Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-12-28

f
Impartanee of the Recent Discoveries OF
/ Dr. Sehliemann-The Buried City O1
Myeenae-A Wealth OF antique Jew
From th the ven Yoortk IH Herald. p ssssw
In the great circle of parallel slabs
beneath the archaic sepulehral stones,
which DR.. Schliemann has shown to be
thestomb of Agamemnon andghis com.
panions, he. has discovered immense
tombs Containing jewelry. He foundin
one portion of q tomb human bones,
male, and females plate, jewelry of pure
archaic gold weighing five kilogrammes,
two scepters with heads of crystal,
and chased objects in silver and bronze,
and a great quantity of women's jew
elry in gold, handsomely worked. I'M
mediately after commencing excava-
tons at an adjoining tomb a large head
of acow in silver, with immense horns
OF pure sgold, was found. A large
vases Esss5S and an g immense ! n's :. go gHsa
buttons were also found. All these OBJ
jects Were marvelously worked. Among
other discoveries are nine silver vases
and numerous swords of bronze, but no
trace of ironwork. The following arti-
Giles of pure gold and splendid orna-
mentation were also found: A helmet,
two diadems, a woman's large comb, a
large breastplate, three masks, six vases,
two bracelets, two rings, three brooch
es, In immense mass of buttons, leaves
and other articles, three large girdles,
a silver vase, a stag cast in lead, with a
mass Of swords, daggers, axes and war
riors' knives, all of bronze, with TWEEN
ty-five tiint-headed arrows.
VISIT TO MYCENE.
We arrived at half-past 10, noon, at
the dirty and miserable village of Char
vati, which occupies part of the site of
the ancient city of Mycena, once the
capital of Agamemnon, and renowned
for its immense wealth. MY guides and
the two soldiers had travelled ON foot.
the whole way from Corinth, and were
SO fatigued as not to be able to follow
me to the Acropolis, which was about
two miles from Charvati. l allowed
them to rest in the village until my re-
turn, the more willingly as we had
passed the mountains, and l had no
more to fear from brigands. Besides
they knew nothing of Mycene, not V
the name, and had no notion of the he
roes to whom that city is indebted for
its glory; consequently they could not
have been of the least use to me, either
to point outthe monuments or to slim
ulaIe my enthusiasm for archaeology. [
took with me, then, only a boy from
the village, who knew the citadel by
the name of the fort of Agamemnon''
and the great treasury by that of Gag
amemnon's tomb "@-
The celebrityof Mycene belongs only
to the heroic age, for the city lost its
Importance after the return of the
Herachlide and the occupation of
Argos by the Dorians, but it retained
its independence and Supported the ma
tional cause against the Persians; 80
Mycenians fought and died with the
little band of Sp~artans at Thermopyla
and 400 Mycenians and Tyrhenians took
a share in the battle of Platne. The
Argives, who remained neutral, envied
the honor which the Mycenians had ac-
quired by their part in these battles,
and, besides, feared lest, seeing the an
cient glory of their city, the Mycenians
would recover the hegomony of the
Argolide; for these reasons they laid
siege to Myeene, took it and destroyed
it in 400 b. G. eli .srf .e
When Thucydides visited the city,
after the lapse ct a century, he found it
in ruins. Strabo says: "Mycena no
longer exists to-day but he does not
appear to have ever been there himself,
for surely if he had he would have made
mention of its ruins and its citadel.
When Pausanias visited Mycena, nearly
five centuries and a half after Thucy-
dides, he saw a part of its fortress, the
gate with the two lions, the treasures
of Aureus and his son, the tombs OF
Aureus, those of the companions OF
Agamemnon, assassinated by Egisthus
those of Cassandra, of Agamemnon, OF
the charioteer, Eurymedon; of the sOno OF
Cassandra, Of Eleetra, of Egisthus and
of ~Ciytemnestra. SO uaes "a
As these last tombs were a "short
distance outside the walls, for they
(.Egisthus an Clytemnestra) were CON
| sidered unworthy of being inferred in
| ed, together with those assassinated
with him." we are obliged to conclude
| that Pausanias saw all the m%ausoleuins
in the Acropolis itself, and that those
of Egisthus and C~iytemnestra were
without the Enclosure of the citadel.
There now remains nc vestige of any OF
these funeral monuments, but there
can be no doubt but that they would be
found again If excavations were made.
| On the other hand, the Acropolis is
well preserved; and, in any case, it is
even to this day in much better condi-
ton than one would presume to hope
for, after the expression of Pausanias-
meanwhile there are still some re
mains of the citadel, and, among others,
the gate above that of the lions." In
fact, all the walls of the encefnte of the
citadel still exist; they have a thick
ness of from Is to % feet in many
places, and a height according to the
nature of the ground of from 16 to SO
feet. In several places these walls are
built of immense blocks of stone, ir'
regular in shape, and having between
them spaces flledup with smaller ones,