The Coming of the Greeksjoyed such a glittering opulence that one must imagine them
lording it over a vast area in which were many productive com-
munities. Let us glance at Emily Vermeule's catalog of the con-
tents of a single grave, Grave iv. One of the richest graves of
all, Grave IV held the skeletons of three men and two women—
and more than four hundred gifts for the dead. In it
there were three gold masks; two gold crowns;
eight gold diadems or headbands; at least twenty-
seven swords and sixteen more sword pommels of
ivory, gold, alabaster, and wood; at least five dag-
gers and six more pommels; sixteen knives; five "ra-
zors"; five gold vases; ten or eleven silver vases;
twenty-two bronze vases; three alabaster vases; two
faience vases; eight clay vases; two gold rhyta; three
silver rhyta\o ostrich-egg rhyta', two engraved
gold rings; two silver rings; three gold armbands;
at least one gold necklace with animal links; one
gold-and-ivory comb; one large silver figure-of-
eight shield. From the funeral clothes of these five
people came 683 engraved gold discs and miscella-
neous repousse ornaments, gold foil cutouts in the
shape of cult buildings.. , 44and on and on. Looking only at the beads, for example, we note
not only beads of amethyst and other precious stone, but no
less than 1,290 of amber. Such were the contents of Grave iv.
Altogether, the shaft graves yielded treasures unmatched in the
history of archaeology. We are obviously dealing here with rul-
ers whose dominion was wide and complete.
In contrast to the immensely powerful and wealthy center
that Mycenae was under the Shaft Grave Dynasty, before 1600
B.C. Mycenae was not a center at all. Middle Helladic Mycenae
had been inhabited, for sherds of the period have been found
there, but whatever settlement there was must have been thor-
- Vermeule, Greece in the Bronze Age, 89.