The Treasure of Mycene.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3044, 16 November 1878, Page 1

The Treasure of Mycene.

Dr Schliemann's discoveries at Mycente continue to exercise the ingenuity of < scholars and archaeologists. Professor Fcxchhammer, whose travels in Greece in the years 1830 and 1838 mark an important epoch in our knowledge of ancient Greek topography, has lately thrown out some hints as to the true origin of the treasures of Mycenae, which, at all events, deserve serious attention. From bit $fn knowledge of the walls of Mycen»?he denies that the space where the tombs were found was originally; as Leake sup- * posed, and as has been again maintained by more recent scholars,, outside the walls, or that if originally formed a kind of necropolis, connected in later times with the Acropolis. He looks upon that so. called necropolis as an integral part of the old castle", as a second line of defence^ such as is found at Matinest, Messene, Psopbia, and o^her Greek towns. He fheh~ points to Nflw facts, mentioned by > Diodorus, Strain), and Pausanias^thar Mycenae gloried in having sent 80 war- , riors against the Persians at Thermopylae and 400 warriors with the Tirynthians to the battle .6? Plafwa; that on the strength of this, Myoen» declined to recognise the.hegemony of the. people of Argos, contesting. their right to the exclusive possession of the temple of Hera, and to the conduct of the Nemean games. This led in the end to a war with Argos. The people of Mycenae were defeated in a battle, retired into the city and defended it for some, time, till they were obliged by famine to surrender. In the.year 468 B.C. Mycenae was destroyed, while the remainder of the inhabitants emigrated toEleonse and Keryneia. In order to account for the two facts which especially require explanation in the antiquities of Mycenae—viz., the exceptional mode of burial and the extraordinary amount of treasure stowed away in the tombs, Dr. Fordhbammersupposes that the skeletons found by Dr. Schliemann are those of generals killed during the siege of Mycenae and Hastily interred within the walls. The treasure itself he traces to the battle of Plataea. Though as early as the Homeric poems Mycenae was called a rich town, yet such treasures' as were found in the tombs by Dr. Schliemann were probably, as Dr. Forchhammer surmises, the booty of the Per* sian war. That booty was immense, and after it had first been tithed for the Olympian Zeus, the Delphic Apollon, and the Isthmian Poseidon, all the rest, women, gold, silver, precious objects, and animals, such as camels, &c, was divided equally among those who had taken part in the war. Herodotus (ix., 80) tells us how Pausanias forbad the booty to be touched by anybody before it had beeu collected by the' 'Helots, and he tells us that the Helots stole much of it, and sold it to the people of JEgina. /The tents were full of gold and silver, beds were found covered with gold and silver, golden bowls, cops, and beakers, sacks full of golden basins, besides the armlets, collars, and daggers taken from - the dead.' It -was only 11 years before the seige of Mycenae that its share of the Persian milliards had been deposited within its walls. Nothing, therefore, seems more'natural than that during the seige and previous to the surrender they should have hidden their treasures in the tombs, in which the bodies of their leaders had been deposited, and where, unknown to the enemy, they might have been recovered, unless all had been buried beneath the ruins of the town. If this explanation is true, the antiquities discovered by Dr. Schliemann would not represent early Greek nor any pre-Hel«, lenic barbarous art, but Persian, it may be Assyrian, Babylonian, and Bactrian workmanship. Traces of Persian and Assyrian art had already attracted the attention^ of several scholars, partly in some of the tombstones, partly in the engraved gems found at Mycenae. But how strange, that no specimen of cuneiform writing should as yet have come to light,' if Dr. Schliemann's find represents really the booty from the camp of Mardonius ! The golden. masks found in the iombs are taken by Dr Forcbammer to be likewise of Persian origin, and he mentions that such a mask has lately been found by Captain Lynch in' a tomb at Jalebi, on the Euphrates. The strength of Dr Forchhammer's argument lies in the fact that 11 years before the destruction of Mycena, a large treasure was brought there from Platea. If we do not recognise some part of it in Dr Schliemann's find, what became of it ?—Times.