Mycenae satisfied both his exalted opinion of Homer’s historical accuracy and his craving for valuable
treasures. Among the objects unearthed in Grave Circle A was a series of gold death masks, one of which
Schliemann proclaimed “the death mask of Agamemnon.” As we now know, the burials in Grave Circle A
date to a time some hundreds of years before the traditional time of the Trojan War, in which Agamemnon
is supposed to have participated.
Figure 10 Plan, drawn by Heinrich Sulze, of the Mycenaean palace at Tiryns, thirteenth century BC.
Source: Reproduced from K. Müller, Tiryns: Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen des Instituts III
(Augsburg 1930), Tafel 4.
“Two tripod cauldrons with goat decorations, of Cretan workmanship; one single-handled tripod
cauldron with one foot; one tripod cauldron of Cretan workmanship with the legs burnt away
(useless); three wine jugs; one large four-handled goblet; two large three-handled goblets; one small
four-handled goblet; one small three-handled goblet; one small goblet without a handle.” (Linear B
tablet Ta 641 from Pylos)Schliemann’s discoveries, therefore, do not provide exactly the sort of confirmation that he had hoped to
find (and thought that he had found), but they do reveal the considerable power and prosperity that
Mycenae and its rulers enjoyed in the middle of the second millennium BC. In addition to the death masks
of gold foil that were found placed over the faces of some of the men (but none of the women) buried in