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Death Masks of Mycenae
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The Death Masks at Mycenae are a series of golden funerary masks found on buried bodies within a burial site titled Grave Circle A, located within the ancient Greek city of Mycenae. There are seven discovered masks in total, found with the burials of six adult males and one male child. There were no women who had masks.[1] They were discovered by Heinrich Schliemann during his 1876 excavation of Mycenae.
There is also a death mask found in Grave Circle B, but it differs from the Cricle A masks both in material, as it is made from electrum, and placement, as it was placed in a container besides an entombed body, rather than being placed upon the deceased.[2]
Design
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The masks of Grave Circle A share similar features. They are made of a flat foil-like layer of gold and depict round, bald faces, with round eyes and prominent ears. The example picture depicts an elderly face, with lines that may either depict a mustache, or wrinkles, over a smiling mouth.
These were made by chiseling fine facial details into a flat sheet of gold which had first been pounded against a wooden mold.[3]
Analysis
[edit]Schliemann claimed that one of the masks he discovered was the mask of King Agamemnon, and that this was the burial site of the legendary king from Homer's Iliad.[4]
The masks were likely direct representations of the deceased, symbolizing a continuation of the dead's identity in death, similar to funerary statues and incisions, immortalizing an idealized depiction of the deceased. The masks were not found on all the bodies inside the grave site, indicating that those who had them were of special status, and that the golden masks are a form of conspicuous consumption.
Funerary masks like the ones found at Mycenae have not been found anywhere else in Mycenaean culture, and only a few of the bodies at Grave Sites bear masks.
References
[edit]- ^ "Lesson 16: Narrative | Aegean Prehistoric Archaeology". www.dartmouth.edu. Retrieved 2017-10-28.
- ^ Louise., Schofield, (2007). The Mycenaeans. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 9780892368679. OCLC 71842810.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ dhwty. "Questioning the Mycenaean Death Mask of Agamemnon". Ancient Origins. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
- ^ "Behind the Mask of Agamemnon - Archaeology Magazine Archive". archive.archaeology.org. Retrieved 2017-10-28.
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Mylonas argues that this is a sign that golden funerary masks were not a typical burial practice of Mycenae. Additionally, he theorizes that they may originate from Egyptian burial practices, and were adopted by some Mycenaeans as a result of contact between the two cultures.[1]
My topic, Death masks at Mycenae, fits well into my group's theme, death, as it is a unique example of burial practice from the mid to late bronze age. It presents an example of conspicuous consumption with it's rare material, as well as an attempt by the Mycenaeans' to preserve the legacy and identity of the deceased.
Possible sources:
- Artstor: http://library.artstor.org/#/asset/AWSS35953_35953_31682999
- Greek Art and Archaeology, c. 2500-c.150 B.C.E. Thames and Hudson.
- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~prehistory/aegean/?page_id=788
Reserve book sources:
- Hellenistic sculpture / Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway.
- Greek art and archaeology / John Griffiths Pedley.
- The Human figure in early Greek art / National Gallery of Art c1988
- Classical Greece and the birth of Western art / Andrew Stewart.
- Death Masks at Mycenae
- Golden Death Masks found by Heinrich Schliemann at Mycenae at the same time as the "Mask of Agamemnon." Unlike that mask, however, there is less doubt about their authenticity, as they lack the anachronistic seeming facial hair and certain details are not so suspiciously neat
- Eleusis Amphora
- Protoattic amphora used as a burial marker, 650 bce. Depicts the blinding of Polyphemus and Perseus' flight from the Gorgons.
- Found at the sanctuary at Eleusis, found with the remains of a young boy inside of it.
- Very early usage of mythological imagery in vase painting.
- Gorgons have heads like cauldrons. Connotation with religious ceremony?
- Jar (Pelike) with Odysseus and Elpenor in the Underworld by the Lykaon Painter
- depicts a scene from the Odyssey featuring Odysseus and the spirit of a young crewman who died, while on the other side there is a scene of Pursuing Amymone, a mortal woman who has caught the god's affections. From the classical period c. 400 bce. Red Figure. Manufactured in Attica, Athens.
Donald G. Kyle writes that the original gymnasia were large open areas at city outskirts, not enclosed structures.[2]