The present age is pre-eminently an age of excavation; with so much and so varied energy in the field, discoveries follow each other with bewildering rapidity; so that it is difficult even to the professed archaeologist to keep pace with the march, or rather the race, of progress. I propose, therefore, for those who do not come under this category, to call attention here to some of the questions which have arisen in the last few years in this field of enquiry; the mythological aspects of such enquiry I shall leave aside, inasmuch as they have already been passed in review, in the excellent article by Prof. Jevons which appeared in these pages,[1] and also, in their more direct relation to excavation, in Mr. Louis Dyer's book, The Gods in Greece.
With the spade in hand, the first question that naturally offers itself is that of the Greek ideas of the dead and the future state, their burial customs, and those manifold habits and institutions which depended thereon. And on this head the researches of the past few years have increased our knowledge all along the line, and especially in the early pre-Homeric days. There are probably few histories which offer so interesting and instructive a study of change and development of ideas. We can now trace the gradual evolution of the idea of a realm of Hades presided over by a king and queen of the underworld; but this conception was of comparatively late origin; before we can arrive at anything conclusive as to the genesis and simplest forms of the Greek ideas about the dead, much more scientific exploration of certain sites is needed; on the other hand, much has already been learnt.
The earliest tombs found in Greece are spread over a wide range of country extending from the Troad in the north to Cyprus in the south, and covering a number of small islands, such as Paros, Carpathos, etc. These tombs seem to belong to a race sufficiently alike in their customs and their remains to warrant us in regarding them as one and the same people. The rudeness of their condition
- ↑ Folk-Lore, 1891, p. 220.
