INTENTIONAL

DESTRUCTION

OF GRAVE GOODS

As early as the preceramic Neolithic period in Cyprus grave fumiture was intentionally destroyed. Sorne stone bowls at Khirokitia were "ceremonially broken" -to use Dikaios' wordsand placed under and on top of the deceased, more frequently on women than on men 1. This phenomenon -the de1iherate destruction of objects in tombs- is a subject which is worth sorne consideration. 1shall discuss the Cypriote Bronze Age evidence first and will then mention parallels from elsewhere. ln tombs of the Early and Middle Cypriote Bronze Ages bronze weapons such as knives, swords and daggers and occasionally a needle were sometimes hem or "killed" 2. A dagger was in one instance driven into the floor of the tomb and then hem (Pl. LIlI). This was the case in a tomb excavated by an expediton under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum at Lapithos and published by Virginia Grace 3. It was placed near the entrance to the tomb. Miss Grace pointed out that no "proper weapon was found with the man in the east niche, and his may have been saved for this use". It is as if the living by driving the dagger into the tomb took a last farewell of the deceased. Unfortunately the skeletons at Lapithos associated with these finds were badly preserved, so little can be said about the position of the bronzes in relation to the skeletons.
(1) P. DIKAIOS, Khirokitia (1953), p. 339. 1 believe that the stone bowls may have been placOO on the graves to prevent the dead from reappearing. Sorne time after death has occurrOO, the body swells and this could cause the earth above the body to rise slightly above the ground. The fear of the dead, terrar mortis, may have causOO the living to place a stone on the dead. Cf. S. BERG, R. ROLLE, H. SEEMANN, Der Archiiologe und der Tod (1981), p. 74. According to Karin Niklasson the deliberate smashing of the stone bowls making them useless may be due to a wish to give the stone bowl the same status as the dead. (2) The examples are mentionOO in P. SIROM, Examples from Lapithos, Pennsylvania The Middle Cypriote Bronze Age (1957), p. 275, n. 1. The Tombs 832A and 835A are recordOO by E. HERSCHER

Bronze Age Cemetery at Lapithos (Dissertation, University of Philadelphia, 1978). A bent needle was found in Ayios lakovos Tomb 8, n 22, SCE l, pl. LXIII:1. See also SCE IV lA, index s.v. Lapithos, (3) Pennsylvania Tomb 6A and p. 387. AJA 44 (1940), p. 22 and p. 47, fig. 15-31; SCE IV IB, p. 293-294; Archaeological Symposium "The Relations 16th-22nd April 1978 (1979), p. 21-23, 42, 56-58; J.E. COLEMAN Archaeology in Cyprus 1960-1985 (1985), p. 139. Acts of the International (00.),

between Cyprus and Crete. ca 2000-500 B.C.", Nicosia in V. KARAGEORGHIS

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Paul ASTROM

The practice is known in tombs at Lapithos, Vounous and Ayios lakovos. ln a shaft grave at Hala Sultan Tekke dating from c. 1175 Re. fragments of a plain jug were found near the head of the skeleton, to the right and to the left of the skull and above it 4. As the jug was found in pieces, it was probably deliberately smashed before it was placed in the grave. The jug was discovered turned upside down, a fact which may be of significance. It is possible that we here have an example of deliberate destruction of grave furniture. Karin Niklasson has observed that the jug has traces of purple colour on the sides found facing downwards, on top of a cloth which possibly covered the skeleton. The vessel was apparently smashed after the body was covered. An alternative explanation is that the corpse was sprinkled with sorne purplish matter. A murex shell was placed on the middle of the chest of the deceased. Another example of deliberate breaking may be found in a broken figurine which was found frre-blackened in a Middle Cypriote tomb at Lapithos. Dr Ellen Herscher suggests that this was perhaps a result of ceremonial use 5. Several jugs found in Cypriote chamber tombs have a break, a hole, on the side of the body. Dan Barag once suggested to me that the se breaks might have been a deliberate action. On the other hand, these breaks in the vases may be the result of stones falling from the ceiling of the tomb. A silver gilt-pin was found broken into two pieces on the breast of a skeleton in Enkomi tomb 17, third burial group; it dates from Late Cypriote IIB2 in the latter part of the 13th century 6. This was a rich burial which contained the famous Zeus krater. The deceased also had a gold bowl in his right hand, a gold diadem and a gold mouthpiece in place. The pin was corroded and 1 am not certain if it was intentionally or accidentally broken. The skull has recently been examined by Dr Fischer who regards it as that of a man in old age, apparently a wealthy man. A bent pin occurred in Ayios lakovos Tomb 121 of Middle Cypriote ID 7. The custom of smashing vases after the offering of libations survived in classical Hellenistic times in Attica and in Cyprus and it still persists in modern Greece and Cyprus 8. This expos of Cypriote examples may not be exhaustive. 1 have mentioned instances known to me. 1 shall now pass on to comparative material from other areas. We encounter the phenomenon at Ras Shamra. ln the lower layer of tomb LN
(4) K. NIKLASSON in ASTROM, HST , p. 169-213. It should also be mentionOO that a broken, incomplete, faience bowl was found inside another faience bowl, which was placOO upside down in the grave (op. cit., fig. 534-538). For inverted cups see my paper in Journal of Prehistoric Religion 1 (1987). (5) (6) (7) (8) HERSCHER, op. cit. SCE l, p. 545, fig. 204:9 (nO 78), fig. 206. SCE J, p. 343, pl. LXill:5 (nO28). V. TATION-BROWN in V. KARAGEORGIllS 67. K.K. KESHISHIAN, (00.), Archaeology in Cyprus 1960-1985 (1985), p.

Chypre romantique 3rd 00. (1981), p. 261 : "La tombe referme, ils se lavent

les mains avec de l'eau spcialement apporte cet effet dans une jarre qui sera brise et les morceaux laisss sur la tombe".

INTENTIONAL DES1RUCTION OF GRAVE GOODS Schaeffer Schaeffer found a Cypriote does not comment a Cypriote dagger on a skeleton which was no longer

215

in situ, but on the right

to state that

arrn: "Autour du cubitus et du radius un poignard it is undoubtedly dagger,

en bronze pli formait comme un bracelet"9. of the 16th century but the of

on this strange bent form of the dagger. He proceeds dating from the 17th or beginning

B.e.
There are also other ex amples of bent metal weapons find circumstances It is well Mycenaean Fragments Mycenaean and the goblets are not given 10. known that broken kylikes were are found smashed in the dromoi the doorway and chambers tombs Il. It is supposed cups are found that a toast was drunk in honour of the deceased against of the cham ber. and chambers of found in in quantities in the stomia by Verdelis and pins at Ras Shamra,

chamber

used for the purpose

of the shattered chamber

tombs. ln tomb 13 at Dendra excavated

and myselfwe

200 fragments representing

Broken Attica 13 and at Amorgos

about 40 stemmed cups in the stomion 12. tomb at Ayios Kosmas 14; in the latter case broken to fit into the small grave. ln the frrst case cist tomb at

stone idols have been found in an Early Helladic

the figurine was found in a disturbed area outside a tomb. ln the earliest cemeteries at Palaikastro in Crete and in a Middle Helladic Zerelia in Thessaly At Palaikastro Joseph practice destroyed the excavator Wiesner

the handles of vases were broken before they were placed in the tomb 15. said that this might easily happen if the banes and accompanying examples useless in the Middle and Late Bronze a goblet Age of the from the grave to bone-pits. gives several objects 16. At Orchomenos was intentionally

vessels were transferred of making

grave

and silver vases were smashed

at other places. Broken swords and rapiers etc. were 19 and at Ialysos on Rhodes 20.

also found at Miletos 17, at Pylos 18 and Nichoria in Messenia

(9) Syria 19 (1938), p. 219, fig. 18:23A, pl. XXII:!'

(10)

(11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17)

(18)

C.F.A. SCHAEFFER, Ugarilica II (1949), p. 50, fig. 18. For other examples see G. CONTENAU, L. COUVE, Fouilles du Tpe-Giyan ... , (1935), pl. 15; Archiv fT Religionswissenschajl 24 (1926), p. 310; H. ARBMAN, Svear i oSlerviking (1955), p. 87. Weapons -mostly spears- and gold omaments were deliberately destroyed in a 1:>ogt Skedemosse on the island of land. Similar finds have been made a in bogs in Denmark. See U.E. Hagberg's paper in the Symposium "Votives to the Goos" in Uppsala 1985 (forthcoming in the Boreas series) . MYLONAS, Mycenaean Age , p. 112-113; K. NIKLASSON, in PpulCttlCt 'tO B' tESVO OUVEPlOU 7tEo1tovV11OlUlCClV 07touClv, (1981-1982), p. 209 with further references. B P. S1RM, The Cuirass Tomb and Olher Finds al Dendra (SIMA IV [1977]), p. 72. J. WIESNER, Grab und Jenseils (1938), p. 133; G. E. MYLONAS, Aghios Kosmas (1959), p. 75, 7778. WIESNER, op. WIESNER, op. WIESNER, op. WIESNER, op.
cil., p. 133. cil., p. 131,141; BSA 8 (1901-1902), p. 293. cil., p. 141 and 152. cil., p. 152, n. 9.

Palace of Neslor III , p. 157, fig 229.

(19)
(20)

See Nancy Wilkie's paper in the acts of this colloquium. AnnScAlene 6-7 (1923-1924), p. 230, fig. 147.

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Paul ASTROM

We also come across bent swords in Protogeometric and Geometrie Greece. The blades of iron swords were coiled around the neck of vases in cremation burials. ln one grave the blade was not coiled, but folded. Examples of bent swords may be found in Athens and at Lefkandi 21. Let us now try to find out the meaning of the phenomena which 1 have exemplified in this paper. Virginia Grace said about the dagger which she published from Lapithos : "The gesture which killed the dagger seems to have been intented to terminate intercourse between living and dead in the tombs" 22. Robert Merrillees suggested that "sorne swords and daggers were deliberately bent, as though somehow or other the life had been broken out of them when they were interred in Early Cypriot III and Middle Cypriot burials" 23. Desborough asks the following questions: "How are we to interpret... the curious habit of "killing" the sword ? If it was thought to be of possible use to the dead in the other life, why bend and distort it to such an extent that it was obviously useless to him wherever he was? Or was the sword thought to have a life of its own, to be extinguished when its owner died ? These questions, like so many others, seem unanswerable" 24. ln Joseph Wiesner's opinion the dagger was the personal property of the dead and the survivors were not allowed to use it 25. For use in the other world its condition does not matter. It is, however, Wiesner adds, possible that behind the custom the view persists that the dead could use the weapon against the living. ln conclusions one can follow several lines in interpreting the custom. The repeated occurrences of the practice may suggest a final funerary rite. When objects were destroyed, the living could not use them; they belonged to the dead. Were the weapons destroyed to acquire the same status as the owner? But why were the weapons destroyed, while so many other objects were placed intact in the tombs ? An element of fear that the deceased might use the

(21)

D.C. KURlZ,

J. BOARDMAN,

Greek Burial Customs (1971), p. 62-63; see aIso the German edition IV:l, p. 26, n. 28; Hesperia 21 (1952), p. 279;

translated and edited by M. and H.-G. BUCHHOLZ, Thanatos (1985), p. 70, fig. 00; DESBOROUGH, Dark Ages, p. 142, n. Il, p. 312; Kerameikos ANDRONIKOS, Totenku1t, p. 100. (22) (23) (24) (25) AJA 44 (1940), p. 22. R.S. MERRILLEES, Early Metallurgy ln Cyprus 4000-500 B.e.. Acta Archaeological Symposium. Larnaca 1981, (1982), p. 80; cf. S. SWINY, ibidem. A.M. SNODGRASS, The Dark Age of Greece (1971), p. 312. WIESNER, op. cit., p. 170 and 180. of the International

INTENfIONAL

DESIRUCTION

OF GRAVE GOODS

217

weapons is not excluded. 1 end my paper with these questions, as 1 doubt that we shall ever know exactly what the ancient really thought in this matter 26.

Paul STROM

(26)

After this paper was written 1became aware of the following articles: L.V. GRINSELL, "The Breaking of Objects as a Funerary Rite", Folklore 72 (1961), p. 475-491; ID., "The Breaking of Objects as a Funerary Rite: Supplementary Notes", Folklore 84 (1973), p. 111-114; J.M. FOSSEY, "The Ritual Breaking of Objects in Greek Funerary Contexts : A Note", Folklore 96 (1985), p. 21-23. Grinsell quotes eleven different reasons for the breaking of funerary objects. It is suggested that the bending of Iron Age swords in Greece "was necessary in view of the small space into which Greek cremations were normally placed". The pottery in Tomb 1717 at Tell el-'Ajjul "was badly (it would appear deliberately) broken" : see RE. BIRD, in F. PEIRIE, AnCent Gaza IV (1934), p. 16; looting or lack of space may have been the reason for breaking the pots in this case.

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Paul ASlROM

ILLUSTRAnON

Pl. LIII:

Rent dagger (al arrow) in Lapithos, Pennsylvania Tomb 6A. AJA 44 (1940) p. 18, fig. 15.

LIll