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The Mask of Agamemnon is an artifact discovered at Mycenae in 1876 by Heinrich Schliemann. The mask is a gold funeral mask, and was found over the face of a body located in a burial shaft (grave V). Schliemann believed that he had discovered the body of the legendary Greek leader Agamemnon, and from this the mask gets its name. However, modern archaeological research suggests that the mask is from 1500-1550 BCE, which is earlier than the traditional life of Agamemnon. In spite of this, the name remains. The mask is currently displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1457x1472, 793 KB) de: »Maske des Agamemnon« von Leo2004 fotografiert. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1457x1472, 793 KB) de: »Maske des Agamemnon« von Leo2004 fotografiert. ...
I archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. ...
Mycenae (ancient Greek: , IPA, , in modern Greek: Μυκήνες, , U.S. English: ; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. ...
1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday. ...
Portrait of Heinrich Schliemann. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...
The so-called Mask of Agamemnon. Discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 at Mycenae. ...
The National Archaeological Museum of Athens cannot be better described in a single sentence than its own description: External Links National Archaeological Museum of Athens National Museum of Athens The National Archaeology Museum of Athens ...
Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, AthÃna (IPA: )) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. ...
The mask is part of Dysart's dream in Peter Shaffer's play Equus. Peter Shaffer (born May 15, 1926) is a English dramatist, author of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed. ...
Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer which tells the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological fascination with horses. ...
Description The mask is one of five discovered in the shaft graves at Mycenae, three in Grave IV and two in Grave V. In addition, the faces and hands of two children in Grave III are covered with gold leaf, one covering having holes for the eyes.
The graves are certainly royal. The faces of the men are not all covered with masks. That they are men, and warriors, is indicated by the weapons in their graves. The quantities of gold and carefully worked artifacts surely denote honor, wealth and status. The custom of clothing leaders in gold leaf is known elsewhere; for example, Scythian chiefs and their horses, although for what purpose is not clear. It may have to do with the worship of light. Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-Aryans known as the Scythians. ...
Authenticity In the latter 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, the authenticity of the mask has been formally questioned. The magazine, Archaeology, has run a series of articles presenting both sides (see under External Links).
By the time of the excavation of the Shaft Graves, the Greek Archaeological Society had taken a hand in supervising Schliemann's work (after the issues at Troy), sending Panagiotis Stamatakis as ephor, or director, of the excavation. He kept a pretty close eye on Heinrich. A shaft tomb or shaft grave is a type of burial structure formed from a deep and narrow shaft sunk into natural rock. ...
The Archaeological Society of Athens (Εν Αθήναις ΑÏχαιολογική ΕταιÏεία) is a branch of the Hellenic Republics Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ...
The advocates of fraud center their argument on Schliemann's known reputation for salting digs with artifacts from elsewhere. There were many people on the site. The resourceful Schliemann, they assert, could have had the mask manufactured on the general model of the other masks and found an opportunity to place it in the excavation.
The defending advocate(s) point out that the excavation was closed on November 26-27 for Sunday holiday and rain. It was not allowed to reopen until Stamatakis had salted the work with credible witnesses. The three other masks were not even discovered until the 28th. The Mask of Agamemnon was found on the 30th.
A second attack is based on style. The Mask of Agamemnon differs from three of the other masks in a number of points: it is three-dimensional rather than flat, the facial hairs are cut out, rather than engraved, the ears are cut out, the eyes are depicted as both open and shut, with open eyelids, but a line of closed eyelids across the center, the face alone of all the depictions of faces in Mycenaean art has a full pointed beard with handlebar mustachios, the mouth is well-defined (compared to the flat masks), the brows are formed to two arches rather than one.
The defense presented prior arguments that the shape of the lip, the triangular beard and the detail of the beard are nearly the same as the mane and locks of the gold lion-head rhyton from Shaft Grave IV. Schliemann's duplicity, they claim, has been greatly exaggerated, and they also claim that the attackers are conducting a vendetta. A Rhyton (Greek ῥυτόν rutón) is a ceremonial drinking cup shaped like an animal head or horn. ...
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