stone corbeled courses laid on a circular base to form a lofty dome.
The builders probably constructed the vault using rough-hewn
blocks. After they set the stones in place, the masons had to finish the
surfaces with great precision to make them conform to both the hor-
izontal and vertical curves of the wall. The principle involved is no
different from that of the corbeled gallery (FIG. 4-16) of Tiryns. But
the problem of constructing a complete dome is much more compli-
cated, and the execution of the vault in the Treasury of Atreus is far
more sophisticated than that of the vaulted gallery at Tiryns. About
43 feet high, this was at the time the largest vaulted space without
interior supports that had ever been built. The achievement was not
surpassed until the Romans constructed the Pantheon (FIG. 10-51)
almost 1,500 years later using a new technology—concrete construc-
tion—unknown to the Mycenaeans.Metalwork, Sculpture, and Painting
The Treasury of Atreus had been thoroughly looted long before its
modern rediscovery, but excavators have found spectacular grave
goods elsewhere at Mycenae. Just inside the Lion Gate, Schliemann
uncovered what archaeologists now designate as Grave Circle A. It
predates the Lion Gate and the walls of Mycenae by some three cen-
turies. Grave Circle A encloses six deep shafts that had served as
tombs for kings and their families. The Mycenaeans laid their dead
to rest on the floors of these shaft graves with masks covering their
faces, recalling the Egyptian funerary practice. They buried women
with their jewelry and men with their weapons and golden cups.
MASKS AND DAGGERSAmong the most spectacular of
Schliemann’s finds is a gold mask (FIG. 4-22), one of several fromthe royal burial complex. The Mycenaean masks were made using
the repoussétechnique, that is, the goldsmiths hammered the shape
from a single sheet of metal and pushed the features out from be-
hind. The mask illustrated here has often been compared to Tutankh-
amen’s gold mummy mask (FIG. 3-1). The treatment of the human
face is, of course, more primitive in the Mycenaean mask. But this
was one of the first attempts in Greece to render the human face at
life-size, whereas Tutankhamen’s mask stands in a long line of mon-
umental Egyptian sculptures going back more than a millennium. It
is not known whether the Mycenaean masks were intended as por-
traits, but the goldsmiths recorded different physical types with care.
They portrayed youthful faces as well as mature ones. The illustrated
example (FIG. 4-22), with its full beard, must depict a mature man,
perhaps a king—although not Agamemnon, as Schliemann wished.
If Agamemnon was a real king, he lived some 300 years after this
mask was fashioned. Clearly the Mycenaeans were “rich in gold”
long before Homer’s heroes fought at Troy.
Also found in Grave Circle A were several magnificent bronze
dagger blades inlaid with gold, silver, and niello(a black metallic
alloy), again attesting to the wealth of the Mycenaean kings as well as
to their warlike nature. The largest and most elaborate of the group
is decorated on one side (FIG. 4-23) with a scene of four hunters
attacking a lion that has struck down a fifth hunter, while two other
lions flee. The other side shows lions attacking deer. The slim-
waisted, long-haired figures are Minoan in style, but the artist bor-
rowed the subject from the repertoire of the ancient Near East. It is
likely that a Minoan metalworker made the dagger for a Mycenaean
patron who admired Minoan art but whose taste in subject matter
differed from that of his Cretan counterparts.94 Chapter 4 THE PREHISTORIC AEGEAN4-22Funerary mask,
from Grave Circle A,
Mycenae, Greece,
ca. 1600–1500 bce.
Beaten gold, 1high.
National Archaeological
Museum, Athens.
Homer described the
Mycenaeans as “rich
in gold.” This beaten
gold (repoussé) mask
of a bearded man
comes from a royal
shaft grave. It is one
of the first attempts at
life-size sculpture in
Greece.1 in.4-22AGrave
Circle A (looking
southeast),
Mycenae,
1600–1250 BCE.
4-23AGold
drinking cup,
Vapheio, ca.
1600–1500 BCE.