Evans
opened, on a hill known as Zafer Papoura, about half a mile north
of the palace, a large number of Minoan tombs dating from the Third
Middle Minoan period onwards. They revealed a civilization still high,
though giving evidence of gradual decline in its later stages. The
earlier tombs provided, what had been singularly lacking at Knossos,
a number of fine specimens of the 'stirrup-' or 'false-necked' vase.
There was also a number of bronze vessels and weapons, including
swords, some of which were nearly a metre in length. In one tomb,
which had evidently belonged to a chieftain, there was found a
short sword of elaborate workmanship, with a pommel of translucent
agate, and a gold-plated hilt, on which was engraved a scene of
a lion chasing and capturing one of the Cretan wild-goats. The
occurrence in some of the tombs of a long rapier and a shorter
sword or dagger is unexpected, as there are no representations of
the two weapons being worn together in Minoan warfare. Mr. Andrew
Lang has made the picturesque suggestion that we may have here an
anticipation of the duelling custom of the Elizabethan age, in
which the dagger was held in the left hand, and used for parrying
thrusts, or for work at close quarters, as in the savage encounter
between Sir Hatton Cheek and Sir Thomas Dutton at Calais in 1610.
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