectangles and the opposite walls are not parallel. The walls are well constructed solid foundations ca. 0.60 m. thick, and show no indication of a door. It is difficult to understand what use could have been made of a room so small as this. ARCHITECTURE 19 Immediately adjoining on the south is a somewhat larger area (26) roughly trapezoidal in shape, measuring 2.50 m. to 3.10 m. in width by 2.80 m. to 3.25 m. in length from north to south. It is walled on the north, east, and south, but no foundation appeared on the west, where its limit is marked by the straight edge of the cobblestone pavement of the court (24). Apparently then we have here a roofed shed or shelter with an open facade toward the courtyard. Beneath the floor of rooms 25 and 26 was revealed a heavy wall running north and south, which clearly belongs to an earlier period and must have been covered over when those Ficure 16. Room 39, House S, rrom THE SouTH rooms were in use. No corresponding wall came to light with which this foundation could _ be connected, and nothing further can be said regarding the structure to which it belonged. From the evidence of the pottery and other objects found in the deposit about the walls it is clear that there was no great chronological difference between the two periods. 6. House S (Nos. 38, 39, 41 on the plan, PLare II; Fig. 14). South of the lane (37) are the fairly well preserved walls of a house consisting of two or perhaps three rooms (38, 39, and 41). The building is oriented from southeast to northwest. The foundations are strongly built, from 0.60 m. to 0.70 m. thick, and are intact except at the south corner and at the north angle of the western room, possibly a later addition. The plan is essentially the same as that of House D, comprising a narrow outer room (38) and a large square inner apartment (39) to which a small additional chamber (41) is at- tached on the west } (Fig. 15). ; Room 38, slightly wedge-shaped, and narrowing toward the southwest, measures ca. 1It is quite possible that House S and House W really belong together, forming a large L-shaped building, facing a court. 20 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES 2.20 m. by 4.00 m. A foundation ca. 0.g0 m. long projects into the middle of its north side, dividing this section into two small alcoves. The southern corner of the wall is missing, as already stated above, and it is possible that the outside door occupied this position. On the other hand, a narrowing of the foundation wall at the northeast end of the eastern alcove just mentioned suggests that an opening existed here, and this is the place which I believe the doorway to have occupied. The projecting wall is then explained as an effort to protect the entrance by causing it to lead in through a short passage. The floor of the room is made of well-trodden clay and earth. On it lay, in the inner corner of the west alcove, a nest of small pots, including several fragmentary “sauceboats.” The position of the door leading to room 39 could not be determined. Room 39 (Fig. 16) is clearly the main living room of the house. Though its corners are not perfect right angles, it is roughly square, measuring approximately 3.g0 m. on a side. The north wall is not completely preserved, as a section 1.75 m. long is missing midway between the side walls of the room.! As this open space is thus almost in the axis of the room, it might be thought to mark the position of a large central door through which the chamber could be entered from the lane outside. This is the more probable explanation, but another is possible. At the north end of the room and almost symmetrically placed on the axis of the room is a well-made circle of cobblestone pavement which overlaps in part the line of the wall. This circle has a diameter of ca. 1.05 m. and rises ca. 0.25 m. above the clay floor of the room. If the space, now open in the wall, were a doorway, this high obstacle squarely in the way would make entrance into the room, to say the least, very awkward. Unfor- tunately the top of the paved circle was only very slightly below the present surface of the ground and has consequently suffered so much damage that its original condition can- not be determined with certainty. Although actual traces of fire are quite lacking, I think we may have here the remains of a hearth built against the north wall of the room which must have been hollowed out behind it — an arrangement which would give protection to the fire and assist in carrying off the smoke. The weakening of the wall at this point, since it must then have been constructed roughly in the form of a half arch, would sufficiently account for its destruction. A paved circle in many ways similar to this was noted in House K at Korakou, where, however, this explanation was not ventured (Korakou, p- 96). No trace of a hearth elsewhere in room 39 came to light. The small objects from the floor, consisting chiefly of fragments of pottery, were not numerous. In the west wall of the room is a small opening slightly less than 0.50 m. wide. It is extraordinarily narrow for a door, and yet it seems clearly intended as a passage into the adjoining room 41. This latter looks like an addition to the house, as its walls do not bond into the foundations of the building. The room is trapezoidal in shape, being 2.50 m. wide at the southeast and narrowing to 1.75 m. at the northwest, with an average length of 3.45 m. Besides the narrow passage leading in from room 39 there seem to be two further door- ways, one in the north and one in the south wall. Why a room of so diminutive size should have no fewer than three entrances did not become clear, nor was the use of the apartment explained. On the floor was found a nest of small vases, including tiny dishes and spoons. ‘ No foundations whatever are now preserved in this space; either they have been torn out or, perhaps, they never existed atiall, ARCHITECTURE 21 7. House E (Nos. 28 and 29 on the plan, Piate II; Fig. 17). On the east side of the street and opposite House W are the scanty remains of another small contemporary building. Lying near the edge of the hill it had the misfortune to fall within the area disturbed by construction in Mycenaean times, and the whole eastern part of it, comprising more than half its area, has thus been demolished. Enough remains, how- ever, to permit the conjecture that the original plan was very similar to that of House D. The west side wall of the house, along the street, is preserved to a length of 5.70 m. and the beginning of a partition wall which seems to have divided the structure into two rooms (28 and 29 on the plan) still exists. Unfortunately both the north and the south ends are missing, the former having made way for a wall of the Mycenaean period. 8. House L (Nos. 2, 4, 5 on the plan, Pewre=H; Fig. 18). Treneh IT, Plate L. On the gradual northern slope of the hill a ane which at first glance seems to be of a somewhat different plan came to light. It is an L-shaped building consisting of three rooms (2, 4, 5 on the plan) facing a small court (3). This house is well constructed with walls averaging 0.60 m. in thickness (Fig. 19). The two south rooms (4, §) are clearly the chief rooms of the building and were surely closed and roofed. Room 4 measures 2.60 m. in width and has a length from north to south of 3.55 m. It appears to have been used mainly for storage purposes, as the remains of six pithoi were found in it (Fig. 20). In each case the base of the vessel was well preserved in its original position oat and inside it many fragments of its upper portion were recovered. So far as could be observed there was no regular order in the arrangement of the pithot: three stood more or less in a row along the west side of the room, one approximately in the centre, and two somewhat farther eastward. All were set into the floor and made secure by a packing of small stones around them. No recognizable remains were found to show what these storage jars had once con- tained. In addition to the pithoi the objects brought to light in this room (4) included two spindle whorls (or buttons), two mill-stones of the saddle-quern type, a pounder, two whetstones, an oyster shell, and in the floor and just below it six good obsidian knives together with a celt of gray flint. The pottery recovered within the room comprised a large askos, two complete shallow bowls (one of which contained a cylindrical bead of chalcedony), and numerous fragments. Room 4 was presumably connected by a door with room 5, but no evidence to establish its position came to light. It may have been some- \ where near the north end of the wall separating isonet Pili nbicuanE 9 2M 22 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES the two rooms, at a point where the construction is now in a very damaged condition. Room 5, measuring ca. 2.50 m. by 3.50 m., is only very slightly smaller than room 4. Its walls are well preserved on the east, south, and west; the east end of the north wall has, however, almost completely disappeared, and since no evidence was found to mark it else- where, a door, opening upon the court, may perhaps have occupied this place. In room 5 Vdd \ Ficure 18. Pian or House L were found a celt, a whetstone, and almost a dozen obsidian blades (on, or below the floor), the major part of two “‘sauceboats” and a jar or jug of good fabric with a curious oval mouth, and one complete cooking vessel together with many fragments of another. The cooking in this simple establishment was thus apparently done in this room; no traces of a hearth could be observed, however, unless four small stones still resting on the earthen floor in the northern part of the chamber once formed part of it. They showed no signs of burning. Room 2 is a smaller apartment in the north wing of the house, with dimensions of 3.25 m. from north to south by 2.25 m. It seems to have been in part at least open toward the court, as its east wall terminates 1.15 m. before reaching the northeast corner and this opening ARCHITECTURE 23 seems unduly large for an entrance into so small a room. There is no trace of a door leading into room 4; and this small room (2), though evidently belonging to House L, was appar- ently, therefore, a separate unit, accessible only from the court. What its specific purpose was could not be learned. Inside it were found a complete askos, a diminutive patera, the greater part of a spoon or ladle, and many potsherds. The east wall of the room is peculiar, since it turns at right angles and runs eastward alongside the north wall of rooms 4 and 5. Perhaps this foundation was not intended to sup- port a high wall, but merely a low bench or seat bordering the south side of the court. Ficure 19. House L From THE East No wall was discovered enclosing the court on the north and the east; it seems to have been merely an open space occupying the interior angle of the “L”’ of the house. It possessed a well-trodden floor of light clay, in which three small storage pithoi had been set. Only the bases of these pots remained in place; the rest had been broken and torn away as a result of cultivation, since the surface of the field was no more than 0.35 m. above the level of the floor. On the clay pavement were found five good blades of obsidian and fragments of pot- tery in some quantity. The large number of obsidian knives from the court and rooms 4 and 5, twenty-three all told, suggests that in House L we may perhaps have the residence of a prehistoric dealer in cutlery. Beyond the wall to the west of room 2, chiefly in the area marked 1 on the plan, a con- siderable quantity of shattered pottery came to light, from which it was possible to put 24 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES together two good “sauceboats,” a jug, and several smaller vases. Perhaps this was the rubbish heap, where behind the building the broken dishes and the débris of the household were discarded. As remarked at the outset, House L impresses one at first sight as being of a different type from the other Early Helladic houses at Zygouries. But if room 2 is really, as seems in fact to be the case, a separate unit entered only from the court, we have remaining in Figure 20. House L rrom tHe Nortu, SHowinc Remains or Pirxnor 1n Room 4 rooms 4 and 5 exactly the same arrangement of a two-roomed dwelling that we have seen illustrated in Houses D, A, and others. Trench &L g. House Y (Piate I; Fig. 21). Trench XI on the southwest slope of the mound brought to light a complex of walls which proved extremely difficult to disentangle. These remains lay some 0.20 m. to 0.30 m. below the surface of the ground and had doubtless been disturbed by ploughing; further- more an early Christian grave and some other digging and construction in this region, dated by the Byzantine potsherds occurring in the same context, had caused no little confusion. In the eastern part of the trench we seem to have the scanty remnants of foundations of two successive houses, one of which (4) apparently had a door at its southern end, opening on a narrow passage or street (7). The complete plan of these houses could not be made out. Room 4 at all events is of some size, measuring ca, 4.20 m. from east to west and probably ARCHITECTURE more than 4.25 m. from north to south. In this room, apart from the usual quantity of potsherds, was dis- covered an important button seal of terracotta, the first of its kind among the relics of the Early Helladic Period on the Greek mainland. From a small pocket between walls just southeast of the doorway (7) a mass of pottery was extracted, yielding among other vases two “‘sauceboats”’ and a shallow bowl. 10, House U, the “House of the Dagger” (Nos. 2 and 3 on the plan, achXL PLaTE I; Fig. 22). Not far to the west of the fore- going, another building was uncovered, the original arrangement of which is hardly easier to comprehend, though here at least the remains appear to Ficurer 22. Pian or House U { | | | i) Gn Figure 21. Pian or House Y belong to one period alone. This 1s House U, comprising the areas numbered 2 and 3 on the plan. Whether these were actually roofed and closed rooms or not 1s a puzzling question. Area 2 in any case seems to have been covered. It has substantial walls, 0.50 m. to 0.60 m. thick, on all four sides and measures 2.60 m. wide by 5.25 m. long from north to south (outside dimensions), form- ing aroom ca.1.s0m.by 4.00 m. There is no evidence for the position of a door or doors. The room had a good floor of clay, small stones, and potsherds; on, or in, it were found a bronze awl, a “stopper” of terracotta, and some chips of obsidian. The floor continued eastward, extending over area 3, which is much larger. Of a roughly trapezoidal shape, it has an average width from east to west of 3.75 m. and a length of ca. 4.50 m. (Fig. 23). The walls surrounding this space on the north, east, and south consist for the most part of two 26 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES courses of stones about 0.35 m. thick, and do not appear to have supported a high super- structure. Perhaps they formed merely the boundary of an uncovered courtyard; in such case the roofed dwelling must have been limited to the single room occupying the whole width of the court at its west side. In the northeast part of the “court” a few un- worked stones and irregular patches of red clay (perhaps from dissolved crude brick), much hardened by fire, suggest the possibility of a hearth. Near the northwest corner of the “court” was a small pit roughly lined with small stones, having a diameter of ca. Ficure 23. House U rrom True NortHEeast 0.80 m. and a depth of about one metre. Neither its date nor its purpose could be certainly determined, though it may perhaps have been a “bothros”’ belonging to the Early Helladic Period. A smaller pit, not far from the southwest corner of the “‘court,” seems to date from comparatively recent times, as it contained a number of Byzantine potsherds. On the east side of the “‘court,” finally, were found in a shallow depression in the floor a few small crumbling bones — the scanty remains of an infant burial. The interment must have taken place subsequently to the abandonment of the house as a dwelling, after the level of the ground had risen considerably, since the bottom of the grave was only slightly sunk into the floor of the “court’’; it should probably be assigned to the Middle Helladic Period, though its exact date could not be ascertained. On the floor of the “‘court”’ were found a flint saw, three obsidian blades, three “whorls” or buttons, a shallow bowl, and a small spoon or ladle; in the layer of stones forming the ARCHITECTURE Ne floor, a flint, a mill-stone, a number of boars’ tusks, a “stopper” of terracotta, the head of an animal (or a bird) of the same material, and a spindle whorl. A nest of pottery lying in a hollow among the foundations just east of the “court” produced an askos, two jugs, seven shallow bowls, a ladle, a ‘“‘sauceboat,” and a shallow dish or plate. Some distance below the floor of the court a clearly marked stratum of blackened earth points to an earlier period of occupation of this region. This burnt layer, ca. 0.10 m. thick, Ficure 24. Watts In Trencu V, FROM THE East extended under and beyond the walls of the court, but no walls which could be associated with it were revealed. South of House U there appears to have passed a narrow street, paved with a packing of small stones, sherds, and various débris. In the area marked g on the plan it is particu- larly clear and we seem to have the corner of two such streets intersecting at right angles. Among the stones of the pavement in this angle were found a well-preserved bronze dagger (PLate XX, No. 25), a flat bone implement, and a bone spool. Just to the west of the inter- secting streets a well-built wall, forming a corner, probably indicates the position of another house; but the foundation is preserved for only a short distance and almost nothing remains of the building. Walls of structures belonging to the Early Helladic Period were encountered in other trenches almost everywhere on the hill of Zygouries and below it in the sloping fields to the 28 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES west, but no further house plans could be determined. In Trench V part of a room with a well-made floor came to light and perhaps a complete house exists at this point; the depth of the deposit here, however, and the remains of later structures at a higher level (Fig. 24) made it necessary to limit the area excavated to a comparatively narrow trench. Two pits cut in native rock side by side near the west edge of the hill may possibly be “bothroi’’ dating from the Early Helladic Period. They have approximately the shape of a large, rather spherical pithos, one, measured at the top, being 1.10 m. in diameter and swelling to 1.45 m, at its widest point, the second 1.45 m. across at the top and 1.85 m. at its greatest diameter; and the two are connected about half way down by an irregular hole. On the south side of the easternmost pit there seems to be a well-cut opening, leading perhaps into a third pit. This was not excavated. They were found filled with black earth, stones, and miscellaneous débris, and contained also some coarse Byzantine pottery. If they were originally constructed in Early Helladic times they must have been rediscovered and put to a new use in the Byzantine period; and the connecting hole between them is no doubt contemporary with their conversion into a cistern. The possibility that they are Early Helladic is strengthened by the discovery farther to the north, in the steep west slope of the hill, of remains of similar pits which can be dated from the objects found in them. Owing to the wearing away of the rock here, only the lower part of these “bothroi” is — preserved, in the form of three overlapping circular cuttings with rounded bottom. Though now of no great depth, they were filled with a mass of Early Helladic pottery, from which many vases have been more or less completely put together. In a long trial trench skirting the west side of the hill two further “‘bothroi”’ were discovered. One, almost filled with large stones, produced also coarse Byzantine pottery, as well as some Mycenaean and some Early Helladic sherds. The other, cut partly in rock, and reaching a depth of 3.20 m. below the present level of the ground, yielded a large quantity of exclusively Early Helladic potsherds. Il. Mrppie HeEtuapic Periop Architectural remains of the Middle Helladic Period were very scanty, consisting merely of short disconnected pieces of walls which gave little or no evidence for complete plans of houses. They lay chiefly on the western part of the hill in a region apparently much dis- turbed in later times. A curved wall in Trench VI may possibly have belonged to an apsidal house similar to those at Tiryns, Korakou, and elsewhere, but the remains are too in- complete to allow more than the conjecture. Deep pits sunk into the east slope of the hill revealed a thick Middle Helladic layer below the Late Helladic, and here also a short piece of well-built wall appeared. Some allowance must naturally be made for later disturbance and destruction, but in view of this scanty evidence it can hardly be doubted that the Middle Helladic settlement was a place of far less importance and prosperity than the Early Helladic town, which occupied the whole hill with its numerous houses closely crowded together. III. Lare Hewttapic Periop In Late Helladic times the settlement seems to have spread down into the flat ground to the east and west of the hill. Walls of houses, dated by the accompanying pottery, may be ARCHITECTURE 29 Ficure 25. Pian oF THE Porrer’s SHoP NX NB fo) OOS ¢ 2@e as SOAS) 30 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES seen in the banks of a small stream which flows northward in a deeply cut bed some fifty metres east of the mound. A trench between this stream bed and the edge of the hill also revealed foundation walls and traces of floors, one with a large terracotta vessel resembling a bathtub still resting on it. This whole region seems, however, to have been denuded to a considerable extent by the overflowing of the stream during heavy rains, and not much now survives of these Mycenaean constructions. In the fields on the west side of the hill, trial trenches likewise brought to light many walls with which quantities of Late Helladic III potsherds were associated. Ficure 26. THRresHOLD Sass in “Corripor” oF THE Porrer’s SHOP The top of the hill has also suffered denudation and perhaps its whole surface was cut down and levelled off in Byzantine times, as mentioned above. Consequently there are few Mycenaean remains, consisting merely of short unconnected bits of walls, and here and there a small pit filled with Late Helladic potsherds. Against the steep eastern slope of the hill, on the contrary, a deep accumulation of earth and débris has covered and preserved a considerable part of a large building belonging to the third Late Helladic Period. Interesting in itself, this structure, House B, is also, on account of the vast amount of pottery found within it, worthy of some description. House B (Nos. 12, 13, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 on the plan, Piate II; Fig. 25), The space for the building was provided by making a broad horizontal cutting into the sloping hillside and dumping the earth thereby removed, together with a great mass of stones, upon the lower ground to the east until a level platform was formed. The construc- tion rested, therefore, in part on solid earth, in part on made ground. The western portion, lying on its firm shelf and protected by the deep western edge of the cutting, has thus been 1 fast ARCHITECTURE 31 fairly well preserved; while the eastern half has in the course of time been carried down the hill and disappeared. Consequently only a part of the ground plan can now be certainly determined, though the limit of the stone fill on the east allows the line of the east wall to be conjectured approximately. The walls are preserved to a height corresponding to the level of the surface of the ground before excavation, and, therefore, rise gradually from east to west, following the slope of the hill, to their greatest height at the inner extremity of the Figure 27. Room 13, Porrer’s SHop, FROM THE SOUTH shelf. Solidly built of large and small unworked stones laid in clay, these walls seem calcu- lated to support a very heavy superstructure. The interior partitions average ca. 0.80 m. in thickness, while the exterior walls were certainly much more massive, though their exact dimensions can no longer be recognized. The building is oriented with its longer axis running about 30° east of north; the portion of it brought to light forms a rectangle some 15 m. long by 11.50 m. wide. This was divided into a series of rooms of various sizes to which access was apparently provided by means of a central passage parallel to the long axis of the building. How many chambers there were originally cannot now be stated with certainty. Four complete rooms (13, 30, 33, 34) west of the passage were cleared and part of one on the north (12); but there were no doubt others on the east which have fallen away down the slope of the hill. The passage itself (31 and 32 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES 32) can be recognized only by three large threshold slabs of as many successive doors in a row (Fig. 26); whether it was actually a closed corridor the east wall of which has now totally disappeared, or merely formed a line of passage by a succession of doorways through adjoining rooms is not absolutely clear. The latter supposition is the more probable, as the Ficure 28. Cooxine Pors as Tuey First AppeareD In Room 13 Figure 29. SourHwest Corner or Room 12, SHowinc Five Craters, FROM THE NortTH three threshold blocks, which certainly mean that there were doors, would hardly have bees necessary so close together in a narrow closed corridor. Room 13 in the northwest corner is one of the best preserved, its west wall still rising to a height of 1.40 m. (Fig. 27). The room has a width of ca. 2.55 m. and a length of ca. 4.90 m. from north to south. On the east side, near the southeast corner, is a doorway ca. 1.05 m. wide; this was probably the only entrance and the only source of natural light for the room. A large slab of rough limestone occupying more than the full thickness of the wall forms a stone threshold. The walls were covered with a thick coat of rather coarse plaster which ARCHITECTURE 33 J shows no trace of paint. The floor was made of hard earth and clay. The room itself is thus a simple chamber with no features especially unusual in Mycenaean buildings. Within it was found a store of pottery of noteworthy proportions. It contained more than five hundred unpainted deep bowls, probably for cooking purposes, some seventy-five small saucers, twenty small jars with three pierced lugs, three enormous stirrup vases, ten smaller pots of the same shape, and water jars, basins, ladles, cups, and other vessels, in smaller numbers. Ficure 30. SourHwest Corner oF Room 12, SHowinc Doorway To Room 13, AND THREE Craters STILL IN THE Position In WuicH THey Were Founp These vases were for the most part shattered, having been crushed by the débris which fell from above when the house was destroyed; but their original arrangement in the room was fairly clear. The cooking pots stood mainly at the south end of the chamber, packed one inside another in rouleaux, set close together on the floor (Fig. 28). Near them, just west of the doorway, were most of the saucers, the small jars, and the ladles. Farther to the north, near the centre of the room, were found several basins and the smaller stirrup vases, while the large ones and a water jar stood apparently against the east and west walls. Many cooking pots were brought to light here also, as well as in the northern part of the room, but not in such quantities as in the southwest corner. The room immediately adjoining on the east (12) is of larger size than the foregoing, but not so well preserved. It measures ca. 4.95 m. from north to south; its east wall has been 34 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES completely destroyed, but if, as suggested above, we take the limit of the stone fill as mark- ing its approximate line, we may conjecture a chamber almost square in shape. Considerably more than half of it has been swept down the declivity eastward, as the present slope of the hill cuts through the floor only ca. 2.00 m. beyond the west wall. The room had two doors, one already described, opening into room 13, and one leading southward. The position of the latter is recognizable from the large unworked stone slab, 1.21 m. wide, which once Ficure 31. Room 30, Porrer’s SHop, FROM THE East served as its threshold. On the floor along the west wall, north of the door to room 1 3, Was found another great mass of pottery. The shape chiefly represented here was the cylix on a high stem: almost seventy specimens with painted decoration can be counted, and four or five times that number of unpainted examples, among the fragments recovered. In the angle of the room south of the door stood five huge unpainted craters, bottom upward, in two rows (Fig. 29). These latter, as appears on our plan, must have interfered seriously with communication through the doorway (Fig. 30). Room 30 has the shape of an extremely narrow magazine, being ca. 4.65 m. long and only 1.40 m. wide. It was entered from the east through a door some 0.90 m. wide, the stone threshold (0.90 m. x 0.40 m.) of which is still iz situ. The room had a well-made floor of hard whitish clay. Comparatively little pottery came to light here, the most interesting vase being a three-legged stand, perhaps intended to hold a cooking pot over a charcoal fire. ARCHITECTURE 35 The striking feature of the room is a large open drain running eastward alongside the north wall (Fig. 31). It is made of U-shaped sections of terracotta pipe, four of which were found in place. These sections vary slightly in size, but average about 0.92 m. long. At the lower end they measure 0.24 m. across, at the upper 0.38 m., splaying out widely in order to take the lower end of the next section. The westernmost section is set slightly above the floor of the room, and from this point the drain slopes downward toward the east. It must Ficure 32. Room 33, Porrer’s SHop, rrom THE West, SHowInG Two Rows or CRATERS ALONG THE SourH WALL have passed under the east wall of the magazine, as several fragments were brought to light in room 31, but this part of its course has been demolished, apparently by large stones falling from above, and there was no evidence to show how the drain was carried out of the house. The purpose of so broad and capacious a drain in this narrow room is not clear; perhaps it carried off the water collected in the drain trap which was discovered at a higher level to the west of room 30 (see p. 38), or perhaps it brought the water needed in the potter’s workshop. Room 33 is 4.95 m. long and has a width of 2.45 m. Its inner end is set back ca. 0.65 m. west of the line of the west wall of rooms 13 and 30. This fact suggests that there may have been in the outer east wall of the building a jog or set-back similar to those so familiar in Mycenaean constructions elsewhere. In the east wall of the room immediately adjacent to 36 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES the northeast corner is a doorway ca. 1.00 m. wide, which has a threshold made of two slabs of limestone laid side by side with a fairly wide joint at the centre of the opening. The walls of the chamber, which are well preserved (the west wall still stands to a height of 1.65 m.), were finished with a thick coat of rough plaster, some of which still remains in situ. The floor is of light clay. On the floor in the southern half of the room stood two parallel rows of large pots bottom upward, some almost intact, others crushed and shattered (Fig. 32). The northern row con- Ficure 33. Room 33, Porrer’s SHoPp, FROM THE East 33 > tained ten vessels, the easternmost a sort of cylindrical jar, the rest craters; and there was probably an equal number in the southern row, which had, however, suffered greater dam- age. The great mass of fragments of similar vases lying upon and about these craters indi- cates that here too originally the pots were stacked one inside another in rouleaux, as in room 13. Upon them had been placed likewise a number of capacious basins and jugs, while the west end of the northern half of the magazine was piled high with similar vases. Cooking pots like those from room 13, were scattered about helter skelter, together with some smaller — vessels (Fig. 33). The east end of the northern half of the room, on the other hand, was almost free of pottery, probably because a passageway just inside the door had to be kept open to provide access to the store. ARCHITECTURE 37 Room 34, parallel to 33 on the south, is again long and narrow, having a width of only 1.75 m. It is divided into two parts by a large slab of limestone extending across the room. Apparently this is a threshold set at a level of two steps, ca. 0.50 m. higher than the south threshold slab in corridor 32. The west limit of the western part of the room was not clearly marked and apparently there was no levelled floor. The room was filled with large stones in a mass rising gradually westward. Along the south wall a drain made of cylindrical terra- cotta pipes, in part covered by stone slabs, descends from the higher level west of the room. In the eastern part of the room the terracotta drain is succeeded by a channel built of stones with small slabs laid across it as a cover. Accordingly it seems likely that a flight of steps once occupied this end of the building, by which one might ascend from the pottery maga- zines to the main floor above, and that the stairway could be closed by a door on a sort of landing. Such a stairway must have been needed, for it is certain that the rooms just described were merely basement or cellar storerooms and that the chief apartments of the building were on the upper floor. All the rooms were found filled with burnt débris; quantities of fragments of crude brick fused and hardened and stones partly calcined as the result of a conflagration, showed that the destruction of the house was due to fire and that a whole upper story had fallen in upon the rooms below. One brick came out almost intact; it is 0.35 m. long, 0.22 m. thick, and 0.085 m. high. The abundance of fragments of similar bricks indicates clearly that the walls of the upper story were built of this material. Some of these fragments still preserved a fine coat of plaster on one side, from which fact it is evident that the walls of the chief apartments were carefully finished. In not a few cases this plaster bore traces of painted decoration, and among the fragments recovered, two different styles of fresco may be distinguished (Piare III). One shows a fairly fine coat of plaster, almost white in color, varying from 5 mm. to 13 mm. in thickness, with a smooth surface. On this are painted patterns in good colors: blue, two shades of red, yellow, white, and black. Blue is the commonest; yellow, red, and black seem to be subsidiary. Unfortunately the pieces are very small, and the patterns are not recognizable; one fragment looks as if it had blue spirals on a white ground, but the color scheme may have been just the reverse. A good example is shown in Pare III, Nos. 3-7. The second style exhibits a somewhat more porous plaster, gray in color and in almost every case damaged by fire, ranging from 4 mm. to 12mm. in thickness. Many of the pieces are still attached to fragments of crude brick from the walls of the building. Here the material is not so shattered and some simple patterns can be recognized. One shows broad vertical bands of large spirals bordered by transverse parallel lines (PLate III, No. 1). The spirals seem to be done in white with black outline, and the interspaces are filled with red. Another pattern shows large zigzags in thin red lines on a blue ground — reminiscent of the design on some of the square panels of the floor in the court of the Palace at Mycenae. iovare Il, No. 2). The fragments of the first style were found chiefly in the vicinity of the drain-trap men- tioned below, numbered 15 on the plan, that is, on the top of the hill. The examples of the second style came from the Potter’s Shop and had fallen down from the upper story. The floor of the upper story must have corresponded fairly closely in level with the 38 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES surface of the hill itself farther westward, and here it is possible that the building extended considerably to the west beyond the lower story. Indeed it may have been constructed on successive steplike terraces similar in arrangement to those of the Palace at Mycenae. Owing to the ruinous condition of the foundation walls in this region its western exterior line could not, however, be definitely determined. Amidst the mass of stones some 2.50 m. west of room 30 a carefully made drain-trap was found and cleared (15 on the plan). It is a small pit of irregularly quadrangular shape, measuring roughly 0.80 m. on a side, but the opposite sides are not parallel. The sides of the pit are built of stones, which on the east and north are very large, covered with a coat of good waterproof plaster. The pit is 0.60 m. deep and has a well-made floor of similar plaster sloping downward from west to east. At the north corner a narrow channel leads into the box at the level of the floor and di- rectly opposite, at the south corner, a second channel provides an exit eastward. Perhaps this channel once emptied into the drain which runs through room 30; if so, the connecting section has been destroyed. The pit was filled with earth and débris, containing fragments of six figurines of terracotta, a steatite lentoid gem, many fresh-water mussel shells, and a slender bronze knife with remnants of an ivory handle (Fig. 190, No. 1). The drain-trap was probably in some way connected with, or formed part of the plumbing system of the house, but its exact function did not appear. The vast amount of pottery found in the storerooms of this house (representing many more than one thousand vases) leads one to conjecture that it was a potter’s establishment. The vases were all quite unused and some of those recovered intact looked, when cleaned, as fresh as though made yesterday. They seem to have been stored, as recorded above, in good order, distributed roughly by shape into three rooms. In view of their great number it is hardly likely that they were manufactured at any considerable distance from their place of storage. It is indeed quite possible that the workshop occupied the eastern rooms of this very building, which have unfortunately suffered almost complete destruction; and here too, perhaps, stood the kiln, though no traces of it at all were observed in the course of the excavations. CHAPTER III THE TOMBS A. THe SETTLEMENT EVEN graves were discovered within the settlement of Zygouries at various points on the hill. Three of these appeared to date from Byzantine times or later and require only passing mention here. They were simple earth burials in which, as the well- preserved bones showed, the body had been laid out at full length on its back with the head to the west and the arms folded across the breast. No objects were found in these graves, Ficure 34. Toms I, rrom THE WEST but in one case two iron heel-plates beneath the feet indicated that the deceased had been buried wearing heavy boots. The other four graves were probably all interments of the Middle Helladic Period and will be described in more detail. Toms I. Trench VI, in the central part of the mound, speedily revealed the usual maze of walls. Some of these, very close to the surface of the ground, appeared from the pottery found about them to be of Byzantine date, and in this section were two of the Byzantine graves. Other walls at slightly lower levels undoubtedly belonged to prehistoric buildings, 39 40 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES though no complete plan could be recovered. In part covered by the intersection of two walls (perhaps of mediaeval construction) and at a depth of ca. 1.00 m. below their top, a Middle Helladic tomb was found. Irregularly oval in shape, measuring ca. 1.75 m. by 1.10 m, at its widest and narrowest points, it was surrounded by a ring of rather small stones laid in a single line (Fig. 34). Within this enclosure lay the skeleton in contracted position on its right side with the head to the north and facing west. The bones were fairly well pre- served, though the skull had been somewhat damaged and had sunk forward to the north- west. The arms were bent at the elbow so that the hands came before the breast or the face; Ficure 35. Toms IV the legs were doubled up in the usual contracted attitude. The left arm and left leg had been disturbed and projected upward at an angle. The head was long in proportion to its width, measuring ca. 0.19 m. from front to back and not quite 0.14 m. from side to side. The femur had a length of 0.39 m., the humerus 0.23 m. Around the neck were found nineteen beads of crystal and fifteen of paste, some of them still adhering together, though the cord which had once joined them into a necklace had naturally rotted away (Fig. 189). Among the crushed bones of the head, resting against the upper jaw, were discovered a small coil of bronze wire and two circlets of the same material, perhaps hair fasteners (Fig. 189). Just beside the skull and partly covered by it lay a small jug of Mattpainted ware (No. 95, Fig. 124); and extending beneath the leg-bones were the shattered fragments of a cup of similar ware (No. 94, Fig. 123). A whorl of terracotta (Fig. 179, No. 1) and a fragmentary bone pin (Fig. 189) lay immediately west of the hands. Toms IV. In the eastern part of Trench V, at a depth of ca. 1.10 m., the grave of a small child came to light. It was a simple burial in soft earth almost in the angle formed by two walls belonging to an Early Helladic house; this grave pit had been dug down from above THE TOMBS 41 at a later period, and at the point of its greatest depth it barely penetrated the Early Hel- ladic floor. The grave itself had been roughly paved with small stones of irregular sizes, the area thus paved being just large enough to receive the body. The child had been buried in the contracted position (Fig. 35), lying on its left side with the head to the north and facing east, but the torso had evidently been twisted forward under the weight of the super- incumbent earth. The right arm lay straight beside the body, the left was bent at the elbow and crossed beneath the waist. The skull was in a crumbly state and could not be ac- curately measured. The femur measured 0.20 m. in length, the humerus 0.145 m.; the child could hardly have been more than two or three years old. Many fragments of a large Ficure 36. Trav TrencHes on East Stops or AMBELAKIA Hitt, FROM THE SOUTH pithos were found at the foot of the skeleton; perhaps they had been used to cover the grave and had somehow slipped down or been thrust aside. Near the feet was found also a sherd of Argive Minyan ware — a fragment from the rim of a bowl. In the earth about the grave many other potsherds occurred, all of Early Helladic fabrics, but the fragment of Argive Minyan found in the grave itself must be taken as fixing the ferminus post quem for the date of the interment. There were no other objects in the tomb. Hardly more thano.so m., south of the grave and at the same level, though extending to a greater depth, was a large mass of animal bones, comprising, apparently, the major part of the skeletons of two goats. Their close juxtaposition certainly suggests that they bore a definite relation to the grave of the child — perhaps they are the remains of animals sacrificed at the time of the burial ceremony. Toms V. About 2.25 m. southeast of Tomb IV were found the scanty remains of another child burial. The grave is merely a small circular hole, ca. 0.50 m. in diameter, cut through the Early Helladic floor mentioned above. It was covered with several large fragments of a coarse pithos. The bones were those of a very small infant and were too soft and rotten 42 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES to be cleared sufficiently for accurate measurement. Even the position of the body could not be determined with absolute certainty; it seemed to lie contracted on its right side with the head toward the east and the face turned to the north. There were no objects in the grave. Its level in relation to the floor indicated that it was later in date than the construction of the Early Helladic house, and it should no doubt be assigned to the Middle Helladic Period. Toms VI. In the floor of the court of the House of the Dagger, as already mentioned above (p. 26), was found a shallow oval depression, measuring ca. 0.40 m. by 0.70 m. and paved with fine pebbles. It contained a few small crumbling bones of a human skeleton, evidently the remains of an infant burial. The skull was not well enough preserved to be recognizable, and the evidence for the position of the body in the grave was very scanty; such as it was, it implied that the head lay pointing toward the south. No objects were found to make the date of the grave certain, but from its resemblance to other graves of infants it may with probability be attributed to the Middle Helladic Period. B. THE CEMETERY After numerous trial trenches had been dug in widening circles about the site, the ceme- tery of the settlement was finally discovered on the east slope of a hill which rises in the angle southeast of the intersection of the highroad and the line of the Peloponnesian Rail- way, some 500 m. west of Zygouries itself. This part of the ridge (Fig. 36), which ascends gradually southward toward Mt. Tretus, is now called Ambelakia, though no trace of the one-time vineyards 1s preserved today. It is a long, bare slope marked by only two or three stunted wild pear trees, and, owing to the scanty depth of poor soil covering its soft stereo, is not very productive. The thinness of the layer of earth, however, makes trial trenching very easy, and the graves with their shafts cut into the soft hardpan betray themselves almost immediately beneath the surface of the ground. The situation must have been — considered a highly suitable one for a cemetery, since all periods during which Zygouries was occupied are represented here by tombs; indeed in late Roman times, when the pre- historic site had long ceased to be inhabited and a new settlement had been established — perhaps clustering about the “ Palaiokastro” above the modern village of Hagios Vasilios — much farther away, the cemetery still continued to be used. Fifty-three tombs were discovered in the cemetery. Of these three certainly, and a fourth probably, date from the Early Helladic Period; two belong to the Middle Helladic Period; two are Mycenaean chamber tombs of Late Helladic III, and one seems to be a cutting for an unfinished tomb of the same type. Four yielded no evidence whatsoever of date; and the remaining forty must apparently be assigned to late Roman times. To this summary should be added Tomb XVIII, discovered in a railway cutting some distance to the north of Ambelakia, which contained two Geometric vases.! In the following description the tombs will be considered in their chronological order. 1 Sieves were constantly employed during the excavations in the cemetery, and no earth from a grave was thrown away until it had passed a careful scrutiny. The experienced diggers who were entrusted with the clearing of the tombs were, how- ever, so keenly attentive that almost no objects reached the sieves. THE TOMBS 43 Earty Hetuiapic Periop Toms VII. Tomb VII was perhaps disturbed and, at any rate, rendered more complex for the excavator by the fact that in some later period a second grave was constructed directly over the first. Fortunately, however, the second grave was a comparatively shallow pit, which did not quite reach the floor level of the first; and the general arrangement of this latter is therefore clear enough in the main. The upper grave was very simple, consisting of a pit 1.25 m. long from north to south by 0.40 m. wide, cut in earth to a depth of ca. 0.50 m., and covered by a single large roughly worked rectangular slab of poros. The slab, which was cracked diagonally into two pieces, was 1.40 m. long by .o85 m. wide and had a thickness of ca. 0.20 m. It ran almost due north and south, lying some 0.40 m. below the surface of the ground. The side of the pit was rein- forced by small stones at the north and south ends of the grave and for a short distance on Ficure 37. SKELETON IN Upper Layer or Toms VII the east; elsewhere it was formed of earth, none too firm. On the west side a long piece of poros at the top edge of the pit provided a bearing for the cover slab. The grave contained a fairly well-preserved skeleton (Fig. 37), which lay in a con- tracted position with the head to the south in the extreme southeast corner of the pit. The head rested on its right side with its face toward the east; perhaps it had fallen over into this position, for the body lay apparently squarely on its back. The legs were doubled up, the knees reaching almost to the chest; the left arm, bent at the elbow, was laid across the breast, meeting the right arm, which was bent back in the same way. The left hand lay over the right hand and wrist. The skull from front to back at the level of the eyebrows measured 0.20 m.; from the 44 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES point of the chin to the top of the head 0.20 m.; from the back of the neck to the forehead 0.16 m. The left humerus had a length of 0.25 m.; the radius 0.30 m. The right femur was 0.37 m. long; the tibia (not quite complete) 0.32 m. Ficure 38. Pian or Toms VII On the little finger (or the next) of the left hand was a ring —a plain thin band of bronze. There were no other objects in the grave. The north end of the pit for a space of 0.35 m. was empty and had apparently not been utilized; the contracted position was not necessitated by lack of space in the tomb. THE TOMBS 45 Evidence to establish with certainty the date of the grave was not forthcoming; the only object found in it, the ring, is indeterminate. The contracted position of the body is that customary in prehistoric graves, especially of the Middle Helladic Period; but the large rectangular cover slab of poros is an unusual feature. The possibility of Early Helladic date is not absolutely precluded. However that may be, it is sure at any rate that the tomb belongs to the same series with Nos. IX, X, and XV, to be described below. The Early Helladic tomb, concerning the date of which there can be no question, lay only some 0.10 m, to 0.20 m. beneath the grave just described. It is a fairly large cavity, Ficure 39. NortH Enp or Toms VII, rrom THE SoutTH - roughly oval in shape, measuring ca. 2.60 m. north and south by 1.85 m. east and west, and is cut into soft stereo to an average depth of 1.25 m. below the surface of the ground. Whether the opening at the surface was originally of the same size as the area below cannot now be determined. In this spacious grave chamber were found the remains certainly of twelve, possibly of thirteen or fourteen, skeletons. None of them lay in order; the bones were scattered helter skelter, skulls, arm-bones, femurs, vertebrae, all mingled together in ut- most confusion (Fig. 38). A certain suggestion of arrangement which appeared in this disorder, in that all the bones were more or less grouped in a zone following the oval side of the grave while the central space was vacant, may have been more apparent than real, since the area at the centre may have been disturbed, and perhaps even cleared of remains, at the time the later interment was made only a few centimetres higher in level. If this latter was indeed Early Helladic, it was certainly the latest in the series of Early Helladic burials. The bones were in an advanced state of decomposition (Fig. 39), and many of them crumbled when touched. The task of clearing them from the sticky, clayey earth clinging to them was not easy, demanding much patience and care, and it was not often possible to 46 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES obtain accurate measurements. Twelve skulls were recognized (the numbers are those of the plan, Figure 38): 1. This was represented only by a jaw bone together with a few teeth in the western part of the grave. It was near this point that a gold ornament, perhaps an earring, came to light. 3. Comparatively well preserved, this lay in the southeast part of the grave, on its left side, facing south, with the top of the crown toward the east. It measured 0.17 m. from front to back and ca. 0.133 m. from side to side. Just beside it on the west was apparently a pelvis. 4. A very rotten skull in the extreme southeast angle of the grave was recognizable as such only by the fact that teeth were found about it. 5. This lay against the side wall not far to the northeast of No. 4, almost in an upright position, facing northwest. Most of the forehead had been broken away, and no satisfactory measurements could be taken. 6. A rather badly decayed and incomplete skull lay in the northeast part of the grave, bottom upward. A few small teeth were found about. The skull measured ca. 0.18 m. from front to back. _ 8. Close beside No. 6 to the east was another, much of the right side of which had rotted away. It lay face down, and measured 0.19 m. from front to back. g. North of the central part of the grave was found a thin decomposed shell of bone, identified by a clearly marked suture as part of a skull. No measurements were possible. 10. Near the northwest corner of the grave, this lay on its left side facing west, with the crown toward the south. From front to back it measured ca. 0.16. m. 11. Closely adjoining No. Io to the north was uncovered another skull, lying also on its left side, facing west; it likewise gave a measurement from front to back of 0.16 m. In the place where the jaws should have been only one tooth was found, and near at hand was a fragment of a thin, rotten substance resembling metal, perhaps silver. 13. This came to light near the middle of the east side of the grave, resting upside down on its crown with the face toward the east. Only the upper half of the skull was preserved; from front to back it measured ca. 0.18 m. 14. No. 14, in the northeast part of the grave, lay on its right side facing down and west- ward with its crown pointing toward the north. Only the upper part of the skull was at all well preserved, but around it and in the earth filling it were many teeth. The measurement from front to back was 0.175 m. 16. At the extreme north of the grave lay the twelfth cranium on its right side facing northwest. The lower part was badly decomposed, but the top of the skull was in fairly good condition, allowing measurements to be taken: front to back, 0.165 m., side to side, ca. O13 ea, In view of the extremely fragile and rotten condition of the bones it is not unlikely that there were originally more than the twelve skulls listed above. Teeth were scattered about everywhere, and some of the crumbling remains that we took for pelvic bones may well have been the remnants of other crania. The numerous arm-bones and leg-bones were too fragmentary and incomplete for proper measurement. All that can be said is that, so far as appeared, the bones were all those of adults. If children had also been buried in the tomb their remains had entirely vanished or become unrecognizable. THE TOMBS 47 The objects found in Tomb VII, in proportion to the number of persons interred, were very scanty, as may be seen from the following list. The numbers preceding the objects are those by which the latter are marked on the plan, Figure 38. 1. One gold ornament with attached spiral of silver wire (Pl. XX, No. 7). 21. Small thin fragment of silver. 7. One tiny flat silver disk (Fig. 176). 21. One bronze pin, fragmentary. 18 and 20. Two cylindrical beads of carnelian (Pl. XX, Nos. 2, 4). One cylindrical bead of soft green stone (PI. XX, No. 6). 17. One small amulet of stone in the shape of a foot (PI. XX, No. 3). 2. One delicate blade of obsidian (PI. XX, No. 5). One sea shell, : The greater part of four vases: a sauceboat (15), a shallow bowl (12), an unpainted jar (Fig. 95), and a curious diminutive vessel shaped like the bowl of a pipe (Pl. XX, No. 1). There were also a few potsherds, including several fragments of a small pyxis. Ficure 40. Toms XVI From ABOVE Toms XVI. Rather more than 20 m. down the slope southeastward from Tomb VII another Early Helladic grave was brought to light. Roughly rectangular at its northern end, and with corners rounded off at the south, it measured ca. 1.33 m. in length from north to south and 1.05 m. in width. The floor of the grave was 1.30 m. below the surface of the ground, the shaft being cut in the usual way through soft stereo. On this floor were found the remains of three skeletons; as was the case in Tomb VII, they lay not in their proper se- quence, but indiscriminately heaped together in a mass occupying somewhat more than the western half of the grave, while the eastern side was bare of remains (Fig. 40). The bones were in a wretched state of preservation, but three skulls were clearly recognizable (Fig. 41). The numbers are those indicated on the plan. 48 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES 1. One lay in the northwest part of the grave, probably resting on its crown, bottom upward; it was badly decomposed and could not be measured. 2. The second, near the centre of the grave, lay partly on its left side, partly on its crown, with its face turned toward the south. From front to back it gave a measurement of 0.18 m. Beneath the head was found a slender bronze pin (4), broken at one end. N Ficure 41. Pian or Toms XVI 3. Not far to the southwest of No. 2 a third skull came to light, lying on its left side, facing northwest with its crown pointing southwest. The measurement from front to back was 0.175 m. In the northeastern part of the grave were found three large potsherds (5, 6, 7), which, together with the bronze pin mentioned above, constitute apparently the whole of the funerary offerings. Toms XX. Some 35 m. south and slightly east of Tomb XVI a third grave of the Early Helladic Period was discovered. It is a roughly oval chamber hewn out of soft stereo, and measures at its widest points 1.96 m. in length from east to west by 1.78 m. in width. It is a very shallow grave, the floor varying in depth from 0.70 m. to 1.00 m. below the slop- THE TOMBS | 49 ing level of the hillside. The opening at the surface is much smaller in area than the floor, the dimensions of which have been given above, since rather more than one-third of the grave on the south side is covered by an overhanging ledge of soft rock or stereo. It looks in fact as if a small natural cavity in the hillside had been hollowed out and enlarged in order to be utilized as a tomb (Fig. 42). In this relatively narrow space were revealed the remains of no fewer than fifteen skele- tons, perhaps more, all heaped together in utter confusion, skulls, leg-bones, arm-bones, ribs, vertebrae, lying over, about, and beneath one another as if unceremoniously emptied into a rubbish heap, the same manner of disposition that we have already seen in Tombs VII Ficure 42. Toms XX, From THE East and XVI. In the present instance the great mass of bones lay in the southern half of the chamber, while the northern half was almost empty, save for a large stone which may ac- cidentally have fallen into the grave. The remains were thus chiefly concentrated under the overhanging ledge of rock, and this may well be what had protected them from further disturbance. If the northern half had also once been similarly filled with relics, the lack of the protection afforded by the ledge might perhaps account for their disappearance. Since all these bones were so closely packed and jumbled together, it was by no means easy to clear and disentangle them so that their position could be seen; and to transfer this to paper was an even more difficult undertaking. But Mr. Heurtley’s patient efforts were fully equal to the task, as a glance at the accompanying plans will show. In order to represent all of the skulls and larger bones, those that lay at the top of the mass and those beneath, it was necessary to draw the plan in two levels; but it should be borne in mind that there was no stratification in the tomb: the whole mass was a unit, the remains are all of the same period (Fig. 43 a and b). The bones were generally in a miserable state of decay; usually they lay in a position THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Ficure 43b. Pian or Toma XX, Lower Lever Ficure 43a. Pian or Toms XX, Upper Lever THE TOMBS 51 in which it was extremely awkward to measure them, and they could seldom be moved without damage. It was possible to recognize fifteen skulls, which are recorded below in their order of numbering on the plan. 1. Only the upper part of this skull was preserved. It lay close against the south wall of the grave, on its right side, facing eastward, with its crown to the south and upward. From front to back it measured ca. 0.19 m. 2. Immediately adjoining No. 1 on the west was a very crumbly rotten skull, apparently resting on its crown upside down. No measurements were possible. 3. This lay toward the western part of the grave, on its right side, facing eastward. The measurement from front to back was 0.18 m. 4. Only o.10 m. south of No. 3 was another in very bad condition; it seemed to face directly upward with its crown toward the east. 5. This skull was found almost exactly underneath No. 3, and is therefore shown on the plan of the lower level. It lay on its left side, facing northwest, and measured 0.165 m. from front to back. Over the right side of the forehead was found a small fragment of a thin fragile sheet of silver, possibly the remnant of a diadem, resembling the Cycladic examples discovered by Tsountas (infra p. 181). Just beneath the jaws, of which almost nothing but a few teeth survived, a small cylindrical bead of carnelian came to light. A gold ornament, probably an earring, was found beneath the skull (No. 18 on the plan), and projecting from below on the east side was a long silver pin with a double spiraliform head (No. 1g on the plan). A diminutive patera of Early Helladic ware was uncovered a short distance south of the skull (No. 21 on the plan), and a little farther away a spatula of bronze appeared (No. 20 on the plan). 6. Skull No. 6, near the east end of the grave, stood almost upright, looking toward the west, though most of the face had disappeared. From front to back it measured 0.17 m.; from side to side, ca. 0.14 m. Beneath it was found a small flat piece of silver similar to that mentioned above. 7. No. 7, in the southeast part of the grave, was turned bottom up, resting on its crown with the face toward the northwest; it had a length of 0.17 m. 8. This lay at the extreme southwest side of the tomb in such wretched state that the exact position could not be determined. g. Skull No. g, near the east edge of the grave, not far from No. 7, was also in ruinous condition; it seemed to be lying on its right side, facing east, but was not complete enough to be measured. 10. This skull lay close against the southeast side of the tomb; it was not well enough preserved to allow its position to be made out with certainty. 11. Next to No. 10 on the northeast was a very thick skull, facing upward with its crown toward the southwest. Its measurement from front to back was 0.16 m., from side to side CaO; 1h. 12. Adjacent to No. ro on the southwest, and leaning against the wall of the tomb, was another fragile rotten skull in an unrecognizable position. 13 and 14. Skull No. 13, immediately west of No. 12, was very fragmentary; on its west side it partly overlapped No. 14, which was in an equally incomplete state. §2 FLOOR BELOW FLOOR BELOW -19 ABOVE FLOOR a - LINE OF OVERHANGING ROcnK- ABOVE FLOOR RooF - AVERAGE .80 GROUND ~ * “1.50° Ficure 44. Pan or Toms THE TOMBS 53 15. Almost underneath No. 10 in the southeast corner of the chamber, was a portion of a rather small skull, barely recognizable as such. The bones of arms and legs were so badly broken and incomplete that no accurate meas- urements were possible; all that were preserved, however, seemed to be those of adults. In the northern half of the grave at the east end, where there were practically no bones, two crude intact vases of typically Early Helladic fabric were found (Nos. 16 and 17 on the plan). The full list of the objects recovered from Tomb XX is as follows: One gold ornament, probably an earring (Pl. XX, No. 11). Two fragments of thin silver, perhaps from a diadem. One silver pin (PI. XX, No. 9). One small spatula of bronze (Pl. XX, No. ro). One bronze pin (Pl. XX, No. 8). One cylindrical bead of carnelian (Pl. XX, No. 12). One bead of steatite (Pl. XX, No. 13). One whorl or button of bone (Fig. 181, No. 3). Three vases of unpainted ware (Fig. 96), a crudely made jar, a shallow bowl, and a small patera. There were also a few potsherds, all of Early Helladic date. Toms XXIII. About 6 m. directly south of Tomb XX an irregular cutting in stereo was observed and investigated. It had a width of ca. 0.80 m. from north to south and a length of 1.50 m., and its bottom or floor was reached at a depth of 1.50 m. below the surface of the ground. On each long side was found a pair of tiles standing on edge on the floor and leaning against the vertical scarp, sheltering a narrow grave hollowed out at the base of the side walls — the arrangement familiar from so many other Roman tile-graves in the ceme- tery (see p. 70). But the presence of a good many Early Helladic sherds in the earth filling the shaft led to further investigation which resulted in the discovery that at the west end of the shaft, just beyond the end of the southern tile-grave, an opening led southward into a small natural cave under an overhanging ledge of conglomerate. This opening had ap- parently once been closed by a rough wall of stones, chiefly fragments of poros, some of which had fallen away or been removed, perhaps at the time of the Roman burial. The cave (Fig. 44) was approximately circular, possibly having been enlarged or rounded off by human agency; it had a diameter of ca. 2.50 m. from north to south, and some 0.10 m. less from east to west; and a height from floor to roof of ca. 0.70 m. Most of this space was filled with earth which, when removed, produced not a few Early Helladic potsherds. In the western part of the chamber, near the entrance, a considerable portion of one large bone, probably a femur, was found, together with a few decayed fragments of smaller bones. Toward the inner end of the chamber, against its west wall, a large piece of a coarse pot came to light. These were the only objects in the chamber except for two flat stones near the centre. Just outside the entrance, among the Early Helladic potsherds in the shaft, a fragment of a curious flat ornament of bronze was recovered. Although the objects obtained from Tomb XXIII are sadly meagre and the evidence at best unsatisfactory, it is probably safe to recognize here an Early Helladic grave which was disturbed and emptied in the period of the late Roman burials in the shaft. Robbery could hardly have been the motive in view of the extreme poverty of these Early Helladic tombs; more probably the object was merely to prepare the shaft for the tile-graves. Indeed it 54 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES may not be too bold to see in No. XXIII, though empty, the best representative of this peculiar type of Early Helladic tomb, three complete examples of which (Nos. VII, XVI, and XX) have been described on the foregoing pages. Strictly speaking they are ossuaries, not graves. And these rude cave-ossuaries, exemplified especially by No. XXIII, but also by No. XX, may well be the survivors of a very simple primitive form of sepulture, a small natural hollow, protected by an overhanging ledge of rock, being utilized as a place of burial in which the dead could be deposited from time to time until the space was filled. Such tombs as VII and XVI might, then, represent a later development when, no more natural cavities being available, a purely artificial hollow in the ground had to be dug to contain the bones which tradition perhaps still demanded should be preserved in an ossuary.? So far as I know, these ossuaries are the first of their kind to come to light on the main- land of Greece. Indeed, except for a single tomb, excavated at Corinth in 1896 (Heermance and Lord, American Fournal of Archaeology, 1, 1897, pp. 313 ff.), Early Helladic burials have until the present time remained an unknown quantity. The Corinthian grave, with its two chambers opening laterally from the bottom of a well-cut rectangular shaft, is quite different from the type now exemplified at Zygouries, which seems to belong to a far more primitive stage. The nearest analogy to the Corinthian type is to be found in the single- chambered tombs discovered by the late Dr. Papabasileiou near Chalcis in Euboea (IlamraBactneiov: Iepi rav év EvBolg’Apyaiwv Tador, pp. 1 ft.); but for the bone-filled ledge- caves of Ambelakia no good analogies seem available in the Aegean sphere, except possibly in Crete (p. Die}. It is barely possible that the numerous rectangular shafts found everywhere about the hill were made originally for Early Helladic graves, not radically different from the con- temporary cist graves in the Cyclades; and that they were thoroughly cleaned out in Roman times in order to be used again for burials protected by leaning tiles. One might indeed wonder if it was not at this period that the bones were collected and deposited in the ossuaries in the disordered heaps in which we found them. Several considerations, how- ever, make this theory improbable in the extreme. In the first place, the bones themselves after some 2500 years in the tombs would have required careful excavation to be removed even in the condition in which we found them; the skeletons in the Roman graves, after less than 1600 years under the same conditions, have almost totally disappeared. The preser- vation of the remains in the ossuaries must be due mainly to the protection supplied by the overhanging ledge. In the second place, if the bones had been transferred in Roman times, all objects of gold, silver, and bronze would surely have been appropriated, even the smallest, and none would have been deposited in the ossuaries. And, finally, there are the three intact vases from Tomb XX, and the four almost complete from VII, which it is utterly unlikely that grave-diggers of the fourth century A.D. would have respected and moved along with the bones. The ossuaries must therefore be regarded as purely Early Helladic phenomena.? The extreme poverty of these burials, as appears from the meagre list of objects found, ' In view of the extremely soft nature of the sfereo on the hill of Ambelakia, it is not impossible that both VII and XVI were originally partially covered by ledges which have since crumbled away. * The excavations at the Argive Heraeum in 1925 brought to light the scanty remains of a similar Early Helladic ossuary. THE TOMBS 5s was disappointing; it is to be hoped that future excavations will some day reveal much richer graves of the period. The presence of gold, the most noteworthy feature, in these tombs, which are doubtless those of persons of humble standing, gives some intimation of what we may expect when the grave of a chieftain is found. Mippte HeEttapic Pertop Toms XXII. About 5 m. directly west of Tomb XX a grave of a different type was discovered. It appears to have been a simple interment in soft earth with no built sides and no cutting in stereo. The shape and size of the pit or cist could therefore not be determined, but the area occupied by the remains measured approximately 1 m. in width from north Zl Ne WYQAGW MY Ficure 45. Section THroucH Toms XXII, Looxine Soutu to south by 1.50 m. in length from east to west, and the depth from the surface of the ground to stereo, on which the lowest interment rested, was ca. I m. In this grave three layers of remains could be clearly distinguished, as appears in the section (Fig. 45). The uppermost was found at a depth of 0.40 m. to 0.50 m. below ground, or at 0.60 m. to 0.50 m. above stereo; the second at 0.50 m. to 0.25 m. above stereo, and the lowest or earliest from 0.20 m. above stereo to stereo itself. The uppermost layer contained only a few bones — one recognizable as part of a femur — but no perfectly certain traces of a skull. There were no other objects here. The middle layer (Fig. 46 a) included two fairly large, but incomplete, leg-bones, two clusters of thin decayed fragments, probably skulls, a number of smaller bits of bone, and two jugs of Mattpainted ware. The position of the body or bodies could not be made out. The bottom layer (Fig. 46 b), lying on stereo, yielded remains which, although in an extremely wretched state of preservation, nevertheless gave sufficient evidence for the arrangement of the grave. Two bodies had been buried here, side by side, facing each other, each with its head toward the west. Both were in a more or less contracted position, with the femurs bent approximately at right angles to the body and with the lower legs also bent back so that the feet reached almost to the line of the body. In each case only one arm was preserved; it was bent sharply at the elbow so that the hand lay before the face. The southern skeleton was much the larger: the femurs, though not completely preserved, had 56 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES a length of 0.35 m.; a tibia, just over 0.30 m.; and the humerus, 0.30 m. The skull was badly crushed, but most of the teeth were preserved. This skeleton lay on its left side, facing north. Just above the right shoulder was a small cup with a basket handle, a good example of Mattpainted ware. Ficure 46b. Pian or Toms XXII, Lowest Layer The northern skeleton was small and its bones in a very crumbly state. The femurs were incomplete, the longer fragment measuring only 0.18 m.; a fibula had a length of 0.27 m.; while the bones of the arm were too fragmentary for a satisfactory measurement. Only the scantiest traces of the skull could be observed. This body had been laid on its right side, facing south. It is evident that an adult and a child had been buried together in the grave, and almost surely at the same time. Other instances of a double burial in one tomb have been observed elsewhere; reference may be made to Grave No. VII at Gonia (not yet published). In the latter case, however, the two skeletons, male and female, were of adults, and each lay on its THE TOMBS 57 left side. The position in the grave at Ambelakia, where the two bodies were placed facing each other, is interesting to note. Late HeEttapic Pertop Toms XXXIII. Less than 30 m. northeast of Tomb XX and somewhat lower down the slope of the hill, a Mycenaean chamber tomb of the Third Late Helladic Period was dis- covered (Plan, Fig. 48), The dromos (Fig. 49), running approximately east and west, and cut in soft stereo, has a length of 6.55 m.; at its east end it is 0.87 m. wide, increasing toward the west to 1.01 m. at the door. The sides of the dromos taper slightly; above the door, at a height of 2.35 m. from the floor, the opening is 0.73 m. wide, and the tapering thus amounts to 0.14 m. on each side. The floor of the dromos slopes downward. Ficure 47. Bones 1n Lowest Layer or Toms XXII, rrom ABOovE The doorway, slightly rounded at the top, is 1.14 m. high; it also tapers from bottom to top, having a width on the floor of 0.64 m., and at the lintel 0.48 m. The inner end wall of the dromos, through which this opening passes, is vertical; the doorway is centred in it, with a plain band, or “jamb” ca. 0.19 m. wide on either side. The entrance has a depth of 1.20 m.; its axis varies from that of the dromos, making an angle of 7° toward the south, and agreeing with the orientation of the chamber. The doorway was closed by a well-built wall, for the most part made of flat stones of poros. This wall was constructed in two distinct sections, the dividing line of which may be seen running down the middle of the doorway (Fig. s0). The right hand (northern) section, carefully laid with fairly regular stones, was evidently built first and the southern section then filled in with rougher material. The wall continued inward beyond these facing- stones, being very thick and substantial; it had clearly never been opened since it was built. MoE a asa © pee os H | | “ee ' © * ' as | , ' @ i Ficure 48. Pian or Toms XXXII he THE TOMBS 59 The chamber of the tomb, hewn in stereo, had collapsed, and it was necessary to excavate it by means of a pit opened from above. When cleared, it proved to be roughly rectangular in shape, though the corners were rounded off and the sides were not quite straight, nor quite parallel. From north to south the greatest dimension was 3.39 m., from east to west 2.07 m. Ficure 49. Dromos or Toms XXXIII Ficure 50. Door or Toma XXXIII In the northeast corner of the chamber was found a rudely constructed cist-grave, built of irregular unworked stones and fragments of Greek tiles, with a number of narrow flat slabs of poros and a fragment of a huge pithos as a cover. The bottom of this grave was ca. 1 m. above the floor of the tomb, but many stones from it had apparently fallen down into the chamber where they rested, some as low as ca. 0.50 m. above the floor. The exact or even approximate date of this later cist-grave could not be determined, as no objects were found in it, and indeed only the scantiest traces of decayed bones were discernible. At any rate, it is clear that the grave dates from before the collapse of the chamber, having been dug from above, for fallen stones from the grave lay just above the floor on a thick layer of hard stereo, which had certainly originally formed part of the roof of the chamber. As a result of the collapse of the roof, many of the objects in the tomb had been crushed Ficure $1. Pran or Toms XXXV * THE TOMBS 61 and broken. The bones had almost completely disappeared, and the few fragments that survived were so fragile that they could hardly be touched. The scanty nature of the evidence in this respect did not permit the determination of the position of the body, nor was it possible to determine how many persons were buried in the tomb, if more than one. In the southern part of the chamber a soft spot appeared in the floor; investigation here revealed a depression, roughly rectangular in shape, measuring ca. 0.80 m. from east to west by 0.55 m. from north to south, and ca. 0.25 m. in depth. It resembled a small cist, but contained nothing more than two potsherds. The following objects were found in the tomb, the number in each case being that by which the object is indicated on the plan (Fig. 48): . Large unpainted jug (No. 355, Fig. 165). . Squat stirrup vase (No. 356, Fig. 161). . Lentoid seal of steatite (Fig. 197). . Bead of steatite (Fig. 197). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 358, Fig. 192). . Whorl or button of steatite (Fig. 197). . Small jug (No. 353, Fig. 163). . Small stirrup vase (No. 357, Fig. 161). . Pot with basket handle (No. 351, Fig. 162). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 359, Fig. 192). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 360, Fig. 192). . Unpainted jug with two handles (No. 349, Fig. 166). . Whorl or button of steatite (Fig. 197). . Small jug with one handle (No. 354, Fig. 163). . Whorl or button of steatite (Fig. 197). . Tall painted jug (No. 350, Fig. 166). . Broad unpainted jug (No. 348, Fig. 165). . Low jug with one handle (No. 352, Fig. 164). . Jug similar to No. 18 (No. 361, Fig. 164). . Small stirrup vase (No. 362, Fig. 162). RS Se Se Re Se Se Se OS OS oe OM CONT DANABDW NH OW ONI ANBW HD + Toms XXXYV. Five metres directly north of No. XX XIII the same trial trench revealed a second Mycenaean chamber tomb, like the first cut in soft stereo or hardpan (Plan, Fig. 51). The dromos (Fig. 52) had a length of 8 m. from east to west, descending ca. 1.05 m. in this distance. It is 0.85 m. wide at its outer end and broadens to 1.05 m. on stereo at the door, where the floor is 2.90 m. below the surface of the ground. The sides of the dromos taper more sharply than was the case in Tomb X XXIII, and the opening above the inner end 1s very narrow, though the sides do not actually meet in a sharp point. The sides of the dromos are rather carefully and smoothly cut, but do not form a right angle when they meet the end wall, as the corners are rounded off. The end wall is less carefully worked than the side walls. In the middle of the northern side wall, at a height of ca. 1.10 m. above the floor, a small slab of poros, 0.26 m. high by 0.38 m. long, covered the opening into a recess or cavity which ran back 0.35 m. into stereo. It contained soft loose earth in which no objects were found. Similar recesses have been observed in the dromoiz of Mycenaean tombs elsewhere and seem to have been used as cists to contain bones removed from the chamber, or indeed for primary 62 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES burials. In the present instance the cavity may have been prepared for such a purpose, but seems never to have been utilized. Along the sides of the dromos two graves came to light, one on the north and one on the south, each a simple shaft of a type common in this cemetery. Apart from a little dark and Figure 52. Dromos or Toms XXXV Ficure $3. Door or Toms XXXV mouldy earth no remains whatsoever were found in them, and the evidence was unfortu- nately not decisive as to whether or not these shafts antedated the cutting of the dromos. ~ They were probably earlier in construction, though they seem to have been cleared out and used again in Roman times. On the floor of the dromos, just outside the door, lay a few fragments of at least two un- painted cylixes like those of type ¢ from the potter’s shop (p. 153). The doorway was not so well cut as that in Tomb XXXIII. Irregularly triangular in THE TOMBS 63 shape, from a width of ca. 0.80 m. at the floor it came almost to a point at 1.60 m. above stereo. Hardpan at this point was rather soft and when the doorway was cleared, it was found that a heavy block of poros, 0.35 m. thick, had been set in as additional support, form- ing a sort of lintel. The doorway was unusually deep in proportion to the size of the tomb, measuring no less than 1.71 m. from the dromos to the chamber. The door was walled up with unshaped stones of poros of no great size (Fig. 53) and the wall was not so thick as that blocking the entrance of Tomb XXXIII. But a number of fairly large stones, lying in the passage inside and extending into the chamber, may perhaps have fallen from the inner face of the wall. ae Ficure $4. Bones anp Vases UNCOVERED IN CHAMBER, TomB XXXV Just inside the door-wall on the north side of the entrance passage, at a height of 1.05 m. above the floor, were found three vases, one complete and the others fragmentary: a large jug, a small jug, and a cup. They seem to be of Roman date and are no doubt funeral offerings from a late grave which had perhaps been carried down to this curious place of finding at the time of the collapse of Tomb XXXYV. A Roman tile-grave did in fact lie directly above the chamber of the Mycenaean tomb, as we discovered when we were obliged to sink a large pit from the surface of the ground in order to clear out the fallen débris from the chamber. Only the tiles were found in place; there was no trace of bones or other objects. One may therefore with very fair probability assign the three Roman pots from the entrance passage of our tomb to this tile-grave above the chamber. Some bones, presumably from this same grave, appeared among the chunks of fallen stereo in the chamber. The chamber was approximately rectangular, though the two south corners were rounded and there was a curious bulge near the south end of both the east and west walls. The dimensions of the chamber were ca. 2.82 m. from north to south by 2.20 m. from east 64 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES to west. The entrance is not symmetrically placed, but lies slightly north of the axis of the room. The chamber, as already mentioned, was filled with earth and débris which had fallen from above, and a certain stratification was visible in this fill. From the level of the floor, cut in hardpan, to a height of ca. 0.75 m. was a layer of fairly loose brownish soil; above this lay a stratum, some 0.80 m. thick, of hard whitish clay, obviously the dissolved ma- terial of the roof of the chamber. The bones and all the objects in the tomb were found lying on and just beneath the top of the layer of brownish soil, well above the floor of the chamber; no remains came to light on or near the floor itself. This seems a rather peculiar phenomenon, for which no satisfactory explanation appeared. Apparently the tomb was not used immediately upon its completion, but some time must have elapsed sufficient to permit the accumulation of the layer of brown soil. As in Tomb XXXIII, bones were extremely scanty, but not quite in the same state of utter dissolution. In the north part of the chamber one skull came to light, and ca. 0.50 m. east of it three fragments of large bones, no doubt from the legs. Nearer to the skull were two smaller bones, one to the south and the other to the north, perhaps from the arms; and this meagre evidence suggests that a body had been placed in this northern part of the chamber, lying on its back with the head to the west, the feet toward the east, and the arms at the sides. The skull, only the upper part of which was preserved, measured 0.18 m. from front to back. In the southwestern part of the chamber, ca. 1.60 m. distant from the skull, a portion of a set of teeth was uncovered; about it and 0.40 m. farther east were a few badly decomposed fragments of bone. It is likely that these remains are those of a second skeleton, but any suggestion as to the position in which it lay would be pure speculation. A bull’s head of terracotta, two small stirrup vases, and a squat bowl were found in this part of the chamber; all the other objects were from the north end of the tomb (Fig. 54). The following list comprises all the objects recovered, each one being given under the number by which it is indicated on the plan (Fig. 51): . Large unpainted jug (No. 326, Fig. 170). . Small vase with side spout (No. 347, Fig. 167). . Jug with three handles (No. 327, Fig. 170). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 335, Fig. 193). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 336, Fig. 193). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 337, Fig. 193). . Small askos (No. 328, Fig. 169). . Small jar with three handles (No. 329, Fig. 168). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 338, Fig. 193). . Figurine of terracotta (No. 339, Fig. 193). 11. Figurine of terracotta (No. 340, Fig. 193). 12. Figurine of terracotta (No. 341, Fig. 193). 13. Small table of terracotta (No. 334, Fig. 196). 14. Figurine of terracotta (No. 342, Fig. 193). 15. Figurine of terracotta (No. 343, Fig. 193). 16. Figurine of terracotta (No. 344, Fig. 193). 17. Figurine of terracotta (No. 345, Fig. 193). 18. Small pot with basket handle (No. 330, Fig. 168). 19. Bull’s head of terracotta (No. 346, Fig. 193). 20. Small stirrup vase (No. 331, Fig. 167). — OO CW ANAW DH THE TOMBS 6s 21. Small squat jar with two handles (No. 332, Fig. 168). 22. Stem of cylix (No. 333, Fig. 169). 23. Small stirrup vase (No. 406, Fig. 167). All the earth from the tomb was sifted, but the only objects to add to the foregoing list were two whorls or buttons of steatite and a small bead of carnelian. The terracottas, comprising eleven figurines, one table, and one bull’s head (or fragment of an animal) form the most noteworthy group of objects from Tomb XX XV, and should perhaps throw some light on the character of the persons buried here. The significance of such offerings in Mycenaean tombs 1s, however, by no means clear, and rather than venture into the field of conjecture one may perhaps more wisely leave the elucidation of the problem to future research. The two Mycenaean chamber tombs which have now been described were not rich in contents; indeed, apart from pottery (and terracottas) it must be admitted they yielded a rather thin harvest. They produced no gold, no jewelry, no objects of ivory or other costly materials, no bronze weapons or utensils. But it should be remembered that they are not the sepulchres of kings or of the great nobles of a Mycenaean metropolis; they are the simpler burial places of impecunious dwellers in a small country settlement, and as such their modest contribution to our ever-increasing knowledge of Mycenaean civilization need not be scorned. The tombs can be assigned without question to the Third Late Helladic stage; in form and method of construction they do not differ materially from scores of similar tombs at Mycenae and elsewhere, belonging to the long period of Late Helladic III. For a more exact dating within that period we must turn to the objects found inside them, and here the pottery is of prime importance. The discussion of the vases may be left to the chapter on pottery; here it need only be said that they appear to fall neither at the beginning nor at the end of Late Helladic III, but take a place somewhat earlier than the middle of the series. Toms XXV. Before going on to the next section, brief mention should be made of Tomb XXV, a short distance to the west of No. XX XV and higher up the slope. This appeared at first, when excavation began, to be the dromos of yet another Mycenaean chamber tomb, 0.62 m. wide, with well-cut sides splaying apart as they were followed downward. This dromos was cleared for some distance until it was found to end against a mass of uncut stereo. Further examination showed that there was certainly no tomb here; the cutting may be the unfinished working of the dromos of a tomb which had been begun, but was abandoned for some reason before completion. It was excavated to a depth of ca. 2 m.; near the bottom appeared a large slab of poros lying partly on its side, and broken into several pieces. Beneath it was found intact an unpainted jug of the Third Late Helladic Period, of the kind in which a workman might carry his supply of water (as a matter of fact, it is also very similar to the unpainted jugs from Tombs XX XIII and XXXV, and may have been intended as a sepulchral offering). No trace of burial or of any further objects came to light. 66 THE EXCAVATIONS Ad -ZYGOUREES A Group or TomsBs oF INDETERMINATE DATE Tomb IX. Six metres northwest of No. VII a cist-grave was discovered, with its longer axis running from north to south. It was covered by a single slab of worked poros, 1.54 m. in length by 0.90 m. in width, and having a thickness of 0.15 m. to 0.18 m., which lay only 0.25 m. below the surface of the ground. Beneath this was a narrow cist cut in stereo, ca. 0.36 m. wide, 1.25 m. long, and 0.55 m. deep. It was filled with firm yellowish earth, not much different from the surrounding stereo, at the top of which lay a thin layer of loose grayish brown soil. No bones appeared and no objects of any kind. Ficure $5. Stas Covertnc Toms IX Toms X. About ten metres north of No. VII another grave was brought to light, al- most a counterpart of Tomb IX. It was covered by a poros slab running from east to west, with a length of 1.52 m., width of 0.90 m., and thickness of 0.24 m. (Fig. 56). Immediately beneath it was a thin deposit of very soft loose sandy soil, containing many small stones, below which a shallow pit with rounded ends took shape, apparently cut in stereo exactly like that of Tomb IX, but smaller. It contained no bones and no objects. Toms XV. Some four metres northeast of No. VII lay a third grave of the same type as the two just described (Fig. 57). It was covered by a slab of poros laid lengthwise from north to south, and measuring 0.84 m. in width and 0.29 m. in thickness. Its preserved length was 1.25 m., but the south end had evidently been hacked off and the original dimen- sion thus lost. The top of the slab was only 0.30 m. below the surface of the ground. Just to the south lay a tile-grave running from east to west and the mutilation of the poros slab must certainly date from the time of this later burial when a trench was cut across its south end to permit the tiles to be set in place (Plan shown in Figure 58). Beneath the slab THE TOMBS 67 was a narrow Cist cut in stereo, 0.42 m. wide, 1.60 m. long, and ca. 0.45 m. deep. It contained soft grayish brown soil at the top, gradually changing to firmer earth until stereo was reached at 0.45 m. to 0.50 m. No bones came to light, and the sole object found was a small potsherd of coarse wheel-made ware, very likely an intrusion from the period of the Roman grave (see p. 72). These three graves, Nos. IX, X, and XV, form a very puzzling group, presenting no satisfactory explanation and no internal evidence of date. In the case of IX and X the poros slab covering the cist had apparently never been disturbed, and yet the grave con- tained no remains whatsoever. Presumably the loose soft earth, a thin layer of which was found in each grave immediately beneath the lid, is all that remains of the decomposed matter of the body. In all three instances the cover 1s a fairly well cut, substantial, squared slab of poros, though not finished with the care and precision usually seen in Greek graves of the classical period. Lids of this kind must be extremely rare, if indeed they occur at all, in prehistoric tombs. In the case of Tomb XV the external evi- dence indicates a date earlier than late Roman times, for the cover slab was damaged while lying in place, when the tile-grave was made close beside it. As already intimated above, the late interment overlying the Early Helladic ossuary of Tomb VII must certainly be closely connected with this group, since it is in all respects similar, except for the preservation of the skeleton. Thus by external evidence the ferminus post quem for our graves must be set at ca. 2000 B.c., the end of the Early Helladic Period, and the ¢erminus ante quem in the fourth century, A.D., when the Roman burials seem to have taken place. The contracted position of the body in Tomb VII suggests at least that the graves fall early rather than late within these chronological limits, and I am inclined to think they may belong to the Middle Helladic Period, if not to an even earlier time. THe GEomETRIC PERIOD Toms XVIII. Tomb XVIII did not lie in the cemetery, but was observed by our sharp-sighted foreman, George Ficure 56. Stan Coverinc Toms X 68 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Alexopoulos, in the steep scarp of a cutting for the Peloponnesian Railway on the west side of the track at a point ca. 20 m. south of kilometric post 27.6 (Fig. 59). The grave apparently ran from east to west in a cist, 0.60 m. wide and 0.45 m. deep, cut in stereo and covered by a thin slab of crumbly poros. Most of the grave was evidently sliced away and removed at the time the railway cutting was made; curiously it seems Ficure 57. Toms XV, From THE NorTHEAST LEDGE OF OVERHANGING ROCK, ~ ee ee ~~ -—. GRAVE PIT- : x ~~ YO 4\ \ i es eo nes er es er ee _—- —— - Ficure 58. Pian or Tomss XV anp XVA THE TOMBS 69 not to have been observed, though the vases must have appeared in the face of the cutting, for the handle had been severed from the oinochoé and a large piece of the rim cut away from the crater, but both had been left in place. The portion of the grave remaining was the extreme west end, preserved to an average length of 0.27 m. In it were found two large Geometric vases, a crater (Fig. 172) and an oinochoé (Fig. 171), and below them a heavy plain bronze ring. There was no trace of bones; the skeleton had certainly occupied the eastern part of the grave. Ficure 59. Toms XVIII, rrom THE East THe Roman PErRtIopD The Roman graves were by far the most numerous in the cemetery and were well dis- tributed over the hillside. Many when opened were found empty of all remains, containing neither bones nor other objects of any kind. What had caused the total disappearance of the bones from these graves and the almost complete dissolution of the skeleton in others, and left almost no remains in such condition that they could be handled, was not obvious to me; perhaps it is something in the composition of the soil peculiar to Zygouries. At any rate, no other cemetery known to me seems to have suffered so much in this respect. In the present report only a few of the Roman graves which contained some object worth noting, or proved interesting from their method of construction will be described. Indeed not all of those discovered were opened; the scanty results from those examined were not such as to encourage extensive research in graves of this period, and their ex- ploration was left to the last, when it had to be somewhat curtailed by the end of the time available for the excavations. 70 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Toms VIII. This grave, in its construction representative of the commonest type, lay some 1§ m. northeast of Tomb VII, down the slope of the hill. In stereo, along the north base of a vertically cut ledge of rock, a narrow shallow bed had been scooped out, just large enough to receive a body. After the burial this trench was covered with tiles, one large one (0.858 m. long, 0.37 m. wide at its narrower end, 0.40 m. at its broader end) set on its side, and a smaller fragment (0.45 m. long) standing on its end, both leaning against the vertical ledge of rock (Fig. 60). To the east of the smaller tile were several additional fragments filling out the rest of the length of the grave. The tiles are of the curved type. The shallow bed of the grave was filled with soft grayish brown earth in which no trace of bones appeared. At the east end of the large tile a small, coarse, wheel-made pot was found (No. §67, Fig. 175); there were no other objects in the grave. Ficure 60. Toms VIII rrom rue Easr Toms XII. An example of a different type was uncovered about ten metres south of Tomb VII. This is an oval shaft cut in soft rock with a length from northeast to southwest of 2.06 m. and a width of ca. 0.55 m. It was covered by three large curved tiles placed hori- zontally side by side with their concave surface up, while smaller fragments and bits of poros had been used to reach to the east end (Fig. 61). The tiles, which had been laid cross- wise over the grave, each end resting on a level shelf cut in stereo, ca. 0.40 m. below the surface of the ground, had collapsed and broken into fragments. The grave itself, 0.65 m. deep, was filled with earth; no traces of bones were found and no objects. Toms XIII. In a trial trench some five metres west of No. VIII, a Roman grave of another fairly common type came to light. This proved to be a simple shaft, 1.52 m. long THE TOMBS a1 from east to west and ca. 0.50 m. wide, with no cover of any kind. Beginning at 0.40 m. below the surface of the ground, the shaft was cut in stereo, continuing 0.60 m. farther to the floor. Near the east end of the grave, which was rounded off, the badly decayed rem- nants of a skull were found (1 and 2 on the plan), and just west of it lay a few small de- composed bones (3 on the plan). No other bones could be distinguished in the grave, but the position of the skull indicates that the body had been laid with its head toward the east. Near the middle of the north side of the grave lay a small jug (numbered 4 on the plan), the handle of which was missing. The most important find from this tomb, however, was a bronze coin which was recovered when the earth was sifted. It is a fairly well-preserved piece, bearing on the obverse the head of Constantius Gallus to r. with head uncovered; Ficure 61. Toms XII rrom tHe NorrHeEAst behind the head, A; and on the reverse an armed warrior with helmet and shield piercing with a large spear a small enemy on a stumbling horse to |., who is trying to keep from falling off by putting his arm around the horse’s neck; in exergue, RQZ; in field, P. The inscription reads: Obverse: D N FL CL CONSTANTIUS NOB CAES Reverse: FEL TEMP REPARATIO The coin ' was presumably struck while Constantius Gallus was emperor or co-emperor, from 351 to 354 A.D.; in any case it gives the middle of the fourth century as the serminus post quem for the date of Tomb XIII. 1 Cf. Cohen, Monnaies Frappées sous ’ Empire Romain (second edition), VIII, p. 32, No. 8. iP THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Toms XIV. Five metres north of No. XIII lay a similar shaft-grave, likewise not pro- vided with a cover. Cut in stereo, it had a length from east to west of 1.50 m. and varied in width from 0.48 m. at the west to 0.70 m. near the east end (Fig. 63). The floor of the grave was reached at a depth of 1.05 m. below ground. No bones were found, but almost in the northeast corner stood a small jar, wheel-made, of coarse fabric (No. 568, Fig. 174). There were no other objects. Ficure 62. Pian Ficure 63. PLAN oF Ficure 64. Pian or Toms XVII or Toms XIII Toms XIV Toms XVa. The Roman grave just south of No. XV has already been mentioned. It was similar to Tomb VIII, consisting of a shallow bed hollowed out at the foot of a ledge of rock, and protected by large leaning tiles, resting on edge (Fig. 58). Only two tiles ap- peared before the grave was opened; the westernmost was 0.95 m. long by 0.35 m., the easternmost 0.78 m. long, and the two overlapped for a distance of ca. 0.25 m. They were of the curved type, with their convex sides outward. A smaller fragment of tile covered the west end of the grave; when the two complete tiles were removed a third was found directly behind the larger one, and the fragment at the west end was shown to belong to this third one. The bed of the grave was 1.72 m. long from east to west; of irregular shape, it varied in width from 0.23 m. at the west end to 0.53 m. near the middle. At this latter point it was THE TOMBS 73 also undercut for an extent of 0.25 m. beneath the ledge, which thus overhangs the southern side of the grave. No bones were found, but at the extreme west end of the grave stood a sturdy squat jug (No. 323, Fig. 175) of substantial fabric. Toms XVII. Some five metres east of Tomb XV another example of the shaft-grave type without a cover was cleared. It was a fairly large pit cut in stereo with sides roughly parallel and corners rounded; from east to west it measured 2.30 m. and had an average width of 1.10 m. (Fig. 64). The floor of the grave (stereo) was encountered at a depth of Figure 65. Typican Grave Pirs Unper Lepces or Rock 1.10 m. below the surface of the ground. No bones were found, but close to the southwest corner of the pit stood a small bowl of coarse red ware with a flanged rim (No. 368, Fig. 174). Toms XXIII. The two tile-graves, one on either side of the shaft which provided access to Tomb XXIII, have already been mentioned. They were quite like Nos. VIII and XVa. Nothing was found in either of them except a thin layer of loose dark earth, which might have been the decomposed material of the bones. Toms XXXIII. Reference has already been made to the cist-grave in the northeast corner of the chamber of Tomb XXXIII, built of stones and pieces of Greek tiles, with a cover made of narrow poros slabs and a fragment of a huge pithos. In method of construc- tion this cist is different from the other late graves found on the hill, but like them it yielded only the scantiest traces of bones and was empty of objects. — 74 THE. EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Toma XXXV. The two shaft-graves in the dromos of Tomb XXXV, which produced nothing, require no further mention here, and the tile-grave above the collapsed chamber of the same tomb, to which the three pots found in the doorway probably belonged, has already been discussed. In this late period of the cemetery, graves with a cover of leaning tiles are considerably more numerous than uncovered shaft-graves. In what may be regarded as the normal type the tiles shelter a shallow trench, not far below the surface of the ground, cut in stereo at the base of a rising outcrop of rock (Fig. 65). But in some cases, such as that of No. XXIII, tiles were used in the same way at the bottom of a regularly cut shaft, where they certainly seem out of place. This leads one to suspect that the shaft-graves may already have existed here before the period when the tile-graves became customary; and that when occasionally a man seeking a place to hollow out a bed for an ordinary tile-grave stumbled by accident upon a well-cut shaft, he took advantage of it and treated it exactly as if it were an open ledge. If this was actually the case no shaft-grave containing its original interment was found. The three described above (they had no covers, which must almost surely have been placed over them in their original use), Nos. XIII, XIV, and XVII, as they were found, were certainly of late Roman date; and a comparison of the three vases they yielded with three pots from tile-graves (Figs. 174 and 175) indicates without question that the two types were employed contemporaneously. On the evidence of the coin from Tomb XIII one need not hesitate to assign this whole group of late Roman graves to the latter part of the fourth century a.D. But the period of the original construction of the shaft-graves must remain an unsolved puzzle in view of the total absence of evidence. CHAPTER IV Peet) bE Raye N immense quantity of pottery came to light in the course of the excavations; indeed, had nothing else been found, Zygouries would still be a noteworthy site for its series of Early Helladic and Late Helladic vases. The pottery groups dis- covered on the floors of the Early Helladic houses were many and in some cases comprised an unusually large number of intact or complete, though broken, specimens; and certainly the stock of the potter’s shop, including upwards of one thousand Late Helladic vases, con- stitutes a remarkable find in itself. But apart from these, vast quantities of sherds were unearthed everywhere about the settlement wherever ground was broken; hardly a trench failed to return its quota in heaping basketfuls. The abundance of material proved at times a veritable embarrassment of riches, when all available receptacles had been filled and the workroom was crowded to overflowing. So far as possible all sherds were given a preliminary washing at the site, one or two boys being regularly detailed to this task. After being thereupon subjected to a rough appraisal and a considerable reduction in bulk through the elimination of the coarser and less signifi- cant fragments, they were conveyed to the metochi, where they were thoroughly cleaned with the aid of hydrochloric acid. Whenever a basket appeared to contain several frag- ments of the same pot, no sherds were thrown away until all had been cleaned and an effort made to fit the vase together. At the close of the excavations all the material was transported to Old Corinth and was eventually installed in a special workroom, leased by the Government as an annex to the Museum. A trained vase-mender, Georgios Kontogeorgis, was kindly assigned to us by the Archaeological Department of the Ministry of Education, and with a staff of three learning assistants spent six months in mending and restoring the broken vases. This work has continued intermittently ever since, many months each year being devoted to it up to the time of the writing of the present report (October, 1925), and Kontogeorgis’ pupil and successor, Dimitrios Bakoulis, has proved himself a very skilful and dexterous craftsman. More could no doubt still be done in this line; the material from the potter’s shop, for example, is by no means exhausted. The vast majority of the un- painted cooking pots have not been mended, and without doubt further specimens of the other undecorated vessels could still be put together. But when from ten to fifty examples of each shape had been reconstituted it hardly seemed worth while to continue into the hundreds, since they could yield no new information, nor was the space available to place them on exhibition. All the other material has been patiently and thoroughly worked over, and I do not think that much of significance or value has escaped attention. 75 76 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Earty HE.tuapic PEertop The pottery of the Early Helladic Period falls naturally into and supports the system of classification proposed in the 4unual of the British School at Athens, XXII, pp. 175 f., and adopted in the report of the excavations at Korakou, and it will be described in this chapter in the order of that classification. Not a single vase of this Early Helladic ware at Zygouries, so far as I have observed (and I have handled an enormous number of | sherds), appears to have been thrown on the potter’s wheel; all seems unquestionably hand-made. A. PoLisHED WaRE I. Hand-polished ware of the early type found just above native rock at the bottom of the deeper trenches at Korakou was comparatively rare at Zygouries. The first category, comprising plain polished ware, apparently without a slip, occurred only, and in small quantity, just above s¢ereo in a deep trench south of the mound (Trial Trench V1), and in a deep pit, perhaps a dothros, which was revealed by a trial trench (Trial Trench VIII) in a field some distance below the northwest foot of the hill. This dothros was packed with stones, bones, and masses of pottery, all of which had apparently been thrown into it in Early Helladic times. The potsherds collected filled several large baskets; much of this was coarse material, but fine fragments were also fairly numerous, the bulk of them belong- ing to the hand-polished group. Most of these in turn were of the more advanced type, to be discussed in the following section, but some few clearly must be assigned to the first category. In Trial Trench VI we seem also to have an early deposit composed almost entirely of hand-polished wares, among which was a sprinkling of the more primitive-looking unslipped variety. This hand-made ware is all in a very badly shattered condition and no complete pots could be put together. Generally it seems to be a very coarse fabric, thick and heavy, with large gritty particles left in the clay. The clay is usually gray at the core, changing to brick- red at the surface. The firing was not of a very high order, having no doubt been carried out In a primitive and imperfect kiln: as a result the biscuit is not very hard and crumbles away when rubbed. The surface of the vase is usually only lightly polished, though some few sherds show a brilliant burnish. The color is red, but occasionally a mottled effect is produced by black patches, appearing irregularly and without pattern. No slip can be distinguished. Many of these sherds are marked with careless incisions, forming simple linear patterns, generally groups of parallel lines. The incised lines are usually rather fine. Sometimes they appear as oblique parallel dashes along the top of the rim, and in one case (Pate IV, No. 12) a good herring-bone pattern is incised along the rim, on the upper side of the long lug handle, as well as on the semi-volute ends of the latter. Spirals also occur (zbid., No. g) as well as concentric circles and cross-hatching (ibid., No. 10). One sherd (zdid., No. 1), from a large closed vessel, bears as decoration a series of raised horizontal bands which are marked by short parallel vertical dashes close together; the clay in this example is gray at the core, terracotta red at the surface, and is filled with small particles of silvery mica; WiHhe POTTERY: i it is quite different from the ordinary local clay and almost surely indicates that we are dealing with an imported piece. The shapes seem to include shallow basins, bowls, and some kind of a large goblet with high strap handles — types which are all well exemplified in the slipped ware of the following section. It must be admitted that it is sometimes very difficult indeed to distinguish these two categories, the slipped and the unslipped; but in the material described above it seems certain that the surface of the pot has been polished directly without the intermediary of a slip. These pots are of course not necessarily older than the slipped ware with which they were found, but it is probably safe to say that they carry on an earlier type or tradition. II. The second category of polished ware is represented by a great many more specimens than the first. They came chiefly from the massed deposit in the dothros mentioned above, from the deeper levels of the trench south of the mound (Trial Trench VI), and especially from certain shallow, basin-like hollows — probably the bottoms of dothroi — brought to light in a cutting into the west scarp of the hill (p. 28). A few sherds were found here and there throughout the settlement and an especially fine variety of a related ware was repre- sented by the fragments of one or two pots in almost every Early Helladic house excavated. But this variety, which will be described separately, differs not a little from the normal slipped fabric now under discussion, and is undoubtedly a more advanced and later product. Accordingly the bulk of this polished ware, which as a whole is certainly an early group, is seen to come not from the settlement itself, but from the slopes and flat ground round about to the south and west — a fact which will have to be borne in mind in a consideration of the date and the “history” of the settlement. The ware of this section corresponds fully with the finds of early date from Korakou and Mycenae (B. S. 4., XXV, p. 66). It is all made without the use of the potter’s wheel; some of it is coarse and some fine, but it is all on the average a very good ware. The clay seems to have been pretty well purified, though not entirely free from foreign particles; it is often reddish buff right through, often gray at the core, changing to reddish buff at the surface. The firing seems to have been managed somewhat more effectively than in the ware of the first category (AI); but here too the biscuit shows a tendency to crumble ‘when rubbed. The surface is coated with a firm slip which is fairly well, sometimes brilliantly, polished (PLate V). The color is almost always red and tends to be very bright; but mottling is common and appears in black, orange-red, and red on the majority of the pots. It does not seem to have been manipulated to form patterns. In some cases the slip has come off in small flakes here and there on the vase, but it is usually very durable. The marks of the implement used for polishing are clearly visible; sometimes they are very fine lines, appearing almost like pencil strokes on the inside of a bowl (and that they were applied with some pressure is shown by the slight groove they have often made in the slip); sometimes they are much broader marks. The instrument employed may have been a piece of bone; at any rate it is dificult to understand how smooth leather could have produced the fine lines. The base of the pot is usually flat, or flat at the edge and slightly hollowed toward the centre (PLate V, Nos. 13, 14); at least ten of each dozen examples are of these types. 78 THE EXCAVATIONS Al ZYGOURIES But raised bases also occur, though the somewhat squat form and the slight hollow under- neath generally betray their development from the other type (PLare V, Nos. 15, 16): The material was very fragmentary and not much could be put together. Among the shapes noted are shallow bowls with incurved rim (No. 564, Pate VII),' plates with a broad flat rim (PLate V, No. 6), a jug with a high neck (Puate VI, No. g), shallow basins with lug handles, a goblet or open vessel with high strap handles (PLare VI, No. 8), the pyxis (PLate V, No. 11), and a pithos with large projecting cylindrical lifting bosses (PLate VI, No. 11). Shallow bowls are by far the commonest and occur in many varieties of profile. Sauceboats are very rare; only one or two sherds seemed to belong to pots of that shape. The bulk of this ware is plain (PLATE V), but in many cases an attempt at simple decora- tion has been made, appearing chiefly in groups of parallel incised lines on the body of the pot or on the handle (PLate VI). Cross hatching, concentric circles (PLate VI, No. 3), bands of spraylike chevrons (PLate VI, No. 7), and a band of two parallel lines enclosing a row of punched dots (PLate VI, No. g) also occur among the patterns. The lines are fairly deep, careless strokes made before the vase was fired; no evidence remained to show whether or not they ‘had ever been filled with white matter. A series of wedge-shaped impressions stamped alternately from one side and then the other gives the effect of a raised zigzag line along the broad rim of a highly burnished shallow basin (Pare V, No. 2). A distinct improvement in the glaze medium so as to produce a good lustrous effect on the surface of the vase when fired — no doubt the invention of a progressive potter, or imported by him, perhaps from Crete — was almost surely responsible for the abandon- ment of the technique of polishing. A handsome bright, almost metallic, finish (PLATE VIII) could thereafter be obtained much more easily and simply than by the old-fashioned method of burnishing by hand. The new style was no doubt very speedily and generally adopted for ordinary pottery, and burnishing was henceforth employed only for special purposes. Glaze of a sort must already have been in use for some time before it was per- fected, for it appears on some of the pottery found in the deep deposits which contained the earliest polished ware. Some shapes of interest recovered from this context will be dis- cussed in the section dealing with glazed ware (Group B); here need only be mentioned, as confirming the early date of polished ware, that the deposit contained a good many bases of large pots marked with mat impressions, close analogies to the similar phenomena ob- served on the early pottery from the Cyclades (Fig. 10g). The fragments of polished ware already mentioned, which show an incised decoration of spirals, connected by tangents (PLate IV, No. g), and other simple designs must not be forgotten in the list of Cycladic parallels. The particularly fine variety of slipped and polished ware reserved for separate discus- sion is certainly of later date than the material with which we have just been dealing. Only one example of it was found in the three early deposits mentioned above; on the other hand it occurred, as I have stated, on the floors of almost every Early Helladic house that 1 No. 564. Ht. 0.09 m., D. 0.167 m., D, of base, 0,067 m. Buff clay. Slip mainly red, with mottled patches of black; surface smoothly polished, with fine marks almost like pencil lines. Interior coated with grayish black glaze, crackled and almost lustreless. THE POTTERY 79 was cleared, although never in large quantity. It was all badly shattered, and the sherds collected represent perhaps two or three vases to each house, certainly not much more. It is an extremely well-made kind of pottery, hard and thin, sometimes almost approach- ing egg-shell fabrics in delicacy. One cannot fail to admire the skill of the potter who, without the help of the wheel, produced such slight and shapely vases. The clay is of a fine quality and well levigated, apparently quite free from grit. It is sometimes pink or buff in color, but usually appears gray or almost black at the core, changing to a lighter hue at the surface. The firing was efficiently done, the fabric being thoroughly baked, firm and hard. Indeed these vases have, when struck, the musical tinkle of well-made china, and the very hardness and thinness of the fabric have caused them, when demolished, to shatter into numerous small fragments like glass. The reconstruction of one of these pots from its broken pieces is therefore a difficult task, but there is one compensation for the mender: the fractures are almost always sharp and clean. The whole surface of the vase, inside and out (except in the case of closed shapes, such as jugs, where the interior could not be reached), was coated with a fine slip, apparently yellow or cream-colored when applied. In the firing a vivid mottled effect was often ob- tained, and the finished surface, which was smoothly polished, usually presents a variety of colors running from grayish black or even deep blue to orange-yellow and almost white. The dark shades almost always occur in shapeless blotches, appearing irregularly here and there about the vase just as in the contemporary mottled ware from Vasiliki (Seager, Transact. Dept. of Arch., University of Pennsylvania, 1905, Vol. I, Part III, pp. 21g ff.). Wherever these blotches are formed the whole fabric seems to have been affected, though the carbonization does not in every case go through the biscuit to the inner surface. In a few cases the whole vase is dark, ranging from almost black to gray, as if completely per- meated with carbon; in other instances the slip has a clear yellowish buff finish over the entire pot, quite free from darker discolorations. Some few fragments bear simple incised decoration. On a large sherd from a jug (PLATE IX, No. 6) this consists of a double row of dots around the base of the neck and a large design similarly executed in the field. In another instance a single row of short slanting gashes appears just below the rim of an askos (PLate IX, No. 5). Another type of decoration consists of raised bands, sometimes rounded, sometimes fairly sharply ridged, which are applied in sweeping wavy lines, two or three or more, variously spaced, forming a simple plastic diversification of otherwise plain open spaces. The shape on which this style seems chiefly to occur 1s a Jug with a fairly high neck (PLATE Bee OS. 2, 3,4). The shapes represented are “sauceboats,”’ jugs, askoid pots, cups, shallow bowls, deep bowls or jars of a spherical form, narrowing considerably toward the opening, and a kind of pyxis with its lid. Among these, “‘sauceboats”’ are easily the commonest and shallow bowls are rare. A curious vase in the form of a bird with extended wings (PLate XXI, No. 6) is a unique specimen. Almost all of these pots are of small size, but a few fragments of one or two large vases, the shape of which could not be determined, show that the same technique could be employed for vessels of respectable dimensions. 80 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Since no adequate account of this ware has hitherto been published, a more complete description of a few examples may be permitted. No. 317, Piare IX. Sauceboat found in 67 fragments just outside the northwest corner of House L. The base is missing and has been restored in plaster. The body of the vase is 0.125 m. high, rising to an extreme height of 0.195 m. at the tip of the spout; crosswise it has a diameter of 0.115 m.; lengthwise to the end of the spout, 0.145 m. It has a substantial vertical handle (which is apparently the regular type in sauceboats of this ware), divided longitudinally by a shallow groove down the middle. The lower attachment of the handle is rectangular with a distinctly metallic appearance. The pot has thin walls and the delicate Ficure 66. Yertow Morritep Ware, Earty Hevtapic Periop, Crass A II straight rim 1s shaped with a sure hand. The spout is fairly broad and shallow (0.063 m. wide). The clay is gray at the core, lightening to pink at the surface, and is of a thoroughly purified quality. The surface is coated with a firm slip, smoothly polished except on the inside of the vase; the fine marks of the polishing implement are easily distinguishable. A striking mottled effect is produced by five large and two or three smaller bluish black blotches distributed about the vase, while the rest of the surface exhibits various shades of yellow. No. 255, Fig. 66. Sauceboat of similar type, but not so fine, restored from seventeen fragments found in Trench V. Most of one side is missing. The body of the vase is 0.139 m. high, increasing to ca. 0.179 m. at the tip of the spout; width, 0.107m.; length, not in- 1 A list of the pots of this yellow mottled ware found in the houses, as deduced from the fragments, follows: House D House W 2 askoid jugs, 2 sauceboats, I jar 3 sauceboats, 2 askoi, 1 small jar or cup House A House S I sauceboat 2 sauceboats, 2 askoi House or THE PirHor House L 2 sauceboats, I jar 6 sauceboats, 3 jugs, 1 askos, 1 shallow bowl, 1 pyxis House OF THE SNAILSHELLS House Y ‘ 4 sauceboats, 2 jars, I askos or jug I sauceboat, I jar LAE SPODTERY 81 cluding the handle, ca. 0.14 m. The pot is unusually tall for its length, and its upright lines contrast with the more horizontal lines of the average sauceboat. The vessel stands on a well-shaped raised base. The vertical handle is similar to that of No. 317, but is not fash- ioned with such clear-cut lines; its attachment below is rectangular and metallic in origin. The spout is comparatively short and slender (width at end, restored, ca. 0.042 m.), with its lip sharply rolled. The clay is light buff throughout; on the surface is an excellent polished slip of the same color, uniform over all without blotches and mottling. No. 286, Fig. 67. Forward part of a large askoid pot, put together from nine fragments found on the floor of the House of the Snailshells. It has fairly thick walls, but is of good Ficure 67. Yettow Morriep Ware, Earty Hettapic Periop, Crass A II fabric, made of well-sifted clay. The latter is a light brick-red in color right through the biscuit. The cream-colored slip coating the surface is not so durable as is usual in this ware, having worn through in spots. It is almost uniform in color; there is no mottling, though one patch has turned yellow. The slip was applied on the inside surface in a band only, 0.04 m. wide, along the rim. The bottom of the askos was flattened to serve as a base. No. 1, PLareE XXI, No. 6. A peculiar diminutive vase in the form of a bird with extended wings. More than one half of the rim and the upper part of one side are missing and the lower end of the stem is broken away. As preserved, the vase is ca. 0.05 m. high, measures 0.064 m. across the wings, and 0.065 m. from back to tip of beak. The heavy stem, 0.035 m. wide, through which an opening seems to have communicated with the interior of the pot, did not provide a vertical support, but was adjusted at an oblique angle, slanting down forward. This fact and the curved shape of the fracture, with which the stem now ends, suggest that our little vase is part of a kernos, having been one of several similar vessels attached to, and connected by, a horizontal tubular ring. The kernos is a shape familiar enough among the vases of the same general date as this from the Cyclades (PAylakop1, p. 102, B. S. 4., III, 1896-1897, pp. 57 ff.), but an exact parallel to this odd birdlike shape from Zygouries does not seem to have come to light. The bird is crudely represented. It has broad horizontal wings (ca. 0.035 m. long and projecting 0.008 m.), flat on top and marked by careless oblique incisions, which are no doubt intended to represent feathers. On the side of the pot above the wings are similar Ficure 68. SHattow Bow ts, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass BI Ficure 69, SHaLttow Bow1, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B I, No. 55 Figure 70. Larce Juc, Earty Hetiapic Wars, Crass B I THE POTTERY 83 incised lines. The head is only roughly indicated without details. The mouth of the vase, which is relatively narrow, has a diameter of ca. 0.018 m., and the general shape of the vessel is that of a small askos. The clay, as appears in the breaks, is gray throughout, made of finely sifted paste, and well baked. The surface is coated with a durable hard slip and is well polished; its color is an almost uniform grayish black. No. 397, Fig. 66. Small cup, not quite complete, restored in plaster from six fragments. Rising from a flattened bottom, it has spreading sides and a slight flare at the rim; there is a single flat loop handle (mostly restored in plaster). The cup is of good fabric, made of well-cleaned pink clay; the surface is coated with a creamy yellow slip which was lightly polished. It is now in bad condition; the slip has worn through in many places, revealing the pink clay beneath, and few traces of the original polishing now remain. There is no mottling. B. GLAzED WARE To this group belongs the great bulk of the pottery from the Early Helladic occupation at Zygouries. The material was vastly more abundant than that from Korakou or Gonia and much better illustrations of the characteristic shapes can now be given. This glaze- technique undoubtedly lasted a very long time — its history seems to be almost as long as the Early Helladic Period itself. Within this long space of time some change or develop- ment might reasonably be expected, and there is in fact certain evidence to show that such was the case. It was not an abrupttransition, but seems to have been a gradual, long drawn- out process of deterioration. The evidence for this will be discussed after the pottery itself has been described. 1. Partially Coated Ware. A good many intact or almost complete specimens were found. The fabric is not of the most excellent; the clay is good and fairly well screened, but the firing was in most cases inadequate, and the biscuit is often so soft that 1t wears away readily. Many of the pots are also badly distorted in shape as a result of warping during, or before, the baking. The surface of the vase was probably slipped, or at least washed, before the vessel was put in the kiln. It was not polished; indeed, in many cases it 1s irregular and rough; but these were ordinary household utensils, not vases made for exhibition. 1. The shallow bowl is by far the commonest shape. More than thirty complete specimens came to light, and fragments of hundreds or even thousands were recovered everywhere about the settlement. None occurred in the deep pits. They have a band of paint around the rim, inside or outside or both, almost always the latter. Some typical examples are shown in Figure 68; as may be seen, most of them are of no special interest or merit. One (No. 43) is distinguished by a few blotches suggestive of the mottled style; in another case (No. 55, Fig. 69)! two broad bands of paint form a large cross on the interior of the bowl. These bowls vary widely in profile: there is no rule or regularity in the slope of the side, or in the curve of the rolled rim. The size also differs considerably, though the bowls are all 1No. 55. Ht. 0.043 m.; D. 0.17 m. 84 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Ficure 71. SMALL Juc, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass BI, No. 42 rather small. Of the complete or restored examples twenty-nine have a raised base; in two cases the bottom is merely flattened enough to permit the vessel to stand, but it should be noted that these two bowls are very much shallower and broader than the others (No. 55, Fig. 69, is of this latter type). 2. Jugs in this style were fairly common. They seem regularly to have a flattened bottom, a single handle and a sturdy neck with a broad shallow spout. Among the ex- amples illustrated the largest (No. 258, Fig. 70)? has a flattened round handle; Nos. 42 (Fig. 71) and 93 (Fig. 72) have an ordinary round handle. Its curve in all cases suggests that the potter was fond of askoid shapes. The jugs have an almost spherical body and the shape is not ungraceful, though the flat bottom is sometimes carelessly made and causes the pot to lean. The upper half of the body is covered by a wash of glaze, a band of which also runs around the inside of the mouth. The lower half of the pot bears no paint save occasional smears from above. The glaze, which seems itself not to be of extremely bad quality, is carelessly applied in a coat far from uniform in thickness; fine brush marks are almost 1 The raised base was usually made by attaching to the bottom of the vessel a separate strip of clay bent to form a ring. In the better examples the joint was carefully worked over and smoothed; in the poorer specimens the strip was crudely applied. In a few cases the base seems to have been attached in the form of a flat disk with a raised circumference. 2 Jugs. No. 258. Ht. ca. 0.273 m.; D. 0.248 m. Greenish yellow clay, not too well levigated. No. 42. Ht. ca. 0.118 m.; D. 0.111 m. Grayish buff clay. No. 93. Ht. 0.195 m.; D. 0.198 m. Grayish green clay. No. 191. Ht. 0.055 m.; D. 0.047 m. Pink clay; handle missing. Ficure 72. Two Jucs, Earty Hetitapic Ware, Crass B I THE POTTERY 8 everywhere visible, especially where the glaze is thin. The surface is certainly not bright, but a faint lustre is still preserved. In some examples much of the paint has been rubbed off and the bare surface of the vase appears. A tiny jug of slightly different shape is shown in Figure 72, No. 191. The handle and part of one side are restored. It has a flat base, a squat broad body, and a relatively very large spout. It is made of pinkish clay, not very well screened. The final treatment of the surface seems to have been effected with a fairly stiff brush, which has left its marks everywhere. A lick of thin reddish paint along the rim is the only coloring that appears. 3. The large jar with narrow mouth (No. 54),! shown in Figure 73, has a broad and stocky, but not unattractive, shape. The bottom is flattened as a base, or meant to be, but Ficure 73. Larcr Jar, Earty Heviapic Ware, Crass BI actually has a slightly convex surface so that the pot does not stand well. Halfway down the side, opposite each other, are two heavy horizontal handles; the two smaller ones set perpendicularly to these, high up on the shoulder, seem hardly strong enough to assist materially in lifting the jar; perhaps they were used rather for guiding when the vessel was being tilted. The neck is low and ends in a vertical rim like a collar, which may have been meant to receive a lid. The fabric is a far cry from that of the yellow mottled ware described above. The green- ish buff clay is filled with extraneous matter; it 1s soft, not properly baked. The upper half of the pot above the large handles is coated with thin glaze, which also covers the upper surface of the handles, but not the lower. The glazed zone is not sharply divided from the unglazed; on one side a splash of thin paint has run far down into the zone below. The glaze preserves only a reminiscence of its original lustre. A larger specimen of the same shape is that shown in Figure 74, No. 605.” It is largely 1 Jar No. 54. Ht. 0.265 m.; D. 0.322 m.; D. of mouth, 0.119 m. 2 No. 605. Ht. 0.333 m.; D. 0.359 m.; D. of mouth, 0.144 m. 86 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES restored in plaster, but enough of the pot was found to give the complete profile from the flat base to the rim. The clay is buff in color, not well screened, and is not baked to a great hardness. The upper part of the surface is coated with a wash of thin light-brown glaze. This jar is taller in proportion to its diameter than No. 54; it differs from the latter also in its neck, which splays slightly outward; and in place of the small upper handles it has high up on the shoulder two long narrow horizontal lugs, doubly pierced. Ficure 74. Larce Jar, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass BI, No. 605 Other shapes in this partially coated style certainly occur. Among small pots may be mentioned sauceboats, one complete specimen and many fragments of which were found, bearing only a careless band of glaze along the rim. As to large vessels, it seems to have been the regular custom to treat them in the manner of the jar described above (No. 54). Numer- ous bulky fragments in this style belong to capacious askoi, deep basins, water jars, and small pithoi, no whole example of which could be put together. When the surfaces to be covered were so extensive, the limitation of the painted area to the upper half of the vessel no doubt effected considerable economy in the amount of glaze used and time and labor required; and perhaps this class of partially coated large vases — not so much the smaller pots with only a brush line along the rim — owes its origin to motives of this nature. THE POTTERY 84 II. Completely Coated Ware. The fabric is essentially the same as that of Class BI, though in the majority of examples slightly better finished. This class includes all those Early Helladic pots which have their exterior covered with a plain coat of paint. The paint is really a glaze which varies widely in quality from vase to vase. On early specimens it is a fine, hard, lustrous coating of a very durable character (PLate VII, No. 577); on others, though not lacking in lustre, it is far from permanent and has flaked off to a greater or less extent, exposing the surface of the vase beneath; and finally, in many cases, it is a careless wash, not at all uniform in thick- ness, which often preserves only the faintest traces of its original lustre. On almost all these latter vases fine brushmarks are everywhere easily distinguishable, showing that the paint was applied by means of a rather delicate fine brush, probably of hair. The marks in some instances seem to indicate a brush ca. 0.025 m. wide. 1. Shallow bowls or saucers are very common, but by no means so frequent as in the partly coated style. Apart from quantities of fragments, a dozen complete examples were found, ten of which have a raised base (Fig. 75 ).1 Two, which are extremely shallow, merely have their bottoms flattened (one is illustrated in Fig. 76, No. 270).? The raised base is usu- ally a crude affair, a separately moulded ring of clay applied to the bottom of the bowl before firing; which is indeed the usual Early Helladic technique in making bases. The profile of these bowls is generally a simple curve, commencing at the base and ending in a rolled rim, but sometimes there is an angle at the shoulder and the rim rises in a curve of the opposite direction (No. 387, Fig. 76).’ The fabric is usually better than in the partially coated class and there is not so much distortion of the shape in the firing. 2. A hemispherical lid, in shape very much like the preceding bowls inverted, was found in the House of the Pithoi (No. tor, Fig. 76).4 It has a thick loop handle at the top, broken but restored in plaster. 3. A good many fragments of pyxides were found, but in only one case sufficient to restore a small example; and even here the base and part of one side are lacking (No. 261, Fig. 77).° It has a rather globular shape with an extremely small mouth (diameter 0.026 m.; diameter of the pot, 0.105 m.; height, ca. 0.073 m.). On either side low down, at the level of the rather sharp angle formed by the two curves of the profile of the body, is a long horizontal lug pierced vertically by a small hole near each end. A low plain vertical rim around the opening looks as if it were intended to be closed with a tightly fitting lid, which was probably tied on by a string passed through the holes in the lugs. A fragment of such a lid for a somewhat larger pyxis was found in House L (No. §70, 1 Shallow bowls: No. 290. Ht. 0.073 m.; D. 0.135 m.; D. of base, 0.039 m. Grayish buff clay; thin brownish wash outside, mottled red and black glaze inside; slightly lustrous. No. 398. Ht. 0.083 m.; D. 0.157 m.; D. of base, 0.048 m, Greenish buff clay, good black glaze, fairly lustrous, crackled surface. No. 390. Ht. 0.051 m.; D. 0.113 m.; D. of base, 0.055 m. Pinkish buff clay, good red glaze with black mottling, inside and outside. 2 No. 270. Ht. 0.04 m.; D. 0.147 m. Brick-red clay and wash of same color. 3 No, 387. Ht. 0.076 m.; D. ca. 0.128 m.; D. of base, 0.048 m. Greenish buff clay, poor black glaze. Ht. of recurved rim, 0.02 m. 4No, 101. Ht. (without handle) 0.065 m.; D. ca. 0.15 m. Gray clay (burned); mottled red and black glaze. 5 No, 261. Brick-red clay — glaze of same color — slight lustre. 88 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Fig. 77).1 It is of circular shape with the edge turned over sharply to fit around the rim. On the top is a long lug with two string holes corresponding exactly to the type on our pyxis. The lid from House L is actually of the polished yellow mottled ware described above, but similar examples in the glazed style occurred. Figure 75. THREE SHALLOW Bow ts, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B II Ficure 76. THREE SMALL Ports, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B II The pyxis itself is pretty well made with thin walls. The smooth surface was coated with thin reddish brown paint, which here and there shows traces of mottling. 4. The sauceboat is certainly one of the most characteristic shapes of the Early Helladic Period (occurring in no other) and, to judge by the great number of fragments found, must have been a great popular favorite. Shattered pieces of spouts or of the distinctively curved rims came to light in enormous quantities everywhere in the settlement. From this material it proved possible to put to- gether in varying degrees of completeness some thirty specimens which illustrate adequately the wide range of styles em- ployed. Broad spouts, narrow spouts, high, low, shallow, deep spouts with widely flaring rim, and others with plain modest lip, all are well represented. In Ficure 77. Lip (Crass AII), anp Pyxis (Crass BIT), 1 No. 570. Ht. (including lug) 0.025 m.; D. ca. 0.073 Earty Hetiapic WaArE m. Brick-red clay, smooth cream slip. THE POTTERY 89 size these vessels range from a diminutive pot, 0.05 m. high, to a capacious example with a height of 0.175 m. (0.255 m. at the tip of the spout) large enough to hold nearly a gallon. A horizontal loop handle, not very strong, attached just below the rim at a point opposite the spout is customary, but vertical handles also occur, especially in the case of the better fabrics. In all cases where the bottom is preserved, these sauceboats are pro- vided with a raised base. The quality of the ware varies greatly. Some specimens are of gross execution, made of little-purified clay, with thick, soft, crumbling biscuit, and with a roughly finished surface over which poor glaze has been carelessly smeared. Others have been manufactured with Figure 78. Saucesoat, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B II precision and attention, carefully refined in shape, with slender walls made of well-levigated paste, sufficiently fired so that the biscuit is hard and firm, with surface smoothly finished and covered with good lustrous glaze. These vases are usually coated both inside and out- side, but in many examples the interior has been left unpainted except for a brush line along the rim. The specific purpose of vases so peculiar in shape as these is not perfectly clear. It has been suggested that they were lamps and that the long projecting spout was intended to hold the wick. This theory does not seem very likely, however, for no trace of burning or blackening has been observed at the end of the spout, such as is of frequent occurrence on Greek and Roman lamps, and is indeed inevitable if a lamp be much used. Furthermore, the huge size and depth of many examples seem quite irreconcilable with such a purpose. The spout in most cases seems clearly made for pouring liquids. In spite of its evident popularity, the sauceboat cannot be described as a practical shape. The long heavy spout makes the balance precarious; when full the vessel naturally stood more firmly than when empty, but it seems likely that the milk was often spilled in Early Helladic houses. go THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Since vases of this type have not heretofore been very fully ee it may be worth while to give a description of some selected specimens. No. 226, Fig. 78. Height at middle of side, 0.175 m.; at end of spout, 0.255 m.; transverse diameter, 0.175 m.; extreme length (handle to end af spout), 0.265 m.; diate of base, 0.072 m. Put together from fifty-seven fragments found just outside House L. Missing: two small bits of rim and the tip of one side of the spout. This, the largest example found at Zygouries, is fairly well made, of light buff clay not meticulously sifted. The firing was not of the most perfect. The vessel was finished with a good slip, over which it originally had a coat of reddish brown glaze which has now practically all disappeared. A relatively small Ficure 79. Two Saucesoats, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B II horizontal handle is somewhat clumsily attached opposite the spout just below the rim, but is not placed accurately in the long axis of the pot, which gives a lopsided effect. The fairly short, broad, flaring spout is set at a moderate angle of elevation. The under side of the spout is not smoothly modelled. | No. 115, Fig. 79. Height, 0.077 m., and at end of spout, 0.143 m.; diameter, 0.094 m.; length, including handle, 0.182 m.; diameter of base, 0.046 m. Only two small chips of the rim missing. Light buff clay. A well-made pot, found in House Y, almost symmetrical, with thin firm walls, it has a raised base, a horizontal loop handle, and a long narrow spout flaring out at the end with high-pointed tips. The spout, the under side of which is rather rough, has a much greater rise from the rim than that of No. 226. The vase is coated inside mainly with black, outside with red glaze, which has worn away in spots. A small space under the handle is unpainted. A large patch of black on one side and a small one on the other provide a mottled variation of color. No. 24, Fig. 80. Height, 0.13 m., and at end of spout, 0.222 m.; diameter, 0.118 m.; length, ca. 0.195 m.; diameter of base, 0.058 m. Forward part and base preserved; rear part and handle restored in plaster. Well made, with rather sure lines, this pot has thin walls, smoothly finished, and is about as symmetrical as is possible for a vessel of the sauceboat POTTERY gI shape. It has a long, narrow, de t with a wide flare at its high-tipped end (the tip on one side has been restored). polit is set at a steeply ascending angle; its under side is slightly rough, almost corrugated, one might say. The vase is made of greenish yellow clay of a fine grade. The smoothly slipped surface was originally coated with a uniform heavy, black glaze, inside and out. It has worn badly, but where it survives still preserves a good lustre. No. 28, Fig. 79. Height, 0.092 m., and at end of spout, ca. 0.15 m.; diameter, ca. 0.082 m.; length, ca. 0.122 m.; diameter of base, 0.037 m. Missing: one side, a long narrow splinter from the lower part of the other, the extremity of both tips of the spout, and most of the handle. The whole body slopes steeply upward toward the spout; the latter, which had Ficure 80. Two Saucesoats, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B II moderate tips, is sharply rolled at the end. The pot, made with thin walls, has a low belly, curving in abruptly to the small raised base. The broad, flat, vertical handle is divided by a groove down the middle. This is good fabric, resembling the polished yellow mottled ware described above (p. 79). The clay, gray at the core, light brick-red at the surface, is firm and shows that the pot was well fired. The surface was coated, over a smooth slip, with a dark glaze, thin on the inside, but thicker and almost uniform on the exterior, al- though it has now been rubbed off in spots. The vase has a mottled finish: the lower portion is almost bluish black, set off by an irregular orange-buff line running around the body, while the upper part is gray, shading off toward the top. No. 320, Fig. 80. Height, 0.052 m., and at end of spout, 0.079 m.; diameter, 0.065 m.; diameter of slightly raised base, 0.025 m. Rear portion and handle missing. In this, one of the smallest sauceboats found at Zygouries, the broad shallow spout, which has no raised tips, is set at a very moderate upward angle. The clay, which in coloris light buff throughout, is of finely sifted texture. The exterior is somewhat rough, and the whole front, from the end of the spout down, presents a slightly corrugated surface, a phenomenon which may be ob- served on a great many sauceboats: no doubt the traces of the process by which the spout was worked into its final form. A coat of brownish black glaze, still retaining some of its THE EXCAVATIONS A g2 RIES lustre, though now much rubbed off on one side, covers the vase; the interior is unpainted except for a narrow band along the rim. No. 569, Fig. 81. Two fragments of a sauceboat of good fabric, similar to No. 226 in shape, though much smaller. Pinkish buff clay. It was originally slipped and coated with lustrous reddish brown glaze, which has worn badly. The chief interest of the fragment lies in its incised or impressed decoration. Two parallel horizontal lines close together, made by a succession of oval impressions, form a belt around the vase; from this band a group of four similar parallel lines extends upward along the under side of the spout; and at irregular intervals around the body, groups of three parallel lines in the same technique Ficure 81. FRAGMENTS OF A SAUCEBOAT WITH INCISED DEcoRATION, Earty Hettapic Ware, Crass B II, No. 569 run up to the rim. There were probably three such groups on each side between the handle and the spout. No trace of pigment appeared in the impressions. No. 260, PLare X. Height 0.061 m.; at end of spout, 0.10 m.; diameter, 0.079 m.; length, ca. 0.136 m. Preserved are the front with the spout, and the rear portion with the handle and part of the base; the missing parts have been restored in plaster. The shape is fairly low, and the spout is not extremely elevated. The pot has the usual raised base (ca. 0.033 m. in diameter) and horizontal handle. Its unusual feature is the spout, which has its end pinched out into a crudely formed ram’s head. The snout is long and thin; the eyes are made plasti- cally by large applied pellets of clay; the horns, springing from the top of the head, curve down around the eyes on each side and project forward and upward beyond the line of the snout. The fabric is rather crude, though the shape of the pot is pretty regular and the walls are fairly thin. The clay is a greenish gray right through and is not fired to a durable hard- THE POTTERY ness. The surface was brushed smooth ahd coated originally with black glaze v almost completely vanished; where p ed it still shows some lustre. T : boat would be unique were it not for the fol lowing counterpart. No. 251, Pate X. Height, 0.07 m.; at end of spout, 0.117 m. ; diameter, ca. 0.076 m. length, with handle, 0.115 m. Reconearccrel from seventeen peenents found on the floor of the House of the Pithoi; only three splinters are missing. It is relatively thick and heavy and rather crudely made; has the customary raised base (diameter, 0.032 m.) and a badly formed thick lopsided horizontal handle. The body, which was much distorted by warping and exhibits no symmetry, curves upward somewhat steeply toward the spout. The latter is pinched out at its end in the same fashion as in the preceding example and rudely shaped to represent a ram’s head. The snout is slender and more abbreviated than that of No. 260; the horns, curved in the same way, are thicker and shorter and meet across the bridge of the snout. There are no eyes. The clay is gray at the core, brick-red at the surface, and its consistency indicates thorough baking. The surface is fairly smooth and is coated inside and out with a thin reddish brown glaze, shading to darker hues in a lightly mottled effect. No. 577, Pare VII. Fragment, the forepart of a large sauceboat, height, ca. 0.155 m.; diameter, 0.184 m. Missing: end of spout, and all of rear portion of the vessel, including the base and the handle. The pot is of good fabric, made of well-purified buff-colored clay, containing some particles of yellow mica; it is coated inside and out with lustrous glaze of excellent quality which has been somewhat damaged. In spite of its incomplete condi- tion, it is shown here to illustrate the possibilities of the mottled technique, for here it was unquestionably managed so as to produce a design. The lower part of the pot from the base upward is orange-red in color and the area in this tint has somehow been given a stellate shape with five or six points (only three of which are preserved), not regularly spaced, directed upward, one point following roughly the axis of the spout. Above this is a zone of black, which really forms the background for the star. On its upper side this zone is bor- dered by a band of purplish red of varying width which, starting fairly low at the back (i.e. below the handle), runs around the pot, rising gradually until, reaching the line of the spout, it curves more sharply upward from each side to form a pointed angle. Above this band is a further broad expanse of black background, which, as it approaches the rim, shades into a large and rather shapeless mass of purplish red on each side of the vase. The glaze, which is all the same — there is no question here of different pigments — is everywhere badly crackled and not a little has been lost by flaking, but the effect of this rather bold mottled pattern is nevertheless a striking one. 5. Beneath the floor of the large room in the House of the Pithoi was found a fragment of a pot of remarkable shape (No. 238, PLare X). It seems to have been a jug with a broad squat body and a tall cylindrical neck, the top of which is finished almost in the form of a small sauceboat. Practically the whole of the body and the wide flat handle are missing. The neck, which has a diameter of ca. 0.056 m., rises 0.165 m. above the body (measured at the middle of the side; to the top of the spout 0.22 m.). It widens out at the top and the line of the rim is carried along on each side in a symmetrical rising curve to the tips of the projecting spout. This latter is fairly deep, flares slightly toward its end, and has a gently rolled edge. THE EXCAVATIO GOURIES The attachment of the handle both at its lower and upper end is preserved, in the latter case with a small bit of the handle itself. At this point a row of rivet heads seems to have been imitated by small applied pellets of clay, circular in shape, only one of which now survives. On the inside of the mouth, close to the rim and almost corresponding to the junction of the handle and the neck, is a simple plastic decoration. A narrow strip of clay has been attached here in the form of a curving U, with a rivet head, again represented in the same way, on either side. It is clear that in this oddly shaped vessel we have very active reminiscences of work in metal. This might seem rather startling in view of the early period with which we are deal- ing; but the progress of research and exploration in recent years has been gradually reveal- ing unsuspected abilities and capacities on the part of Early Helladic craftsmen in other fields than that of pottery; and we must admit the possibility of far more pretentious achievements in metal working than have heretofore been known. The well-formed dagger described in Chapter V is an indication; and the gold sauceboat in the Louvre, published by Childe (F. H. S., 44, 1924, pp. 163-5), opens up a new view. The high-necked jug we have been describing is of good firm fabric and had its exterior coated with a uniform black glaze of excellent quality. A vertical patch beneath the handle, not easy to reach satisfactorily with a brush, and the interior of the mouth were left un- painted. Some of the giaze on the neck has been rubbed off, exposing the bare surface of the pot, on which here and there, as well as in the light buff biscuit which appears in the frac- tures, a few yellowish particles of mica may be seen. Mica, even in scanty quantity, is so rare in the clay of which the vases from Zygouries were made that one is led to wonder if we have to do in the present case with an imported piece. 6. From the number of sherds found in the house deposits, large askoi seem to have been fairly common. The fragments were usually widely scattered, however, and it was not possible to put together so many complete specimens in proportion to those of other shapes as the number of broken pieces indicated. The capacious askos illustrated in Figure 82 was restored from 101 fragments found on the floor of the House of the Snailshells — a veritable triumph of mending — and is practically complete. It is a typical representative of its shape and for that reason deserves a brief description. No. 35, Fig. 82. Height, 0.22 m.; diameter, 0.217 m.; length, 0.205 m. The flattened bottom makes a fairly stable base. The body is low and squat with the characteristic oblique upward slope toward the spout. The front of the body forms a continuous broad curve, extending from the base to the rim, slightly flattened out in its upper part, where it also serves as neck. On the opposite side the neck rises at a sharp angle from the body to a vertical height of 0.048 m. The mouth is roughly oval, with its front or pouring side straight- ened; it measures 0.127 m., from side to side, 0.09 m. from front to back. A broad flat handle, springing from the rim, curves outward and swings down to the body; at its narrowest point, just after leaving the rim, it has a width of 0.042 m.; at its widest, where it joins the body, 0.065 m. The pot is not of very durable fabric. The clay, which is of a buff tone right through, and contains many particles of grit, is very soft.and rubs away almost like chalk. The surface was smooth and coated all over with red glaze, practically all of which has now disappeared; the inner side of the neck was similarly painted. 94 THE POTTERY 95 No. 295, Fig. 83.1 Upper part of a similar askos from House L, The base is missing and has been restored in plaster. This example is somewhat better made than the preceding, and is, especially, more adequately baked. It illustrates well the variation permitted in this shape too; for the askos, like the sauceboat, seems to occur in many different forms. Its flat handle, narrower, shorter and more sharply curved than that of No. 35, is divided by a groove down the middle (in some other examples two such grooves make a tripartite division). The profile of the front does not follow a single curve from base to rim; it reaches a distinctly emphasized neck which rises almost vertically to the rim (0.038 m. high opposite the handle). The mouth is almost a regular ellipse, measuring 0.115 m. from front Ficure 82. Larce Askos, Earry Hetiapic Ware, Ficure 83. Askos, Earty Hetiapic Ware, Crass B II Crass B II to back and 0.165 m. from side to side. The rim on either side of the handle slopes gradually upward until near the line of the major axis of the ellipse it forms a slight angle and continues horizontally. The vase is covered with reddish brown paint, not a uniform coat in thickness; the space beneath the handle is not painted, and the band along the inside of the rim is rather narrow. Fine brush marks are particularly noticeable in this thin glaze, which still retains some lustre. A small example of an askos from House Y lacked only its rim and handle; no other specimens at all approaching completeness were found, but, as remarked above, handles and pieces of rims were common on the floors of the houses. These vases, with their curiously formed bodies drawn out to what is really an unwieldy spout at one side, are closely akin to the sauceboats, and like the latter are a distinctively Early Helladic type which is not met in other periods. Again the particular use to which they were put is problematical. Small examples would serve well as a sort of scoop to draw 1 No. 295. Ht. as restored, 0.202 m.; D. front to back, 0.207 m.; side to side, 0.205 m. Brick-red clay changing to buff at surface. 96 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES liquids or meal or grain from larger receptacles, but askoi with the dimensions of No. 35 must have been somewhat ponderous for such purposes, and one may wonder if the long and rather thin, though broad, handles were-sturdy enough. For use as a container the shape also seems awkward, since the overweighting of one side must have made the equilib- rium very insecure, especially when the flattened base had been carelessly finished. 7. Jugs with a short or long neck and spout seem to have been used very generally in the settlement, but no complete example of this class (B II) was recovered. Presumably they were not much different in shape from those of Class B I, though they appear as a rule to have been smaller and somewhat better made. Among the early wares from the deep Ficure 84. Two Dippers, Earty Heviapic Ware, Crass B II trench west of the hill are a few handsome specimens of long necks, covered with a rich red glaze (Pare VIII, No. 9), which could hardly belong to any other shape than a jug. Below the floor of the House of the Snailshells was found a small jug with a squat body; the neck was missing and there was only one fragment of the spout, which, however, indicated that the latter was broad and shallow. The body was coated with thin reddish glaze, slightly mottled in the firing. 8. A good many fragments of necks and handles were found, evidently from large jars — similar to those from Korakou (Korakou, p. 8, Fig. 8), something like the later hydria in shape. Some of them were certainly of impressive size, but all had been shattered, and the fragments were so scattered that no reconstruction was possible. g. Among the mass of sherds from the cuttings brought to light in the west scarp of the hill (which, as we have seen, were probably the bottoms of dothroi), were fragments of at least a dozen large “dippers,” and a few shattered bits of similar vessels occurred in other places about the settlement, especially in the fill under the floors (from which it appears (EE APO TLE RY 97 that we are dealing with a fairly early shape). It is a sort of circular cup of no great size, narrowing gradually to a small rounded bottom; depth ca. 0.05 m. or 0.06 m.; diameter roughly twice that. The wall is much thickened on one side, and from this there springs upward a long massive handle, the extreme end of which is curled back and around to form a loop or ring. Several examples of these handles had a length of ca. 0.24 m. At the loop end they are fairly slender and circular in cross section, but as they approach the rim they grow broader and thicker. These dippers are well made: the biscuit is usually a pinkish buff in color and has been well fired; the surface is covered with glaze, in some cases red, in others black, and always of pretty good quality, often still preserving a fine lustre. Mottling is Ficure 85. Deep Basin, Earty Hetianic Ware, Crass B II, No. 606 common. It was not possible to put together a single specimen complete; two restored in plaster are, however, shown in Figure 84.1 In one of these the handle was altogether missing; in the other the handle is original and belongs to the vase, but does not actually join the preserved part of the cup; the restoration is nevertheless in both cases certain. The ring at the end of the handle was undoubtedly intended for hanging the dipper on a nail or peg, as the rounded bottom would not allow the vessel to be set down conveniently. 10. Basins, deep and shallow, and ranging in size from small examples to huge vessels of great capacity, were common in the settlement, and the best are executed in the com- pletely glazed technique. The choicest of all belong to the earlier style from the dofhroi in Trial Trench I, showing a hard well-fired fabric, finished to a smooth surface, and covered with a thick coat of excellent glaze inside and out. The smoothing of the surface seems to 1 No. 399. Buff clay; good reddish brown glaze, but badly worn off. No. 566. Pinkish buff clay; excellent red glaze, shading to reddish brown at top of handle; patch of black mottling on exterior of cup. 98 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES have been done with a fairly coarse, stiff brush which has left distinct lines; there are no traces of the use of the wheel. The color is red in some cases, frequently black, and mottling is usual. Circular in shape, these vessels are very regularly formed, with sides spreading in a uniform curve from a small base to a thick flat rim which generally has a sharp edge toward the interior. In several examples the bottom is merely flattened as a base, usually resting only on an outer ring, the central part being pushed up or hollowed out. Broad strap handles, forming a very small loop and set close to the rim, are typical; large vessels seem to have had four of them symmetrically spaced. Often there are lugs instead of handles, sometimes apparently more for looks than for use. Occasionally a raised band with thumb Ficure 86. FLarrenep SpHericAt VesseL, Earty Heviapic Ware, Crass BII, No. 33 impressions makes a sort of rope pattern running around the vase just below the rim. No whole example of these basins came to light; the most nearly complete, which has been restored in plaster, had a diameter of ca. 0.55 m. and a height of ca. 0.31 m. (No. 606, Fig. Boia No, 33, Fig. 86. Height, 0.176 m.; diameter, 0.26 m. A flattened spherical vessel, probably a jug of some kind, with a flat base, ca. 0.11 m. in diameter. It is made of greenish buff clay and is well fired. The surface is coated with a thin, lustrous, brownish black glaze, partly worn off in some places, in which the brush marks are very noticeable. The roughness of the interior surface near the top indicates that something was originally attached here; it was probably a spout, but it could not have been of large size. Whatever it was, it was not symmetrically placed at the top of the body, and the effect must have been distinctly lop- ‘No. 606. Ht. 0.31 m.; D, 0.55 m. Clay gray at core, pink at surface; coated with good black glaze, with reddish brown mottling here and there. LARS POET LER 99 sided. The vessel has one small handle, like an ordinary horizontal loop handle, but set vertically, though badly askew, high up on the body. It is a very puzzling piece. Pots of other shapes than those described above certainly occurred in the settlement (pithoi will be discussed in section E below), and some may not have been especially rare; but this list undoubtedly includes all that were common and characteristic, and it may be concluded with the description of a large deep bowl found on the floor of the chief room of the House of the Pithoi. Ficure 87. Bow. wirh Spout, Earty Hetitapic Ware, Crass B II, No. 276 No. 276, Fig. 87.1 Missing: base, much of the lower part, one handle, part of the other, and the tips of the spout; the entire rim is preserved with the exception of a small splinter. This is a capacious circular bowl ca. 0.20 m. high, with a diameter of ca. 0.285 m. The body rises in a slightly swelling curve from the base to a distinctly angular shoulder, then con- tinues in another curve to the neck, where it terminates in a flat broad rim splaying out- ward at a sharp angle. This rim is 0.02 m. wide. Two thick horizontal loop handles are set opposite each other at the angle of the body, and roughly in the axis perpendicular to them there is a relatively small, but broadly flaring spout, bridged by the rim. The spout projects ca. 0.05 m. from the body. Just below the rim and diametrically opposite the spout on the exterior face of the upper zone an applied strip of clay formed a simple decoration; part of it is now missing, but the 1 No. 276. Clay gray at core, brick-red at surface; fairly well levigated. ~~ 100 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES traces of the original attachment are clear. It was merely a sharply curved line the two ends of which were extended in a sweeping curve to right and left, resulting in an ornament very similar to that on the interior of the neck of the spouted jug described above (No. 238, Pate X), though here turned the other way up. There are no rivet heads. Plastic decora- tion of this general type is not rare on Early Helladic pots; many fragments were found bearing remains of similar raised bands. Our bow! is a very well-made vessel. There is a metallic look about the shape, appearing especially in the angular profile and in the flat rim. The walls are pretty uniform and thin for a pot of this size, though there is no evidence of its having been thrown on a wheel; and the rim is remarkably regular. The surface was finished smoothly and covered with good red paint, still lustrous, though some of it has been worn away. As stated above, the period during which this glazed ware continued to be used was certainly an extended one, and a considerable change or development in the fabric may be recognized. The evidence from Zygouries corresponds closely with that from Korakou and seems to be convincing. The earliest material is undoubtedly that from the deep pits south and west of the hill and from the Jothros deposit in the west scarp. Here glazed ware was found associated with polished fabrics, and indeed in a few rare instances vases with a heavily polished exterior had their interior coated with paint. This glaze, asa rule, is a thick, firm coat of rich color, red being much more frequent than black, though red and black mottling is common, and black alone is by no means rare. The glaze is often crackled, but clings tenaciously to the vase; it regularly has a noticeable sheen. Practically no examples of this type were found throughout the settlement. Representative specimens, sherds, are shown in Piate VIII. A second stage is almost surely represented by the material from the trenches dug through the floors in the central part of the hill; that is, in deposits which were certainly laid down before the houses of our settlement were constructed. Here, though much of the ware approaches closely that discovered everywhere among the houses, a significant number of specimens came to light closely similar to the early glazed ware from the pits. They are coated with good uniform paint, generally well preserved and exhibiting a distinct lustre. As examples may be mentioned the high neck, with spout almost in the form of a sauceboat, from beneath the floor of the House of the Pithoi (No. 238, PLare X) and the sauceboat with the mottled pattern from the trench dug through the floor of the House of the Snail- shells (No. §77, Plate VII, No. 2). The glaze on these specimens is more often black than red, though the latter occurs; mottling is still common, but whereas on the earlier ware it is effected by means of black patches on the red ground, the method is now reversed, and the result is produced by red patches on the black ground. A third stage, finally, is exemplified by the pottery found everywhere about the set- tlement, and it is of course to this phase that the bulk of the Early Helladic ware from Zygouries belongs. The average pot is covered with a careless wash, hastily applied in a thin uneven coat, in a color usually an indeterminate brownish black, frequently devoid of almost every trace of lustre. Vases of better quality certainly do occur, and many were found, the glaze of which still merits the name; and that potters were able to achieve extraordinary delicacy in their work is shown by some of the fine specimens of the polished THE POTTERY IOI yellow mottled ware (p. 79), which is unquestionably a contemporary product. But they were apparently very chary of expending their skill on ordinary everyday pots. The partly coated style is also at home in this stage. It might be thought that this class illustrates the development of the glaze technique, supposedly originating first as a band of paint along the rim to facilitate the pouring of liquids from vessels of porous clay, then gradually spreading so as to cover the whole pot. This explanation sounds reasonable enough as a theory. But no example of the partly coated style was found in the deep pits at Zygouries, and it was not abundant under the floors of the houses; in fact it is clearly a late arrival and only becomes abundant in the houses themselves. So it seems much more likely that this ware represents the end of a development rather than the beginning and is actually the penultimate step in the degeneration of the glaze technique (for the final step, see p. 110 below). Certain differences in shape appear to accompany these changes in the character of the glaze. In the deep pits flat bases were the rule for small pots as well as large, though raised bases also occurred. In the deposits beneath the floors the latter had become regular, and in the settlement they are practically universal, though for large pots such as jugs, jars, and askoi, flattened bottoms are still customary. Few sauceboats were represented among the fragments from the deep pits, but in the deposits under the pavements they were common, and on the floors of the houses abundant. Large dippers of a characteristic type were fairly numerous in the deep pits and in the bothro1; a few handles of the same kind came to light among the remains of the second stage, especially from the deeper levels in Trench V, but the shape is practically non-existent in the settlement, where its place is taken by smaller unpainted ladles (p. 108). Shallow bowls seem to have been equally popular in all three phases, but have a much more carefully formed profile in the earliest stage, with a rim rolled over in a stronger and more finished manner. In the earlier ware, in general, the lines of the pot are sharper and seem made with a sure hand; in the later ware they are careless and crude. Metallic-looking strap handles with their edges turned were found in some numbers in the pits, but were rare in the settle- ment. Possibly some of this early ware was manufactured in careful imifation of metallic prototypes; later metal itself perhaps became more common, though we still have very scanty evidence in this field, and there was no longer so great a demand for studious imita- tions. The decline in the glaze technique may merely mean that the ambitious efforts of the handicraftsmen were directed into other channels. In summary, before we go on to the next group of Early Helladic ware, I think we may say we have evidence for three phases in a gradual evolution, or rather deterioration, in the glaze technique. The early red glaze, perhaps through the influence of the mottled style, - gives way to black, and this in turn degenerates into a poor brownish black wash; but there are no sharp dividing lines, and the whole process is one of slow, gradual transition. C. PaTtTrERNED WARE Patterned ware was comparatively rare at Zygouries, but scattered sherds were found here and there throughout the settlement, and a few came from the deposits under the floors of the houses. The greater number were unearthed in the central part of the hill cea se Ficure 88. Earty Hevrapic Parrernep Ware, Crass C I Wo No. 354. Fine pinkish buff clay, buff slip; red paint deepening through brown to black. 3 No, 352. Fine pinkish buff clay, yellowish slip; black glaze thinning to brown. * No, 361. Fine grayish buff clay, greenish buff slip; thin brown glaze (remnants of original black?). ® No. 351. Vine light buff clay and slip; black glaze badly worn. 170 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES No. 348, Fig. 165. Height, 0.215 m.; diameter, 0.184 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.105 m.! No. 355, Fig. 165. Height, 0.220 m.; diameter, 0.189 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.107 m. This specimen has a badly damaged surface.? 2. No. 349, Fig. 166. Height, 0.158 m.; diameter, 0.142 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.086 m.° Figure 166. Two Jucs, rrom Toms XXXIII ‘No. 348. Pinkish buff clay, well refined, smooth buff slip. ? No. 355. Yellowish buff clay, not so well refined; slip of same color. Lower half of one side baked pink and most of surface here has flaked off. ® No. 349. Greenish buff clay, well cleaned, porous texture, slip not smooth. IMENT OO AEAB Hh oa This is a jug of somewhat more delicate fabric, with two vertical flat handles running from the top of the neck to the widest part of the body; in shape it is otherwise similar to the two preceding examples. Toms XXXV In Tomb XXXYV were found ten vases representing eight different shapes; eight bear painted decoration and the other two are plain. Painted Ware 1. Two small stirrup vases may be mentioned first. One (No. 331, Fig. 167; height, 0.091 m.; diameter, 0.125 m.; diameter of base, 0.055 m.) ! is of a squat shape similar to that of No. 356 from Tomb XXXIII. It is decorated with the customary belts of lines, broad and fine, about the body, and has a simple pattern of overlapping chevrons diminishing to mere dashes in the upper circle. Five concentric rings about a central dot mark the top of the disk of the handle. The glaze is brownish black in color and not well preserved. No. 406, Fig. 167. Height, 0.102 m.; diameter, 0.124 m.; diameter of base, 0.055 m.? This pot had been badly crushed and has been reconstituted from a great many fragments. In shape it is not so squat as No. 331, but it bears a decoration of similar type, though the pattern in the upper circle is not the same. This pattern consists of a dotted calyx and the upper end of a curve-headed stamen, being a stylized form of the flowers that appear on the vases from Tell el Amarna (Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, Vol. 1, Part 1, p. xli). On the upper surface of the disk of the handle is a single large dot. The glaze, which is in very bad condition, is of a faded reddish brown color. 2. No. 329, Fig. 168. Height, 0.077 m.; diameter, 0.072 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.051 m.* This is a tiny “amphora” of a favorite Mycenaean shape, with three small horizontal loop handles. The lower part of it is decorated with broad and narrow bands; in the upper zone, in what might be called panels between the handles, are two horizontal rows of dotted circles, with a few extra dots thrown in for good measure here and there in the background. The glaze is brownish black in color, rather worn and not very lustrous. 3. No. 332, Fig. 168. Height, 0.047 m.; diameter, 0.062 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.034 m.‘ A diminutive cylindrical jar with flat base, angular shoulder, and a low neck terminat- ing in a flaring rim. There are two small horizontal loop handles, not symmetrically spaced. The lower part of the pot is encircled by two broad bands; in the upper zone on each side between the handles appears a group of short parallel vertical dashes. The glaze, a brownish black in color, is of inferior quality. 4. No. 330, Fig. 168. Height, 0.052 m.; with handle, 0.081 m.; diameter, 0.085 m.° A small deep cup with rounded bottom, roughly circular mouth, and a curving basket handle made of a flat strip of clay. The body is decorated with five irregular groups of vertical lines, carelessly drawn in poor, thin reddish paint. One group consists of four, two others of five, and two of six lines. Along the top of the handle runs a single wavy band, bordered on each side by a straight line following the edge. 1 No. 331. Fine buff clay and slip. 4 No. 332. Clay and slip as in No. 329. ? No. 406. Fine buff clay and slip. ® No. 330. Fine pink clay, smooth buff slip. ® No. 329. Fine buff clay and slip. 172 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES 5. No. 328, Fig. 169. Height with handle, 0.08 m.; length, 0.142 m., width, 0.061 m.! A small askos of a shape familiar in Mycenaean pottery ("Apy. AeAr., III, 1917, p. 97, Fig. 70; p. 153, Fig. 114, No. 4; Prehistoric Thessaly, p. 207; fahrbuch d. Inst. 22, 1907, p. 213, Figs. 3 a, b, c, and 4; Korakou, p. 53, Fig. 73, 2). Long and narrow with slightly flattened Figure 167. THREE SMALL Pots, rrom Toms XXXV Ficure 169. “Tasie,” Stem or Gostet, AND Askos, From Toms XXXV base, it has a closed top or back, surmounted by a longitudinal basket handle; one end opens in a small mouth or spout, the other terminates almost in a point. The decoration on each side of the vessel consists of a series of curving wavy lines springing from below, which may be a highly conventionalized rendering of a naturalistic grass pattern on early Mycenaean ware. The paint is thin, brownish in color, and is in a poor state of preservation. * No, 328. Fine greenish buff clay, slip almost the same color. THE POTTERY 173 6. No.. 347, Fig. 167. Height, 0.107 m.; with handle, 0.135 m.; diameter, 0.097 m.' A small jug with a high neck, basket handle, and a tubular spout projecting from the body almost in the line of the axis of the handle. It is closely similar to No. 351 from Tomb XX XIII both in shape and decoration, but is far less well preserved. Much of the surface on one side has flaked away and some bits are missing, as the vessel was badly crushed. The paint is of a good quality, red in color. 7. No. 327, Fig. 170. Height, 0.208 m.; diameter, 0.176 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.11 m.” A large broad jug, similar in shape of body to those from Tomb X XXIII; this example has one vertical flat handle running down from the rim to the upper zone, and two smaller Ficure 170. Two Jars rrom Toma XXXV round loop handles set low down one on each side. The decoration is limited merely to broad bands in good reddish brown paint. Unpainted Ware 1. No. 333, Fig. 169.3 The stem and part of the body of a small plain cylix with angular profile, exactly like those of type ¢ from the Potter’s Shop (Fig. 143). The rest of the vase was not in the tomb nor in the dromos, though the greater part of a second similar cylix appeared just outside the door. Apparently both had been deposited here as fragments, one inside the chamber itself, the other in the dromos. 2. No. 326, Fig. 170. Height, 0.259 m.; diameter, 0.205 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.106 m.‘ A large jug with oval body, high neck, rolled rim, and one heavy round handle set vertically. It is almost identical in shape with Nos. 348 and 355 from Tomb XXXIII. In 1 No. 347. Fine buff clay and slip, the latter somewhat powdery. 2 No. 327. Fine buff clay and slip. 3 No. 333. Greenish buff clay and slip. 4No. 326. Rather coarse buff clay, greenish buff slip, once polished. 174 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES all three of these examples the upper end of the handle at the point of attachment shows a slight but awkward projection above the level of the rim itself; this is a feature which these | jugs share with those from the Potter’s Shop. On the evidence of the pottery, these two Chamber Tombs, XXXIII and XXXV, seem to be approximately contemporary. In support of this statement it is hardly necessary to do more than refer to the illustrations, where the vases may be compared. The small stirrup vases from the two graves are quite similar, and the same is true of the plain jugs and the jugs decorated with broad bands of paint. Each tomb, also, seems to represent only a single stage within the Third Late Helladic Period. Skeletal remains were in both cases too scanty to be of much use as evidence, save that this fact itself is an indication that many successive interments had not taken place. The bones in Tomb XXXV almost surely did belong to two skeletons, but in the pottery there is no trace of any real chronological distinction; the vases are all essentially synchronous. Among the types of vessels found, there is certainly a difference between the two tombs, but this may correspond merely to a difference in the character of the persons interred. In Tomb XXXV there was a notable proportion of very small pots; the number of figurines (11) was also unusual, and the objects found included the head of an animal figure and a small table. Perhaps these diminutive offerings indicate the burial of a child. The vessels from Tomb XXXIII, on the other hand, were mainly large, though three figurines and a seal were likewise found here. The pottery is on the whole very good and is not of the latest Mydenses style; no vases of the Granary Class were found (cf. B. S. 4., XXV, pp. 51 ff.). The painted examples are decorated in glaze of excellent quality (though not well preserved in all cases) and the patterns are executed with precision. The best vase is the tall jug from Tomb XXXIII (No. 350, PLate XIX; Fig. 166), which in technique is not far from the finest ware produced in Late Helladic III at the beginning of the period. The other pots do not quite measure up to this standard, but are not of markedly inferior fabric. The small stirrup vases are not separated by a great interval of time from the pots of the same shape found at Gurob (Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, Vol. 1, Part 1, pp. 182 f.). The date of the whole group may thus reasonably be ascribed to the same good intermediate phase in the earlier half of Late Helladic III to which we have assigned the contents of the Potter’s Shop. The plain jugs, as we have seen above, are manifestly a connecting link, and the fragmentary cylixes from Tomb XXXV, which are quite similar to those of type ¢ from the Shop, may not be without significance in corroborating this dating. THE GEOMETRIC PERIOD The Geometric Period is represented by two pots, both found in Tomb XVIII in the cutting of the Peloponnesian Railway. No. 308, Fig. 171. Height, 0.237 m.; diameter, 0.176 m.! A large jug or oinochoé, with broad body, high narrowing neck, and trefoil lip. The top of the handle is missing. The pot stands on a wide flat base with a slightly moulded edge. It is a simply decorated Geometric 'No, 308. Fine yellowish buff clay and slip. THE POTTERY 175 Figure 171. Juc, rrom Toms XVIII, Geometric Periop, No. 308 Deep Bowl, rrom Toms XVIII, Geomerric Periop, No. 309 FIGuRE 172. 176 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES vase, similar in style to the examples from Corinth published by Miss Nichols (4. 7. 4., IX, 1905, pp. 411 ff., Pl. XIIT B 2). It is completely coated with black glaze except for two narrow belts near the base and high up on the body respectively, which each bear two parallel bands, and a rectangular panel on the front of the neck, where in a frame of parallel lines is a simple pattern of three interlocking zigzags. The handle is marked by short hori- zontal dashes. The glaze has a good lustrous black color; it is somewhat worn away in spots and 1s covered here and there by a calcareous accretion very difficult to remove. No. 309, Fig. 172. Height, 0.177 m.; diameter, 0.248 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.223 m.! One handle and part of the adjacent side are missing. A deep bowl or crater of a not un- familiar Geometric type, entirely coated with glaze except for a narrow horizontal panel high up on each side midway between the handles. In this panel we have a pattern of three parallel zigzag lines almost exactly like that on No. 308. The linear frame of the pattern is also almost identical, as are the horizontal strokes on the flat loop handles. The glaze is of good quality, though worn thin in spots, and is mainly black; but bright red patches, brought out in the firing, appear here and there, giving a mottled effect. These two pots, with their rather shiny glaze and simple panelled system of decoration, undoubtedly belong to the local northeast Peloponnesian variety of Geometric Ware. Tue Roman PeEriop Three Roman pots, somewhat incomplete, were found at a high level just inside the wall closing the door of Tomb XX XV; and fragments of two more came to light within the cham- ber, above the thick layer of fallen stereo which had once formed the roof of the tomb. All these vases apparently had been deposited in a grave directly above the Mycenaean tomb at a period antedating the collapse of the chamber; and it must have been on the occasion of this collapse that they were carried down to the level at which they were discovered. The three vases are the following: No. 365, Fig. 173. Height, 0.068 m.; diameter, 0.086 m.? A small jug with broad, flat base, squat body, narrow neck, and a widely splaying lip. The single handle is missing and has been restored in plaster. The pot is of excellent hard fabric with thin walls; the exterior surface, which is coated with thin reddish brown paint, is intentionally roughened and irregular, giving a curious effect. It seems to me (the fragmentary material from within the chamber, which is also somewhat mottled, is more convincing) an attempt to imitate a vase of rather opaque or colored glass. No. 366, Fig. 173.% Height, 0.065 m. More than one half of the vessel is missing. This is a small cup of fine fabric, similar to that of the preceding, but with smooth, even surface. It has a broad, flat base, compressed body, and a grooved vertical handle. The walls are of extraordinary thinness, and the exterior is coated with a uniform glazelike slip of creamy- yellow color. , No. 367, Fig. 173. Height, 0.167 m.; diameter, 0.17 m.; diameter of mouth, ca. 0.093 m.* Part of one side missing. A broad jug or jar of rather coarse finish, but well made and with very thin walls. It has a flat base, concave underneath, spherical body, large high neck * No. 309. Fine brownish buff clay and slip. ® No. 366. Fine pink clay; buff slip. * No. 365. Fine clay, gray at core, pink at surface. * No. 367. Fairly fine clay, grayish black throughout. THE POTTERY 177 FicurE 173. THREE Roman Ports, rrom Doorway or Toma XXXV Ficure 174. THree Roman Pors, rrom SHArr GRAVES So Se ant Sciteasae Figure 175. THREE RoMANn Ports, rrom TILE-GRAVES 178 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES with flaring rim, and one vertical handle (there may have been two originally; the side of the vase is broken away at the decisive point), which rises almost straight from low down on the body and then bends sharply in to the rim. The biscuit is grayish black right through and the surface has the same color; it is not smoothly finished. In the middle of one side is a large dent, which seems to have been made before or during the firing of the pot. The fabric of No. 366 is almost identical with that of a certain fine type of Roman lamp found at Corinth in a context datable to the end of the first and the beginning of the second century, A.D. Along with the lamps were recovered a good many fragments of jars of very thin black ware exactly similar to No. 367, some of them even marked by the same peculiar kind of dent that we have seen on the Jar from the cemetery of Zygouries. Other sherds again show a close kinship with our mottled fabric, imitating glass. In view of this re- markably complete correspondence, we need have no hesitation in assigning the date of these Roman pots to a period about contemporary with the reign of the Emperor Domitian." Although a good many uncovered shaft-graves were opened in the cemetery on the hill of Ambelakia, only three pots were found in them. Of the three one alone is complete; but the vases merit a brief description, since they belong to a period not often treated in archaeo- logical publications. No. 322, Fig. 174. Missing: handle and top of neck. Preserved height, 0.128 m.; diameter, 0.096 m.2 From Tomb XIII. A small jug with oval body, slender neck, and one handle; it has a raised base, concave underneath, with a “button” at its centre. The transition at the shoulder is almost angular. The fabric is coarse, but regular, showing very even wheel- marks; the surface, which bears no slip and no paint, is brick red in color, as is the biscuit. No. 568, Fig. 174. Missing: handle and neck. Preserved height, 0.092 m.; diameter, 0.093 m. From Tomb XIV. This is the lower part of a small broad jug, standing on a relatively large, edged flat base. It is made of coarse buff clay, pinkish toward the surface, but is well turned, and exhibits the same regular wheel-marks observed on No. 322. On the base appear string lines, showing how the pot was separated from the wheel. No. 368, Fig. 174. Height, 0.073 m.; diameter, 0.152 m. From Tomb XVII. A small bowl of coarse but firm fabric, made of dark brick-red clay. It has a small flat base (diameter 0.042 m.), spreading body, and a flanged shoulder, from which the side rises slightly inward to the rim, ending in an outward roll. There are no handles. The vase has regular wheel- marks, but the shape was somewhat distorted during the process of manufacture. The unusual flange at the shoulder is a peculiar feature. The graves hollowed out in the shelter of a vertical ledge of rock and covered by leaning tiles, so many examples of which were found in the cemetery, yielded only three vases. No. 567, Fig. 175. From Tomb VIII. Fragment of a small jar of coarse red clay. It probably had two vertical loop handles, and closely resembled No. 364 in shape; in fabric it is very similar to No. 368, and, like No. 322, it shows great regularity of wheel-marks, which almost give the effect of horizontal bands. No. 364, Fig. 175. Height, 0.13 m.; diameter, 0.131 m.; diameter of mouth, 0.112 m.4 1 I am indebted to Mr. Oscar Broneer for the dating of the Roman lamps at Corinth. * No. 322. Coarse brick-red clay. “Button” at centre of bottom. 5 No. 567. Coarse brick-red clay, gray toward core; very porous. *No. 364. Clay fairly well refined, but porous; gray in color. THE POTTERY “179 From Tomb XI. A small jar of broad shape with a wide mouth; one vertical loop handle is preserved, but there probably was a second corresponding handle on the opposite side of the vase, which is missing. The fractures show a coarse gray biscuit, but the walls are thin and regularly shaped. The rim is made in a technique similar to that of No. 567. There is no slip nor decoration. No. 323, Fig. 175. Height, o.192 m.; diameter, 0.169 m. From Tomb XVa. A well-made squat jug with broad flat base, large body, and rather slender neck; there is one vertical handle which joins the neck a little below the rim. The walls are thick and heavy, but the circular shape is very nearly true. The jug is made of fairly coarse pinkish buff clay, well baked, with a fairly smooth surface, on which the wheel-marks appear with uniformity almost as grooves. A comparison of the vases from the “tile-graves” with those from the shaft-graves — though the material is much less abundant than one might wish — leads to the conclusion that these two types of interment were in contemporaneous use. No. 368 is almost identical with the ware represented by No. 567; and No. 323, though a larger and better example, is closely similar to No. 322. In all cases the character of the fabric and the appearance of the regular wheel-marks are quite the same. The shaft-grave, as such, is certainly a much earlier type of tomb, as remarked above; but if these shafts in the cemetery of Zygouries go back to an older period, they were surely cleared of their original contents and made to serve again at the time when the tile-graves had come into fashion. By the fortunate re- covery of a bronze coin of Constantius Gallus in Tomb XIII, as already stated (p. 71), we are enabled to fix this period as not much later than the middle of the fourth cen- tury A.D. And it is as examples of the latest kind of Roman pottery found in Greece that these poor vases from Zygouries have their chief interest. CHAPTER V MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS of metal, terracotta, bone, and stone found in the course of the excavations. They will be considered by periods in their chronological order. Most of these objects are of Early Helladic date and, though perhaps of small intrinsic value, are important as offering new material for the study of Early Helladic civilization; for this reason they should not be passed over too summarily. The Middle Helladic Period is very scantily represented, and, apart from figurines of terracotta, there are not a great many Late Helladic objects to be recorded. [: this chapter will be included, more or less in the form of a catalogue, all the objects Earty HeEtvapic PEriop Gold 1. Small ornament, probably an earring, found beneath skull No. 5 in Tomb XX. It seems to have been cut from a thin sheet of plain gold, and has the form of a roughly circular disk, ca. 0.014 m. in diameter (PLaTE XX, No. 11). A slender tapering piece of the gold sheet, ending in a point, was left attached at one side; the point has been slightly twisted and bent back to form a wire loop. A hole, ca. 0.003 m. in diameter, has been care- lessly punched through the face of the disk. The wire loop is so small that it could not possibly have been the direct means of fastening the ornament to the ear (if it is an earring); probably a larger loop of bronze or silver, as in the following example, served as the connect- ing link. 2. Similar ornament, clearly for the same purpose, found close beside the jaw-bone and teeth, which were the only surviving remains of skull No. 1 in Tomb VII. The shape is quite different from that of the foregoing, though the technique is the same. Here a piece like an elongated diamond in pattern was cut from a thin sheet of gold, the extreme ends being extended in tapering wires terminating in a sharp point. The whole was then folded along its transverse axis and hammered flat at the fold, while the wires were bent until they overlapped slightly, forming a loop ca. 0.0125 m. in diameter. The ornament (PLaTE XX, No. 7) thus has, as seen from either side, approximately the shape of an isosceles triangle, 0.012 m. high with a base of 0.01 m. It was not attached directly by means of the loop of gold wire, but by means of a second loop of slender silver wire passed through the first. This second loop has a diameter of ca. 0.015 m. and is really a spiral, since the wire makes two complete turns; it has a fairly sharp point at either end. As suggested above, the two ornaments just described are presumably earrings, since each was found in close proximity to a skull and it is difficult to understand what other purpose they could have served. But it must be admitted as strange that in each of the two 180 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 181 graves where they occurred only one example was discovered instead of the two one might expect. It hardly seems likely that Early Helladic custom prescribed the wearing of only one earring; if they are earrings it may be that the mate was in both cases carried away on the occasion of a later burial in the same grave, or of the secondary interment itself. So far as I know, no ornaments of this kind and date have hitherto been found on the mainland of Greece, nor is there any evidence to show that earrings were worn until a much later period. It is not impossible, therefore, that these objects were merely pendant ornaments worn on a string about the neck or otherwise. 3. Three pieces of thin gold wire (PLare XX, No. 14), bent around so that the ends over- lap, and forming in this way three links of a chain. They are of different sizes, the smallest ca. 0.01 m., the largest ca. 0.02 m. in diameter. Only two were found actually attached to- gether, but the largest lay close beside them and undoubtedly belonged to the chain. There is nothing to indicate its specific purpose. It was discovered in the earth above the floor of House W. Silver 1. Well-preserved wire pin (PLATE XX, No. g), 0.112 m. long, from beneath skull No. 5 in Tomb XX. The head was formed by splitting the wire of the pin into two finer wires, each of which was coiled into a spiral, one going to right and one to left, and each making four revolutions. The spirals are ca. 0.01 m. in diameter. The pin still has an extremely sharp point. It is identical in type with certain pins in the National Museum at Athens, found by Tsountas in Early Cycladic tombs on the island of Syra (Ed. ’Apy., 1899, Pl. 10, No. 15). fp ee 2. Small disk, 0.0165 m. in diameter, of very thin silver (Fig. ( y 176). It is broken at one side, where there seems to have been a \Q a / projection ca. 0.006 m. wide. The disk bore a simple decoration, WE concerning which it is not possible to say much on account of the — Freure 176. SMALL Sttver bad state of preservation; it seems to have been executed in low vee a gine apa ane relief (repoussé technique) and three parallel lines following the Toms VII curve of the circumference are faintly visible. The object, which was found in Tomb VII, was perhaps a pendant or an earring resembling somewhat the example in gold, but without the hole through the disk. 3. A few fragments of badly oxidized silver were found in each of the three Early Helladic graves. The largest, from Tomb XX, measures only 0.026 m. by 0.022 m. and is a remnant of a very thin sheet of metal. It once bore a design made by impressed dots, being almost exactly similar in technique to the silver diadem from Chalandriane in Syra (E¢. ’Apy., 1899, Pl. 10, No. 1). Unfortunately our fragment is too small and in too ruinous a condition to permit the design to be recognized. A still smaller fragment, from Tomb VII, measuring only 0.018 m. by 0.017 m., seems originally to have borne some kind of impressed design, the nature of which has been totally lost. The bits from Tomb XVI, finally, were barely recog- nizable as silver. . Though in a wretched state of preservation, these fragments are nevertheless significant and worthy of especial notice; for they can hardly be the remains of anything other than 182 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES diadems like those found on Amorgos and Syra, and thus constitute an unmistakable con- necting link with the Cyclades. Bronze 1. The well-preserved blade of a dagger, 0.168 m. long, found just south of House Y among the small pebbles and débris which apparently formed the pavement of a narrow street. The dagger (PLarr XX, No. 25) is of the short, broad-hilted type, tapering in a double curve to the point. At the widest part of the hilt it measures 0.052 m. across. Four symmetrically placed rivets, which were found in their original position, had once fastened the handle to the haft. The holes for the rivets seem rather carelessly punched; one of them was cut too near the edge of the blade and has been worn or broken through. The handle, no traces of which were found, was probably made of wood; if the length of the rivets may be taken as a criterion, it was at least 0.013 m. thick. A slightly raised rib runs down the middle of the blade on each side, not markedly ridged, but rather smoothly rounded off. Both edges of the blade are well-sharpened, and the weapon must have been a dangerous one. There is no decoration. A comparison of the graceful curving lines of this dagger with the more elongated and more nearly straight shapes familiar from Early Cycladic tombs (E¢. ’Apy., 1898, Pl. 12), which also have much more sharply ridged blades, suggests that we have here a somewhat more advanced type; indeed it bears a striking resemblance to a dagger recently found in a Middle Helladic tomb at the Argive Heraeum. The example from Zygouries, coming from an undisturbed context clearly contemporary with the settlement, presumably belongs to a time near the end of the Early Helladic Period, which was certainly long enough to allow a good deal of development and progress. The affinity of this dagger with the Cycladic type is, however, unmistakable; and quantities of similar daggers, including one almost an exact counterpart, have been found in the tholos tombs of the Mesara plain in Crete (Xanthoudides, The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara, P\. LV, especially No. 1870). 2. A small “spatula” (PLare XX, No. 10), found ca. 0.25 m. southeast of skull No. 5 in Tomb XX. It is 0.05 m. long and increases in width from 0.021 m. at the handle end to 0.023 m. at the tip. It is slightly curved and concave — probably not due to chance — which with the rounded end gives it almost a spoonlike shape. Apparently some 0.03 m. of the total length was occupied by a handle — presumably of wood, since all traces of it have disappeared — fastened by two small bronze rivets, which are still preserved in place. These rivets are 0.015 m. apart and are set somewhat to one side of the long axis of the haft. There are no traces of weathering or wearing to indicate whether or not the handle was of the peculiar pointed shape so well represented from the Cyclades; but the implement itself is obviously very closely related to the spatulae recovered by Tsountas in such numbers from the Early Cycladic graves at Chalandriane (Ed. ’Apy., 1899, Pl. 10, Nos. 30 to 34). Tsountas suggests that these implements were used especially by women in sonie process of personal adornment (iéid., pp. 102 f.); perhaps they were of service in the preparation of the powder and paint for tattooing. 3. A similar implement, flat and thin, in a rather poor state of preservation (PLATE XX MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 183 No. 22), found in the Early Helladic stratum in Trench V; length, 0.047 m.; greatest width, 0.015 m. One end has two small holes close together for rivets, by which a handle was at- tached; the other end is slightly rounded. The condition of the metal here does not allow it to be determined with certainty whether or not this is the original end; in any case the bronze is so thin that the implement could not well have been much longer. It was un- doubtedly a spatula like that described above. 4. Fragment of a pair of tweezers from Trench V (PLare XX, No. 19). One complete side and the upper part of the other are preserved; length 0.073 m. It was made of a thin strip of bronze, 0.007 m. wide at the lower end and narrowing slightly toward the top; this was bent sharply over at the middle, the two ends being brought fairly close together so that they could be used for gripping. The one preserved end is slightly rounded; the actual tip may have been lost through corrosion. The implement is quite plain, without embellish- ment other than an outward wavy curve of the sides near the upper end. Tweezers of the same general type, though not of exactly the same shape, have been found in numbers in Early Cycladic graves (Ed. ’Apy., 1898, Pl. 12, No. 4; 1899, Pl. 10, Nos. 40, 41, 42), in Early Minoan tombs (Seager, Mochlos, pp. 73 f., Fig. 44, Phare XIX, 28, 33; Xanthou- dides, The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara, p. 28), and in the early cemetery discovered near Chalcis in Euboea ({LavaBacuneiov, epi trav év EiSoia ’Apyatwv Tadwr, pp. 6 and 8, Figs. 4 and 11, Pl. VIII, No. 3); they were probably used as toilet implements for the removal of hair. Similar tweezers recovered from a shaft grave of Middle Helladic date and from a late Mycenaean chamber tomb at-the Argive Heraeum (4. 7. 4., XXIX, 1925, pp. 420, 425), from the First Shaft Grave at Mycenae and from the cemetery of Zafer Papoura (Evans, Prehistoric Tombs, p. 115) seem to show that the custom was generally continued to a much later date. 5. An awl (PLatre XX, No. 18), found among the pebbles forming the floor of the west room in the House of the Dagger. It is rectangular in cross section, 0.107 m. long and 0.004 m. thick at its broadest point. It tapers gradually from its point of greatest thickness, reaching a sharp tip at one end at a distance of 0.082 m., and diminishing abruptly to a point at the other end. This latter end was undoubtedly inserted into the corresponding socket of a handle by which the awl could be held and manipulated. The handle may have been made of wood, in which case the sharp upper end of the awl could have been driven firmly into it. Well-made serviceable implements of exactly the same kind were found by Tsountas in the cemetery of Chalandriane (E¢. ’Apy., 1899, Pl. 10, Nos. g and 12). 6. Slender wire pin, 0.073 m. long, broken into three fragments, with head missing. Found under skull No. 2 in Tomb XVI. 7. Substantial wire pin, o.0og m. long, broken into two pieces and point missing (PLATE XX, No. 8); from Tomb XX. It has a heavy, almost half spherical head, ca. 0.014 m. in diameter and without decoration, of a shape not exactly duplicated in the Cycladic collec- tion in the National Museum at Athens. 8. Part of a wire pin, 0.066 m. long, broken into three fragments; the head and the tip are both missing. This pin was found in the south part of Tomb VII. g. Wire pin in excellent state of preservation (PLATE XX, No. 17) from House A. From the head to its sharp tip it measures 0.103 m. The head is small (ca. 0.006 m. in diameter) 184 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES and has a conical top, resembling fairly closely an example found by Tsountas at Chalan- driane (Ed. ’Apy., 1899, Pl. 10, No. 19). 10. Wire pin, well preserved except for the tip, which is missing (PLarE XX, No. 16). It is 0.087 m. long and has a small, almost spherical or bead-shaped head, ca. 0.007 m. in diameter, below which is a raised ring. It was found in House D. 11, Similar pin from the same place; the head is missing. Length 0.09 m.; slightly bent in the middle. 12. Two fragments of similar pins from the same house, D; one is 0.067 m. long, the other, 0.034 m. 13. Fragment of a pin from House Y, of very slender wire; length, 0.075 m.; the point is preserved, but the head is missing. 14. Piece of flat wire, ca. 0.24 m. long, and 2 mm. wide, from House A. Uneven in shape and twisted; the ends are bent back to meet, forming a narrow loop. The wire seems to be cut from a thin sheet of bronze and the technique thus resembles that of the two gold earrings described above. 15. Solid flat implement from House W, perhaps a chisel (PLatE XX, No. 21); length, 0.089 m., thickness, 0.008 m.; width at blunt end, 0.015 m.; at middle, 0.017 m., from which it tapers almost to a point (the tip is missing). The edges are slightly rounded, the sides flat; the blunt end looks like a break. It is a well-made instrument, perhaps a pointed chisel of some kind. 16. A sturdy nail found on the Early Helladic floor in Trench V should be mentioned here. It is hand forged, roughly pentagonal in cross section, with a flat, almost square head (Plate XX, No. 20). The point is not very sharp. 17. A ring made of a very thin flat band of bronze, 0.004 m. wide; from the upper inter- ment in Tomb VII. The ring, which seems to have been quite without decoration, is now in fragments, too badly corroded to be mended. As remarked above, the date of this interment is not certain, but it probably falls in the Early Helladic Period. 18. Fragment of very thin bronze, apparently the slender handle of an ornament or im- plement, which broadens into a circular disk at the end. The disk, which is pierced by a small hole, is 0.095 m. in diameter; it bears no decoration. The shape of the ornament itself cannot be determined. Length 0.046 m.; from Tomb XXIII. Lead In House U was found a thick flat lump of lead of irregular outline; it does not seem to have served any special purpose in its present form, but was probably a reserve supply from which a small quantity could be cut from time to time when needed. It weighs 1265 grammes. Pithos No. 4, found in the bed of the stream mentioned above, had, as already remarked, a small hole in its bottom, which was found closed by means of a stopper of lead. This stopper is not at all regular in shape, but fitted the opening and had doubtless been poured into place. Several fragments of lead clamps by which broken vases had been mended came to light here and there about the settlement. The method of repair is the same as that em- MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 185 ployed in Mycenaean times, and consisted in boring two neat holes in the adjoining frag- ments and running lead through them, held together by a substantial connection both on the interior and the exterior of the pot. Terracotta 1. Figurine, 0.075 m. high, modelled in a rude primitive style (PLare XXI, No. 1). The head is flat on top! and almost triangular in shape, as seen from above; its back is rounded off and its front pinched out to form a long projecting face and nose. The neck is relatively long; below it an irregular protuberance on each side indicates no doubt the arms, the right being larger than the left. No legs are distinguished; the lower part of the figurine is merely a solid stem which widens toward the bottom to rest on a slightly hollowed base. No attempt is made to show the breasts, and there is no indication of sex. But a narrow strip of clay, now missing, seems originally to have been applied on the back, extending from the top of the head to the middle of the back, clearly a plastic rendering of a long braid of hair; and it accordingly seems certain that the intention was to represent a female figure. The head is finished with more attention than the rest of the body, details being delineated in a glaze paint in the style of Early Helladic patterned ware. The paint is mainly reddish brown in color, but exhibits the tendency toward mottling so common in the pottery of the period. The eyes are huge and almond shaped, each having a tiny pupil marked by a dot. A series of short parallel strokes above each eye, continued on the flat top of the head, may be meant to depict eyelashes or eyebrows. The hair is painted on the top of the head and down the back, the plastic braid having also apparently been coated with glaze. The paint now shows very little lustre, but it has the crackled surface typical of Early Helladic glaze badly deteriorated. The figurine was found in a trench dug through the floor of the House - of the Snailshells, at a depth of 1.46 m. below the floor, in a pure, undisturbed Early Hel- ladic deposit; it must accordingly be assigned to the middle stage of the Early Helladic Period. Our illustration shows two views: one from the left side and above, the other from the front and above. This figurine, though crude and primitive, is important and deserves the space given here to its description, for it seems to be the first example of its date and kind to be pub- lished. Dr. K. Miller informs me that fragments of similar figurines have been found at Tiryns, but, so far as I know, no complete specimen is available from any other site. It therefore offers us the first adequate evidence for the type of terracotta figurines in use dur- ing the Early Helladic Period. This type proves to be totally different from that of the contemporary marble figures; indeed it bears a rather astonishing general likeness (es- pecially noticeable in the pinched-out face and the plastic braid of hair) to the ordinary figurines so common in Late Helladic III. These latter seem to have no easily recognizable ancestors in Minoan Crete and are not indeed especially numerous on the island; they appear rather to belong to that mysterious element which raised the Minoized civilization of the mainland to its greatest height of political power in the fourteenth century B.c: Is is utterly impossible that these late Mycenaean figurines represent the reémergence of a persistent underlying native type and that their real ancestors are to be sought in the 1 Our illustration does not show clearly the flatness of the head, since the drawing gives a view from slightly above. 186 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Early Helladic Period in figures such as the one under discussion? The Early Helladic population was almost surely not exterminated during the Middle Helladic invasion; as a subject people it may possibly have kept alive coroplastic traditions, as well as others of a religious nature, which came later to be incorporated among the practices and beliefs of the amalgamated stock. In view of the total absence of any such figurines among the re- mains of the Middle Helladic Period which have become known up to the present time, it certainly seems bold to venture such a theory based on the discovery of a single figurine; but, pending further discoveries in this field, the explanation suggested above need not be regarded as impossible. 2. Head of an animal with a long neck (PLare XXI, No. 3). The horns are broken away, and the whole body of the animal from just below the neck is missing. The fragment is 0.048 m. high and 0.033 m. long, this latter being the length of the head. It is made of light buff clay, not especially well purified, but baked fairly hard, and finished with a partial coat of glaze in the style of the pottery of Group B. The color is pale red. The front part of the head and the snout were not painted, but there is a ring around each eye, and on the top of the head and the neck a thicker coat than elsewhere may indicate shaggy hair. The eyes are deeply punched round holes, each with a large raised pupil in it, which contributes not a little to the realistic effect. The snout is long and tapering, but ends in a flat surface. On the whole a rather casual piece of work, it nevertheless suggests that Early Helladic modellers were not without ability and some keenness of observation. The head was found in the southeastern corner of the east room or court of House U. 3. Body of a small animal in a style much inferior to the foregoing. The head and all four legs are missing. The modelling is of the crudest, and the surface bears no trace of paint. The figure may perhaps be meant for that of a dog. It was found in the earth filling the southernmost pithos in the row against the back wall of the large room in the House of the Pithoi. Extreme length of fragment, 0.035 m.; height, 0.023 m.; thickness, 0.015 m. 4. Fragment of the forepart of a bird (PLare XXI, No. 2), found in Trench V at a depth of 1.25 m., just beneath the floor of an Early Helladic house. It may be from an unusual pot in the shape of a bird, since the base of what may have been a large handle appears just behind the neck; this must have been a fairly high, curved basket-handle. But as no trace of a mouth appears to make the identification as a vase certain, the fragment is in- cluded here among the miscellaneous objects of terracotta. It is made of coarse buff clay, not fired to a high degree of hardness. The surface is covered with a coat of glaze of varying thickness in the usual poor style of the later glazed ware, Group B II. It is mainly brown and brownish black in color, depending on the thickness of the glaze, but a splotch of red on the breast betrays the style of mottled ware. In spite of the absence of the beak, the fragmentary condition, and the rather poor technique, the bird’s head has a very naturalistic appearance. This may be due in part to the eyes, which are made of circular peice of clay, applied plastically on each side of the head. 5. Conical object, 0.073 m. high, with a lower diameter of 0.026 m. and a diameter at the top of ca. 0.012 m. (No. 2, Fig. 177; PLare XXI, No. g.) The surface of the base is slightly concave; in the top is a hole g mm. in diameter, which diminishes almost to a point at its bottom, 0.01 m. deep. On opposite sides of the cone, at a distance of 0.015 m. from the MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 187 lower end, are two broad sturdy lugs projecting ca. 0.01 m. The surface is covered with a smooth durable slip, reddish brown in color, which is brilliantly burnished, except on the under side of the lugs and at the concave centre of the base; the technique is similar to that of the pottery of Group A II. Much effort seems to have been spent on refining the shape which has been meticulously pared down with some delicate implement. It was found in House A. Six other specimens of the same type came to light at Zygouries and will be briefly described in the following paragraphs. 6. No. 3, Fig. 177 (found in House D). Height, 0.091 m.; diameter at bottom, 0.039 m.; at top, 0.016 m. The base is flat; in the top is a hole, 0.012 m. in diameter and 0.027 m. deep, Ficure 177. Seven Ficurines (?) or Terracotra, Earty Hettapic Periop which grows smaller as it deepens. The lugs, at a height of 0.027 m. from the base, are relatively smaller than on the preceding example. The surface, buff in color, seems originally to have been slipped and polished, but most of the slip has worn off, and marks of the polish- ing may be seen only in zones here and there. No trace of paring is visible. 7. No. 4, Fig. 177 (found in House D). Height, 0.073 m.; diameter at bottom, 0.028 m.; at top, 0.011 m. The base is flat, but not made exactly at right angles to the vertical axis, in consequence of which the cone stands with a decided list. The hole in the top is 0.042 m. deep. The lugs are somewhat smaller in proportion than in the two preceding examples. On account of the slanting base one lug is slightly higher than the other. The surface, buff in color, now has no slip; it was once polished, but most of the traces of the polishing have worn away together with all the edges. 8. No. 195, Fig. 177. Fragment from House W. Preserved height, 0.068 m.; diameter of the flat base, 0.035 m.; the top is broken away. The lugs are set at a height of 0.02 m.; both lack their tip. The buff surface is slipped and polished; it shows no traces of paring. g. No. 196, Fig. 177. Fragment, much battered, from the House of the Dagger. Upper part missing; in the fracture may be seen traces of the hole in the top which must have been at least 0.03 m. deep. Diameter of the flat base, ca. 0.035 m.; the body swells out a little just above the base. The lugs, which are broken away, were set one at a height of 0.022 m., the other at 0.025 m. The surface, which seems to have a light reddish brown slip, 188 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES was polished in zones, the zone containing the lugs being left unpolished. There is no trace of paring. The biscuit, as may be seen in the break, shows a coarse, unrefined clay containing large foreign substances and has not been especially well fired. The thickness of the cone must have made thorough baking under primitive conditions difficult. 10. No. 197, Fig. 177. A somewhat battered example from the House of the Dagger. Height, 0.084 m.; lower diameter, 0.045 m.; upper (damaged), ca. 0.021 m. The bottom is flat; the hole in the top is large (0.016 m. in diameter) and deep (0.042 m.). The lugs in this case too are unsymmetrically placed, one being distinctly higher than the other; they were fairly large, but both have been broken. The surface, which is dark buff in tone, seems to have no slip. It was originally polished, including the base and the under side of the lugs; most of the polishing was done in a horizontal direction around the cone, but the zone containing the lugs was rubbed vertically. 11. Fig. 177, No. 237; from the deep trench dug through the floor of the House of the Snailshells. Height, 0.075 m.; lower diameter, 0.028 m.; upper, ca. 0.012 m. The base is slightly concave. The hole in the top is rather small, but has a depth of 0.028 m. The lugs, which are much damaged, are set at a height of 0.021 m. above the base. Fully half of the original surface has been eaten away; only at one or two spots, where it remains, are faint traces of polishing discernible. The seven curious objects described in the foregoing list are not peculiar to Zygouries; similar objects have been found at other Early Helladic sites in the Peloponnesus. But, so far as I know, no examples have hitherto been published, and it has therefore seemed worth while to describe them in detail in the hope of thereby obtaining assistance in their interpre- tation. For it must be admitted that they still remain an unsolved puzzle to me. From the fact that some of the lugs are polished on the side toward the small end of the cone and left unpolished on their other side, it seems certain that the objects stood on their broader end; this position has therefore been assumed in the description and 1s shown in the illustrations. The suggestion that they are “stoppers” for some kind of a jug or bottle, which is what the shape at first glance might lead one to think, is thus ruled out; as a matter of fact, not a single example of a vessel with the right kind of mouth and neck to receive such a stopper was found during the excavations. In every case (with the exception of No. 195, which is broken) we have seen a fairly deep hole in the top of the cone, into which something surely must have been set or fitted. On the analogy of certain figurines found in Thessaly, the body of which was made of terra- cotta and the head of a pointed stone inserted into a prepared socket in the torso (Pre- historic Thessaly, pp. 41, 49, Fig. 25) I venture to suggest that these seven conical objects from Zygouries also are figurines, perhaps descended from a very primitive type. The pro- jecting lugs might then be a crude rendering of the arms. No heads of stone were found, it is true, but they may have been made of some other, perhaps perishable, material, such as wood or bone or ivory. It may be objected that the primitive but unmistakably anthro- pomorphic figurine described above (p. 185) presents a serious difficulty in the way of the suggested explanation; for it might seem rather unlikely that two types so utterly different should exist side by side. But in the Cyclades, though the amorphous figures no doubt are derived from a much earlier prototype than the anthropomorphic, they nevertheless con- MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 189 tinued to be made for a very long period, and in the later phase of Early Cycladic civilization, as represented at Chalandriane in Syra, the two types clearly occur contemporaneously. So here at Zygouries the possibility of the existence of two types in the same period must be admitted. It is now practically certain that the Peloponnesus was inhabited in the neolithic period by a race quite different from the Early Helladic people to whom must be attributed the introduction of the new metal at the beginning of the Bronze Age. Is it not possible that the survivors of this neolithic race, later absorbed into the Early Helladic stock, kept alive traditions and types of their own alongside the new? oe ee aN I 2 FicureE 178. Symspo.s on Seat or TERRACOTTA, ENLARGED 12. A “button seal” from House Y (PLate XXI, No. 4); height, 0.025 m.; diameter of face, 0.034 m. It consists of a flat, disk-like portion below, on which is the circular face of the stamp, surmounted by a solid rounded top of slightly smaller diameter. A small hole is neatly bored horizontally through this upper part, no doubt for a string by which the signet could be carried. The seal is on the whole rather clumsily made, as if whittled down here and there by a knife; its surface, of a dirty brown color, is not smoothly finished, though it seems to have been lightly polished. A design rudely executed in incised technique occupies the face of the seal. It consists of a circle divided into quarters by two crossing lines; the ends of the latter do not reach the circumference, but terminate in three cases in a sort of double closed scroll, while the fourth ends against an open curved line. This differentiation, which is not very strongly indicated, may perhaps mark the top or the bottom of the seal. In each quarter is a crudely formed sign, all four of which are different from one another. Three are easy to distinguish, but the fourth is difficult, since it has come into conflict with the scroll. These four signs, shown in Figure 178 at an enlarged scale, may possibly be symbols of a pictographic character intended to convey a meaning. No. 4, by an effort of the imagina- tion, might be interpreted as an attempt to represent a human figure; Nos. 2 and 3 are also conceivably pictorial; but I can make nothing of No. 1. This stamp, dating from the Early Helladic Period, is apparently the first of its kind to be found on the mainland of Greece; at any rate no other published example is known to me. Its nearest analogies must be sought in Crete, among the button seals from the Early Minoan tombs in the Mesara plain. On a terracotta seal from Hagios Onouphrios (Scripta Minoa, I, p. 117, Fig. 50) a somewhat similar arrangement of a quartered circle appears; here too are symbols in the four quarters, though even more primitive in appearance and less sus- ceptible of interpretation. I can find no other very close parallel, but it seems clear that our seal is not far removed from this Early Minoan group. a 190 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES When the evidence is so scanty it would be venturesome indeed to assert on the basis of this single seal that writing, even of the most primitive sort, was known in Early Helladic times in the Peloponnesus. Even if it could be shown that the symbols on this seal have meaning, we cannot be certain that it is a native product and not an importation from abroad. An amulet might travel far. Until fresh discoveries make new material and evi- dence available, it seems more prudent to leave this problem open. 13. Some twenty-five whorls or weights of terracotta were found; they differ considerably in size and present several varieties of shape, as may be seen from the selection illustrated in Figure 179. The commonest type has a broad, flat base, and sides rising at first almost vertically, then curving inward to a fairly large top. The shape, a sort of plump cone, gives an effect of heaviness quite different from the lightness of the Mycenaean examples with Ficure 179. Spoots AnD WeIcHTS oF TERRACOTTA, Earty HeELiapic PER‘op their more slender dimensions and almost straight or concave line of profile. In all cases the base has a diameter greater than the height of the whorl. The smallest specimen is 0.025 m. high, with a base 0.038 m. wide; the corresponding measurements of the largest are: height, 0.043 m.; diameter of base, 0.051 m. These whorls are regularly pierced with a large vertical hole. The surface has usually been brought to a fairly smooth finish, but bears neither paint nor polish. Another variety has a very low, squat shape with the same kind of convex line of profile. A typical specimen measures 0.024 m. in height and 0.053 m. in diameter. An extremely crude example, the only one of the sort found (Fig. 179, No. 14) has a concave line of profile; height, 0.035 m.; diameter of base, 0.053 m. 14. Two curious wheels or disks came to light, the purpose of which is not clear to me (Fig. 179, Nos. g and 15). One has a diameter of 0.048 m. and is only 1 cm. thick; it has a sort of projecting “hub” on each side, perhaps accidentally formed when the large hole was carelessly punched through the centre of the disk. The second, with a diameter of 0.058 m.,1s thinner than the first and has a fairly sharp edge all around. On one side is a rough protuberance, clearly caused by the piercing of the hole through the centre. 15. Among the remaining objects of terracotta are two small spool-shaped objects with slightly concave ends (Fig. 179, Nos. 4 and 5). Though made of coarse clay and not of care- ful manufacture, they are finished in the glaze-technique with a reddish brown wash, some- MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS IgI what mottled in the baking. One is 0.042 m. long and 0.028 m. thick at the end; the otheris slightly smaller and of more slender proportions. Neither is pierced. 16. A large block of terracotta, somewhat irregular in shape (Fig. 179, No. 12). Length, 0.077 m.; width, 0.075 m.; thickness, 0.057 m. The sides are all flattened except one, which is slightly convex. The block is pierced longitudinally by two holes, 0.042 m. apart, which run near and parallel to the side opposite the convex face. The clay is not at all well puri- fied, but the surfaces were smoothly finished and seem originally to have been coated with good reddish brown glaze; it has been worn away, leaving only scanty traces. I do not under- stand the use of this object unless it is a weight of some kind. 17. A crudely made cylinder of unbaked clay may also be mentioned here; it is exactly like those found at Korakou (Korakou, p. 104, Fig. 129, Nos. 4 and 5). Length, 0.09 m.; diameter, 0.06 m. The cylinder is pierced longitudinally by two holes, 0.022 m. apart from centre to centre. This object too seems to have been a weight of some sort. Bone 1. A handle, probably belonging to a knife or dagger of small size (PLarE XXI, No. 5). It 1s made of fine-grained bone in the form of a slightly tapering cylinder, hollowed out at its lower end for the fitting of the haft of the implement, and with a round knob at its upper end. The handle is 0.047 m. long, of which 0.015 m. belongs to the knob; the latter is a flattened sphere, since its transverse diameter is ca. 0.02 m. The lower end of the handle containing the socket has a diameter of 0.0165 m. From the careful, delicate character of the cutting, it seems clear that this handle must have been fitted to an instrument of some value, but there is no clue to its exact nature. The socket for the haft is approximately circular, just short of 0.01 m. in diameter; two small holes opposite each other, bored trans- versely through the lower end of the handle, show that the haft was fastened by means of a single pin or nail. The handle was found on the floor of the House of the Pithoi. 2. Pommel from the end of the handle of a dagger or small sword (Fig. 180). Length, 0.039 m.; height, 0.02 m.; thickness, 0.013 m. The shape is roughly that of a broad cres- cent; in the centre of the concave side 1s a hole, ca. 0.0075 m. in diameter, evidently the socket meant to receive the end of the handle. This latter was fastened by means of a nail or rivet passed through a transverse hole from each side. The surface of the pommel was smoothly polished; it is now in bad condition, having apparently suffered from fire, which has given it its blackened color and caused it to crack and split. The damage has now been repaired and the material subjected to a hardening process by E. Gilli¢ron. In work- eit pew ee Or rek" manship this piece is very similar to the preceding example. — Sceprre, Earty Heiapic Pertop 3. Three whorls or buttons of squat conoid shape (Fig. 181, Nos. 1-3), made of ordinary bone, were found. No. 3, only 0.008 m. high and 0.019 m. in diameter, with a large vertical hole through its centre, is from Tomb XX. No. 2, from House U, is a little larger; the hole through it was apparently bored half way from each side. The 192 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES largest example, No. 1, from Trench VI, is 0.022 m. high and has a diameter of 0.055 m.; it also has a hole bored from both directions. 4. A thin bone disk, from House U, is shown in Figure 181, No. 4. It looks like a narrow horizontal slice from a whorl or button similar to the preceding; the large hole through it is not accurately centred. Diameter, 0.044 m.; thickness, 0.005 m. 5. Bone pins were fairly common in the settlement, for no fewer than fifteen examples were recovered, though for the most part in a fragmentary condition. Thirteen are of 8 =——bD = a» 9g 11 Ficure 181. Miscettangeous Opjecrs or Bone, Earty Hewtapic Periop a broad flat type, two are half round in section; typical specimens are shown in Figure 181, ANOg ce a ce.00), 1: No. 7, which is complete, measures 0.102 m. in length, 0.0135 m. in greatest width. It is pointed at both ends, but more slender and sharper at one extremity than at the other. One side is slightly convex and has a polished surface; the other, which is the marrow side of the bone, is correspondingly concave and rough. The color is grayish brown. The pin is not pierced. No. 8, which is similar to the preceding in technique and color, is pointed at one end and rounded at the other. Part of the rounded end is broken away, and the extreme tip is also missing. Preserved length, 0.105 m.; width, 0.019 m. No. ¢ has lost its tip; the other end, which is cut off obliquely, is original. The color is dark gray, and the technique is like that of the two just described. Preserved length, 0.101 m.; width, 0.014 m. No. 11 is a fragment of a pin of a slightly different type. It is not flat in shape, but rounded on one side, hollow on the other, being made from one half of a small bone, split longitudinally. Length, 0.04 m.; width, o.o11 m. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 193 No. 9 is a complete example of this second type. It is sharp at one end, blunt at the other, and polished on both sides. Length, 0.046 m.; width, 0.006 m. No. 6, of which two fragments are preserved, the middle part missing, seems to have been a broad flat implement, not exactly a pin. One end is rounded (most of it missing), the other tapers, but not to a sharp point. Original length, probably not less than 0.15 m.; width, 0.025 m. Figure 182. Preces or Horn, rroM AntLers OF Rep Derr, Earty HE ttapic Periop No. 10 in the same figure is a small slender spool, ridged at each end and with a deep groove around the middle. It is smoothly polished. Length, 0.04 m.; greatest thickness, 0.005 m. Horn A few fragments of horn were discovered here and there about the settlement, but the material does not appear to have been excessively common. The best piece (Fig. 182, from House D) is the lower part of an antler of a red deer, with the two lowest branches still complete. The upper part of the horn has been cut away, or perhaps sawn, leaving a straight cut. From its base to the tip of the first branch, this antler measures 0.31 m. It was no doubt intended for use in smaller pieces to make handles of knives or sockets for celts or for some 194 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES other similar purpose. In the same figure is shown a fragment of a similar antler, which has been cut off near the root. Boars’ tusks occurred fairly plentifully everywhere. They are chiefly very small in size and unworked; fifteen examples of this kind were found in the House of the Dagger alone. Whether they were used as implements of some sort or are merely the remnants of food eaten in the house 1s not certain; perhaps both explanations are correct. Animal bones were encountered in almost all the trenches, usually in small fragments which had apparently been cracked so that the marrow could be extracted. Sheep or goats and swine were certainly represented, and there were not a few huge teeth of larger animals. The quantity of such bones found in the street and the alley shows clearly where the rubbish from the houses was thrown. Stone 1. Fragment of a female figurine of the usual Cycladic type (Fig. 183). It is made of island marble, rather thin and flat. The head is missing, also the right shoulder and the lower part of the body from the waist down; the left shoulder and arm are likewise damaged. Height, 0.10 m.; width, 0.087 m.; thickness, ca. 0.02 m. The arms, which in their upper part are marked off from the body on either side by a narrow groove, are folded across the abdomen, the left above the right. No hands are indicated, the arms merely tapering to a narrow blunt end. Below the arms appears a fairly deep horizontal line, which, near the left hip, meets a similar line coming obliquely from below; there was here no doubt a triangle similar to that on so many Cycladic figurines.! Above the fracture at the back appears the upper end of the groove by which the legs were differentiated. The fragment was found before the excavations began by Dr. L. M. Prindle, who observed it lying on the surface ecu been tos of the ground near the centre of the hill at a point where Ficurine or Cyctapic Type Trench VI was later dug. No further example came to light during the excavations. Marble figurines of the Cycladic type hitherto discovered on the mainland, in Southern Greece at least, are extremely rare, and the battered fragment from Zygouries acquires importance from that fact. Two specimens said to be from Sunium are exhibited in the National Museum at Athens; but the other figures of marble which have come to light in Attica and the Peloponnesus show no Cycladic connection whatsoever; on the contrary they are evidently very closely related to the steatopygous type so well represented among the neolithic remains in Thessaly. Our specimen from Zygouries, as appears indeed from its material, is without doubt an imported article, brought over from one of the islands; and it offers very significant evidence of the intercourse which must have been carried on be- tween eastern Peloponnesus and the Aegean during the Early Helladic Period. ‘Cf. Tsountas, Ed. ’Apx., 1898, p. 196, Pl. 10, 1. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 195 2. Fragment of a small dish or shallow bowl of rather fine-grained white island marble (PLare XXI, No. 7), found among the masses of Early Helladic sherds filling a dothros in the steep west scarp of the hill. The rim is plain on the outside, and has a slightly raised edge on the inside, which appears in our illustration. The bottom of the vase is broken away, but it appears to have had a raised base like that common on marble pots from the Cyclades. The curve of the rim indicates that the diameter of the dish was approximately 0.084 m. 3. Fragment of a small vessel of greenish gray stone containing numerous crystals, probably some kind of marble (PLareE XXI, No. 8). It may have been a bowl, or more probably a pyxis. It stood on a slightly raised base, 0.035 m. in diameter, the centre of which is concave, so that the vessel rested only on a narrow ring along the circumference. The fragment is preserved only to.a height of 0.026 m. Its outside surface, including the con- cavity of the base, is smoothly polished; but the inside seems to have been dug out rather carelessly, as a result of which the interior is very uneven and rough, and the wall of the vase is not of uniform thickness. This roughness of the inner surface in contrast to the smooth polish of the exterior suggests that the vessel had a narrow mouth which did not permit careful finishing inside; and for this reason it seems more likely that the shape was that of a pyxis. 4. Fragment of a large vessel (Fig. 185, No. 1), a chance find from Trench VI. The white marble, of which it is made, with its fairly large crystals, seems to be an island variety, resembling that from Naxos, and the vessel is almost surely of Early Helladic date. Only a portion of the flat base and the adjoining side to a height of 0.06 m. are preserved. That the pot was of large dimensions is shown by the thickness of the walls (ca. 0.02 m.); the curve of the base indicates a lower diameter of 0.18 m. Both the inner and the outer sur- faces are much weather-worn and the original finish, which seems to have been fairly smooth, but not heavily polished, is no longer in good condition. The vase must have had a fairly wide mouth, since it permitted the interior to be nicely worked; but not enough is preserved to allow the exact shape to be determined. 5. Fragment of a flat vessel, probably a palette, made of white limestone, almost a marble, containing many small crystals (Fig. 184). Height, 0.055 m.; preserved length, 0.144 m.; width, 0.112 m. Found in the northeast quarter of the House of the Pithoi. The palette was rectangular in shape and the fragment is from one corner. It had a flat bottom which is pretty smoothly worked, and the side is rounded off toward the upper edge. Along the edge ran a low rim, 0.012 m. high above the interior, and 0.025 m. wide. From it the interior slopes gradually downward toward the centre where there was a deep rounded hollow. 6. Fragment from one side of a large palette of dark micaceous schist, found in House Y (Fig. 185, No. 2). Height, 0.043 m.; preserved length, 0.204 m.; breadth, 0.109 m. The bottom was rounded, rising in a curve to the rim. The palette seems to have been rectangu- lar in shape, but the shallow, basin-like interior probably had an oval outline; this may be deduced from the rim, which is not of uniform width, but increases gradually in a slight curve from a minimum of 0.02 m. as it progresses toward the end of the fragment. The rim rises only 0.01 m. above the interior of the vessel, which is rather uneven and seems to have been worn out in grooves. 196 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Figure 184. FRAGMENT oF STONE PALETTE, Earty He ttapic PEriop 1 2 Figure 186. Five SMALL PestLes or PotycHromMe MARBLE, FROM YIRIZA MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 197 In the National Museum at Athens are several examples of large palettes made from the same kind of material; the closest analogies come from the tombs excavated by Tsountas in Siphnos and Syra (E¢. ’Apy., 1899, pp. 75 and 100). 7. The Early Helladic tombs yielded six beads of stone, and a seventh came from the settlement. As very few beads of this period have hitherto been published, a brief descrip- tion may be offered here. Piate XX, No. 12. Tiny cylindrical bead of chalcedony; diameter, 6.5 mm.; height, 3.5 mm. It is very nicely cut and is pierced longitudinally; the hole was bored from one side with a conical drill. Found near skull No. 5 in Tomb XX. Pirate XX, No. 4. Cylindrical bead of fine striated chalcedony; diameter, 16 mm.; height, 5.5 mm. Neatly cut and polished, and pierced for stringing. The hole is broader at one end than at the other and was clearly bored right through from one side with a conical drill. Found near the north end of Tomb VII. Piate XX, No. 2. Cylindrical bead of fine chalcedony; diameter, 9.5 mm.; height, 4.5 mm. Well cut, though the ends are not quite parallel, and the bead 1s therefore not a perfect, cylinder; highly polished, and bored with a conical drill from one side. Found near the east side of Tomb VII. Pirate XX, No. 15. Flat cylindrical bead of chalcedony with a milky film on one side; diameter, 8.5 mm.; height, 3 mm. It is beautifully cut and polished, with edges rounded, and is pierced for stringing. Found in House L inside a small shallow bowl which lay on the floor. Piate XX, No. 6. Small cylindrical bead of soft green stone; diameter, 5.5 mm.; height, 3 mm. The string hole, which is bored from one side with a conical drill, does not quite follow the axis of the cylinder, Found in sifting the earth from Tomb VII. Pirate XX, No. 13. Small, flat-round bead of grayish black stone. The surface is badly damaged and not many traces are left of the original good polish. The bead has a large string hole which seems to have been bored half way from each side. Diameter, 14 mm.; height, 8 mm.; found in sifting the earth from Tomb XX. Piate XX, No. 3. Bead of speckled grayish green stone, 0.03 m. long, 0.02 m. high, and 0.0125 m. thick. It has approximately the shape of a human foot, and a large string hole passes through the “‘ankle.”’ The hole was bored from both sides with a conical drill and the junction at the centre was not quite true. On the bottom of the foot are seven shallow bor- ings, arranged in pairs, except for a single one on the heel. Presumably this bead was used as a seal and the ‘“‘ankle”’ served as a handle to facilitate manipulation in making an 1m- pression. The markings on the lower face may have some amuletic significance, and one may wonder if the mystic character of the number seven goes back to Early Helladic times. Some Cretan parallels to this amulet are discussed in the section on chronology (p. 218). 8. Nine small stone spools or pestles were found with a fairly wide distribution over the site. They differ considerably in size and proportions, the smallest example having a length of 0.031 m. and a diameter of 0.011 m., and the largest being 0.052 m. long and 0.03 m. in diameter. They were made of many different kinds of stone, ranging from marble or white limestone to bluish black ‘‘Eleusinian”’ stone. In most cases an effort seems to have been made to select material marked by veining or bright colors, and the pestles were neatly 198 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES finished with a smooth polish, which all combines to give a very pretty effect, as may be seen in our illustration (PLATE XXII, Nos. 13-21). They are characteristic household imple- ments common enough at all Early Helladic sites and found in the Cyclades as well (two from Tomb 338 at Chalandriane in the island of Syra, ’E¢. ’Apy., 1899, Pl. 10, Nos. 35, 36). Examples came to light at Korakou and at Gonia in Corinthia, and some particularly at- tractive specimens from Yiriza, a small Early Helladic settlement just west of Gonia, are published here in Figure 186. These objects are almost certainly pestles, though they show little trace of wear; they may have been used for powdering colors in small palettes — a practice, for which Tsountas so acutely observed the evidence in the Cyclades, possibly connected with the custom of tattooing. Ficure 187. Currinc or Sawine ImpLeMents oF Fitnt or Cuert, Earty HELiapic Periop The two spools of terracotta described above (pp. 190 f.) are very similar to these stone examples except that they have concave instead of convex or flat ends. They certainly could not have been employed for crushing matter of any hardness and presumably had a quite different purpose from that of the stone pestles. Obsidian was found in abundance everywhere about the settlement. The quantity of small chips and fragments was very great, and there were also many remnants of cores from which all possible blades and flakes had been struck off. Flakes and blades themselves were likewise very common. The greatest number was collected from the floors of House L, but all the Early Helladic houses were well provided. Usually these blades were not of large size; they average distinctly smaller than those found in the Cyclades, and many indeed are extraordinarily slender and delicate. The longest blade had a length of only 0.068 m. No illustrations are offered here except for a single core (PLATE XX, No. 24) and a delicate blade from Tomb VII (PLare XX, No. 5). All this obsidian is very dark in color and almost opaque except at the thinnest points along a sharp edge. It is, of course, an imported material at Zygouries and seems to be of Melian origin; the great quantity that came to light shows that this inland settlement must have been a good market for traders in obsidian. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 199 One small arrowhead of the same material was found in the House of the Pithoi and is apparently of Karly Helladic date (unless it had worked its way down from the Mycenaean layer across the northeast part of the house). It is of a short broad type (PLare XX, No. 23), not symmetrically shaped, nor worked with the delicacy characteristic of Mycenaean arrowheads. Length, 0.0285 m.; width, 0.0175 m. It is very crudely barbed. Flint was also utilized very generally at Zygouries, if one may judge by the number of pieces found. The numerous small shapeless bits were perhaps used for striking sparks to light a fire. There were likewise many long narrow flakes (Fig. 187), almost exactly similar to the blades of obsidian in shape, but frequently provided with teeth along one or both cutting edges, and thus resembling small crude saws. They are made of several different kinds of chert or flint and occur in a variety of colors: black, brown, brick-red, yellow, cream, and white. Although the Early Helladic settlement belongs to a stage undoubtedly much later than the beginning of the Bronze Age and the inhabitants were able to produce a weapon of so advanced a type as the dagger described above (p. 182), they had by no means given up the use of implements of stone. Nine celts were found, coming from all quarters of the hill, all of which are shown in PLate XXII. They are mainly of two different kinds, one of which may be described as long and narrow, and the other as short and broad. Those belonging to the first group are fairly large celts, almost round in section, slender in proportion to their length, and usually having more or less pointed butts (Nos. § to g). The edge has been ground from both sides. Nos. 6 and 7 were apparently never finished, as they have not been worked down to a sharp cutting edge. The smallest, No. 5, is 0.054 m. long, 0.037 m. wide, and 0.024 m. thick; the largest, No. 7, is 0.099 m. long, 0.037 m. broad, and 0.033 m. thick. The celts of the second type are small and approximately heart-shaped (PLate XXII, Nos. 1 to 3). They are much more neatly worked than those of the first type, beautifully polished, and ground from both sides to a sharp edge. The smallest example of the three (No. 1) measures 0.038 m. long, ca. 0.038 m. wide, and 0.013 m. thick; the largest (No. 2) varies only slightly: length, 0.044 m.; breadth, 0.038 m.; thickness, 0.013 m. No. 4 in the same figure, which is also well made, differs in shape from both the fore- going types. It is narrow relatively to its length, and roughly rectangular in section, re- sembling a celt from the acropolis of Chalandriane in Syra (’E®¢. ’Apy., 1899, p. 123, Pl. 10, No. 37). | The material of which these celts were made is of several varieties: a hard bluish black stone is the commonest, occurring in five examples; two others are of greenish stone; one is gray; and one is pink. None of them were bored for the attachment of a handle; they were no doubt held by means of a piece of cleft wood or fastened in a socket made of deer-horn in the manner so well attested for the neolithic period in Thessaly. Whetstones or hones were represented by three specimens (PLate XXII, Nos. 10, 11, 12), one from House L, one from the House of the Dagger, and the third from the scanty contents of pithos No. 3 in the bed of the stream. The latter, No. 12, is thin and made of bluish black stone; the other two, of grayish stone, are fairly thick and heavy. All three show considerable wear on both flat surfaces. 200 THE EXCAVATIONS@ATY ZY GOURIES Pounders or grinders were the commonest of all these stone implements, more than twenty examples being found on the floors of the houses and elsewhere about the site. The selection shown in Figure 188 illustrates all the various shapes and sizes. The majority are roughly cubical, or at least have six more or less flattened sides, any of which might be employed for pounding or grinding. Others are almost cylindrical in shape, sometimes with the sides worked indifferently into a series of approximately plane surfaces; and in this type the top and bottom are usually worn from use in rubbing. Three are very nearly spherical (No. 9), two are somewhat conical (Nos. 3 and 7), and one is crudely bell-shaped (No. 5). In these three cases the bottom is the only rubbing surface. The largest pounder, which is of the type with six faces (No. 13, from Trench V), is 0.095 m. long, 0.077 m. wide, and 0.065 m. thick. The smallest, of the conoid shape, but with Ficure 188. Srone Pounpers AnD Grinpers, EArty Hetiapic Periop rather elliptical bottom (No. 1, from House U), is 0.031 m. high and has an extreme diameter of 0.026 m. on its lower face. These pounders were made of different kinds of stone, most commonly a bluish black variety similar to the pebbles and small boulders in the beds of the streams about Hagios Vasilios. Others are gray, white, or yellow stones, apparently from the same source. Two seem to be of some sort of volcanic material (one of these is the bell-shaped specimen) similar to that utilized for the millstones. It was, no doubt, in conjunction with these latter that the pounders were chiefly used, probably in crushing or grinding grain. There remain to be mentioned, to complete the list of miscellaneous objects of Early Helladic date, only the millstones, of which a good many examples came to light. They seem to have been regarded as necessary pieces of household furniture and one or more appeared in each house. They are the usual saddle-querns, rather narrow in proportion to their length and have roughly elliptical ends. In size they vary considerably, but in general two types may be distinguished: in one the top is a flat even surface; the other has a curved top, being hollowed out longitudinally. This rubbing surface is in all cases smoothly worn. The under side in both types is rounded and only roughly worked, giving a shape suitable for holding in the lap. The material of which they are made is invariably a hard volcanic formation (vesicular lava). MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 201 Mipp_Le Hettapic PEriop The only miscellaneous objects of this period from Zygouries are those found in Tomb I, and they were not numerous. They are all shown in Figure 189 and include the following: Bronze A spiral of bronze wire; diameter 0.028 m. It is made of rather slender wire, circular in section, which makes only one and one-half revolutions and has slightly tapering ends. From the position in which it was discovered, close against the skull, it seems likely that it had served as a hair fastener. Two fragmentary wire loops, perhaps from a similar spiral, with a diameter of ca. 0.024 m. They are made of thin wire roughly rectangular in section. Six small fragments of a ring which had a diameter of ca. 0.027 m. The circle is not com- plete, and the pieces may belong to a spiral similar to that described above. The wire is round. Terracotta A whorl very much like those of the Early Helladic Period, except that it is finished with a somewhat smoother surface and has a base which is concave underneath. It is illustrated in Figure 179, No. 1. Bone Fragment of a small round pin; preserved length, 0.038 m. At least one half of it, in- cluding the point, is missing. It has a rounded head, smaller in diameter than the shaft itself. Stone Nineteen beads of natural crystal, grayish white in color and almost transparent, which formed part of a necklace. The beads, which are small and not uniform in size, have been crudely worked into a cylindrical shape. They are very regularly pierced and the hole was apparently bored half way from each side. So far as I can find, no parallel to these crystal beads is available from the Middle Helladic Period. Paste Fifteen beads of paste, which from their place of finding seem to have belonged to the necklace mentioned above. There are two varieties of material and five different shapes. Nine are made of fairly firm fine paste, dark gray in color; they include one of spherical shape, one (which is also ribbed) like a sphere flattened at its poles, and seven long and narrow examples resembling olive pits (one of which is in fragments). All are regularly pierced for stringing. Six are made of a somewhat more porous paste, white in color, although the original surface, which has almost entirely disappeared, seems to have been gray. One is of conoid form; the others (one in fragments) are irregular disks of no great thickness. These also are pierced with string holes. 202 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Ficure 189. Miscettangous Opsjyects From Toms J, Minpite Hexiapic Periop Late He.tiapic PErtop The objects of Late Helladic date, which come next in order, all belong to the third stage of the Period. Bronze The bronze knife (Fig. 190, No. 1) found in the “drain trap” just above and west of the Potter’s Shop (No. 15 on the plan, Prats II) has a length of 0.22 m., including the broken tip, which was recovered. Of this total the handle occupied 0.08 m. and the blade 0.14 m. The latter is long and slender, tapering from a width of 0.012 m., at its junction with the handle, to a sharp point. It has one keen cutting edge; the other is much thicker and flat. Incised lines or small grooves run along the top of the blade, parallel to the edge, two on one side, three on the other, with slightly raised ridges between; and these are the only form of decoration. MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 203 The haft end of the knife has both edges sharply flanged at an angle of go’, forming on each face a long groove or socket into which the handle was fitted. As there are no rivet holes, the handle was probably wide enough so that its two faces could be fastened to- gether outside the line of the bronze shank. It was presumably made of wood or bone, 3 ‘ Ficure 190. Bronze Knire, Bronze SickLE, AND OxpsIDIAN ARROWHEAD, Late He ttapic Periop and is missing; at its outer end, however, it had a small ornamental knob of ivory, traces of which were preserved. Unfortunately it was found in a state so ruinous that its original shape could not be recognized with certainty, and it was only possible to see that it had once borne some kind of carved decoration. From the Late Helladic layer reached by a trial trench below the west foot of the hill came the small sickle-shaped knife shown in Figure 1go, No. 2. Length, 0.195 m.; greatest breadth, 0.022 m. It has a rather thin blade, which tapers in a curve to a rounded end. The shank is very short (0.03 m.) and has one large carelessly made hole for the rivet or nail by which the handle was fastened. Similar knives or sickles, found at Mycenae, are exhibited in the National Museum at Athens, and the type is well known elsewhere. LE, The only other object of bronze is a well-made point, perhaps the head of a small spear or javelin : : Ficure 191. Bronze JAVELIN Pont, (Fig. 191). Length, 0.057 m., of which ca. 0.025 Ree aie: Ditton: m. belongs to the head proper and the rest to the shank by which it was fastened to the shaft. The end of this shank is bent, but whether this is original or due to later accidents does not appear. The head is rectangular in sec- tion (measuring at its widest 0.007 m. on a side) and tapers to a sharp point. Terracotta The objects of terracotta comprised chiefly figurines of the familiar Third Late Helladic type, but there were also a few fragments of animal figures and a small table. Apart from insignificant shattered bits, of which there were not a few, some forty figurines were found. Three of these, from Tomb XXXIII (Fig. 192), and eleven from 204 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Tomb XXXV (Fig. 193) are complete; the rest are in a more or less fragmentary condition. The three from Tomb XXXIII are all of the same type, though they differ in size. They stand on a solid columnar stem with spreading foot, have a body with prominent breasts and with crescent arms, a narrow head with pinched-out face, and a circular hat, concave on top. The painted decoration, though vary- ing in details, is essentially the same on all three figures. The hat on its upper surface is plain or ornamented by a circle or a cross; on its under side it bears a border of fillets or short vertical dashes. The ridge of the nose is marked by a line and the eyes by dots. Ficure 192. Figurines or TERRACOTTA FROM TOMB Around the neck isa painted collar. The body XXXII, Late Hevuapic III bears a series of vertical or oblique stripes; the waist is indicated by a band, and the stem carries two, three, or four vertical lines. The largest figurine is 0.118 m. high, 0.06 m. wide; the smallest has a height of 0.077 m., width of 0.043 m. The paint in one case 1s reddish brown, in one brownish black, and in the third black. The eleven figurines from Tomb XXXV are all of the crescent type and all wear concave hats. Two stand on a hollow stem; nine have a solid columnar stem like that exemplified in Tomb XX XIII. Seven of these nine wear a plastic braid of hair down their backs instead of the painted line of hair which usually appears on the others. The plastic braid curiously rises from the middle of the top of the hat (Fig. 193, all five examples in the lower row), — surely an unreasoning transfer from the bare-headed type of figurine, which is also a very FiGuRE 193. Ficurines oF TERRACOTTA FROM TomB XXXV, Late He tapic III MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 205 common one in Late Helladic III, — it extends in some cases only to the base of the neck, in others to the middle of the back. The painted decoration of these eleven examples 1s closely similar to that on the three from Tomb XXXIII, differing only in small details. The largest figurine from Tomb XXXV (No. 341) is 0.126 m. high and 0.058 m. wide; the smallest (No. 340) measures 0.051 m. in height and 0.026 m. in width. The paint is in some instances red, in others brown, in still others black, but often varies, where thin, to an inter- mediate shade. From the trench dug through the terrace north of the Potter’s Shop, which produced some early pottery of Late Helladic III, came eight fragmentary figurines, all with a solid columnar stem. One is merely the base, giving no evidence for the shape of the body; FicurE 194. Figurines oF TERRACOTTA FROM THE SETTLEMENT, Late Hettapic III of the remaining seven one belongs to the crescent type, so well represented in the two tombs, and this was found in the uppermost layer. The other six are quite different in shape, having a body resembling a flat circular disk (Fig. 194, No. 3). The heads preserved are hatted (Fig. 194, No. 1), and the decoration of the body is the same as in the crescent type (Fig. 194, No. 3). One of the six (Fig. 194, No. 2) stands out in conspicuous contrast with the others, since it has arms represented plastically. The right arm is bent at the elbow and crosses the bust, the left arm is bent more sharply, with the hand extended toward the face. The left side of the figurine is unfortunately broken, and the head too is missing. The discovery of six examples of the disk-shaped type, as opposed to only one of the crescent type, in this early context of Late Helladic III suggests the conclusion that the figurines of the former type are the older of the two, and that this shape goes back to the beginning of the Third Late Helladic Period. But until further evidence is forthcoming from other sites and until more is known concerning the origin and purpose of Mycenaean figurines it is certainly more prudent to reserve opinion. It may be that the two types were made to serve quite different purposes; the crescent figures may have been intended purely 206 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES for funereal use, those with disk-shaped body for household service. In the meantime this evidence from Zygouries is offered for what it is worth. Several other examples of the disk- like variety came to light on the slopes of the hill, some with a bare head; a plastic braid also occurred on these latter. In the drain trap above the Potter’s Shop were found five heads and two bodies of figurines. Of the heads four have hats and one is bare; none has a plastic braid. The two bodies (Fig. 194, Nos. 4, §) stand on a hollow stem and have a form differing from both of the types discussed above, though they must be closely related to the discoid variety. They have plastic arms folded so that they meet over the breast, but the execution is so casual and conventionalized that they are hardly recognizable as arms. Figure 195. Ficurine or TERRACOTTA, FEMALE Ficure with CHILD aT Breast, Late HELLapic Figure 196. Sma. “TABLE” oF TERRACOTTA Il] FROM Toms XXXYV, Lare He.tapic III Still another fragment deserves illustration here (Fig. 195), as a crude attempt to repre- sent a mother with an infant child at her breast. The subject, though not extremely com- mon, is known from other Mycenaean sites (Stais, Collection Mycénienne du Musée Na- tional, pp. 109, 132, No. 2493; Winter, Die Typen der figiirlichen Terrakotten, Part I, p. 2, No. 2). This example, which has the body in the form of a disk, was found below the west slope of the hill. Five fragments of terracotta figures of animals came from the trench dug through the Potter’s terrace, and a few others were collected at other places about the hill. None of these merit more than mention, and the only piece illustrated (Fig. 193, No. 346) is a fragment from Tomb XXXV which looks like the head of a bull with a snout and two curv- ing horns (spread 0.057 m.), but may equally well be the two hind legs and tail of some other animal. It is decorated with stripes of brownish black paint. The rest of the animal was not in the tomb, as all the earth was carefully sifted without a trace of it being found. The only other object in this category is a small table from Tomb XXXV (Fig. 196, No. 334); height, 0.03 m.; length 0.104 m.; width, 0.068 m. It stands on four legs and is ap- proximately rectangular, but with somewhat bulging sides. The top is not level, but forms a shallow concavity surrounded by a slightly raised rim. The decoration, except for a smear of paint down each leg, is confined to the upper surface; it consists of four transverse rows of dashes and dots at one end, while the rest of the space is filled by eight broad wavy lines MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS 207 running longitudinally. There is also a band of paint along the rim. The “table” may per- haps be intended to represent a bier used to convey the dead to the tomb. Ivory and Bone The ivory knob at the end of the handle of a knife has already been mentioned, and no other objects of the same material came to light. Worked bone was not represented at all; and the only object which might be recorded here is a large boar’s tusk from which a slice has been cut on one side. The strip cut away must have had approximately the shape of the curved flat pieces familiar from Mycenae, which, on account of their tough material, 3 “\ Ficure 197. MisceELttangeous Osyecrs or STEATITE, FROM Toms XXXIII were apparently applied in closely fitting rows as defensive armor on the conical helmets worn by warriors. Stone The stone objects of the Late Helladic Period were not numerous. They include two lentoid sealstones, one bead, a dozen whorls, and four shanked buttons, all of steatite, two beads of carnelian, an arrowhead of obsidian, and a small flat piece of polished Crocean marble. One of the seals (Fig. 198, No. 4, from the impression) was found in the drain trap men- tioned above. It represents in intaglio, carved in rather poor style, a goat or stag standing to left with head drawn back. Five slanting strokes just before the body of the animal may be meant to indicate foliage or scenery, perhaps the branches of a tree. Under the body, between the fore and hind legs, is a curious object or sign which I cannot identify, and an- other above the back is equally unrecognizable. The second seal (Fig. 197, No. 3) is from Tomb XXXIII and is cut in a style so impres- sionistic and so careless that the representation is almost impossible to distinguish. It seems to be a fantastic quadruped to left, with a huge body, high slender neck depicted by a single line, and a goatlike head from which rise branching antlers. The confused group of strokes directly before the body may again be an attempt to render scenery; and the whole looks like a very much debased version of the same kind of subject as that on the preceding seal. The bead, of greenish steatite (Fig. 197, No. 4), is from Tomb X XXIII; it is of a double conoid shape, with a deep groove around its middle, and is pierced transversely for stringing. 208 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES The whorls from Tombs XX XIII and XXXV are shown in Figure 197, Nos. 1 and 5, and Figure 198, No. 3; those from the settlement are of the same familiar type, though they offer many varieties of size and color. They were no doubt used as buttons (cf. Persson, Figure 198. MisceELLANEouS OBJECTS FROM Toms XXXV (1-3) AND IMPRESSION OF A SEAL FROM DrRatn-TRAP (4) Bulletin de la Société Royale des Lettres de Lund, 1922-1923, pps 37 f.): The buttons with a shank are sufficiently illus- trated by the very good examples from Tomb XXXIII (Fig. 197, No. 2) and from Tomb XX XV (Fig. 198, No. 1). For the shape reference may be made to Professor Persson’s remarks, cited above; in the Bulletin de la Société Royale des Lettres de Lund, 1924-1925, Plate XXXVI, Persson illus- trates a whole series of these buttons, showing the evolution of the shape. | From Tomb XXXV came a small, short cylin- drical bead of carnelian (Fig. 198, No. 2) in damaged condition. A tiny barrel-shaped bead of red carnelian was found in the area just south of the Potter’s Shop. It has a preserved length of 0.011 m. (both ends are broken) and is pierced longitudinally. This list may be concluded with the mention of an admirably worked arrowhead of obsidian from Trench V (Fig. 190, No. 3); length, 0.034 m.; width, 0.014 m. It has a beautifully symmetrical shape, with curving sides and much re- duced barbs, and is similar to examples from Mycenae and elsewhere. GEOMETRIC PERIOD A plain ring, made of a wide band of bronze thickened along its median axis so as to be almost ridged; width, 0.015 m.; diameter, 0.025 m. (Fig. 199). The color is very reddish, due to decay of the bronze. Found in Tomb XVIII. Ficure 199. Bronze Rinc, GEOMETRIC PeriopD, FRoM Toms XVIII CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION HE results of the excavations at Zygouries, which have now been set forth in detail, offer some interesting points of comparison with the discoveries made at other sites in the Aegean area. From the differences here, resemblances there, analogies in one direction, contrasts in another, one may legitimately recognize very close contact on one side, almost if not quite total lack of connection on another; though naturally this method of comparison must be applied with caution. The objects recovered are very largely the result of chance in selection, preservation, and discovery; equally important or even far more significant objects may by the same chance have escaped notice, been lost, or have suffered complete destruction. Nor is it always certain that two objects of precisely identical form are necessarily related or even descended from a common prototype; in dealing with simple primitive artifacts which presumably were made to serve the same purpose, one cannot deny the possibility of independent origin. But when striking similarities show themselves in many instances among several different classes of remains from two widely separated areas, and are accompanied by objects of which the imported character is beyond a doubt, there can be no question that they indicate close interrelations. As the preceding four chapters sufficiently show, it was in remains of the Early Helladic Period that the site at Zygouries was preéminently rich. The relatively slight depth of earth covering the settlement permitted easy exploration on a much more satisfactory scale than had hitherto been possible in a Peloponnesian establishment of so early a date; and the new material now made available for an understanding of Early Helladic civiliza- tion is noteworthy both in quantity and comprehensiveness. It thus becomes especially interesting to submit this material to the test of comparison with the contemporary remains in other areas. It is at the outset clear that we must recognize the complete identity of the culture repre- sented at Zygouries with that of the other contemporary settlements in northeastern Peloponnesus. A mere glance at the remains is conclusive on this point. As we have seen above, Zygouries lay near the intersection of the two main travelled roads connecting the Isthmus and the Argolid and naturally must have felt the force of the current of traffic passing between these two important centres. The distances are not great, the roads are easy, and there can be no question that impulses were speedily transmitted from one side or the other. The numerous flourishing settlements in Corinthia must have maintained constant and close communications with the towns at Mycenae, the Argive Heraeum, Tiryns, and Argos (the Early Helladic establishment of Argos apparently lay on a hill called ‘‘Makrovouni,” a short distance to the west of the Aspis toward the ravine of the 209 210 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES Charadra; cf. Ilpaxtuca, 1916, p. 76; the potsherds found here are Early Helladic, not neolithic) and we have manifestly a unity of civilization in this whole area. Apart from the complete general agreement in the remains that have been brought to light, only one or two specific points of comparison need be mentioned. In the recent exca- vations at the Argive Heraeum the scanty vestiges of a tomb exactly similar to the cave- ossuaries of Zygouries were found (4. 7. 4., XXIX, 1925, p. 419). At Tiryns, moreover, according to information kindly given me by Dr. K. Miller, fragmentary figurines of terracotta have been recovered, belonging to the same type as the specimen from Zygouries described above; and among the other small finds were included several examples of the peculiar conical objects, which, as we have suggested, probably constituted a second and more primitive type of figurine. The connections with more distant areas which we may deduce from the evidence re- vealed at Zygouries must, therefore, be accepted as applying with equal force to this whole homogeneous region of northeastern Peloponnesus; it is in any case obvious that any in- fluences from outside must have passed through the gateway on one side or the other before they could reach the interior valley of Cleonae. The one external region with which direct and close contact was certainly maintained was the Aegean, as represented by the Cycladic Islands; and the evidence for this connec- tion, which is based on a great many analogies, resemblances, and specific importations, is so strong and comprehensive that we must considerably enlarge our ideas of the extent of trading relations and traffic in this corner of the world in the early Bronze Age. It has been held by many historians that “‘trade”’ and “traffic” in this early period are scarcely more than euphemisms for casual raiding enterprises and piracy; but the abundance of contacts between Zygouries and the Cyclades, and their character, can hardly mean anything else than that there was a fairly well-organized and established commercial activity. It has else- where been pointed out that the people dwelling in these two regions during the period under discussion were evidently very closely akin, forming doubtless two branches sprung from a common parent stem (B. 8. 4., XXII, p. 180); the strong racial ties which almost certainly continued to subsist between them, were without doubt sufficiently felt and recog- nized to promote the maintenance of mutual intercourse and trade. Indeed there is good reason to believe that the same language, though perhaps in dialectal variations, was spoken in both areas; a tabulation of the pre-Greek place-names according to their geo- graphical distribution, prepared by Dr. Haley, makes it clear that topographical names of the same non-Greek character are common to both. In the foregoing chapters describing the remains uncovered at Zygouries the most im- portant and specific Cycladic analogies have in each case been mentioned; here this material will be briefly recapitulated to show its variety and extent. In the field of architecture not much can yet be said. The remains of houses of the Early Cycladic Period are too scanty to permit a satisfactory comparison. Only at Phylakopi in Melos has a considerable settlement of this date been excavated, and here the maze of superincumbent remains of the Middle and Late Cycladic towns made it impossible to clear a sufficiently large area of the Early city to show the complete plans of representative 1 This study is ready for publication, but has not yet appeared. CONCLUSION ° 211 houses. The evidence seemed to point to the existence of dwellings composed of single rooms as well as of two-roomed houses; and apparently they were built closely together, forming after a fashion a more or less connected town plan of the kind which was carried to a much more advanced stage of development in the Middle and Late Cycladic Periods. No good parallel to the rather characteristic two-roomed houses at Zygouries is available among these very scanty remnants of Phylakopi I; but the general aspect of the settlement as a whole cannot have been far different from that we have seen at Zygouries. More than this we cannot say until fresh discoveries shed more light on the early architecture of the islands. In a comparison of burial customs and the type of tombs in use the situation is reversed, for here the evidence from the Cyclades is especially abundant, while that from Zygouries and the mainland is disappointingly meagre. At first impression this evidence, so far as it goes, appears to establish a clear-cut difference rather than a similarity of practice. Nothing has been found in the islands at all resembling the rude cave-ossuaries in the cemetery at Ambelakia; nor on the other hand has the mainland yet produced cist graves of Early Helladic date in any way analogous to the type so common and characteristic in the con- temporary Cyclades. It is admittedly possible that the shaft graves on the hill of Ambelakia, . some of which were found empty of remains, while others had been re-used for burials in the - Roman Period, are actually. of Early Helladic construction; but even if this were so, they ' could not be regarded as forming a close parallel to the stone-built cists of the islands, and the practice of secondary burial seems quite foreign to Cycladic usage. This sharp divergence apparent in the type of tomb employed is all the more striking in view of the remarkable similarity of the objects found in the graves themselves. For here, though the material from Zygouries is not abundant, we meet with certain objects so nearly identical with many found among the deposits in the Cycladic tombs that they cannot be explained as due to coincidence alone or to anything other than direct and close relations. Chief among these are the silver diadems, sadly decayed remnants of which came to light in all three of the undisturbed Early Helladic tombs. They are clearly counterparts of the diadems found by Tsountas in Amorgos and Syra, of which so many similar examples in gold were discovered by Seager in the Early Minoan tombs at Mochlos in Crete. These latter frequently bear patterns formed by dots in repoussé technique, a type of ornament recur- ring in more elaborate form on the silver band from Chalandriane, and of which faint traces may be recognized, as we have noted above, on the crumbling fragments from Zygouries. The agreement thus shown in these three regions in depositing with the dead objects of so specialized a character as the diadems in question surely points to an identity, in part at least, in burial custom. The silver and bronze pins from the ossuaries in: the Ambelakia cemetery, moreover, are practically replicas of certain pins from the Cycladic tombs, from which circumstance perhaps it might be warranted to deduce some degree of similarity in the clothing worn. Similarly the spatulae and the tweezers, which again are counterparts of the Cycladic examples, may be more than a suggestion that the mainland fashions of toilet were modelled upon those prevailing in the islands. The stone beads, also, can be fairly closely matched among the objects found in the Cycladic tombs and, though the exact form of the amuletic 210 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES stamp in the shape of a human foot is not duplicated among the island finds (it occurs in Crete), the same principle of talismanic charms seems to be represented. The two gold pendants from Tombs VII and XX, which may be earrings, are not yet paralleled among the jewelry known from the Cyclades, but certain analogous forms re- covered from the tholos tombs of the Mesara (Xanthoudides, op. cit., p. 29; p. 111 and Plates XV and LVII, No. 484, from Tholos A at Platanos) imply me their affinities are not foreign to the Aegean sphere. These coincidences in so great a variety of funeral pretties are surely not due to chance, and we are justified in concluding that related customs and practices prevailed in both areas, and that there was also regular intercommunication between the two. But the close relationship is not shown merely by funeral usage; it appears no less strikingly in the pottery. Thus in the early deposit from the west side of the hill at Zygouries were found many specimens which are hardly distinguishable from Early Cycladic wares. This is especially the case with the incised fabrics which bear in shallow technique the linear designs — notably the herring bone — so characteristic of the early group of wares from Paros, etc. Some of these examples indeed at Zygouries, from the abundance of mica in their clay, seem to be of foreign manufacture, and there can hardly be ground for doubting that they are direct importations from the islands. Not only the incised pots, however, betray this strong Cycladic connection; many of the fragments of plain ware show it with equal clarity. Unfortunately this material was too shattered to allow the reconstruction of complete shapes; even though they are not exactly identical with those commonest in the islands, the essential kinship of the ware 1s nevertheless unmistakable. The mat impressions observed on a good many bases of large coarse pots may be mentioned here, as being precisely similar to those found at Phylakopi; and the occurrence of the impress of a leaf on the bottom of a small shallow bowl, exactly like the imprints found by Tsountas in Amorgos and Syra, is surely not a mere chance coincidence. If some of the vases at Zygouries, conspicuously different from the local fabrics by reason of their micaceous clay, are, as stated above, clearly importations from the Cyclades (and Aegina must presumably be reckoned as belonging to the Cycladic sphere and a very probable source of importation), there can hardly be a doubt that the operation was carried out reciprocally in both directions. Among the ceramic material from Phylakopi as well as that from Naxos and Syra are not a few specimens made of clay quite different from that usual in the islands, and almost surely products of mainland potters; the importance of this ware as an early link between the two regions has already been pointed out by Dawkins and Droop (B. S. 4., XVII, p. 16). However great the reciprocal influences may have been, we cannot of course speak of an identity of pottery at any time in the two regions, for that would be quite contrary to the facts. What we are arguing is that the evidence indicates, not a complete identity of civilization, but merely the maintenance of reciprocal relations and connections on a fairly regular and comprehensive scale. The bulk of the pottery from the Cyclades was always different from that on the mainland; each group stamped with a character of its own. The course of development was also quite different, the island ware coming early under Cretan influence, which greatly accelerated its development; whereas the mainland ware CONCLUSION 213 seems to have pursued an independent and less rapid evolution, which was finally abruptly terminated by the political events which heralded the opening of the Middle Helladic Period. Enough has been said concerning the pottery, though its testimony must be regarded as an important factor in the problem under consideration, and we may now turn to some of the objects described in the chapter on the Miscellaneous Objects. The bronze dagger from House U is not without significance in this discussion. As we have seen, its closest analogy is found in a weapon from a tholos tomb at Platanos in Crete, dating from Early Minoan II] — Middle Minoan I; of a rather more advanced type than the daggers from Amorgos, it no doubt belongs near the end of the series which begins there; and with this somewhat later stage its place of discovery in the Early Helladic settlement at Zygouries (Early Helladic III) is in complete agreement. It is, however, in the marble figurine and in the vases of stone and marble that we meet the most convincing evidence of Cycladic contact. The figurine, even though in a badly mutilated state, manifestly declares itself to be of island manufacture both by its material and its technique; and the vessels of marble, and the stone palettes are hardly less emphatic in the assertion of their Cycladic origin. Here, then, we have a well-defined group of objects the importation of which is beyond dispute. And to this may be added the great quantity of Melian obsidian found everywhere about the settlement. The stone and marble spools, on the other hand, since they seem to be so common at Early Helladic sites, may perhaps have been of native workmanship; but even these do not lack Cycladic parallels. In view of all these points of contact, which undeniably have a powerful cumulative force, it seems to me that the extent of the Cycladic connections of northeastern Pelopon- nesus in the Early Helladic Period, as set forth in the opening paragraph of this section, has not been unduly exaggerated. The two regions were certainly united by close and regular bonds; and the demonstration of this fact in a manner more definite and unmistak- able than has heretofore been possible may be looked upon as one of the chief contributions of the excavations at Zygouries. In comparison with the mass of evidence bearing on the mutual relations between the mainland and the Cyclades, the material pointing to contact in other directions 1s relatively scanty. But certain objects found, though few in number, are none the less explicit in their implication of connections with Crete. For the early part of the period, it is true, the evidence is not very tangible; in fact it is mainly in considerations of a general nature rather than in specific instances that such a connection can be postulated. The pottery of the two areas certainly differs markedly as a whole; yet in the best mottled fabrics of Zygouries and other mainland sites it is difficult not to recognize a family likeness with the similar but more highly developed ware first found by Seager at Vasiliki, and now familiar as a fairly widely diffused Early Minoan type. The shapes represented are not at all identical; each sphere has its own characteristic forms; and yet here too some degree of affinity is not impossible between the Cretan jugs with prominent side spout and the Early Helladic sauceboats. The two forms seem to be the expression of a rather similar feeling. But it is perhaps rather the underlying principle of the technique of mottling that provides a more substantial bond, though even this is 214 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES hardly strong enough to justify the assumption that the Minoan fabric stands in a parental relation to the ware of the mainland. Perhaps the resemblance is no more than can be ex- plained as due to a more remote common origin. If this comparative material, which may be referred back to the earliest stages at Zy- gouries, is, accordingly, still of very indefinite nature, the latest phase of the Early Helladic Period, at all events, has given us some specific and significant analogies. On the architec- tural side there is indeed very little sign of connection. The simple two-roomed houses at Zygouries have not much, if anything, in common with the many-chambered dwellings in Crete, which attained such an astonishing development in Middle Minoan times; nor is there yet any trace of larger structures at all comparable to the palatial establishments of the Cretan centres. And yet in the town system at Zygouries, however primitive and crude it appears, we may perhaps not be wrong in seeing some faint reflection of the “city plans” which found their best Early Minoan expression at Mochlos and Pseira and other East Cretan sites. The evidence from the type of tombs discovered in the Ambelakia cemetery gives sup- port for more definite conclusions; for the cave-ossuaries, which up to the present time are quite unparalleled in the Cyclades, apparently have some fairly close analogies in Crete. Indeed it cannot be doubted that they belong to the same primitive class of interments represented variously by the cave burials at Epano Zakro (B. S. 4., VII, pp. 142 ff.), the rock shelters at Hagios Nikolaos near Palaikastro (B. S. 4., [X, pp. 336 ff.), and the bone enclosures of Palaikastro itself (B. S. 4., XI, pp. 269 ff.; cf. also VIII, pp. 290 ff. and X, pp. 197 ff.), further examples of which were found at Gournia (Transactions Univ. Pennsylvania, I, pp. 20 f.), Hagia Photia (zbzd., I, pp. 183 ff.; Gournia, pp. 56, 60), by Seager at Mochlos (Tombs VII, VIII, and XVIII, Mochlos, pp. 56 f., 69 f.), and more recently in an impressive example by Xanthoudides at Pyrgos (’Apy. AeAr., 4, 1918, pp. 136 ff.). In most of these instances, which are by no means uniform, but exhibit considerable differences in detail, we are clearly dealing with secondary interments, a practice which is no doubt also to be assumed at Zygouries. It would hardly be safe, nevertheless, on the basis of this community of custom to venture a far-reaching theory of interrelations. When we turn to some of the small objects found in the settlement, however, we stand on much firmer ground. One need not insist too strongly on the import of the bronze dagger which has already been mentioned several times as being almost a duplicate of a weapon from one of the tholoi at Platanos. But the button seal of terracotta from House Y and the seal impression on the side of an unpainted bowl found in House U are unquestionably marks of direct Minoan influence and form a welcome addition to the small group of similar objects recently discovered at Asine. In his discussion of these finds (Bulletin de la Société Royale des Lettres de Lund, 1923-1924, pp. 162 ff.), Professor Persson has made it clear that the provenience of these mainland specimens 1s to be sought in Crete, where their associations are with the seals and stamps found in such abundance in contexts of Early Minoan III and Middle Minoan I. The seal and the impression from Zygouries, the nearest Cretan parallels for which have been cited above (p. 189), correspond very closely in character to the examples from Asine, and like these latter belong to the latest phase of the Early Helladic Period (Early Helladic III). To the great chronological importance of this new material, which Professor Persson CONCLUSION 215 has convincingly pointed out, we shall soon return; here we are concerned with it for the moment only as establishing beyond reasonable doubt the fact that the Early Helladic people of northeastern Peloponnesus kept in touch with their kinsmen of Crete, though the contact seems to have been far less sustained than that with the islands of the Cyclades. The Early Helladic cultural area certainly extended as far north as the borders of Thessaly, perhaps beyond, colored doubtless from place to place by minor local differences; but nothing came to light at Zygouries which could be interpreted as constituting any special bond in this direction. Some instructive comparisons would surely have offered themselves if the contemporary architectural remains at Orchomenos had been revealed in a better state of preservation. Unfortunately, however, the buildings at this site had suffered almost total destruction and not a single complete plan could be recovered. The existence of rec- tangular and apsidal houses side by side, as restored by Bulle from the fragmentary remains, is an interesting phenomenon here and introduces an element which is quite foreign to the settlement at Zygouries, where the houses were all without exception of rectangular plan. Another feature which may also have a local explanation at Orchomenos is the great abundance of dothroz, both inside and outside the houses. In the south, as represented by Korakou, Gonia, and Zygouries, these pits are far less numerous, though some examples do occur. It is curious that not a single dothros was found beneath the floors of the ten houses of the settlement excavated at Zygouries; the few examples discovered, lying in the west scarp and immediately below the hill, appear to belong to an earlier stage of the period than that to which the settlement must be assigned. In the pottery too some differences appear, though the bulk of the ware in the two regions is very closely similar. The most noteworthy of these differences concerns two classes: the early polished red-faced ware, which, accompanied by vases bearing incised decoration in the Cycladic style, is very common in the south, is, so far as is yet known, rather scanty in the north. On the other hand, the patterned class exhibiting designs in white on a dark ground, so abundantly represented at Hagia Marina and at Orchomenos, has, up to the present time, appeared only in very small quantity in the south. Indeed, at Zygouries, among the vast number of fragments handled, hardly more than half a dozen sherds of this type could be recognized. It is still too early to attempt an explanation of these differences within the Early Helladic sphere; much enlightenment may be anticipated from the excavation of further sites in central and northern Greece. With regard to the westward extent of this civiliza- tion, we are also still very much in the dark, since intensive exploration in this direction has hardly yet begun. The discovery of characteristic Early Helladic pottery at Levkas, however, holds out interesting possibilities (Bossert, 4/tkreta, Plate I, 1 and 2). In concluding this survey of the external relations of the Early Helladic settlement at Zygouries, in so far as they can be recognized from the remains brought to light, we may briefly sum up the conclusions reached. Zygouries was a typical small town of northeastern Peloponnesus, sharing in a more or less uniform civilization which extended from the south of Greece to beyond the Malian Gulf. Lying just beside an important crossing point of land communications it seems to have kept in close touch with its neighbors to north and south, and in spite of its situation in an interior valley, it was thus by no means isolated. From vr rf; herrea pth © A eae eo, BW 74 f eg v7? ¥ Ae a de / o~ 662 sid ee Wa /t, /9,2))2>, 6 D r= ea ae LD -pp 2371 PT oe 195. HH Mogren orne ~ AIA 3%) P 263. TESST To ew Aer ay Ary Li a, 3%)P: aoa Atlee - PEK yea’ Arfethee, 6 fr ~ 5.0.8 fp vt Ont iO - Yd ss 7h, ae os “ve shes Dp he ~~ y) 4 tng aA<. ~~ Bo ae ’ Y ne iottt 216 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES the beginning to the end of the period it evidently maintained regular and active communi- cation with the Cyclades, and we have seen grounds for believing that a not inconsiderable interchange of exports and imports was carried out between the kindred peoples in these two areas. This foreign contact by the end of the period had certainly been extended as far as Crete, and we have noted the appearance of Cretan influence in the very significant form of the use of seals of a characteristic Minoan type. In striking contrast with the abundance of material of Early Helladic date the Middle Helladic Period at Zygouries offers us nothing for comparison with the results of excavations in outside regions. The very paucity of the remains is certainly in itself significant; it must mean that the Middle Helladic occupation was of very limited scope. In a period of dis- turbance and movement of peoples on a wide scale it is not surprising that this retired in- land valley should cease to play a part in the intersectional activity of the day; the external contacts of a modest settlement such as this could be maintained only in a time of settled peace and security. At all events it seems clear that the hamlet which succeeded the flourish- ing Early Helladic town had no independent contact with the outside world, but was merely one of the many minor rural positions seized upon by the invaders who swept down through the southern mainland and brought Early Helladic civilization to an end; and as such its relations were presumably limited to its own immediate homogeneous neighborhood. As an unimportant community, perhaps subject to a larger centre, it continued to exist into Late Helladic times, attaining in the third stage of this latter period once more some measure of prosperity. By this time the rise of great strongholds and the concentration of royal power on the mainland had no doubt completely subjected all the outlying small towns and reduced them to a common Mycenaeanized cultural level, though open again to outside influences which reached them through the capitals. The dependency of Zygouries upon Mycenae, at any rate, is complete, and its indirect wider connections require no further discussion in this place. Chronology For the relative chronology of the three Helladic Periods of the Bronze Age the evidence from Zygouries comes squarely to the support of the system established on the basis of the results of the excavations at Korakou. This has been clearly enough set forth in the pre- ceding chapters in the description of the objects found, and not much further argument is needed here. It is true that a complete sequence of stratification showing well-marked lines of division like that at Korakou was not discovered at Zygouries; but the chief dividing line was indicated in another way with equal clarity. The houses of the Early Helladic settlement unquestionably came to an abrupt and simultaneous end as the result of a conflagration, and were never rebuilt; on the contrary the sites where they had stood were for the most part abandoned and only here and there reoccupied by insignificant structures of the ensuing period. The sharp break between Early Helladic and Middle Helladic 1s amply demonstrated by the great contrast between the abundant remains of the flourishing Early Helladic town antedating the fire and the insignificant relics of the subsequent Middle Helladic occupation. It is in fact not at all certain that we must not recognize here a stage of complete abandonment of the site; the scanty Middle Helladic remains might well be CONCLUSION ale the result of a new settlement toward the close of the period just before the overwhelming inrush of Cretan influences transformed the civilization of the mainland into its Minoan- ized Late Helladic form. The evolution of this native Middle Helladic culture under the impulse of the transform- ing Minoan wand is here, as elsewhere, unmistakable in the remains of the period brought to light, even though they are so exceedingly scanty. Thus we see in the pottery Gray Minyan ware and Yellow Minyan, and finally, when the Cretan technique of lustrous paint has been introduced, this latter fabric metamorphosed with decoration in the Minoan style. Thus there can be no doubt of the completely confirmatory bearing of the evidence from Zygouries on the threefold division of the Bronze Age in Southern Greece. The great mass of ceramic material of Early Helladic date was also sufficiently differen- tiated both in character and place of finding to provide useful criteria for the further deter- mination and definition of the subdivisions within the period. The triple division suggested by the stratification at Korakou was in the main clearly borne out, and I think it is now pos- sible to speak with a fair degree of assurance of Early Helladic I, II, and III. A detailed discussion of this evidence has already been presented in the chapter on the pottery, and only a brief recapitulation will be given here. Early Helladic I is marked chiefly by plain polished wares of varying grades of excellence, with and without incised decoration similar to the style prevalent in the Cyclades. The period also saw the introduction of an excellent lustrous glaze-paint, mostly red in color, often mottled red and black, which appears on vases side by side with polished ware. No decoration with painted patterns has yet been developed. The material of this stage came from the deepest deposits in the trenches below the south and west sides of the hill and from a mass of débris filling certain cuttings resembling Jothroz in the west scarp. Cycladic influence on this pottery is strong. Early Helladic II is distinguished by good glazed pottery, often red, but predominatingly black in color, and frequently mottled black and red. The glaze is generally of a firm, substantial quality, but not quite so brilliant as the lustrous red of the preceding stage; and the beginning of a process of degeneration is distinctly apparent. The old polished ware has practically vanished and a new type, finer and more delicate, perhaps imitating metal, makes its initial appearance. Patterned ware, on which dark patterns are painted on a light ground, is a further innovation. In all these wares the shapes have become much more distinctively mainland forms and less suggestive of Cycladic types. The material of this stage is represented by the deposits under the floors of the houses, especially in the central part of the hill. Early Helladic III is the stage to which all the houses of the settlement as revealed by the excavations appear to belong. It seems to end with the total destruction of the Early Helladic town and perhaps at least a partial abandonment of the site. It is manifestly an age of decline and shows the pottery in an advanced state of degeneration. The good red and black glaze of the preceding stages is now almost completely lacking; instead, we find the vases usually coated with a thin brownish black wash, often almost without lustre. One of the most characteristic kinds of ware bears only a partial covering of this thin wash, generally on the upper half of the body, or in a band along the rim, and the final step in the 218 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES degeneration of glaze is represented by a class of similar vases altogether without paint. Patterned ware continues in various grades of quality, and before the end a new type ap- pears, of which only the scantiest remnants were brought to light, showing patterns in thin white pigment on a dark ground. Curiously some of the best examples of the delicate polished and mottled ware which began in the preceding stage belong in this final phase, and the presence of such fine work among the great masses of debased ware contemporary with the settlement is something of a puzzle. As suggested above, the most likely explana- tion is that the best efforts of the handicraftsmen were now mainly reserved for other materials, and we probably have here a small group of vessels of special types and for special purposes, made in imitation of originals in precious metals. With reference to the subdivisions within the Middle Helladic Period no new evidence was forthcoming at Zygouries, and the same statement holds good for the Late Helladic Period as well. The relative position within the long Third Late Helladic stage of the stock of vases from the Potter’s Shop has already been sufficiently discussed; and we may now pass directly to a consideration of the fresh evidence bearing on the absolute chronology of the Early Helladic Period. The material in question comprises the bronze dagger from House U, the seal impression from the same quarter, and the button seal from House Y; and the amulet from Tomb VII must also be included in the list, As already pointed out, the rather advanced type of the dagger, later than the specimens from Amorgos, is most nearly paralleled by a weapon from a tholos tomb at Platanos in Crete. The tomb was in use during Early Minoan III and Middle Minoan I, and this dagger, quite different from the characteristic broad and short type of Early Minoan times, belongs clearly to the later group of objects in the tomb. ~ The seal impression offers a curvilinear variety of the labyrinth design which, though no exact counterpart appears to have been published, must clearly be associated with the similar patterns on the later ivory and stone seals from the tholos tombs in the same dis- trict of Crete. The closest analogy to our button seal of terracotta likewise comes from the same context (the Hagios Onouphrios deposit), and the division of the circular field into quarters is a common feature there. The foot-amulet, finally, is almost identical with ex- amples from Tholos B at Koumasa (Xanthoudides, The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara, p. 31, Nos. 132, 134; Pl. III, 132; Pl. XXVI a, No. 132), and other specimens were found in the larger tholos at Hagia Triada (Mem. Inst. Lomb., XX], p. 251, Pl. XI, Fig. 27), in the tholos at Marathokephalon (Apy. AeAr., 4, 1918, p. 22, Fig. 8), and at Platanos (Vaulted Tombs, p23; PIAL VIL Nowri42); All of these objects, which date from the latest phase of the Early Helladic occupation at Zygouries, are thus seen to correspond closely with relics found in the tholos ossuaries of the Mesara plain. The latter were employed for innumerable successive interments mainly during Early Minoan III and Middle Minoan I, and the analogies which they provide for the finds at Zygouries seem not to belong to the earliest group of objects found in the tombs. The evidence from Zygouries accordingly agrees perfectly with that discovered by the Swedish expedition at Asine, where seals and sealings of the same general character were recovered from the latest layers of the Early Helladic deposits. The chronological conclu- sions which Professor Persson so clearly drew (Bulletin de la Société Royale des Lettres de CONCLUSION 219 Lund, 1923-1924, pp. 162-172) are thus further substantiated through these finds at Zygouries, and it may now be regarded as established beyond doubt that the Third Early Helladic Period on the mainland in part at least overlapped Middle Minoan I in Crete, and came to its end not far from 2000 B.c.! This approximate date is indeed the earliest fixed point yet established in the chronology of the mainland. The beginning of the Early Helladic age is still wrapped in uncertainties with no definitely datable Cretan (or other) connection to fix it. That the period was a very long one, occupying many centuries, cannot be gainsaid, but exactly how far back beyond the middle of the third millennium its origins may be sought must be left to the elucidation of future excavations. In concluding this account of the excavations at Zygouries it may be worth while, so far as the evidence brought to light allows, to attempt a brief reconstruction in its general lines of the history of the settlement with which we have been dealing. No traces of neolithic remains were found anywhere on or about the hill, and the earliest occupation must, therefore, date from the Bronze Age. Recent exploration in southern Greece has resulted in the discovery of pottery and other relics of the neolithic age at several neighboring places in eastern Peloponnesus. Corinthia, the valleys of Nemea and Phlius, and Argolis were certainly included in this sphere of early occupation; the short- est routes of communication between these points must have led directly through the Cleonaean basin, and one might reasonably expect evidence of contemporary habitation to come to light here. Up to the present time none has been observed, and if the valley actually was occupied in neolithic times the settlement must have stood in another place and not on the hill of Zygouries. This shifting of the sites occupied by the settlements, and the totally divergent character of the neolithic remains from that of the Early Helladic, agree in indicating that we are dealing with the remains of two different peoples, doubtless of different race. The neolithic element is, so far as the evidence yet goes, the aboriginal population of the country, which we find in possession at the period when archaeological records begin. The Early Helladic element appears to be made up of invaders who, judging by their Cycladic and Minoan kinship, must have come in from the East, perhaps crossing the Aegean from southwestern Asia Minor. With their improved weapons of metal — copper and bronze — they seem to have been speedily able to master the native stock, 1 It is apparently the failure to grasp the fact that Early Helladic III overlapped Middle Minoan I which has led to some recent misunderstanding of the chronological system here used for the mainland. The break in the development, on which this system of terminology is based, comes at the end of Early Helladic II, which, as we have seen above, must be fixed at least as late as the middle of Middle Minoan I, if not later. The Middle Helladic Period with its two subdivisions thus corresponds in the main to Middle Minoan II and III. The drawing up of a chronological scheme for a given area is not simply a free mathematical problem in which one is given complete liberty to work out a balanced and symmetrical arrangement; the case is much more complicated than that, and it is surely naive in speaking of the subdivisions of the Early Helladic Period to say that they “should, but on Mr. Blegen’s scheme do not, correspond with the three Early Minoan phases in Crete” (Childe, The Dawn of European Civilization, p. 75). Why should they correspond with the three Early Minoan phases in Crete, or with the subdivisions in any other area? The system is naturally modelled on Sir Arthur Evans’ Minoan classification, which laid the foundations for all subsequent study in the field of Aegean chronology, but when applied to the mainland or to any other area outside of Crete, the subdivisions should and must correspond, not with a system worked out on the basis of in- ternal evidence for Crete itself, nor with any fixed mathematical formula, but with the actual facts as revealed by excavations in the region in question. If they are to have any meaning in themselves they should and must correspond with the stratifica- tion. To transfer bodily the whole Minoan system of Crete to the mainland, as Forsdyke has done (Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, Vol. 1, Part I, p. xxii), is merely to impose an arbitrary arrangement. No scheme which fails to take account of the stratification is likely to be of permanent value. 220 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ZYGOURIES and the completion of this conquest inaugurates a long era of quiet growth and develop- ment. During this period the remnants of the original inhabitants, who can hardly have been totally exterminated, were in all probability slowly and gradually assimilated. The invaders were not a nomadic type of people, but lived a settled life in communities which they established in favorable positions controlling a region of arable land. A typical village of this kind stood on the hill of Zygouries, and the slow evolution and advance of its culture, as evidenced by the remains it has left, are no doubt also typical of the processes that were going on synchronously throughout the whole of this part of Greece. From the testimony of the pottery, this development seems to fall into three main stages, though the period is apparently a unity without a break. Except for their pottery the first and second of these phases are still very imperfectly known. Small pieces of walls uncovered in the deeper levels of the trenches in the west central part of the hill indicate that in the second phase, at least, substantial houses were erected resting on stone foundations, and rectangular construction was customary. But no complete house was cleared, and nothing can be said of the plans. For Early Helladic III, the third phase of the period, however, much more evidence is available, enabling us to recover a fairly comprehensive picture of the life of the day. The village, which was of some size and consisted of many houses built close together, was laid out in a fairly orderly manner with streets and lanes. The houses, though simple and unpretentious, were solidly built, with heavy stone foundations and superstructure of crude brick; they usually consisted of two rooms of unequal size, connected by doors which swung in pivots; and in one case at least there was a fixed central hearth. The floors were made of hard-packed earth; the roof was flat and built of logs plastered over with clay and reeds. Household supplies were kept in large storage jars sometimes ranged in a row along the wall of a room. Only one house was of especially large dimensions; perhaps this was the home of the chieftain or the headman of the village. The dead were buried outside the settlement, presumably at first in separate graves; later the bones seem to have been gathered up for secondary burial in small cave-ossuaries. With the dead were deposited pottery, implements, and articles of personal adornment such as gold pendants, silver diadems, beads, and in one case an amulet. The village was evidently a prosperous agricultural community. It seems to have im- ported goods on a fairly considerable scale from comparatively distant quarters, and perhaps it had commodities of its own to give in exchange. Among these latter may have been agricultural produce, livestock — sheep and goats and swine were certainly raised and probably larger cattle — perhaps also potter’s clay. Imports included above all obsidian from Melos, lava or volcanic stone for millstones and grinders, marble vessels and figur- ines from the Cyclades, gold, silver, and bronze; and trade connections with Crete are apparent. Such open commercial intercourse between a small town in an upland valley on the mainland and regions across the sea implies an age of tranquillity and security from hostile incursions; it also implies power and organization to patrol the highways of traffic, but whence came the power and who controlled it are questions which cannot yet be answered. At all events it hardly seems likely that any considerable concentration of royal domain is to be sought at this early date on the mainland itself; the many Early Helladic CONCLUSION 221 settlements which have hitherto been found seem all to have been modest little towns, not much, if at all, different from the one we have been describing. The flourishing village at Zygouries, which may be taken to represent the final stage reached after many centuries in the slow progress of Early Helladic civilization, appears to have been abruptly destroyed by fire. The extensive deposits of pottery and other articles of furniture lying on the floors of the houses suggest that it was a sudden and unexpected catastrophe, and it may not be mere phantasy to recognize a more vivid confirmation of this in the cooking pot from the House of the Pithoi, which still contained a large beef bone, the remains of the last meal prepared in the house. . The occasion of this destruction is not difficult to surmise. It is surely the same as that which caused the abandonment of so many settlements in Corinthia and elsewhere ! and which left its traces in the layer of ashes and charred remains which covered the final Early Helladic town at Korakou; the same as that which introduced a fresh infusion of culture into these regions with a new type of house, a new type of burial, and new types of pottery. It can have been nothing other than a hostile invasion and conquest, and without doubt marks the arrival of a fresh racial element quite different from that which it destroyed. Rude and vigorous it certainly was, for it seems to have rolled like an inundation out of central Greece over Attica, eastern Peloponnesus and Laconia, reaching at least as far as the Helos Plain. One of its chief distinguishing marks is the wheel-made gray Minyan pottery it brought with it, and the appearance of this ware in quantities at Melos shows that the movement was felt far down among the Cyclades. This invasion probably worked itself out in the course of the twentieth century B.c., after which succeeded another interval of quiet. But the town of Zygouries, which had fallen a victim to the inroad, was evidently not reoccupied and rebuilt on its previous scale; indeed it may have been partially or completely abandoned for some time. Eventually, however, it was again occupied — the situation is a very eligible one — though probably only by a small hamlet. To this latter must be attributed the Middle Helladic pottery brought to light in the excavations and the cist graves found on the hill, for in this period burial within the settlement was customary. The houses must have been few and perhaps widely sepa- rated, as only scanty remains of walls were found. Like all other Middle Helladic settlements in southern Greece this too came ultimately under the dominating spirit of Minoan influence, and it continued to exist through Late Helladic I and II as a Mycenaean station near the intersection of two important roads joining the Isthmus with the Argolid. No recognizable architectural remains of these periods were found; but in Late Helladic III there came a revival. Many houses were constructed on the low ground to the east and west of the hill, but the hill itself seems henceforth to have been reserved for a single large mansion, perhaps the residence of the local governor or noble, subject to the king at Mycenae. His house was built in a fashion reminiscent of the Cyclopean walls at the capital and decorated with frescoes in the traditional Mycenaean style. In his cellars he, or his successors, stored a vast quantity of pottery, perhaps for sale 1 Early Helladic sites which were never again reoccupied in subsequent periods are not at all rare throughout the southern parts of Greece. As examples may be named Hagios Kosmas below Phaleron and the hill southeast of the modern village of Spata in Attica; Makrovouni just to the west of the Aspis at Argos; and Palaiopyrgos not far from Vaphio in Laconia. 222 tery aan account ie two or ee generations; sana no stants 2 ake decline and it was only as an insignificant hamlet again that Zygouries oe to the shadowy end of the Mycenaean Age. | } | s INDEX Acrocorinth, 2. Aegean, intercourse of, with Peloponnesus in E. H. Period, 194; connections with settlement at Zy- gouries, 210 ff, Aegina, in Cycladic ceramic sphere, 212; L. H. III cylix from, 147. Aegisthus, vessels from Tomb of, at Mycenae, 139. Alexopoulos, G., 68. Ambelakia, cemetery of Zygouries at, 42, $4n., 211; M. H. grave of adult and child at, 56f.; shaft- graves at, 178. Amorgos, bronze daggers from, 213, 218; impress of leaf on pottery from, 212; silver diadems from, 182, 211. Amulet of stone in shape of foot, 47, 197, 212. Architecture, chapter Il) 4 ff.; of E. H. Period, 4 f.; of M. H. Period, 28; of L. H. Period, 28 ff. Early Helladic, House A, 8f.; House D, 6 f.; “House of the Dagger”’(= House U), 25 ff.; House i oa- Mouse’ L,21 ff.; “House of the Pithoi,” 8, 9 ff.; House S, 1g f.; “House of the Snailshells,” iespeetiouse W, 16 f.; House Y, 24/f.; alcove, 20; alleys, 5, 7; dothroi, 26, 28, 76, 77, 215; bricks, Pe courtyard, 16, 23;.26; doors, 6, 7, 8, 10 f.; floor, 8, 9, 12, 16, 25; gatepost, 10; general plan of settlement, 4, 6; hearth, 6, 13, 20, 26; houses, general plan of, 5, 6; orientation of, 6; lane, 16; pavement of stones, 10; pillars, 13; pivotstones, 7, 9, 11; rectangular construction, 6; roof, 6, 13, EAwestrcets, 4 1,,°7,. 8) 9; 275 superstructure, .4; threshold, 8, 10; vestibule (?), 9, 14; walls, 4, 6, 7, 8,9 i rg: Middle Helladic, walls, 28. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean), House B (= the Pot- ter’s Shop), jo #f., 135; brick (crude), 37; corri- dor (?), 32; drain, 35, 37; drain-trap, 38; floor, 33, 34, 36; plaster, 32, 36, 37, 38; stairway, 37; thresh- Old: 192,94, 373 walls, 8, 11, 14, 30; 35. Byzantine, walls, 39, 40. Argive Heraeum, 209; bronze dagger from M. H. tomb at, 182; bronze tweezers from M. H. shaft-grave at, 183; from L. H. chamber tomb at, 183; E. H. ossuary at, $4, 210; realistic octopus on L. H. jar from, 146. Argolis, 1; in sphere of neolithic occupation, 219. Argos, I, 209, 22In. Asine, E. H. seal impression on terracotta from, 107; E. ist seals and sealings from, 214, 218; Minyan ware made in moulds at, 126. Aspis at Argos, 209, 22In. 229 Athens, in National Museum at, bronze pins from Cycladic tombs, 183; Cycladic figurines from Sunium, 194; palettes of schist from Siphnos and Syra, 197; sickles from Mycenae, 203. Attica, M. H. invasion of, 221; steatopygous figurines from, 194. Azoria Hill (in Crete), 1n. Bakoulis, D., 75. Beads, Early Helladic, of carnelian, 47, 51, 53, 197; of green stone, 197; of steatite, 53, 197. Middle Helladic, of crystal, 40, 201; of paste, 40, 201. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean), of steatite, 61, 207. Boars’ tusks, Early Helladic, 27,194; Late Helladic, 207. Bone, Early Helladic objects of, buttons (or whorls), 53, 191 f.; disk, 192; handle of knife or dagger, 191; implement, 27, 193; pins, 192f.; pommel from handle of dagger or sword, 191; spool, 27, 193. Middle Helladic, pin, 40, 201. Bones, of goats (?), 41; of goats, sheep, and swine, 194. Bossert, H., 215. Bothroi, 26, 28, 76, 77, 215; at Orchomenos, 215. Break between Early and Middle Helladic Periods at Zygouries, 216. British Museum, L. H. cylix from Kalymnos in, 147. Broneer; O.1.,.278. Bronze, objects of, Early Helladic, awl, 25, 183; chisel, 1845 dagger, 27, 182; came (ee 1845 spatulae, acy Bie eo fs tweezers, 183; wire, 9, 184. Middle Helladic, coils of wire, 40, 201. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean), knife, 38, 202 f.; sickle, 203; spearhead, 203. Geometric, ring, 69, 208. Roman, coin of Constantius Gallus, 71, 179. Bulle sHyGi are: Burial of adult and child in M. H. tomb, 56. Burial customs of Cyclades and Zygouries in E. H. Period compared, 211. Burials, see Tombs. Buttons, of steatite, 61, 65, 208. Byzantine remains, 39, 40. Candia, Museum at, 144. Carnelian, E. H. beads of, 47, 51, 53, 197; L. H. beads of, 65, 208. Cave-burials at Epano Zakro (in Crete), 214. Cave-ossuaries, see Ossuaries, Tombs. Celts, 21, 199. Cemetery of Zygouries at Ambelakia, 3, 42 ff., 211. 224 Chalandriane (in Syra), bronze awl from cemetery at, 183; bronze pin found at, 184; bronze spatulae from, 182; celt from acropolis of, 199; occurrence together of amorphous and anthropomorphic figurines at, 189; silver diadem from, 181, 211; stone pestles or spools from, 198. Chalcis, early tombs near, 54; tweezers from tombs near, 183. Chamber tombs, 57 ff.; see Tombs, Late Helladic. Charadra, ravine of (at Argos), 209 f. Chert, see Flint. Childe, V. G., 94, 219n. Chiliomodi, 2. Chronology of settlement at Zygouries, 216 ff. Cist-graves, see Tombs. Cleonae, I, 210. Cleonaean basin, 219. Cnossus, Ephyraean ware of L. M. III from, 144. Cohen, H., 71n. Commercial activity in E. H. Period, 210. Comparison of discoveries at Zygouries with those at other sites in Aegean area, 209 ff. Comparison of E. H. pottery with contemporary ware in Crete; 217: Connections of Zygouries with Crete, 213 ff.; with Cyclades, 210 ff. Constantius Gallus, bronze coin of, 71, 179. Contracted position of skeleton in E. H. (?) grave, 43 ff.;in M. H. tombs, 40, 41, 42, §5. Corinth, 1; E. H. burials at, 54; Geometric vases from, 176; Roman lamps from, 178. Corinthia, abandonment of E. H. settlements in, 221; communications of, with Argolis, 209; E. H. settle- ments in (Gonia, Korakou, Yiriza), 198; in sphere of neolithic occupation, 219. Crete, button seals from tombs in Mesara plain in, 189; early ossuaries in, 54, 214; foot-shaped amulets found in, 212. Crystal, beads of, 40, 201. Cyclades, amorphous figurines from, 188; bronze daggers from early Cycladic tombs in, 182; bronze spatulae from, 182, 211; bronze tweezers from, 183, 211; cist-graves in, 54; connections of, with Zy- gouries, 210 ff.; early pottery from, 78; kernoi from, 81; link between Zygouries and, 182; marble pots from, 195; stone pestles or spools from, 198. Cycladic pottery withimpressionof leaf, 107; of mat, 117. Dawkins, R. M., 155, 212. De Jong, P., 103, 129. Dervenaki Pass, 2. Diadems, of silver, 47, 51, 53, 181 f.; found in Amorgos and Syra, 211; of gold, from Mochlos, 211. Dromos of chamber tombs, 57, 61, 65. Droop; js 2 2s. Early Helladic, architecture, 4 ff.; miscellaneous ob- jects, 180 ff.; pottery, 76 ff.; tombs, 43 ff. Early Helladic people, invaders from southwest Asia Minor, 219. INDEX Early Helladic Period, absolute chronology of, 218; destruction of settlement at end of, 217; triple division of, 217. Earrings (?) of gold, 47, 51, 53, 180. Pdpar iC abr Epano Zakro, cave burials at, 214. Euboea, early tombs near Chalcis in, 183. Evans, Sir Arthur, 183, 219. Figurine of marble, 194; probably imported from Cyclades, 213. Figurines, see Terracottas. Flint, E. H. celt of, 21; E. H. saw of, 26, 199. Forsdyke, E. J., 219. Furtwiangler, A., 127, 133, 147. Gems of steatite, 38, 61, 207. German Archaeological Institute, 1. Gilliéron, E., 191. Glaze on E. H. pottery, 78. Gold, E. H. earrings or pendants of, 47, 51, 53, 180; wire links of, 181. Gonia (in Corinthia), E. H. dothroi at, 215; E. H. glazed ware at, 83; E. H. stone pestles or spools from, 198; M. H. grave of two adults at, 56; Minyan Ware at, 126. Gournia (in Crete), 6; ossuaries at, 214. Graves, see Tombs. Gurob, stirrup vases from, 174. Hadzidakis, J., In. Hagia Marina (Phocis), E. H. patterned ware at, 215. Hagia Photia (Crete), ossuaries at, 214. Hagia Triada (Crete), foot-shaped amulet from, 218. Hagios Kosmas (Attica), E. H. settlement at, 221n. Hagios Nikolaos (Crete), rock-shelter graves at, 214. Hagios Onouphrios (Crete), terracotta seal from, 189, 218. Hagios Sostis, 1. Hagios Vasilios, 1, 2, 42, 200. Hair-fasteners (?) of bronze wire, 40, 201. Haley, J. B.73r%0. Hawes, Harriet Boyd, In. Heermance, T. W., 54. Helos Plain, reached by M. H. invasion, 221. Horn of red deer, 193 f. Ialysus, cylix from, 147. Imports at settlement of Zygouries, 220. Impression of seal on E. H. pottery, 107. Infant burial, M. H. Period, 26, 42. Incised patterns on E. H. pottery, 78, 124. Isthmus, 2. Ivory, handle of a knife of, 38; knob of, on handle of bronze knife, 203, 207. Kakovatos, design on jar from, 147; jars of Palace style from, 136. Kalymnos, cylix from, 147. Karo, G., 6. INDEX Kontogeorgis, G., 75. Korakou, chronology of settlement at, supported by evidence from Zygouries, 216; classification of E. H. pottery at, 76; classification of M. H. pottery at, 125; destruction of settlement at, 221; early E. H. pottery from, 77; Early Helladic, bothroi at, 215; cylinders of unbaked clay from, I91; patterned ware at, 103; paved circle at, 20; glazed ware at, 83, 100; stone pestles or spools from, 198; unpainted ware at, 106; water jars at, 96; Middle Helladic, apsidal house at, 28; cups with high handles from, 128; sherds with shiny glaze from, 135; Late Helladic, Ephyraean ware at, 139; late L. H. III ware at, 140; L. H. III jug from, 169; L. H. III houses at, 166. Koumasa, foot-shaped amulet from, 218. Laconia, M. H. invasion of, 221. Late Helladic, architecture, 30 ff.; miscellaneous ob- jects, 202 ff.; pottery, 135 ff.; tombs, 57 ff. Leaf, impression of, on base of E. H. pot, 107. Levkas, E. H. pottery at, 215. Léschcke, G., 127, 133, 147. Longopotamos, 1, 2. Lord, G. D., 54. Louvre, gold sauceboat in, 94. Makrovouni, E. H. settlement of Argos, 209, 221n. Malian Gulf, 215. Marathokephalon, foot-shaped amulet from, 218. Marble, vessels of, imported from Cyclades, 213. Mat impressions on E. H. pottery, 78, 106 f., 116 f. Megaron type of house, 6. Melos, Minyan ware found in, 221; obsidian at Zygouries imported from, 198; settlement at Phy- Jakopi in, 210. Mesara, tholoi in plain of (in Crete), amulets from, 218; button seals from, 189; daggers from, 182; tweezers from, 183. Metal, influence on pottery of vessels in, 94. Metal, objects of, Early Helladic, bronze awl, 25, 183; | chisel, 184; dagger, 27, 182; fragment, 53, 184; nail, 184; pins, 47, 48, 53, 183, 184; ring, 44, 184; spatulae, 51, 53, 182 f.; tweezers, 183; wire, 9, 184; gold earrings or pendants, 47, 51, 53, 180; wire links, 181; /ead, clamps of, for mending pottery, 184 f.; lump of, 184; stopper of, 118, 184; si/ver, disk of, 47, 181; fragments of diadems, 47, 51, 53, 181 f.; pin, $1, 53, 181; wire loop, 47, 180. Middle Helladic, coils of wire of bronze, 40, 201. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean), bronze knife, 38, 202 f.; sickle, 203; spearhead, 203. Geometric, bronze ring, 69, 208. Roman, bronze coin of Constantius Gallius, 71, 179. Mica, particles of, in clay, 94, 104, 122, 212. Middle Helladic, architecture, 28; miscellaneous ob- qects, 201 f.; pottery, 125 ff.; tombs, 39ff., 99 f.; remains at Zygouries scanty for comparison, 216. Millstones, 13, 21, 27, 200. 225 Miscellaneous objects, Chapter V, 180 ff.: Early Hel- ladic, 180 ff.; Middle Helladic, 201 f.; Late Helladic, 202 ff. (see Bone, Metal, Stone, Terracotta). Mochlos, city-plan of, 214; gold diadems from, 211; ossuaries at, 214; tweezers from E. M. tombs at, 183. Mottling, on E. H. pottery, 79; arranged to form a pattern, 93. Moulds, Minyan ware at Asine made in, 126. Miiller, K., 185, 210. Murex pattern on L. H. III pottery, 144 fF. Mussel shells, 38. Mycenae, 1, 209; bronze sickles from, 203; chamber tombs at, 65; coarse Yellow Minyan goblets from, 128; cup of Yellow Minyan from Sixth Shaft Grave at, 127; early E. H. pottery at, 77; jars of Palace style from, 136; L. H. III cylixes from, 147; L. H. III ware at, 139; obsidian arrowheads from, 208; Palace at, 37, 38; polychrome Matt painted jugs from Sixth Shaft Grave at, 135; pottery from dromos of Tomb 505 at, 139, 166; stratification of L. H. III pottery at, 165 f.; tweezers from First Shaft Grave at, 183; vessels from Tomb of Aegisthus at, 139; Zygouries dependent upon, in L. H. III, 216, 221. Mycenaean, see Late Helladic. Naxian marble, fragment of vessel probably of, 195. Naxos, mainland pottery imported to, 212. Nemea, 1; in sphere of neolithic occupation, 219. Neolithic remains, in Eastern Peloponnesus, 219; not found at Zygouries, 219. Nichols, Miss M. L., 176. Obsidian, arrowhead, E. H., 199, L. H., 208; blades and flakes, 21 ff., 26, 47, 198; imported from Melos, 2 Octopus design on L. H. III pottery, 146 f. Old Corinth, pottery from Zygouries in museum at, 75. Oneion, Mt., 2. Orchomenos, apsidal houses at, 6; architectural re- mains scanty for comparison, 215; dothroi at, 215; E. H. patterned ware at, 215. Ossuaries, at Ambelakia, 54; compared with ossuaries in Crete, 214. Palaikastro, bone enclosures at, 214. Palaiokastro, above Hagios Vasilios, 42. Palaiopyrgos, E. H. settlement at, 221n. Palettes of stone, 195; probably imported from Cyclades, 213. Papabasileiou, G., 54, 183. Paros, incised patterns on pottery from, 212. Paste, beads of, M. H. Period, 40, 201. Peloponnesian Railway, grave in cutting of, 68, 174. Peloponnesus, E. H. “stoppers” from, 188; identity of contemporary culture of, with that of Zygouries, 209 f.; inhabited in the Neolithic Period, 18g; inter- course with Aegean in E. H. Period, 194; scanty evidence for writing in E. H. Period, 190; steatopy- gous figurines from, 194. 226 Pendants of gold, 47, 51, 53, 180; analogies in Crete, 212. Persson, A., 107, 126, 208, 214, 218. Pestles of stone, use of, in E. H. Period, 198. Phaleron, 221n. Phlius, in sphere of Neolithic occupation, 219. Phoukas, Mt., 2. Phylakopi, architectural remains of early settlement at, 210 f.; dotted decoration on early pottery from, 104; mainland pottery imported to, 212; mat im- pressions on early pottery from, 212. Platanos, bronze dagger from, 213, 214, 218; foot- shaped amulet from, 218; pendant from Tholos A at; 212. Poros, well-cut slabs of, covering cist-graves, 67. Potter’s marks on E. H. pottery, 107. Potter’s shop at Zygouries, 30 ff. Pottery of Zygouries, Chapter IV, 75 ff. Pottery, Early Helladic, 76 ff.; compared with that from Cyclades and Crete, 212 f.; found in dothroi, 28, 77, 96, 97, 100, 108; found in House A, 9; House D, 8, 118; House L, 21 ff., 90, 94, 114, 118; House of the Pithoi, 12, 93, 99, 100, 112, 116, 118, 119, 123; House S, 20; House of the Snailshells, 16, 94, 96, 110; House U, 26 f.; House W, 18; House Y, 25, 90, 94; from Tomb VII, 47, 108; Tomb XX, 53, 108. Classification of A Polished Ware: I Without slip, 76 f.; II Slipped, 77 ff.; Yellow mottled ware, 78 ff. B Glazed Ware: I Partially coated, 83 ff.; II completely coated, 87 ff. C Patterned Ware, ror ff.; I] Dark-on-Light, 103 ff.; (a) Decoration in reserved zones, 103; (b) Open or Free style, 103 ff.; I] Light-on- Dark, 103. D Unpainted Ware, 106 ff. E Coarse Ware, Domestic Pots and Pithoi, $13 i. F Miscellaneous other wares, 123 ff. Impressed decoration on, g2; incised decoration, 78, 124; leaf impression, 107; mat impression, 78, 106 f., 116; Potter’s marks, 107; seal im- pression on, 107. Shapes: askoid cup, 112, 114; askoid vessel, 105; askos, 21, 23, 27, 79, 80, 81, 86, 94f.; askos, use of, 95 f.; baking pans, 117; basins, 78, 86, 97 f., 110; bowls, deep, 79, 99; bowls, shallow, 12, 21, 25, 26, 27, 47, 53, 78, 79, 80, 83, 87, 106, 112; chalice, 124 f.; cooking pots, 12, 22, 112 ff.; cups, 79, 80, 83, 112, 114, 123; dippers, 96 f.; goblets (?), 78; jars, 47, 53, 80, 85, 108, 116; jugs, 27, 78, 79, 80, 84f., 96, 98 f., 103; jug with tall neck, 93; ladle, 26, 27, 107 f.; lids, 87 f.; pans, 121 f.; patera, 51, $3, 107; pithoi, 8, 11 f., 14, 16, 18, 21, 78, 86, 117 &, 123; plates, 78, 124; pot with side spout and basket handle, 104, 123; pyxis, 47, 78, 79,-80, 87f., 105; sauceboats, 8, 12, 20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 47, 78; 79, 80, 86, 88 ff.; sauceboats, use of, 89; sauce- INDEX boats with spout in shape of ram’s head, 92 f.; tankard, 103, 104; “thimble,” 104 f.; vase in form of a bird, 9, 79, 81; water jars, 86, 96. Middle Helladic, 125 ff.; from Tomb I, 40, 131; from Tomb XXII, 55, 133. Classification of A Minyan Ware, 125 ff.: 1 Gray Minyan, 126 f.; II Argive Minyan, 126; III Yellow Minyan, 127. B Mattpainted Ware, 128 ff.: I Coarse style, 128 ff.; II Fine style, 131 ff.; III Polychrome style, 134 f. C Coarse Ware, 135. D Mainland Ware Corresponding to Fabrics of Middle Minoan III, 135. Shapes: basin, 135; bowls, 126, 127; cups, 40, 56, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132 f.; goblets, 126, 127, 128, 1335 Jugs, 40, $5, 129, 131, 133, 134. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean), 135 ff.: Late Helladic I, 135 f.; Late Helladic II, 136 ff.; Late Helladic III, 139 ff.; found in filling of dothros, 28; from the Potter’s Shop, 33, 34, 36, 143 ff., date of, 165 fF.; from Tomb XXV, 65; from Tomb XXXIII, 61, 167 ff., date of, 174; from Tomb XXXV, 64 f., 171 ff., date of, 174. Ephyraean ware, 139, 144; “granary class,” 139, 166, 174; “Keftiu shape,” 136, 139; murex pattern on, 144 ff.; octopus design on, 146 f.; Palace style, 136, 139, 147, 166; palm design on, 147. Shapes: amphora, 148, 171; askos, 64, 172; basins, 33, 36, 155 fF.; bath, 30, 142; bowls, deep, 33, 36, 139, 157; braziers, 161; cooking pots, see bowls, deep; craters, 34, 36, 161 f.; cups, 33, 136, 142, 153; cup with basket handle, 64; cylixes, 34, 62, 65, 143 ff., 151 ff., 173; goblet on a stem, 136; jars, 33, 36, 64 f., 136, 155, 1593 jar, cylindrical, 163 f.; jugs, 36, 61, 64, 141, 155, 167 ff., 173; jug with side spout, 64, 173; ladles, 33, see scoops; lids, 159; pan, circular, 164 f.; saucers, 33, 153 ff.; scoops, 1$g9 ff.; stand for a pot, 149; stirrup vases, 33, 61, 64 f., 141, 149 fF., 167, 171; water jars, 33, 163. Geometric, from Tomb XVIII, 69, 174 ff. Shapes: crater, 69, 176; oinochoé, 69, 174 ff. Roman, 176 ff.; from Tomb VIII, 70, 178; Tomb XI, 178 f.; Tomb XIII, 71, 178; Tomb XIV, 72, 178; Tomb XVa, 73, 179; Tomb XVII, 73, 178; Tomb XXXV, 63, 176 ff. Byzantine, 3, 24, 26, 28, 39. Prindle, L. M., 194. Pseira, 6; city plan of, 214. Pylos, jars of Palace style from, 136. Pyrgos, cave ossuary at, 214. Recess in side of dromos of chamber tomb, 61. Sacrifice of goats in connection with M. H. burial (?), 41. Saddle-querns, see Mill stones. Schliemann, H., 127, 135. INDEX Sea shell, from Tomb VII, 47. peager,, K., 79, 183, 211, 213, 214. Seal, impression of, on E. H. pot, 107. Seals, of steatite, L. H., 38, 61, 207. Silver, E. H. objects of, 47, 51, 53, 181 f. Siphnos, palettes of schist from, 197. Snailshells, 16. Spata, E. H. settlement at, 221. Spatula of bronze, E. H. Period, 51, 53, 182 f. Spirals, pattern of on L. H. plaster, 37. Stais, V., 206. Steatite, objects of, 38, 61, 65, 207f.; see Stone, objects of. Stone, objects of, Early Helladic, from House L, 21 f.; from House U, 26f.; from Tomb VII, 47; from Tomb XX, 53; arrowhead of obsidian, 199; beads of chalcedony or carnelian, 47, 51, 53; 197; bead of green stone, 197; bead of steatite (?), $3, 197; bead of limestone in shape of foot, 47, 197; blades and flakes of obsidian, 21 ff., 26, 47, 198; blades and chips of flint or chert, 26, 199; celts, 199; dish of marble, fragment of, 195; figurine of marble, frag- ment of, 194; millstones, 13, 21, 27, 200; palette of limestone, fragment of, 195; palette of schist, frag- ment of, 195; pestles or spools, 197 f.; pounders or grinders, 200; pyxis of greenish gray marble, frag- ment of, 195; vessel of marble, fragment of, 195; whetstones, Igg. Middle Helladic, beads of crystal, 40, 201. Late Helladic, arrowhead of obsidian, 208; beads of carnelian, 65, 208; bead of steatite, 61, 207; buttons of steatite, 61, 65, 207, 208; lentoid seals of steatite, 38, 61, 207. Sunium, marble figurines of Cycladic type from, 194. Syra, 189; imported mainland pottery at, 212; 1m- pression of leaf on pottery from, 212; palettes of schist from, 197; silver diadem from Chalandriane in, 181 f., 211; silver pins from, 181; stone spools or pestles from Chalandriane in, 198. Tattooing, in Cyclades, custom of, 198. Tell el Amarna, decoration on stirrup vases from, 171; L. H. III pottery at, 148, 167. Tenea, 2. Terracotta, Early Helladic, bird, forepart of, 186; body of small animal of, 186; button seal of, 25, 18g f.; cylinder of unbaked clay, 191; disks of, 190; female figurine of, 185; head of animal of, 27, 186; spools of, 190 f.; ““stoppers”’ (or figurines?) of, 9, 25, 27, 186 ff.; weight of, 191; whorls of, 9, 27, 190. Middle Helladic, whorl of, 40, 201. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean), animals of, 206; bull’s head (?) of, 64, 206; drain pipes of, 35, 37; figure of mother with infant child, 206; figurines from drain-trap, 38, 206; figurines from early L. H. III deposit, 205; from Tomb XXXIII, 61, 203 f.; from Tomb XXXV, 64, 204 f.; figurines, an- cestry of (?), 185; relative chronology of different types of, 205; table from Tomb XXXYV, 64, 206. 229 Thessaly, celts held in socket of deerhorn in, 199; figurines with body of terracotta and head of stone from, 188; relation of to E. H. cultural area, 21¢. Tile-graves, see Tombs, Roman. : Tiryns, 209; E. H. circular building at, 6; E. H. fig- urines from, 185, 210; M. H. apsidal house at, 28. Tombs, Chapter III, 39 ff.; in the settlement at Zygouries, 39 ff.;in the cemetery at Ambelakia, 42 ff. Early Helladic: how made, 45, 47, 48f., 53 f.; really ossuaries, 54; Tomb VII, 43 ff.; objects in, 47; twelve skulls in, 46; Tomb XVI, 47 f.; ob- jects in, 48; three skulls in, 48; Tomb XX, 48 ff.; bones in, 49; objects in, 51, 53; fifteen skulls in, SiG LOmpoO ALIS 69 fF, Middle Helladic: Tomb I, 39 f.; Tomb IV, 40 f.; Tomb V, 41 f.; Tomb VI, 26, 42; Tomb XXII, 55 fF. Late Helladic (= Mycenaean): Chamber tombs, 57 ff.; at Ambelakia, date of, 65, 174; chamber, 59, 63 f.; door, 57, 62f.; dromos, 57, 61 f.; Tomb XXV (unfinished dromos), 65; Tomb XXXIII, 57 f.; cist in floor of, 61; objects found in, 61; Tomb XXXV, 61 ff.; objects found in, 64 f. Geometric: Tomb XVIII, 67 f. Roman: 69 ff.; shaft-graves, 70, 72, 73, 74, 179; tile-graves, 53 f., 63, 67, 70, 72, 74; at Ambelakia, date of, 74, 179; Tomb VIII, 70; Tomb XII, 70; Tomb XIII, 70 f.; Tomb XIV, 72; Tomb XVa, 72 f.; Tomb XVII, 73; Tomb XXIII, 73; Tomb XXXII, 73; Tomb XXXV, 74. Of Indeterminate date: cist-graves covered by slab of poros, 66 f.; Tomb IX, 66; Tomb X, 66; Tomb XV 66 f. Tretus, (Mt, 25/42. Tsani (in Thessaly), rugose ware at, 117. Tsountas, Ch., 51, 181, 182, 183, 184, 194n., 197, 198, 21.1572; Vaphio, 221n. Vasiliki (in Crete), mottled ware at, 79, 213. Wace, A. J. B., 139, 165, 166. Winter, F., 206. Xanthoudides, St., 182, 183, 212, 214, 218. Yiriza (in Corinthia), E. H. stone pestles or spools from, 198. Zafer Papoura, tweezers from cemetery at, 183. Zygouria, In. Zygouries, situation of, 2, 209; stratification of deposit at, 3; identity of culture with that of contemporary settlements in Northeastern Peloponnesus, 209 f.; summary of external relations of, 215 f.; destruction of E. H. settlement at, 221; reconstructed history of settlement at, 219 ff. PLATE I S PIN SCALR ZYQOURIES GENERAL PLAN HM Uys Uy ve / Ly Nyy i AYN] Hiu\ ’ ee Ace ees a YY Ty Yy Si SS MY My, nN \ = ~ Wy y/ Ht \ im Pissed +f Tinney . { i) i Y Ly AN VY, es iy SN \S ~ , eis t] \N 4 i \\ \ WW . WN US Nye: i i uty AY Wi iN if PANNA GAY HAD aN 2 UAL WN I} Wf (LP yy / Lf GENERAL PLAN OF THE EXCAVATIONS PLATE II U7) Rs Mi 1omM. a ? PALE ARE HEN HY Capp, “eg "ty H OW a Wages Uv ee ay See aneee ‘ AY Soy ti,