The Lion Gate architecture was extremely advanced for its time. It was made of mainly limestone with stones carefully cut with right angle corners. It also included a tomb with a dome about 43 feet high. The dome especially had smooth and continuous edges; it is amazing how the structures are still intact to this day. The structures are the largest and oldest pieces of sculpture in Europe.
German archeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, who used Homer’s “The Iliad” as a road map on his excavation of Lion Gate, named the dome shaped entrance of the tomb the “Treasury of Atreus.” Atreus was the father of Agamemnon. Just beyond the entrance were two tombs. Schliemann found golden treasures in one of the tombs, Grave circle A in 1876. One of the pieces found was the Gold mask which is known as the “Mask of Agamemnon” Although Schliemann truly believed that he had found the tombs of Atreus and Agamemnon; there was insufficient evidence to support his theories. The “Mask of Agamemnon” actually predates Mycenaean culture by approximately three hundred years. In my opinion, the Lion Gate was an asset to the city because it signified the importance the city put on how valuable it was in wanting to protect it. The lions at the entrance acted as guardians protecting the city they so highly valued.
This is a great article on chapter 2 it is very well thought out. I think that this lion gate is really cool piece of old history. To even imagine how long it took to cut and place all those limestone stones in a precise manner just blows my mind. This just shows how important the city of Mycenae was to its people and the fact that some of it is still intact just shows even more of the effort that was put into making this wall and the city it leads to. In today’s world we hardly ever see anything like this or even effort put in to something, let alone such appreciation for it. We can put a house up in a week! I wish that people today still took pride in the things they had or even appreciate the hard work that went into to making something.
ReplyDeleteMercedez Wilgus Team 2