harding, anthony, et. al. amber in the mycenaean world

Amber in the Mycenaean WorldAuthor(s): Anthony Harding, Helen Hughes-Brock and Curt W. BeckSource: The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 69 (1974), pp. 145-172Published by: British School at AthensStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30103296 .Accessed: 23/02/2015 17:57

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AMBER IN THE MYCENAEAN WORLD

(PLATES 24-25) AMBER has long been recognized as an important indicator of Mycenaean foreign contacts. Though much has been written, no thorough survey of the topic has yet been undertaken. The chief purpose of this article is to present a corpus, as complete as the authors can make it, of the known Mycenaean amber finds, together with those from adjacent areas.

Since the nineteenth century amber objects in Italy and Greece have generally been con- sidered by scholarly opinion to have been imported from the Baltic, and a number of finds, including Schliemann's from the Shaft Graves, were subjected to rudimentary chemical analyses to 'prove' this, the criterion being the presence of succinic acid. Navarro in 1925 traced the route the amber was supposed to have taken by charting the distribution of finds in central Europe in the Bronze and Iron Ages.' Increasing doubt as to the validity of the succinic-acid test led Professor C. W. Beck in the I96os to review the entire subject and to devise a new method of testing the composition of amber, that of infra-red spectroscopy.2 His conclusions were that most of the amber from Mycenaean Greece, as well as that from Italy and elsewhere, is indeed of Baltic origin, though a few pieces are not. All the conclusions of the present article are based on the assumption that Beck's method is valid and on the results which he and his associates have obtained.

Amber in itself is not an artefact and its presence in a given context does not imply cultural contact, but only some sort of exchange system. This is not at all the same sort of contact as is implied by a bronze object. Amber is also light in weight. One man can easily carry a great many pieces, so that several finds do not mean several trips to get it. Lastly, amber was, as it still is, valuable, and attractive for its rich golden or brown colour, its smooth warm feel, and its seemingly magical electrical properties. It indicates a certain affluence in its wearer.

The study of Mycenaean amber is beset by several general problems. One is its exceptional vulnerability, as an organic substance, to damage both from weathering and from indifferent conservation techniques.3 Many early finds no longer exist. Again, it is not always correctly identified, even nowadays (in print as well as on the labels in museum store-rooms). Thirdly, it is not always published. In Greece, where only a small proportion of the prehistoric sites

Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank the following for their kind permission to study and include hitherto unpublished material: Professor S. Marinatos (Pylos district), Dr. John Sakellarakis (old Mycenae material in Nat. Mus., Athens), Lord William Taylour and Mrs. Wace (Mycenae) ;for help in museums: Mr. Dionysios Androutsakis (Head Phylax, Chora Museum), Dr. C. L. Forbes (Curator, Sedgwick Museum, Dept. of Geology, Cambridge), Mr. R. A. Higgins (Brit. Mus.), Dr. F. G. Lo Porto (Taranto Mus.), Mr. A. J. N. W. Prag (Manchester Mus.), Mr. M. J. Vickers (Ashmolean Mus., Oxford). For help and discussion: Professor C. W. Beck, Dr. O. T. P. K. Dickinson (references and dating), Mrs. S. Immerwahr, Dr. C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Miss Olga Tufnell. Helen Hughes-Brock made certain study trips as holder of the Joanna Randall-MacIver Research Fellowship and grants from the Craven and Meyerstein Funds at Oxford Univer- sity. She gratefully acknowledges this help.

1799C73

The illustrations and maps, the first draft of much of the text and the Catalogue of Balkan and Italian material are Harding's work, made originally for his Ph.D. dis- sertation, 'The Extent and Effect of Contact between Mycenaean Greece and the rest of Europe' (Cambridge University 1972, unpublished). For the section on shapes and the final form of the article Helen Hughes-Brock is chiefly responsible. The Greek and Near Eastern finds were catalogued by both authors.

I J. M. de Navarro, 'Prehistoric Routes between Northern Europe and Italy defined by the Amber Trade', Geographical J. lxvi (1925) 481-507.

2 C. W. Beck, Greek, Roman and Byz. Studies vii (1966) 191-211. C. W. Beck, G. C. Southard, A. B. Adams, ibid. ix (i968) 5-i9, xiii (1972) 359-85. C. W. Beck, C. A. Fellows, A. B. Adams, ibid. xi (1970) 5-22. Hereafter Beck 1966, Beck 1968, Beck 197o, Beck 1972. 3 Beck's plea, Beck 1968, io-I I, is to be noted.

L


146 ANTHONY HARDING AND HELEN HUGHES-BROCK

excavated has received adequate publication, the problem of reconstruction is accordingly acute. In particular many of the chamber tombs which have never been fully published may well have contained amber that was either not recognized or not brought to the world's notice. Other problems are more specific, e.g. the true affinities and origin of the amber spacer-plates found in Mycenaean Greece.

With these limitations to be borne in mind we proceed to analyse in detail the distribution of amber in Greece and the neighbouring areas. Only new finds, of which there is a steady trickle, will alter the picture substantially, and the distribution pattern stands whether or not the material is Baltic.

DISTRIBUTION

A. Amber in the eastern Mediterranean before the LBA: Lucas and Harris remark, 'Some [pieces termed amber] at least are almost certainly other

kinds of resin, lumps of which are very common in ancient Egyptian graves of all periods, particularly those of Badarian, Predynastic and Early Dynastic date.'* Though there are several references to amber in Egypt as early as 3500 B.C. (e.g. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Verh. ZfE 1899, 395-6) and in graves of the Vth Dynasty, it seems clear from Lucas's analyses that these were other resins. Other analyses indicate the same. Olshausen analysed a bead from a destroyed tomb at Saqqara dated to the XIth or XIIth Dynasty.s It had a density of 1.238 (maximum for amber is

I. Ioo) and yielded no succinic acid. A similar test quoted by LaBaume gave the same result.6 Only with the XVIIIth Dynasty did amber certainly reach Egypt. There is no proof that it did not arrive before that time, likewise nothing to suggest that it did.

The case of Anatolia is perplexing. Two beads from Schliemann's Troy collection were attributed to Treasure L, but Dorpfeld (Troja und Ilion 340) questioned whether they came from Troy at all and not rather from Mycenae. At Dorak Mellaart reported an amber macehead from Tomb II.7 Tomb I, which is contemporary, is dated by 'the fragments of a wooden Egyp- tian chair the gold casing of which bore in Egyptian hieroglyphs the name and titulature of Sahure, the second king of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2494-2345 B.c.)'. The macehead might, if confirmed, be the earliest known find of amber. But Dorak is Dorak. Strong mentions amber from Alaca Hiiyiiks but Mellaart (op. cit. 32) explicitly states that 'these materials have not been found in the Alaca tombs' and Mrs. Maxwell-Hyslop in Western Asiatic Jewellery (197i) says nothing of it.

In Mesopotamia amber was found in a grave at Tell Asmar (Eshnunna) in the Diyala valley near the 'Northern Palace', whose main level is dated c. 2450-2350 B.c.9 Two amber beads were reported from the old foundation deposit beneath the great ziggurat at Assur, probably c. 1813-1781 B.c. Beads from Hissar IIIC in Persia are probably of the early second millennium. Confirmation of these important finds would be welcome, since they would be easily the earliest in the Near East or eastern Mediterranean.

In Greece too there are some early finds reported. That from Corinth is hardly credible. The Porti fragments were thought by Evans (PM ii. I, 174 n. 3) to have been another resin, such

4 A. Lucas and J. R. Harris, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries4 388.

s 'Ober den alten Bernsteinhandel', Verh. ZfE 1891, 294-5.

6 'Zur Naturkunde und Kulturgeschichte des Bern- steins', Schriften der naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig, n.f. xx (I935) 5-48, 91.

7 CAH2 vol. i ch. 18, 31. s D. Strong, Catalogue of the Carved Amber in the Department

of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (hereafter 'Strong') 19-

9 See Catalogue pp. 167-8 for this and the following items.


AMBER IN THE MYCENAEAN WORLD 147

as was used to fumigate tombs. Mosso unfortunately burnt them, leaving the world the interesting information that they emitted 'un fumo odoroso'.I0

While it is clear then that resins were used in burials in and before the BA,II there is no certain evidence for amber before the LBA in Greece and few reliable attestations elsewhere.

AMBER FINDS Late Helladic I-II

1-3 finds 4-10 finds over 10 finds

0 50 100 Kml SEgypt ?

FIG. I. Distribution of amber in Late Helladic I-II

B. Late Helladic I-II (FIG. I): The earliest certain finds of amber in Greece are those from SG Omicron at Mycenae and the

Grave Circle at Pylos, which date to the end of MH. Finds from the other Shaft Graves, Peristeria Tholos 3 and Pylos Tholos IV, follow on closely in various stages of LH I. The number of pieces is huge. 1560 can be taken as a minimum, with I290 from SG IV alone.

In LH II amber was largely confined to two main centres, the Argolid and the Pylos area. Only Thebes outside the Peloponnese received any at all. The remarkable finds from Kako- vatos, easily the biggest pieces from the Aegean area at this time, date to LH IIA. Table I

10 A. Mosso, Le origini della civiltd mediterranea 291-2. 1I Note Catalogue, Asine. Cf. Evans, Tomb of the Double Axes 13.



TABLE I

Site Find-places Pieces Site Find-places Pieces

Late Helladic I Late Helladic IIIA I

Mycenae SG III I 32-50? Athens Agora I I SG IV 2 1290 Cos Eleona T. 22 I 7 SG V 2 Ioo+ Dendra T. Io I 75+ SG Iota I I ? Gritsa I I SG Omicron I 122 Knossos T. of D.A. I 3

Peristeria Th. 3 1 I Prosymna T. 3 I 18+ Pylos Grave Circle i 8-9 T. 42 I 2

Total 9 c. 1,56o T. 43 I I Routsi Th. 2 floor I c. 50 ?

Total 9 c. x6o Late Helladic IIA

Analipsis I 3 Dendra T. 9 I I Kakovatos tholoi 3 51o+ Late Helladic IIIA2 Mycenae Aigisthos I I Alalakh ATG/47/8 I I Epano Ph. I 2 Cos Langada T. 37 x I Peristeria Th. 2 I c. Ioo? Knossos Gypsades T. II I Prosymna T. 7 I 2 Mega Monastirion I

T. 44 I 6 Mycenae T. 515 I 3 Routsi Th. 2 dromos I I T. 526 I 3 Vapheio I sev. Nichoria I 12

Total 12 c. 630 Total 7 22

Late Helladic IIB Koukounara Th. 2 I 7 ? Late Helladic IIIA Mycenae SG III I I Argos I frags.

SG VIII I 7 Asine 2 16 T. 515 I 22+ Enkomi T. 67 I I T. 529 I 40 Pellane I I

Prosymna T. 29 I frags. Plemmyrion T. 48 I 15 Routsi Th. 2 shaft 2 I 54 T. 49 I I Total 7 c. 190 Pharsalos I sev. ?

Prosymna T. 41 I I

Late Helladic I or II Total 9 c. 4

Mycenae SG I I 2 T. 518 I 122+

Pylos Palace SG I 2 + Late Helladic II or IIIA to IIIB Tragana Th. I I? ? Delos Thebes H. Anna T. 2 x i 2 Dendra T. 3 I I Total 5 c. 130 Enkomi T. 66 1 5

Medeon T. 29 I many? ? Nauplia 2 3

Late Helladic I or IIA to IIIA I Phaestos I+? ? Berbati I I Prosymna T. 7 I 2+ Kalyvia Meligala I sev. T. 49 I 3 Kazarma I + ? sev. T. 51 I 15+ Khalkis I 4 Pylos Th. III I few ? Koukounara I 1-2? Salina I Prosymna T. 2 I 7+ Soufli I

T. 49 cist I 2 Ugarit 2 21+ Pylos Th. IV I + 370 Zakynthos I 11

Total 8+ ? c. 400 Total I6+? c. 75+?



TABLE I (cont.) Site Find-places Pieces

Late Helladic IIIB H. Elias (Aetolia) I frags. Ialysos T. 53 I sev. Kalbaki I I Mazaraki I sev. Mega Monastirion I 4 Menidi

1 sev.

Mycenae N. Cycl. Wall I 5 Cit. House I 7 T. 5I7 I 4

Thebes Kolonaki T. I9 I 2 New Palace I Total II c. 40?

Late Helladic IIIC Alalakh ATG/37/2 I I Chalandritsa 2 2 Cos Langada T. Io I 2

T. 34 I I ? Delphi ch. tomb Diakata 1 1-2+? Gourzoumisa I sev. Ialysos T. 13 I 3 Knossos Gypsades T. VII 1 I Lakkithra T. Alpha 3 3+

T. Delta 2 sev. Metaxata T. Gamma 4) 32 min. T. Beta 2 32 m. Perati T. 147 I 1

T. 5Ii i Prostovitsa 1 frags. Teikhos Dymaion i ? Tiryns hoard I c. 23

Total 26 60+

Late Helladic IIIB-C Delphi ch. tomb Elaphotopos 1 7+ Medeon T. 29 bis I ?

T. 239 I ? Mycenae Granary x

Total 5 c. 20??

Site Find-places Pieces

Late Helladic IIIC-Submycenaean Elis 2 2 Salamis I I Torre Castelluccia I 6?

Total 4 9?

Late Helladic III

Ialysos Ts. 13-18 I (+ ?) 4 T. 54 1 I T. 57 I sev.

Kydonia I I Tiryns ch. tomb(s) I? ?

Total 5 (+ ?) c. Io?

Date unknown Unknown prov. 2 2 Arvi I sev. Delphi Marmaria 3 8 Dictaean Cave I I+ ? Gonnoi I sev.? Enkomi T. 27 I I Ialysos I I Khaniale Tekke i Kissamo I Mycenae Acropolis

Preh. Cem. I I T. 24 I 10 T. 79 I 19-20? T. 86 I 13?+1

Thebes Megalo Kast. I 5 Thisbe I I Volimidia T. 5 I ? 4+ ?

Total 20 65?

indicates 19 find-places (i.e. individual tombs or burials or the like) at 12 sites in LH II as compared to 9 at 3 sites in LH I. But the quantity, 820 pieces as against c. 1,56o, is almost halved. Combined the two periods produce far more pieces than all the other periods put together, but at only twelve sites. This makes clear the great concentration of amber at single sites in the Early Mycenaean period. C. Late Helladic III (FIGS. 2 and 3):

In LH IIIA (FIG. 2) amber found its way to central Greece, the islands, and to both eastern and western trading areas. It is found associated with Min./Myc. pottery in Cos, Crete, Cyprus,



and Syria in the east, in Zakynthos, Sicily, and the Aeolian islands in the west, and to the north in Euboea and Thessaly. There are fewer find-places than in LH I-II (Table 2) but they are spread among seventeen or more sites as opposed to twelve, while the number of pieces shrinks to hardly a tenth of what it was. There is a like difference between LH IIIAI and IIIA2. The presence of amber at Knossos in LM IIIAi could be taken as further confirmation

Plmmirion Salina

AMBER FINDS Late Hlladic IIIA


0 50 100 Km

Alalakh Ugarit Enkomi

FIG. 2. Distribution of amber in Late Helladic IIIA

(with Linear B, Warrior Graves, etc.) of the Mycenaean character of the pre-destruction palace, but since amber is now found in Italy and Egypt too the point cannot be pressed.

The trend of LH IIIA continues in IIIB (FIG. 3). There are now only i i find-places at 8 sites as against 25 at 17. Only the Argolid in the Peloponnese has any amber; there is none at Pylos, although the Palace of Nestor belongs almost entirely to this period. But it appears for the first time in Aetolia and Epirus. The Epirot finds are from cist graves, and associated with Mycenaean bronzes though not much pottery. Both tomb and spearhead types appear to be of northern origin and this concurs with the direction of traffic in amber.

LH IIIC saw something of a revival in the trade, with perhaps 26 find-places at some 14



Torre Castallucia

AMBER FINDS Late HQlladic IIIB-C


O 50 100 Km Egypt? Alalakh 4 Ugarit 4

FIG. 3. Distribution of amber in Late Helladic IIIB-C

TABLE 2

Late Helladic I IIA IIB IIIA IIIA 2 IIIB IIIC Submyc. Find-places 9 12 7 9 7 II 26 4 Sites 3 8 4 7 6 8 14 3 Pieces c. 156o c. 630 c. 190 c. 160 c. 22 c. 40 6o+ ? 8?

Late Helladic I and II IIIA II or IIIA to IIIB IIIB and C Find-places 33 24 c. 50+ 42 Sites 12 17 32 23 Pieces c. 2,510 C. 222 340+ ? c. 120??

Late Helladic I-IIIAr IIIA2-Submyc. Find-places 52+ ? 55 Sites 20 27 Pieces 3,070 c. 150 ? ?

Grand totals: Find-places 150+ Sites 65 Pieces 3,400+



sites (FIG. 3). However the quantity was not large. Even in Cephallenia, where there are 12 separate finds, the pieces seem to number only about 40-50, while elsewhere it is a question of single beads. The sites spread far and wide: east to Rhodes and Alalakh, south to Egypt and Crete, west to Cephallenia. Achaea has amber for the first time, just as it now first begins to harbour Mycenaean settlement on a large scale.

Finally there are three finds of LH IIIC-Submycenaean date from Elis, Salamis, and South Italy. The latter should almost certainly be seen in relation to the Iron Age finds around the Adriatic from Ithaca, Albania, etc.'2

Tables I and 2 express the statistics for the known finds of amber in Greece and adjacent areas in the LBA. On Table I every find is listed and is dated as closely as it can be. Table 2 lists only the 'pure' categories and the reader is warned that the groups from Table I which straddle periods have, where appropriate, been omitted from the calculations, viz. LH I or II to IIIAI, II or IIIA to IIIB, IIIA undifferentiated, III undifferentiated, and of course the finds of unknown date. This is because Table 2 is not intended to represent the whole facts, which cannot be known, but only to illustrate very roughly the tendencies we discuss. The first column of Table 2 shows how the quantity decreases steadily over the years from LH I until LH IIIC, while the second presents the great increase in LH IIIB-C in the number of sites. The third column brings out the difference between Early and Late Mycenaean: the number of find-places may be almost the same but they spread over a wider area in Late Mycenaean, while the number of actual pieces shrinks dramatically.

INTERPRETATION

We have seen that in LH I-II amber was (with one exception, Thebes) restricted to the Peloponnese, but it appears there in huge quantities, particularly in the Shaft Graves. This fits the general Shaft Grave picture of a society in which very great wealth was concentrated in the hands of a very few. The predilection which the occupants of the Shaft Graves had for amber may also imply the ability to obtain and maintain supplies, a phenomenon which must be connected with the wealth of the Shaft Graves in general. Renfrew makes the interesting suggestion that amber at this period reached the Mycenaean kings by means of a 'prestige chain' of gift-exchange stretching across Europe, of which they formed the final link.'3 How and why such a chain should have come into action so suddenly and worked for such a rela- tively short time would add yet another puzzle to the Shaft Grave era.

LH IIIA reflects a different state of affairs. The spread of find-places is wider, the number of pieces in each (e.g. in the carefully excavated Prosymna tombs) much smaller. (Our figures are probably too high, if anything, for some of the tombs we list; e.g. seven of the ten at Pro- symna were first used in LH I or II and odd pieces of amber in them may in fact have belonged to the earlier burials.) Presumably more people were becoming rich as Mycenaean civilization spread, and indeed the distribution of amber finds corresponds in some measure to the distribution of Mycenaean sites generally at this time. From now on we begin to find in intact graves individuals buried with but a single amber bead (e.g. Athens Agora, Knossos Gypsades). If in life they had no others with which to make up a string, it may well be, as Hood has suggested, that they treasured even single beads and wore them 'for their amuletic powers rather than for their decorative virtues'.'4 Some of these scattered pieces, we suggest, may have reached their eventual owners not directly as imports from abroad but filtered down, so to speak, from royal circles by means of some trade or gift-exchange mechanism at work within Mycenaean

12 S. Benton, BSA xlviii (i953) 354-6, N. G. L. Ham- mond, Epirus (1967) 331.

13 C. Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilisation 467-8. 14 BSA liii-liv (1958-9) 208.



society itself. After all, the amber from SG IV would, if dispersed, have been more than enough to account for all known finds of amber in the entire LH III period. (The scarcity of amber in Crete may imply not, or not only, that the Minoans had no taste for it-a traditional view- but also that they were beyond the range of the operative personal contacts and relationships.)

In LH IIIB the exchange of amber declined. Either the suppliers or the distributors were not at work. The Epirot finds are interesting. Desborough sees the cist graves there as evidence of northern intruders, and the bronzes from the area have indeed connections with both Italy and the Balkans.Is

In LH IIIC the trade revived. The many small finds indicate renewed contact with supplies and renewed exchange mechanisms within the Mycenaean system. The western distribution is very striking and fits in with other evidence, but the east had some amber too. The amber in Achaea was presumably brought by refugees from other areas.'6 There was again fairly wide- spread possession of amber in small amounts. No one had the resources to acquire it in really large quantities.

It can be argued that all the amber in Greece arrived there in a very few consignments or phases of trade. (If reports of earlier finds are confirmed, then there will have been a very early phase preceding those suggested here.) The first consignment, evidently by far the largest, arrived c. I6oo B.C. and found its way into the Shaft Graves and the rich early tombs of the Pylos area. It is physically possible that one man brought the Mycenae pieces, another the Pylos and a third the Kakovatos. The rest could have been distributed from these main centres.

It is not necessary to suppose that further supplies reached Greece in LH IIB and IIIAI,17 for the amounts in each case are fairly small and could easily have been exchanged from the centres during that time. If they were, one has to assume that Mycenae and Pylos were even richer in LH I-II than appears at present from the archaeological record, but this must in any case have been so, for grave finds can hardly present a full picture of Mycenae's wealth. The next consignments, then, need not have arrived until about 1200 B.C., the transition LH IIIB-C. The point of entry now was the west and north-west of Greece. That there was further traffic in this period can be seen from the finds to the east, but there they are neither numerous nor large and probably reflect sporadic trading, not regular supply.

It is, moreover, possible to distinguish two routes by which the material travelled. In the early period its concentration in the Peloponnese (FIG. I) and the similarity between the spacer-plates of Greece and Britain (v. infra, 154-5) make it reasonable to suppose that the few ships that did arrive with amber on board came all the way from the north by sea via Britain. (Were the ships Mycenaean or British?) By contrast in the later period (FIG. 3) there is a well- marked distribution of finds on the west Greek coast and up the Adriatic, and similar types are found in Greece, Italy, Albania, and Jugoslavia (v. infra, p. 153). This must indicate an Adriatic trade and therefore a supply coming to the head of the Adriatic across central Europe. It is here that middlemen must have come into their own. Or should we think of direct trading- missions to and from the source of amber itself?

The vast majority of amber finds in Greece, as elsewhere in the BA, come from graves, and these include all the main types of tomb in Mycenaean Greece.s8 In a few cases only, twenty at the very most, has amber been found in other contexts. At Mycenae Mylonas found beads in a basement along with an interesting figurine and fragments of gold leaf and glass-paste

I5 V. R. d'A. Desborough, The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors 37-8, Io2. 16 Ibid. ioi.

'7 Nor, on the other hand, that amber went out of favour under the influence of Minoan taste, as was suggested by Miss Lorimer, Homer and the Monuments 16.

18 Some 117 tombs are represented and of course an unknown but much larger number of individual burials. 22 are tholos tombs, some 60 are chamber tombs, and there are 9 shaft graves, 8 cist or pit graves, and 18 or so other types including Cretan and foreign.



jewellery, and Taylour in the Citadel House found several in a cache ofjewellery with the idols which, he suggests, it had perhaps been used to adorn.I9 At Thebes a workshop associated with the New Palace contained one amber bead. At Ugarit beads were discovered with Mycenaean pottery in at least two areas of the palace. At Delphi there were odd pieces in the area of the 'sanctuaire mycenien', where numerous clay figurines were interpreted as evidence of a shrine; but the finds from this part of the site were not homogeneous and the association in any case not certain. In the Dictaean Cave amber was found but without close associations; the cave was used for cult purposes over a very long period and the material is very mixed. The two beads from Delos, not certainly Mycenaean, were found in the 'dep6t sacrd' beneath the Artemision. That from the Wall of the Dymaeans at Araxos was found beneath a Classical altar, though this latter deposit is miscellaneous and could easily include stray grave-goods. The beads from Kalyvia Meligala are only a chance find, which, as suggested by the objects found with them, came from a tomb. As for the Tiryns Treasure, it is assumed to have been a grave-robber's hoard. Finally at Salina amber came to light apparently in a house with ordinary domestic objects, though it actually was found in a pit which also contained a necklace of faience beads. SHAPES AND USE

A. Beads. Like other materials amber has its own range of bead shapes, but it is exceptional in the extent to which the shapes correspond to the raw material. Much of this is washed up in the form of small 'pebbles' of a suitable size for ordinary beads.2o Often they have a flat side (perhaps where the resin lay against the bark of the tree) and a domed top, i.e. a rather plano- convex shape. Other pieces are more or less triangular in section, but often irregular; hence the lopsided

shapes"- so typical of, and generally peculiar to, beads of amber, and the rather less

common polygonal or prismatic shapes.22 Such pebbles need not be much worked to make satisfactory beads. A hole must be bored, corners smoothed off to produce a more or less cir- cular outline, and the surface ground away as far as weathering necessitates. The working is not difficult in such a soft material (only 2-24 Mohs scale) and can be done with sand or emery.

Since the shapes do not fall into neat categories like those of, for example, cornelian and faience, it is often hard to decide whether to call a given bead 'flattened globular', 'discoid', or 'lentoid'. By far the commonest range, into which over two-thirds of all BA Aegean amber finds come, is a flattened globular shape, which includes at one extreme fatter specimens ap- proaching the truly globular and, at the other, thinner types which can be called annular (if the perforation is large) or discoid. It is these shapes which are so commonly lopsided, i.e. thicker at one side than at the other. The lopsidedness was probably left on purpose to make the beads fit together neatly on a string and to obviate wasting the material. The lentoid and biconical disc specimens with artificially carinated edge have been more worked over and do not so often show this irregularity.

These simple beads may well have been imported into Greece as finished products. Miss Gimbutas observes that 'finished and semi-finished amber beads show that bead manufacture was carried on where the raw material was collected'.23 The irregular shapes and the unevenness of size and shape within a necklaceZ4 set amber noticeably apart from other materials used for Mycenaean jewellery. Cornelian, amethyst, and glass, for example, were worked in standard

19 Cf. Beck 1972, 361-2 (published after this article). 20 See V. A. Firsoff, Gemstones of the British Isles (0971)

pl. facing p. 88. 2, e.g. AE 1933, 94, fig. 43 nos. 4, 7, 14, BSA liii-liv

(1958-9) 257 fig. 34: II 6. 22 As from Elaphotopos, see Catalogue.

23 M. Gimbutas, Bronze Age Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe 48. Cf. Wace's characteristically perceptive remarks, Chamber Tombs at Mycenae 204-5-

24 See Gimbutas, op. cit. pl. 54, a necklace from Thu- ringia.



shapes and often even to fairly standard sizes, and on the whole the size of the beads from one piece of jewellery is either reasonably uniform or reasonably evenly graduated. If amber beads were being manufactured and strings assembled within Mycenaean Greece one might expect them to be similarly regular.

Other shapes include the cylindrical, biconical, conical, amygdaloid, barrel, and segmented. Some beads of these shapes were no doubt worked locally in Greece. The amygdaloid almost certainly were, and they are matched by a purely Mycenaean amygdaloid amber seal (from Mycenae T. 518, see Catalogue).

It is worth noting that certain forms said to be characteristic of the amber-producing area, such as the V-bored button and the ribbed barrel, are not found at all in Mycenaean Greece.25

B. Spacer-plates. These have been found in SG Omicron, IV and V, Kakovatos Tholos A, Tholos IV and the Grave Circle at Pylos, Peristeria Tholos II and possibly III, and (reused in a pendant) at Khaniale Tekke near Knossos. There are two main kinds: D-shaped or trapezoidal end-pieces with a number of converging perforations through which the several threads would pass to meet in a knot at the narrow end, and rectangular central plates with parallel borings, either plain straight ones or of the so-called 'complex' type which branches into a V at each end. The use of these ornaments has been reconstructed by Hachmann.26 How the Greek finds are related to those from Britain and the Continent we discuss below, pp. 156-7.

C. Forms from Kakovatos. Ring pendants and figure-of-eight and triple-circle pieces (spacers, as Miiller suggested?) are known in Greece only from Kakovatos, apart from a single figure-of- eight piece from the acropolis of Mycenae. The ring pendant, however (i.e. a ring with longitu- dinally perforated bar across the top), was common during the EBA in various parts of Eastern Europe and in various materials including amber. Strong considers the figure-of-eight to be of Mycenaean manufacture but gives no reasons.z7

D. The 'Tiryns shape'. A stubby, roughly cylindrical or concave biconical bead with a central swelling and sometimes a 'collar' at each end, as seen on the wheels from the Tiryns hoard, is practically the only shape that can be said to have a particular life-span, viz. the period around 1200 B.c. Some specimens are undatable but those from Cephallenia and Ialysos support a date in LH IIIC, and Salamis is Submycenaean. The type also occurs conspicuously in Protovillanovan contexts in Italy and in Hallstatt A-B contexts in Bosnia; it has been found on Lipari, at Ponte San Pietro, Fratta Polesine, Allumiere, Timmari, and elsewhere in Italy, and in Dalmatian cemeteries such as those at Privlaka and Vrsi. Both the long and the short stubby varieties are represented (Torre Castelluccio; unpublished examples in Tirana Museum from the Mati valley, Albania). See Catalogue for all these sites.

Most of the Mycenaean amber is in the form of beads pierced for stringing on a necklace or the like.z8 It was used almost entirely for personal adornment-by men, women, and children alike, as the burials show, and presumably not only by the dead. We need not make too much of the fact that unlike beads of other materials amber has rarely been found outside tombs, since the odd lost bead, if it survived weathering at all, would be easy to miss on a settlement site unless digging were exceptionally meticulous.

A number of pieces seem to have some special function. There are seals from Mycenae (T. 518) and Pellane, and the young man buried in a wooden coffin in the Athens Agora wore his cherished amber bead on his wrist like a seal (it was indeed amygdaloid, a good seal shape). The queerly shaped 'seal' from Routsi (perhaps a damaged spacer-plate?) could have been

25 C. J. Becker, 'A Segmented Faience Bead from Jutland', ActArch xxv (1954-5) 241 ff.

26 R. Hachmann, 'Bronzezeitliche Bernsteinschieber',

Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblatter xxii (1957) 1-36. 27 Strong 17. 28 But in SG V deposited in a pyxis? EA I969, 130.



worn as a trinket or charm for its curiosity value, and some unperforated pieces from Pylos were perhaps talismans, as Taylour, the excavator, suggests; so also the piece from Delphi? Other unperforated pieces may be inlays or ring settings (see Catalogue: Perati, Prostovitsa, Prosymna). The disc from the Tomb of the Double Axes, with its mount of gold, defies easy explanation. Some connect it with a sun cult, others think it merely decorative. Discovered with it were two amber beads and a variety of ornamental and functional objects. One of the beads was quite large, and the collection as a whole was one of great value, dating to the time when the Mycenaean domination of Knossos was almost at an end and the destruction of the Palace imminent.

Sources of raw material. That the geological origin of nearly all the Mycenaean amber so far analysed is Baltic is clear from the work of Professor Beck and his associates, and the reader is referred to his contribution.

As he also points out, however, the places where Baltic amber can be picked up extend over a wide area which includes even southern Russia, though he does not consider that the Russian deposits can have played an important part in the amber trade route.29 A few pieces from Pylos prove to be non-Baltic. The Mycenaeans would doubtless have welcomed supplies from any source, and possible candidates must include Sicily, the Lebanon,30 a source near the Red Sea of which Professor Marinatos has been told, 31 and Romania. (No finds have been reported as having the characteristic Romanian deep red colour, but in fact most are so weathered that it would be hard to discern if they had.)

The 'Exotica' and their affinities. The spacer-plates, the gold-bound disc from Isopata and the 'wheels' from the Tiryns Treasure present special problems. On the spacer-plates the work of Hachmann and Miss Sandars has recently been supplemented by that of Miss Gerloff and there is little new to add.32 But they must figure in any account of Mycenaean amber, even if we, in the present article, cannot go much beyond repeating the most likely hypotheses. Amber spacers of unquestionable BA date have now been found in seven countries, as follows: Britain, 8 sites; Denmark, I; France, 7; Germany, 31; Czechoslovakia, 2; Austria, 2; Greece, 4. Only the pieces from Britain and Greece and some from France and Germany have complex borings. Those from Germany form a separate group, easily distinguishable from the Graeco-British, but there must be some general connection between them.33 The difference is that the continental pieces belonged to a collar-type necklace, the others to a crescentic necklace. The latter is thought by Miss Gerloff to have been essentially a British design, as seen in the gold lunulae and in the shale and jet spacers so common in British Neolithic and EBA contexts. Though beads with double or multiple perforations are well known in other materials in Mycenaean jewellery (the gold and glass relief-beads might indeed be called its most characteristic and dis- tinctive element), they were still rather a rarity until after early Mycenaean times. Warmly coloured and translucent (the perforations would have shown through), the exotic amber spacers must have been a source of fascination to both wearers and beholders, a rare and desirable import.

How similar are the Greek and the British specimens? On Table 3 we list the dimensions of

29 Beck 1966, 209. 30 G. C. Williamson, The Book of Amber (1932) 58, 88. 3' Discussion to Beck and Southard, Atti e Memorie del

Primo Congresso Internaz. di Micenologia (Rome 1968) 63. The material in question might be copal from Zanzibar, a suggestion for which we thank Dr. C. L. Forbes. Cf. Williamson, op. cit. 190-2.

32 Hachmann, op. cit. N. K. Sandars, 'Amber spacer-

beads again', Antiquity xxxiii (1959) 292-5. S. Gerloff, 'The Wessex Culture of the Early Bronze Age reviewed in its connections with the Continent, especially with South-West Central Europe', unpublished doctoral dis- sertation, Oxford University I969. Good brief summary in Strong 16-17.

33 See S. Piggott, Ancient Europe (1965) fig. 74.


AMBER IN THE MYCENAEAN WORLD I57

examples from both areas and from Denmark. They are, it can be seen, remarkably similar, and might be more so if the objects were better preserved. The number of perforations varies, but not more than one might reasonably expect, considering the longish chronological span. There is in fact nothing to indicate that the Greek and British spacers are not of identical origin.34 Chronologically this is acceptable, for the Greek finds cover a period of about 150 years starting from c. 600oo B.C. There is no reason to doubt a synchronism with the relevant graves of the Wessex group whichever C-I4 chronology one may use.

The position of the German graves is harder to determine. Again they span a long period (Br B2 to C2/D; there are no BI and no Urnfield finds, with one exception) and at least part of it must overlap with the Greek sequence. Some sort of connection there must surely be between

TABLE 3. DIMENSIONS OF AMBER SPACER-PLATES SG IV SG V SG Omicron Upton Lovell Andrup Kakovatos A

Length across SH* 38 32 35 20 33 32 36 ? 63 (34) Width along SH 34 21 28 36 18? 20 21 14 32 40'5 Number of SH 5 5 5 2+ ? 4 5 ? 7 8

British specimens in Devizes Museum

Length across SH 32 (22) 32 Width along SH 21 19'3 21 Number of SH 3 4+ 3

* SH = string-hole

the German and the other spacers, even if they originated in different places. The spread of finds would support the hypothesis that there was a chronological horizon around 1600 B.C. when the manufacture of spacer-plates in Britain and in Germany was in full swing. In Ger- many it may have continued for at least 200 years, while in Britain it came to a halt perhaps by 1500.

The celebrated amber disc from the Tomb of the Double Axes on the Isopata ridge at Knossos has often been pronounced an import from Britain because of its likeness to pieces from two Wessex graves, Wilsford G.8 and Preshute GIa (the Manton Barrow). These latter are described as follows: 'The outer edge of the gold binding of the amber discs laps over the edge of each and meets, entirely encasing the amber. There are six grooves on each side of the binding all filled with regularly spaced pointillid ornament. Two similar grooves occur around the edge of each disc.'3s The pointille' ornament resembles that typical of objects of the Wessex and certain continental groups, and Coles and Taylor consider that the three amber discs, the conical button cover also from Wilsford G.8, and the Clandon Barrow lozenge plate are the work of one craftsman.36 (Indeed they go on to suggest that most of the major Wessex gold ornaments are his work.)

The Knossos disc is in certain respects strikingly different. Its diameter is about 25 mm., of which the gold accounts for only 5. The corresponding figures on the Wessex pieces are 26-7 and 12-13. Moreover, it is quite undecorated. Added to this is the chronological difficulty that it was found in a context of LM IIIAI, c. 1375 B.C., which seems a little too late to fit the

34 Beck 1966, 209 may be mistaken in implying that the raw material for the large drilled plates could not have been found in England. The Perowne Coll. in the Sedg- wick Museum (Dept. of Geology) Cambridge contains plenty of pieces far more than large enough, washed up

on the East Anglian coast. Cf. J. Coles and J. Taylor, 'The Wessex Culture: A Minimal View,' Antiquity xlv (1971) II.

35 Annable and Simpson, Guide Cat. of the Neolithic and Bronze Age Colls. in Devizes Museum (1964) 46.

36 Op. cit. I1-12.



C-I4 dates for Wessex (even if these are modified by the late dates, I219+5I and I2 64+64, obtained for a Camerton-Snowshill dagger from Earls Barton in Northamptonshire).37

Navarro suggested that the amber discs were of Mediterranean origin, pointing out that discs are known in other materials from various sites, e.g. Enkomi (LC II), where the technique of wire soldering was also used on them.38 But there does not seem to be any very long history of the production of gold-mounted discs in the Mediterranean, nor any subsequent tradition. One hesitates to put forward an opinion as to the origin of the Knossos disc without further evidence, but despite the differences in detail mentioned above, the balance of likelihood seems to lie in favour of importation from Britain.

As for the famous gold 'wheels' from the Tiryns hoard, Beck, Southard, and Adams have recently provided a valuable discussion.39 So extraordinarily similar are they to the Lausitz gold ornaments from Hradec Krilove in Czechoslovakia that it seems hard to explain them as anything but imports.40 If they are, then they give us direct evidence for contact with central Europe in the period around 1200 B.C. (though, of course, the hoard itself cannot be closely dated). That is precisely the time when other classes of object lead us to expect such contact. However (be it noted again), we are not to assume, because the Mycenaeans had at Tiryns an object made by central Europeans, that they knew of those central Europeans' existence except in some very general way. One object does not make a trade link, any more than does one C-14 date a chronology. The shape of the amber beads, discussed above (p. I53), is distinctively Adriatic, datable in Italy to the latest BA.

AMBER ELSEWHERE IN EUROPE

The map published by Navarro in 1925 (see n. i) is today rather incomplete, but the main patterns which he discerned remain valid. Outside the source area, there is a dense distribution at all periods in central Europe as far south as Bohemia and Austria; south of this it is possible to list single finds. There are still very few finds from Jugoslavia and perhaps none that is contemporary with the main Mycenaean ones. The trade was restricted to that part of the country which bordered on the neighbouring Tumulus and Urnfield groups, i.e. Istria and northern Serbia, though a few finds have recently been made in Bosnia. The Dalmatian finds (Privlaka, Vrsi, etc.) should be later than the Mycenaean period. In the EIA there are large quantities of amber from many parts of the country, especially those that were in contact with Italy.

How can we explain this lack of amber in Jugoslavia? Did the Bronze Age inhabitants not appreciate it? Had they nothing to give in exchange for it? Or did they not go and get it, as the Mycenaeans may have done? The only other possibility would be that whatever there once was has either not survived or not yet come to light.

Italy apparently played no important part in the dissemination of amber, which was not common there during the BA. Most of the finds (see Catalogue) seem to belong to the later part of the BA and to extend over a considerable period. In the south at sites like Salina and Plem- myrion it must have been Mycenaeans who were responsible for bringing in amber, and some of the raw material may well turn out to have come from Sicily.4~ In the north and centre the Terremare finds, by contrast, probably are of Baltic origin and, though not numerous, would seem to indicate that the plain-dwellers had transmontane contacts which presumably stretched to central Europe. But the pieces of 'international' type, in particular the Tiryns and

37 Lab. nos. BM-68o and BM-68I. 38 'The British Isles and the beginning of the northern

Early Bronze Age', in Early Cultures of Northwest Europe, ed. Fox and Dickins (1950) 100-4.

39 Beck 1968. 40 S. Marinatos, 'Lausitzer Goldschmuck in Tiryns',

Theoria, Festschrift for W.-H. Schuchhardt (1960) 151-7. 41 That from Salina is, however, Baltic (Beck 1966, 209).


AMBER IN THE MYCENAEAN WORLD I59 ribbed shapes which appear in the Protovillanovan period, point to a traffic within the Adriatic, the supplies from Europe probably entering the region somewhere at the head of that sea.

In eastern Europe the question is complicated by the existence of local deposits of raw material (see Beck's contribution, p. 170). It is these, quite probably, rather than trade from the Baltic region, which account for the amber found commonly in Romanian and south Russian BA graves (Sofiivka and Usatovo groups, see Gimbutas, op. cit. nn. 23, 52). But certainty on this point is impossible to establish by chemical tests, since the Russian material is itself of Baltic origin geologically. There are no reports of amber further east than the Don.

The conclusions suggested by this study are as follows: i. The spacer-plates found at Mycenae, Kakovatos, and Pylos were imported from Britain,

probably by sea from Wessex to the west coast of the Peloponnese. 2. Most of the other early amber in the Shaft Graves and the western Peloponnese, if not

that elsewhere in Greece, may also have come from Britain, but there is also a good possibility that the Adriatic played a part in the exchange and that some amber was traded to Greece direct from the Baltic sources across central Europe.

3. The quantities of amber in Greece are such as to support the idea that the traffic was neither regular nor extensive, but took place in two or three main phases: about I6o0 B.C., possibly also about 1500, and about 1200.

4. The pattern of distribution in the later Mycenaean period suggests that Greece was in close contact with Italy and that after c. 1250 the trade went down the Adiatic.

5. The spacer-plates and many of the ordinary beads reached Greece as finished products. 6. We must not conclude from the amber alone that the Mycenaeans knew of an amber-

producing area in the north of Europe. There is little evidence that they ever visited those parts, though it is likely on other grounds that they were interested in maintaining relations with areas that could be of use to them.

7. Greece was also in contact with other suppliers of amber, since some pieces from Pylos have proved to be non-Baltic.

We wish again to make it clear that these conclusions are based on the assumption that most of the amber found in BA Greece is of Baltic origin.

ANTHONY HARDING HELEN HUGHES-BROCK

CATALOGUE42 MAINLAND GREECE AND ISLANDS EXCEPT CRETE

Analipsis, Laconia. PAE I954, 285 fig. 165. Tholos tomb. 3 beads, ? flattened globular or lentoid; D. c. I0, 20, 30 mm. Smallest has gold sheet stuck in string-hole. LH IIA.

Argos, Deiras cem. BCHxxviii (1904) 388. From unrobbed niche in ch. t. VII some small frags., with gold and glass jewellery, 2 seals, 2 vases. LH IIIA.

Asine, Argolid. Fr6din and Persson, Asine 376, 390. In Nauplia Mus. Ch. t. I. I: from fill of north dromos, i.e. probably early in the tomb's history: II beads, D. 32-9 mm., H. 10o-13 mm.

LH IIB-IIIA2. Note also 5 beads of 'a black resinous composition'. Ch. t. I. 2: probably from dromos fill, I large and 4 small beads, flattened globular and globular; D. 25-o10 mm. LH

IIB-IIIA2.

Athens, Agora. Hesperia xxxv (1966) 66, 78, pls. 24 f. Ch. tomb beneath terrace of Middle Stoa. Amygdaloid bead, 12-5 x 1-7 cm., from left wrist of a young man, so evidently worn like a seal. Not from dromos as catalogue says but from the youth's wooden coffin. LH IIIAI.

Berbati, Argolid. ILN 15 Feb. 1936. Tholos tomb, once rich. I amber bead. Furumark, The Chronology of Myc. Pottery 40, implies only one burial (LH IIIAI) but this seems unlikely. Dickinson dates pottery to LH IIA-IIIAi.

42 The Greek catalogue we have tried to make complete but we make no such claim for the other parts.


I60 ANTHONY HARDING AND HELEN HUGHES-BROCK

Chalandritsa (H. Vasilios), Achaea. PAE 1929, 24, 88. 2 ch. tombs, each containing pots, clay and stone 'buttons', horse figurine, I amber bead. LH IIIC.

Cos, Eleona cem. Ann. xliii-iv N.s. xxvii-viii (1965-6) 8I fig. 55. From ch. t. 22: 7 frags. of beads, decayed and shapeless. Largest piece. 20 x II mm., another, 17 x I I mm. LH IIIAI.

Cos, Langada cem. Ibid. I02 fig. 82, I64 fig. 167, 174 fig. 183. T. Io: I disc bead with slight projection around edge, D. 24 mm., H. 14 mm., string holes small; also I fragmentary small

bead, D. Io mm. I or 2 vases LH IIIC. T. 34: I fragmentary bead, Io x 8 mm., longitudinal string-holes. LH IIIC. T. 37: 1 tiny frag., 6 x 3 mm. LH IIIA2. Delos. BCH lxxi-ii (1947-8) 220 no. 69 pl. 38: II, 12. 'Dep6t sacr6' under the Artemision: 2 annular beads. Deposit is

basically Myc., with ivories, etc., dated I4th-I3th century by the excavators, but not closed until Geometric.

Delphi. Fouilles de Delphes ii. 5 (1926) 34 fig. 13: 2, 9, 13, 17-19; fig. 14: 17. Marmaria (sanctuary of Athena Pronaia). I bead from altar area, D. 24 mm., H. 21 mm. 6 pieces from temple area: I square, I unperforated amygdaloid, etc. Asso- ciated pottery goes back to Neo., but most is LH IIIC.

Ibid. v. I (x908) 21 fig. 94. From near the second temple of Athena Pronaia, I very large fat lentoid, D. 50 mm., H. 35 mm., like those from Shaft Grave IV.

Ibid. io. From one of the small ch. tombs to east of the Temenos. Pottery is not illustrated but that from the larger tomb near by is LH IIIC.

Dendra, Argolid. Ch. t. 3 (Persson, Royal Tombs at Dendra 90o): 'small shapeless piece'. LH IIIB or possibly IIIA2. Ch. t. 9 (Persson, New Tombs at Dendra 57-8 fig. 62, 3): I flattened globular bead with small string-holes, D. i8 mm., H. 7

mm., from dromos, with Palace Style sherds. LH IIA. Ch. t. io (ibid. 87 fig. 97): 75 beads plus frags., found in Shaft I with a great collection of jewellery in other materials.

Discoid, globular, etc., D. 45-8 mm. LH IIIAI. Diakata, Cephallenia. ADelt v (1919) I16 fig. 30: 3. I bead from one of the pits of T. 2, found with 94 gold beads, etc.

(Another tomb produced non-Myc. pins and fibulae.) Marinatos (EA 1932, 42) says I or 2 are of Tiryns type. LH IIIC. Elaphotopos, Zagorio, Epirus. ADelt xxii (1967) B' 2, 345; I. Votokopoulou, EA 1969, 188 pl. 24fl, 8'. Group of 4 cist graves

of Epirot type. From Grave 1: 7 beads plus frags., together with a strange bronze knife, bronze spiral jewellery, etc. Largest 2 beads, D. 21 mm., H. 17 mm., like a flattened cylinder or three-sided prism. 2 polygonal, D. 10 mm., H 13 mm. 3 are four-sided or nearly globular, D. 5 mm., H. 7 mm. Date, on analogy with Kalbaki (q.v.), must be LH IIIB-C.

Elis. Earth-cut graves near theatre. Grave 1961: 6 (ADelt xvii B' 1961-2, 125 pl. I46ee): I small bead with I jug, 2 fibulae, 3 bronze rings. Grave 1963: I (ADelt xix B' 2 1964, 181 = Ergon 1963, 118): I bead, wrongly called red glass paste, with 3 skeletons,

3 pots, bronze ring, and sword. Styrenius, Submycenaean Studies 140-2, discusses pottery. Submyc. Gonnoi, Thessaly. Cist grave, PAE 191o, 250. Amber beads and a stone seal with 'a finely engraved nautilus'. No pottery

from the grave but Myc. and Geo. material was found in the vicinity. Gourzoumisa, Achaea. Ch. tombs dug by Kyparissis, PAE 1932, 16, 59 fig. 3. Considerable number of beads, various shapes

(2 illustrated). (Vermeule, AJA lxiv (1960) 16 wrongly says from Lopesi.) LH IIIC. Gritsa, near Pteleos, Thessaly. Tholos tomb, PAE 1951, 148 fig. 21Ia. I decayed bead found on floor beside burial with typical

Myc. jewellery. Pottery LH IIIAI-IIICI. The jewellery probably belongs to the earlier period. H. Elias, Mesolongion, Aetolia. Marathia tholos t. 2, ADelt. xix (1964) B' 2, 299. Amber frags. along with bronze rings, beads

of gold, cornelian, and glass, 2 lentoid seals, etc. Chamber contained only LH IIIB pottery, the dromos some IIIC.

Ialysos, Rhodes. Chamber tombs. a. Old excavations by Biliotti for Brit. Mus., Strong, 39 f.,43 pl. I, FLMV II pl. B: 12, 17. FIG. 6: 15-20o. T. 13: I biconical discoid, 2 Tiryns shape. LH IIIC. Ts. 13-18: I faceted cylindrical, 2 frags. of ? biconical discs or lentoids (rather than barrels), I ? flattened globular.

LH III. Uncert. prov.: I thin disc. b. Italian excavations of I914. A. Maiuri, Ann. vi-vii (I923-4) 221, 222, 225 respectively. T. 53: some beads. LH IIIB. T. 54: I small frag. LH III. T. 57: some decayed beads. LH III.

Kakovatos. Miller, AM xxxiv (1909) 278-82, 295, 301 Abb. 3-4 pl. xv; Beck 1970; Childe, Prehistoric Migrations in Europe fig. I23. PLATE 25a, C, FIG. 4: I7-22.

43 Helen Hughes-Brock's understanding of the shapes differs in some cases from Strong's.



1 2

3

4

5

16 7 8

91

10 11 12e 13

14

15

16 17

Cms

18 19

20 21 2

FIG. 4. I-4 Mycenae, Shaft Grave V. 5-11 Mycenae, T. 79. 12-16 Mycenae, T. 86. 17-22 Kakovatos, Tholos A M



Tholos A: over 500 pieces reported, mostly lentoid, flattened globular, and discoid, the largest having D. 85 mm., Th. 21 mm., other measurements given by Miller. Now in Nat. Mus. Athens, where the following were examined and measured by Harding. Inv. no. 8356: 57 beads including I globular, D. 40 mm.; 2 large flattened globular, 41 x 28 mm. and 35 x 23 mm.; I flattish irregular; many lentoid, the largest being 52 x 18 mm.; some almost biconical, 27 x 16 mm., etc. Inv. no. 5688: 124 large beads, mostly lentoid; 292 medium-small, lentoid and annular; I figure-of-eight; I triple-circle; 2 ring pendants; 2 spacer-plates; I oblong plate with rounded end and 9-Io small perforations. Largest bead has D. 50 mm., the smallest is 6 x 1-4 mm. For spacer-plates see Muiller 280 and our Table 3. Figure-of-eight: Length 26-5 mm., Diameter of each circle I6-6 mm., Th. 9 mm. Triple-circle: Length 26 mm., W. 9-6 mm., Th. 6 mm. Ring pendants (Muiller reports 3+ frags. of 5-7 others): 36 x 36 mm. and 38 x 62 mm.; Th. 12 mm.; W. of tube 31 and 49 mm. LH IIA.

Tholos B: I small bead, ? flattened globular. LH IIA. Tholos C: 7 small and I large bead, flat discoid, D. 12-18 and 20 mm. respectively. LH IIA. Kalbaki, Epirus. Dakaris, AE 1956, 127-8 fig. 2: 10. Cist grave Delta: I barrel bead, D. 9-12 mm., Length 22 mm., found

with Myc. dagger, non-Myc. bronzes, beads of other materials. Dated by dagger to LH IIIB. Kalyvia Meligala, Messenia. ADelt xxii (1967) B' I, 206. Amber beads in chance find. Published pottery is LH IIB-IIIAI. Kazarma, Argolid. Athens Annals of Archaeology ii: I (1969) 3-6. Tholos tomb with remains of pyre and three rich pit burials.

Amber beads from fill of pits and/or on floor. Pits dated LH IIA but the beads could be from later burials. Khalkis (Vromousa), Euboea. PAE 1910o, 266; 1911, 237-8. BSA xlvii (1952) 89. Ch. t. III: 4 cylindrical beads, the largest

having D. 30 mm. Pottery dated by Dickinson LH IIB-IIIA. Koukounara (Phyties), Messenia. Ergon 1958, 153 fig. i6o; PAE 1958, 192 pl. I5oa. Tholos t. 2: amber necklace from pit

burial of young girl which also contained faience necklace and a double gold diadem. 70o annular/discoid and I flattened globular, max. D. 4-5 mm., Pylos Mus. inv. no. 4. Transition LH II-IIIAI.

Tholos t. 4 or 5 (= Gouvalari I or 2). Ergon 1959, 120-3. I-2 beads in Pylos Mus.? LH I-IIIA2. Lakkithra, Cephallenia. Local type of ch. tomb with pits. T. Delta, Marinatos, AE 1932, 26-7 pl. i5. Pit 4: amber beads, also gold, glass, sardonyx, much pottery. Pit Ii: amber

'button', with glass ornaments, bronze knife. LH IIIC. T. Alpha, ibid. 42 pl. I5. Pit 3: a rectangular piece of some size. Pit 5: I Tiryns type. Pit io: very rich grave with gold

spectacle spiral beads, etc.; ? frag. of discoid bead illustrated. LH IIIC. Mazaraki, Epirus. I. Votokopoulou, AE 1969, 202 pl. 30off, S. Cist grave of Epirot type with 3 bodies. Frag. of I flattened

globular bead and frags. of others, also various weapons and spearheads, beads of faience, rock crystal, chalcedony. End of LH IIIB.

Medeon, Phocis. C. Vatin, Mideon de Phocide (1969) 22-3, 29-30, 54. Beads 'oblongue ou spherique' from the following: Ch. t. 29: many burials with gold and glass jewellery and, it is implied, many amber beads, some being from lower

levels of pit with LH IIIA-early IIIB pottery. Ch. t. 29 bis: many burials, with gold, glass, and 'steatite' seals. LH IIIB and C. Small tholos t. 239. LH IIIB-C. Mega Monastirion, Thessaly. Ch. tomb cem., ADelt xix (1964) B' 2, 257-8. T. Gamma (very rich): large bead. LH IIIA 2-B. T. Delta (rich): 4 beads with typical Myc. jewellery. LH IIIB. Menidi, Attica. Lolling, Das Kuppelgrab bei Menidi (i88o), 12, 22, 30, 37. I small globular bead from dromos, several from

chamber. LH IIIB. Metaxata, Cephallenia. Local type of ch. tomb with pits. Marinatos, AE 1933, 81, 92-3 fig- 43 pl. 2. T. Beta, pits 2 and 3. T. Gamma, pits 2 (some 15 beads, including I segmented), 4, 5 (rich in pottery, fair amount of amber) and 8. 32 beads illustrated. Mostly Tiryns type; also collared, plano-convex, barrel, and three-sided; I segmented. LH IIIC. Mycenae. Shaft Grave refs. are to Karo, Die Schachtgrdber von Mykenai (1930), and Schliemann, Mycenae (1878). SG I: Karo 69 no. 20o8 pl. I50. I globular and I lentoid bead, D. c. 20 mm. 3 burials, dating to the end of MH/LH I,

LH IB, early LH IIA. No indication as to which burial the beads belong to. SG III: Karo 57 nos. Ioo-I pl. 25, Schliemann 203, FIG. 2: I-I I. Schliemann speaks of 'an enormous quantity of amber

beads'. Karo lists 24 large beads plus frags. of 6-8. Probably some of the beads from this grave have been mixed with those from SG IV. NM inv. no. Ioo: 27 flattened globular, lentoid, and annular beads of various sizes from D. 36 mm., H. 23 mm. to D. Io mm., H. 5 mm. NM inv. no. ioI: 20 similar, D. 22-9 mm. LH I.

SG IV: Karo I o no. 513 pl. 57, Schliemann 245, PLATE 25b, FIG. 5: 12--I5, 18-20. Schliemann speaks of more than 400 beads by the head of one body and about 400 by another. Karo lists 1,290 beads including 4-5 spacer-plates; most are flattened globular. NM inv. no. 513 includes a necklace of45 beads, mostly flattened globular, the largest a biconical disc D. 42 mm., H. 21 mm. For spacer-plates see Table 3. LH I.

SG V: Karo 137 nos. 757-9, Schliemann 304, 308, Mylonas, EA 1969, 125-41 passim; FIGS. 4: 1-4, 5: 16-17. One bead found with body at north end of grave, many with that at the south end (both men). Some Ioo pieces and many frags.



1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 y 9 10

11

16

12 13 14 15 17\

18 19

20

Cems FIG. 5. I-II Mycenae, Shaft Grave III. 12-15, 18-20 Mycenae, Shaft Grave IV. 16-17 Mycenae, Shaft Grave V



D. varying from 30 to 5 mm. NM inv. no. 758: 59 beads in varying condition, mostly flattened globular, annular, discoid, 5 elongated. Inv. no. 759: 3 small beads, annularldiscoid, D. 13-9 mm., H.

6'5-4.5 mm. LH I.

SG Omicron: PAE 1953, 236, Milojaid, Germania xxxiii (1955) 3 16-1 9, Mylonas, Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age 104 fig. Io2, and 0 Taphikos Kuklos B ton Mukenon 188-9, 206, 350-2 pl. I86p no. 0-332. Woman's burial with crystal duck bowl, etc. I19 amber beads: I I8 flattened globular, D. 6-19 mm., H. 4-13 mm.; I biconical, D. 21 mm., H. 17 mm.; 3 rectangular spacer-plates with 4 complex borings, Lengths 43-8 mm., Widths 27-8 mm., Th. 9-1o mm. NM 8657. Milojaid mentions and illustrates also a D-shaped end-piece with 4 straight borings. which has now presumably disintegrated. MH (end)-LH I.

SG Iota. Mylonas, ibid. 121 pl. Io2iX no. 1-331. I flattened biconical, D. 24 mm., H. 8 mm.

Citadel House: Antiquity xliii (1969) 92, PLATE 24c, e, FIG. 6: 2, 7 beads of various shapes found among objects stored with idols. We are grateful to Lord William Taylour for allowing us to include and illustrate this material. LH IIIB.

Granary (?). Large flattened globular bead, Mus. Nauplia I1576. North Cyclopean Wall: ADelt xviii (1963) B' I, 85, PAE 1962, 63, Ergon 1962, 97, 5 globular beads found in Basement

TC in a complex of small rooms and corridors, together with figurine, sherds with Linear B inscriptions, ivory ornaments, gold frags., glass beads, etc. LH IIIB (? late).

Acropolis: K. Mfiller, AM xxxiv (1909) 281. Figure-of-eight piece, Length 25 mm. NM inv. no. 2520. Grave III, a rock-cut shaft in Prehistoric Cem.: BSA xlv (1950) 213. I frag. Dickinson, BSA lxvii (1972) I112, dates pottery

near beginning of LH IIB. Grave VIII, ditto: ibid. 215. Necklace of 7 amber beads, decayed and shapeless, and io gold, buried with small child

NM inv. no. 7727. LH IIB. Prehistoric Cem. east. Unmeasurable frag. found 1952 in extension N, north of Well gamma. Mus. Nauplia 1200oo. Men-

tioned by kind permission of Mrs. French. 'Aegisthus' tholos tomb: BSA xxv (1921-3) 304. I biconical disc. D. 15 mm. Pottery LH IIA-IIIB but bead comes from

western sector of chamber, where were many Palace Style sherds. Epano Phournos tholos tomb: ibid. 294, BSA xlviii (i953) 69. I flattened globular, D. 20 mm., H. Io mm., found with

Palace Style sherds, so perhaps loot from the original contents. LH IIA. Ditto: ibid. 79 no. 24 fig. 45: io. I ditto, D. 38 mm., H. 20 mm., found under fallen jamb. Mus. Nauplia 5577. LH IIA. T. 515: Wace, Chamber Tombs at Mycenae 50-63. From dromos (no. 28 pl. 29), 22 beads and several frags., D. 2o-0o mm.,

conical, discoid, globular. LH IIB. From chamber (no. 69) I globular, D. 18 mm., perhaps originally from the pit, where were 2 more beads (no. 78), D. 20 mm. LH IIB or IIIA 2.

T. 517: ibid. 69 no. 43 pl. 36. With skeleton xi in chamber, 3 irregular beads and I frag., Length I3-9 mm., from necklace including more numerous beads of other materials. Not with the earliest burials (in the pit), so LH IIIB?

T. 518: ibid. 77, 86 no. 69 figs. 33-4. Amygdaloid seal, length 30 mm., on obverse a bull, on reverse grooves. I globular bead, D. II mm., with ribs and fine incised lines. About 12o discoid, globular, lentoid, and biconical beads, D. 45-less than Io mm., plus several frags. Most found on floor in centre of chamber without close associations. LH I-II.

T. 526: ibid. 93 no. 5 pl. 9. From chamber, 2 globular beads, D. 14 mm., and I oval, Length 16.5. LH IIIA 2 (Furumark). T. 529: ibid. 101, 105 no. 35. From chamber, 30 whole beads and c. Io fragmentary, mostly discoid, D. 25-13 mm.

Probably from middle series of burials. LH IIB. T. 24 (excavated by Tsountas): AE i888, 142-3. Io beads. T. 79 (ditto): published here,44 PLATE 24d, 25d, FIG. 4: 5-11 I. Frags. of 7-8 beads, ? biconical, discoid, etc.; I2 other beads,

mostly biconical disc, D. 32-8 mm., Io, 6, 4 mm., NM 3097. T. 86 (ditto): published here,44 FIG. 4: 12-16, 6:I. Biconical/ discoid bead, D. 22 mm., H. 12 mm., NM 3152; several

frags. The Museum numbering of the beads from these 2 tombs is confused.

Nauplion. Athenaion viii (1879) 524, PLATE 24f, FIG. 6: 3-4. Ch. tombs near H. Moni. From one came 2 pieces 'probably of amber', from another a frag. of Tiryns type. There are 2 discoid beads in Athens, NM 3419. Associations unknown, but vases FLMV 45 pl. 15 are LH IIIA2-B.

.Nichoria, near Petalidi, Messenia. Arch. Reports for 1972-73 17. Some I2 beads from tholos tomb excavated by University of Minnesota Messenia Expedition. Late LH IIIA2.

Pellane (Kalyvia), Laconia. ADelt x (1926) parartema 43 fig. 3. Tholos tomb with 4 burial pits. Finds, mostly scattered over floor, include amber seal of unspecified shape, phi figurine, glass beads. LH IIIAI-2.

Perati, Attica. Iakovides, Perati: To Nekrotapheion B' 292-3, 383-4. Ch. t. 147 (ibid. A' 117-19, B' pl. 36a no. A 197): I barrel bead with Egyptian faience scarab, etc. LH IIICI. Ch. t. X 51 (ibid. A' 420-I, F' pl. I24Y no. M 178): setting from gold ring. LH IIIC. Peristeria, Messenia. Tholos tomb 2, PAE 1962, 95-6 pl. 98, Ergon 1962, I 14-5. 'Many' amber beads plus other jewellery.

72, are illustrated; also 2 spacer-plates with complex boring. Apparently mostly from dromos. Chora Mus. 2488, 2490, 2491, 2496, 2535, 2537. LH IIA.

Tholos tomb 3, PAE 1965, I 6 pl. 143, ILN4 Dec. 1965, 32-3 (Arch. Section 2238). Apparently I bead only, Chora Mus. 2660b, from shaft with gold cups, etc. LH I.

44 Our special thanks here are due to Dr. John Sakellarakis of the Nat. Mus., Athens.



1 2 3 4

5 6\ 7 8

9

10o 11 12 13

14

15 16 17

18

19 20

S21 22 23 24 25

261 27

28 29

30

cms

FIG. 6. I Mycenae, T. 86. 2 Mycenae, Citadel House. 3-4 Nauplion. 5 Teikhos Dymaion. 6-8 Pylos, Grave Circle. 9-Io Arvi. II Thisbe. I2-I4 Dictaean Cave, unpublished fragments. 15-20 lalysos. 21-25 Enkomi.

26-30 Torre Castellucia



Pharsalos, Thessaly. PAE 1953, 131. Built tomb. Some amber found with other jewellery but disintegrated at first touch. LH IIIA.

Prostovitsa Tritaias, Achaea. PAE 1928, I I8-I9. Ch. tombs. 'Scraps' of amber, perhaps the setting of a gold ring. LH IIIC.

Prosymna, Argolid. Ch. tombs. Refs. to Blegen, Prosymna; see also ibid. generally 286-7. T. II, 177-9 fig- 447: 6-12. 7 beads, including 3 flattened globular; D. 26-17 mm., H. 15-6 mm., I conical, D. 20 mm.,

H. 8 mm., I with incised lines; plus many frags. Two pots are good LH IIA but more are LH IIB-IIIAI, especially in the heap where beads were found.

T. III, 185 fig. 463: 26-43. 12 flattened globular, D. 26-12 mm., H. c. 9 mm; 3 flat annular, D. I6-Io mm., H. 5-3 mm., plus frags. of at least 3 more. Associated pottery mostly LH IIIAI but some LH II.

T. VII, 157, i6o fig. 397: I. From dromos, 2 flattened globular, D. 16 mm., H. II and 4 mm., LH IIA or III (? B). Frags. from chamber, LH IIIA2-B (or possibly LH II?).

T. XXIX, 78. 'Some crumbs' from Cist II. LH IIB. T. XLI, 146-7. I fragmentary bead from Cist I. LH IIIA? T. XLII, 150, 152 fig. 380: 2-3. I flat annular, D. 13 mm., H. 7 mm. I small globular, D. 6 mm. LH IIIAI-2. T. XLIII, i88-90. I fragmentary bead from heap at back of chamber. Most material in heap is LH IIIAI but some of the

vases and the phi figurines could be later. T. XLIV, 212-14, 287 fig. 542: I1-1i6. 2 flattened globular, D. 15 mm., H. I I mm., I lentoid; 3 thin unperforated discs,

perhaps inlays or ring-settings. Dated LH I by Blegen; Dickinson now considers IIA. T. XLIX, 137-9 fig. 336: 5-8. 2 amygdaloid, Length 14 mm., W. 8 mm., 2 short barrel, I four-sided biconical (measure-

ments given are hard to understand). Two were found in Cist I (LH IIB/IIIAI), one during sieving, one on floor near skull 14 (probably LH IIIB).

T. LI, 226-7 fig. 575: 10. 15 beads plus frags. from heap at rear wall of chamber. Flattened globular; I2 have D. 13 mm., H. 5 mm., 2 are larger, D. 20 mm., H. 6 mm. LH IIIAI-B (pace Furumark).

Pylos. From shaft grave under Room 97 of Palace, Blegen et al., Palace of Nestor i. 312-14. 2 beads, D. 12 mm., H. 5 mm. and D. io mm., H. 6 mm., also some frags. LH I-IIIA (probably 1-2).

Tholos t. III, ibid. iii. 87, rich royal tomb. A few crumbling bead frags., shapes unrecognizable. LH II-IIIB. Tholos t. IV, ibid. 102-7 passim, I I I, I28-9 figs. 194: 43-9, 195: I8, 22, rich royal tomb. From doorway I fragmentary

bead, D. c. Io mm., H. 3 mm., and frag. of another. From chamber 2 trapezoidal spacer-plates with 5 string-holes, H. 24'5 mm., W. 36-14 mm., Th. 5 mm.; 355 flattened globular, D. 34-8 mm. but mostly 12-6 mm.; 3 carinated; I ? lozenge, I cylindrical; 6 irregular lumps (of which 5 unperforated), probably talismans. Detailed measurements 128-9. Robbed jumbled fill MH/LH I-LH III.

Grave Circle, ibid. 137, 143, 151, 162 figs. 227: 2, 5, 231: 7, 232: 6; FIG. 6: 6-8. Rectangular spacer-plate with 3 string- holes, Length c. 26 mm., W. 19'5 mm., Th. c. 5 mm. 4 beads (two flattened globular, one globular, I drum) and frags. of 1-2 more. 2 irregular ? talismans. From Pit 3, area of rapiers, cauldron, and MH pithos. MH/LH I.

Routsi (Myrsinochorion), Messenia. PAE 1956, 204-5, 1957, 120 fig. I, ILN 6 April 1957, 540-3 fig. 23. Tholos t. 2. From the dromos an irregular 'seal', D. max. 45 mm., H. 30 mm., with 3 string-holes, a deep cut in one side, lightly incised lines on 'face': perhaps a damaged spacer-plate? From unrobbed burial on floor a massive necklace. From unrobbed shaft 2 a necklace of 54 beads, mostly lentoid but at least I globular. Some in Athens NM, some in Chora Mus., where inv. nos. are apparently 2717-18, 2732-3, 2736, 2746. Respectively probably LH IIA, IIB, IIIAi.

Salamis. AM xxxv (1910) 31 fig. 30. Cist grave. I bead of Tiryns type, NM 3589. Originally described as perhaps of bone but found by Beck to be amber, as indeed Marinatos had suspected (Beck 1968, EA 1932, 42 n. 2. Iakovides, Perati 383 has evidently confused it with NM 3592). Submyc.

Soufli, Thessaly. AA 1959, 66-7. Cist grave near river Peneios containing crouched inhumation of a child, with baseless askos and I amber bead. LH IIIA-B?

Teikhos Dymaion, Araxos, Achaea. ADelt xix (1964) B' 2, 188, FIG. 6: 5. Ash layer beneath classical altar contained I discoid amber bead, a cornelian bead, a stone mould for a ring, pottery including LH sherds. LH IIIC?

Thebes. H. Anna, ch. t. 2, AE I9Io, 220. I large lentoid, D. 25 mm. LH I-IIB. Kolonaki ch. t. 19, ADelt iii (1917) 178. From chamber floor, I discoid and I large bead with gold and glass ornaments,

bronze hook, etc. Both fell apart upon discovery. LH IIIB. Megalo Kastelli, ADelt xxii (1967) B' I, 228. Unrobbed ch. tomb with 20 burials, Canaanite amphora, frags. of 2 larnakes

and 5 alabaster vases, glass vessel, steatite lamp, iron ring, various beads and ornaments, etc., etc., and amber beads (5 dis- played in Thebes Mus.). Undated.

New Palace, S. Symeonoglou, Kadmeia i. 69 fig. 271: 3. I globular bead, D. 16 mm., from Room B, a jewellery workshop. End of LH IIIB I.

Thisbe, Boeotia. JHS xlv (1925) 2 fig. I h, cf. BSA liii-liv (I958-9) 238, 26 I-2 (chemical analysis), FIG. 6: I I. Treasure from ch. tomb(s). I Tiryns type bead along with stirrup jar 'of late type', a type F sword, razor, iron axe-head, rock-crystal oeno- choe, small gold box, various beads and seals, etc. Dated LM IA by Evans but the true associations are unknown.



Tiryns Hoard. ADelt ii (I916) parartema I7; Karo, AM1v (I930) 127-8 Beilage xxxa-xxxii; Beck I968; Th. G. Spyropoulos, Hysteromykenaikoi Helladikoi Thesauroi (1972) 18o-. 20o whole beads and frags. of others on bronze rods which form the spokes of gold 'wheels' of plaited wire. Concave biconical or cylindrical, with marked midrib. Typical dimensions 25 x 32, 14 x 27, 26 X 2o, 23 X 23 mm. LH IIIC?

Tiryns, ch. tombs on Mount H. Elias, Karo AM Iv (1930) 128, 139, not illustrated. Tiryns shape. Late Myc. Tragana, Messenia. Tholos t. I, PAE 1955, 247-9. I bead exhibited, Chora Mus. 2470. LH I-IIA.

Vapheio, Laconia. AE 1889, 138, '44. Tholos tomb. I frag. from dromos, a few beads from chamber floor. LH IIA.

Volimidia, Messenia. Angelopoulou T. 5, PAE 1953, 243. A few amber frags. with double axe and other bronze objects. LH IB/IIA-III. Also Ts. 4, 8, and I I, PAE I960, 199, and Chora Mus.

Zakynthos (Akroterion). Khalikes tholos t., JHS liv (I934) 192, AA 1934, 161-2. Amber and faience beads. Tomb in use c. 1400-1200, i.e. LH IIIA-B.

Unknown prov. Boardman, Cretan Coll. in Oxford 73 fig. 32 pl. 23 no. 352. I bead of Tiryns type in Ashmolean Mus. Amber 'kernos' in Ashmolean Mus. to be published in Archaeological Reports by H. Catling.

CRETE Arvi, Amira. PM ii: I, 174 n. 2, BSA liii-liv (1958-9) 238, PLATE 24a, FIG. 3: 9-1o. Tomb group seen by Evans in 1894 and

including a sword and various beads, among them several of amber. Some now in Ashmolean Mus.: biconical, biconical disc, barrel. Cautiously dated by Evans, on evidence of sword, to LM IA.

Dictaean Cave. Boardman, Cretan Coll. in Oxford 73, 75 fig. 32 pl. 23 no. 352, PLATE 24 b, FIG. 3: 12-14. I bead of Tiryns type. Cave used from MM to Iron Age. Also in Ashmolean Mus. are 3 unregistered beads (I Tiryns type, I thin discoid).

Khaniale Tekke, Knossos. BSA xlix (i954) 217, 226 pl. 28: 5, lxii (1967) 63, 68 no. 5. Rectangular spacer set in a gold mount. Iron Age context but perhaps a BA survival.

Kissamo. Boardman, op. cit. 94 fig. 39 no. 422. I fragmentary bead, H. I6 mm. From Iron Age ch. tomb some contents of which are probably BA.

Knossos. Tomb of the Double Axes, Evans, Tomb of the Double Axes 42-3 figs. 56-7. Gold-mounted amber disc and 2 flattened globular beads. LM IIIA I.

Upper Gypsades cem., BSA liii-liv (1958-9) 237-9 pl. 59a fig. 34. I lopsided biconical disc from T. II (intact, LM IIIA 2) and I flattened globular from T. VII (LM IIIB2).

Kydonia (Khania). Marinatos in Theoria, Festschrift for W.-H. Schuchhardt (I96o) 151. I bead in unpublished tomb dug by Professor Marinatos. LM III.

Phaistos, Kalyvia Cem. Rend. Linc. ser. V, xvi (I9o7) 299. Beads from graves of 'late Myc.' date. Perhaps LM IIIA2-B. Porti. Xanthoudides, The Vaulted Tombs ofMesard 69. 'Two small bits', unperforated, one found in the entrance passage and

one inside the tomb. See pp. 144-5 above and Beck, op. cit. 1966 201-2. EM III-MM I.

ALBANIA AND JUGOSLAVIA Albania. Barf. Beads with late LH IIIC burial in tumulus. Mati valley, graves in tumuli with much amber. F. Prendi,

Buletin pir shkencat shoqirore (Tirana) 1955, 1, I37 (reference from Hammond, Epirus 331). Bela Crkva. M. and D. Garalanin, 'Iskopavanje tumula u Belotidu i Beloj Crkvi,' Zbornik radova Narodnog muzeja i (1958)

24 fig. 5c-d; v (1967) 19 fig. 4. 8 beads on spike from MBA tumulus, exhibited in Nat. Mus. Belgrade. Belotid. Ibid. 14 beads exhibited.

Oser, Cres island. J. Mladin, Jadranski Zbornik iv (1959-60) 211-25. Hallstatt B cist grave, presumably very late BA. ? Peroj near Pula, Istria. B. Ba'id, 'Novi grobovi iz bron'anog doba u Istri' (new BA tombs in Istria; resume in French),

Vjesnik za arheologiju i historj'u dalmatinsku (Split) Ivi-lix/2 (I954-7) 15-23. I frag. Privlaka, Vrsi, and Vranjic, Dalmatia. S. Batovid, 'Iz ranog 'eljeinog doba Liburnije' (from Early IA of Liburnia), Diadora i

(1959) 44 if., fig. 4, 1-7. These finds include the Tiryns type, both long and short versions, and the fluted type known also from Fratta Polesine in Italy. Hallstatt A-B.

Pula Museum exhibits a number of amber beads and necklaces, some published, others apparently not. They appear to date to the BA, probably Middle and/or Late. Groups as follows:

3 medium-sized beads. 9 medium to large annular beads, D. 30-20 mm., and I very large rather shapeless piece. 2 flat discoid with large string-holes. I ? rounded annular bead (with other beads). 3 biconical discs with large string-holes. II beads of various shapes: flattened globular, annular, discoid with large string-holes, triangular (eroded?).



Necklace of bronze spirals and I amber biconical disc with large string-holes. This must be one of the finds from Peroj or 2amnjak.

Near Roeevid, Bosnia. Kosoria/Krstid, Clani" i grada viii (1970) 23-36; ix (1972) 9-27. Two sites with tumuli. Karavlalke kude, Tum. I grave 2. Biconical and amygdaloid. MBA. Jezero, Tum. III grave 3, Tum. IV graves I and 2: LBA (Bronze D?). Tum. VI grave I: Hallstatt A. tamnjak, Istria. B. Ba-id, Jadranski Zbornik iv (1959-60) 197-210. 2 beads. There are large quantities of amber from Early Iron Age contexts from many parts of Jugoslavia, particularly Slovenia,

Dalmatia, Istria, Bosnia, etc.

ITALY

See generally A. M. Bietti Sestieri, 'The Metal Industry of Continental Italy, I3th to i ith Century B.C., and its Con- nections with the Aegean', PPS xxxix (1973) 41o and n. 151. A. NORTH

Povegliano Veronese. Montelius, Civilisation primitive en Italie depuis l'introduction des mntaux (1895) pl. 37, I5. MBA. Casinalbo. G. Sflund, 'Le Terremare delle provincie di Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza', Acta Instituti Romani

Regni Sueciae vii (i939) 38. I discoid bead. Montale. Ibid. 40, 42. Strong 2o-I. BPI ii (1876) 29. 5 beads. Gorzano. BPI iii (1877) 28 ff. Castione. Ibid. I99. Borgo San Donnino. Sdiflund, op. cit. 97, 1o4. BPI xii (i886) 44. Toscanella Imolese. Monumenti Antichi xxiv (1916) 270 fig. 32a. Villa Cassarini. R. Scarani in Civiltd del Ferro (1960) 513. Borgo Panigale, Emilia. Ibid. Tiryns type. Peschiera, mouth of the Mincio. Montelius, op. cit. 53 fig. I8 pl. 7. Cles. BPI xii (1886) 44. 3 large spacers and many beads in Mus. Tridentino, Trento. Probably Iron Age A. Castellazzo di Fontanellato. Parma Mus. Prov. Parma (? Castione). Necklace of 14 large flattened globular and discoid beads in Parma Mus. Ledro. Mus. Nazionale, Trento.

B. CENTRAL, SOUTH, AND SICILY. Cf. Scarani in Civiltd del Ferro (1960) 513. Plemmyrion, east Sicily. .NS 1899, 31. 15 beads from T. 48, described as a long oblong pit, and I from T. 49, an elliptical

chamber. Biconical disc, lentoid, flattened globular. Associated with Myc. swords and pottery, glass, and ivory ornaments, etc. LH IIIA.

Lipari (Piazza Monfalcone). BPI lxv (1956) 8o. Necklace of Tiryns-type beads from pithos burial of Ausonian II date, i.e. I2th century.

Salina, Lipari Islands. J. F. S. Stone and L. C. Thomas, 'The Use and Distribution of Faience in the Ancient East and Prehistoric Europe', PPS N.s. xxii (1956) 8o, L. Bernab6 Brea and M. Cavalier, II Castello di Lipari 21, Beck, op. cit. 1966, 209. I large annular frag. found in Capanna F with a necklace of faience and glass beads in a hole in the floor. The house is perhaps the oldest in the village. LH IIIA2-B.

Torre Castelluccia, Taranto. W. Taylour, The Mycenaean Pottery in Italy (1958) 165-6, Drago, Fasti Arch. iv (1949) 2372, FIG. 6: 26-30. Amber and glass beads from tomb with LH IIIC, Submyc., Geometric, and Iapygian Geometric pottery. Flattened cylindrical, irregular; longest bead 3 -8 mm., shortest I8-8 mm. Taranto Mus. inv. nos. 53954-5, 53928.

Crichi, Catanzaro. BPI xiii (1887) 21-4. Randazzo. ibid.

Bisceglie, Bari. M. Gervasio, I Dolmen e la Civiltd del Bronzo ('913) 16 fig. 3. Belverde di Cetona. NS xi (I933) 102. Filottrano. H. Dumitrescu, 'L'eth del bronzo nel Piceno', Ephem. Dacoromana v (1932) 73. Small frags. in Ancona Mus. Gualdo Tadino. Inv. Arch. (Italia) fasc. 3, I. 6, 5-(5) nos. 49-53. Biconical and annular. Grotta San Francesco. Atti Comn. Ricerche di Paleont. Umana (I914) 59, 69 fig. 3.


AMBER IN THE MYCENAEAN WORLD 169 Grotta Misa. Riv. di Scienze Preistoriche vi (1951) I7. Ponte San Pietro, Lazio. ibid. 168 fig. I 1. Manaccora, Capitanata, and Coppa .Nevigata. Bietta Sestieri 410o, 422-3.

C. PROTOVILLANOVAN FINDS.

Allumiere, Lazio. Mem. Lincei ser. viii vol. ix (1959) I88. In EUR Mus., Rome. Fratta Polesine, Po delta. Mus. Rovigo exhibits 7 conical ribbed, 5 globular, 2 biconical, 6 Tiryns type, 2 lentoid, 2 annular,

4 other beads. Timmari, Bismantova, and Mariconda di Melara. Bietti Sestieri 423 n. 151.

NEAR EAST, MISCELLANEOUS AND DOUBTFUL

Alalakh (Tell Atchana). Woolley, Alalakh (1955) 203, 208. From grave ATG/37/2 (cremation) a globular pendant bound with gold wire found with a scarab of Ramesses VI. From grave ATG/47/8 (inhumation) globular bead(s); Level III, elsewhere dated to 1370-50 and LH IIIA 2.

Assur. W. Andrae, Mitteilungen dcr Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft liv (1914) 48. 2 beads from bead layer in early foundation deposit of the Great Ziggurat. Probably time of Shamshi-Adad I, who ruled c. 1813-1781. Przeworski, Klio xxv (1932) 28, thinks they came via Troy.

Assyria. Amber statuette of unknown Assyrian king, Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. no. 38. 1396. H. Frankfort, Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient 81, 83 pls. 80-I, where it is dated 'late Assyrian'. Dr. Wm. Kelly Simpson, Curator of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art, MFA Boston, kindly writes (letter of 29 Jan. I974), 'It seems very likely that the statuette is in fact original but has been re-carved so that the details are essentially modern. This conclusion is based in part through a photograph of it in an earlier state having been seen, although the photograph was subsequently withheld by the owner and is not available to us. Secondly, there is a parallel amber statuette poorly preserved but of the same size and type pre- sently in the Borowski collection in Basel. This second statuette probably resembles the original condition of ours. It has been published and illustrated in an exhibition catalogue: From the Lands of the Bible: Art and Artifacts, America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Inc., New York, no. 369, illustrated on p. 96.'

Corinth. Professor C. W. Beck writes (letter of Io June 1970), 'J. M. de Navarro, Geog. Journal 66 (1925) 483 mentions amber "in a Neolithic grave at Corinth" and cites F. Nansen, "In Northern Mists" vol. i (191 ) 14, where in n. 3 reference is made to A. W. Br6gger's "Den arktiske Stenalder i Norge" (1909) 239. There Brogger reports that 6 necklaces from Corinth are now preserved in the Museum ffir V61kerkunde in Berlin. Nansen adds that according to a personal communication from Br6gger the amber was bought by the Museum from Prof. Aus'm Weerth in 1877 and cites a further mention of it by Schaafhausen at the Stockholm Congress (Compte rendu ii. 816). I have all these references before me, but I have never discovered any excavation report and therefore the findspot remains doubtful. The dating to the Neolithic is even more doubtful.'

Egypt. Petrie, Scarabs and Cylinders (1917) 9, Buttons and Design Scarabs (1925) 16; H. R. Hall, Cat. of the Egyptian Scarabs in the Brit. Mus. (1913) xxix; C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, Antiquity xxxvii (1963) 301-2 refers to 17 uninscribed amber scarabs from Egypt, all XVIIIth Dynasty. One is in the Brit. Mus., inv. no. 17718, but from an uncertain context; Petrie mentions two. Dr. Lamberg-Karlovsky has kindly explained (letter of 23 Nov. 1970) that he derives his total of 17 from the published sources (8) and says, 'I saw Petrie's scarabs in Cairo and with William Stevenson Smith... came to a number of 17... This number is included in the posthumous book to appear by Smith.'

Lucas (see p. 144 above) mentions, besides the pieces which he dismisses as being of other kinds of resin, a large XXIst Dynasty scarab in the pectoral of Hatiay and a scarab of uncertain date in the Brit. Mus.

Enkomi, Cyprus. Strong 40 pl. I with refs., FIG. 6: 2 -5. T. 27. I bead with gold jewellery, etc. in Cyprus Mus. T. 66. 5 beads in Brit. Mus.: flattened biconical, cylindrical, oval plano-convex with 2 string-holes, rectangular gable-

shaped, thin disc. LC IIIA-B. T. 67. I flattened biconical bead. LC IIIA. Hissar, Persia. E. F. Schmidt, Excavations at Tepe Hissar Damghan (1937) 223, 312, 325, and The Museum Journal, Univ. Mus.

Philadelphia, xxiii. 4 (I933) 434, 438. Amber from necklaces and 'priest's' belt in Hissar IIIC graves. Probably early second millennium, see R. H. Dyson in R. W. Ehrich (ed.), Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (1965) 241-2.

Lachish, Palestine. The 'Baltic amber.., found at Lachish with XVIII Dynasty scarabs' turned out to be not amber but a resinous substance. See F. J. Bliss, Excavations in Palestine (19o2) 27 and Encyclopaedia Biblica (I9o3) i. 135; references for which we thank Miss Olga Tufnell. There is, however, in the Manchester Mus. a set of 33 amber beads of irregular polygonal shapes labelled 'Lachish'. Their history seems now to be lost, but they have clearly been in the museum for a long time, so that one cannot even be sure w

harding, anthony, et. al. amber in the mycenaean world

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