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Funerary monuments of the Gattelusi at Mytilene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Eric A. Ivison
Affiliation:
British School at Athens

Abstract

Five fragments from the tombs of the Gattelusi dynasty of Lesbos are presented, which were originally published by F.W. Hasluck in BSA 15 (1908–9). The monuments are published in detail for the first time, and are placed in the context of contemporary Byzantine and Genoese funerary monuments at Constantinople and in the Aegean. The identification of a church, recently excavated within the Kastro, with the Gattelusi burial church is also discussed, with remarks touching upon the mortuary practices of Latin rulers in the Levant. A final section attempts to attribute the tombs to members of the dynasty, using Gattelusi heraldry and iconography.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1992

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References

1 I am most grateful to Hector Williams for inviting me to carry out this study. The monuments were studied at Mytilene in May 1990. Many thanks also to Richard Anderson for inking the drawings. Special abbreviations:

Hasluck = Hasluck, F. W.Monuments of the Gattelusi’, BSA 15 (19081909), 248–69.Google Scholar

Luttrell = Luttrell, A., ‘John V's daughters: a Palaiologan puzzle’, DOP 40 (1986), 103–12.Google Scholar

Miller 1921 = Miller, W., Essays on the Latin Levant (Cambridge, 1921).Google Scholar

Miller 1908 = Miller, W., Latins in the Levant (London, 1908).Google Scholar

Tsamalis = Tsamalis, A. P., ‘Some new evidence of the coinage of the Gattelusi lords of Lesbos’, Numismatic Circular, 88 (1980), 24.Google Scholar

2 For the history of the Gattelusi see Miller 1921, 313–53; Tsamalis: Luttrell 107–12; Dennis, G. T., Lesbiaka, 5 (1965), 123–42.Google Scholar

3 Miller 1908, 70–1; 219; 227; 233. Amongst those buried there were Guy I (d. 1263), Guy II (d. 1308), and Gautier de Brienne (d. 1311).

4 Miller 1908, 349–50.

5 Philippidis-Braat, A. and Feissel, D., ‘Inventaires en vue d'un recueil des inscriptions historiques de Byzance, III: inscriptions du Péloponnèse’, Travaux et mémoires, 9 (1985), 267395Google Scholar, at pp. 317–18, no. 58; Bon, A., Le Marée franque (Paris, 1969), 152Google Scholar; 156–7.

6 Enlart, C., Gothic Art and the Renaissance in Cyprus (London, repr. 1987, trans, and ed. Hunt, D.), 390.Google Scholar

7 Miller 1908, 349 n. 2.

8 Miller 1921, 319; Dennis (n. 2).

9 Williams, C. and Williams, H., ‘Excavations at Mytilene (Lesbos) 1986’, Échos du monde classique (Classical Views), 6 (1987), 249–50Google Scholar; 251, fig. 2. See also Catling, H. W., ‘Archaeology in Greece 1986–87’, AR 33 (19861987), 52Google Scholar; id., AR 34 1987–8, 60.

10 Kitsiki-Panagopoulos, P., Cistercian and Medieval Mendicant Monasteries in Greece (1979), 29Google Scholar, fig. 2. A narthex is omitted from this plan.

11 Miller (1921), 318–19.

12 Halikarnassos (Bodrum), Castle of St Peter: Müller-Wiener, W., Castles of the Crusaders (London, 1966), 92Google Scholar, plan 33, no. 4 (chapel). Mistra:Millet, G., Monuments byzantines de Mistra (Paris, 1910), pl. 6. 10 and pl. 1Google Scholar; Church and Bon (n. 5), pl. 142 (plan). Argos, Larissa: ibid. 674–6, pl. 135 (plan). Chastel Pelerin (Ahtlīt): Müller-Wiener 71, plan 22, no. 5. The Parthenon, burial-place of the Acciaiuoli, Dukes of Athens and Thebes, was also within the walls of the ducal castle of the Acropolis, and served as the ducal chapel (see above).

13 I am grateful to Hector Williams for showing me slides of these unpublished burials.

14 Jerusalem: tombs in the floor of the Church of the Agony, Gethsemcne (12th cent.): Abel, F. M. and Vincent, H., Jerusalem II (Paris, 1914), pl. 88.Google ScholarTripolis (Lebanon):Salamè-Sarkis, H., Contribution a l'histoire de Tripoli et sa Région à l'époque des croisades (Paris, 1980).Google Scholar Cemetery of Saint-Sépulcre (12th–13th cent.): Salamè-Sarkis 92–3, type IV (‘logette pour recevoir la tête’), pl. 3. 3. The author comments, ‘Le dernier tvpe est certainement le plus interessant car il permet, en l'absence de documents surs, de reconnaître directement une sépulture croisée.’ These tombs have head recesses (graves 2, 4, 9; plans 14–15), and have stones wedged on either side of the head (grave 5, plan 15; grave 52, plan 16). Salamè-Sarkis traces this tomb type back to the Merovingian period in France. Cemetery of Saint-Jean du Mont Pélerin (12th–13th cent.): Salamè-Sarkis 110, type 4, pl. 22. 1–2. Graves with head recesses: plan 23, nos. 17, 30, 34. Graves with two stones either side of the head: nos. 3, 23 and p. 111 fig. 6, top and bottom (graves 23 and 17); pl. 38. 1–2 (graves 23 and 30). The Cemetery on the Île des Palmiers also has such tombs; Salamè-Sarkis pl. 30. 3–4. These burials were also found at the Basilica of the Nativity, Bethlehem; see Salamè-Sarkis 94 for refs.

15 Paris, St-Pierre-de-Montmartre: Young, B. K., ‘Archaeology in an urban setting: excavations at Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre, Paris (1975–77)’, JFA 5 (1978), 326–7.Google ScholarSte-Croix-dans-la Drôme: M. Colardelle, ‘Le cimetière de Sainte-Croix (Drôme)’, in Cinq ans d'archéologie médiévale dans la région Rhône–Alpes; Bailly-Maître, M. C. and Colardelle, M., ‘Le cimetière médiévale de Sainte-Croix (Drôme)’, Archéologie médiévale dans la région Rhône-Alpes (1977), 21–2.Google Scholar

16 Yugoslavia, N., Pozega (Romanesque church): Archaeological Reports (Yugoslavia) 1987 (Ljubljana, 1989), 176, fig. 2.Google Scholar

17 Corinth, temenos of temple E cemetery (dated to the Venetian Occupation): Williams, C. K. II and Zervos, O. H., ‘Excavations at Corinth 1989: the temenos of temple E’, Hesp. 59 (1990), 325–69, at p. 350Google Scholar; cf. 60 (1991), 38–40.

18 Soloi (late 13th–14th cent.): des Gagniers, J. and Tinh, T. T., Soloi, i (Sainte-Foy, 1985), pl. 22Google Scholar, ‘couche supérieure’, graves F1, F3, F5; fig. 126: grave D1, fig. 128; grave F1, fig. 129: grave F5. du Plat Taylor, J., ‘Medieval graves in Cyprus’, Ars islamica, v. 1 (1938), 5586.Google ScholarAgios Mamas, layer 1, period III (c.1554–71); ibid. 56–7, plan 1 a, fig. 3, grave 3. Chrysanayiotissa, site I, layer 2 (c.1554–60); ibid. 62–7, plan 2 b; site II, layer 2 (13th–15th cent.): ibid. 70–1, plan 3 b, fig. 35.

19 An opinion voiced by C. and H. Williams (n. 9), 250. Hasluck 265 suggests that the tombs had come from the town, but by the 19th cent. they were already immured in the walls of the Kastro.

20 Examples of this monogram can be found upon the walls of Constantinople. See van Millingen, A., Byzantine Constantinople: The Walls of the City and Adjoining Historical Sites (London, 1899), 112–13Google Scholar; 113 n. 1.

21 I am grateful for the comments of Hector Williams and Richard Anderson upon this sarcophagus.

22 For example, the champlevé revetments probably from tombs of the Palaiologan dynasty, found in the s perambulatory of the s church of the Monastery of Lips, Constantinople (late 13th cent.). See Macridy, T., Megaw, A. H. S., Mango, C., and Hawkins, E. J. W., ‘The Monastery of Lips (Fenari Isa Camii) at Istanbul’, DOP 18 (1964), 268Google Scholar, figs. 62–3 (15th cent.).

23 Hasluck, fig. 10.

24 Lampaki-Christianiki, G., Ἡ ἀϱχαιολογία τῆς Μονῆς Δαφνίου (Athens, 1889), 4553.Google Scholar

25 Myra: Peschlow, U., ‘Die Architektur der Nikolaoskirche in Myra’, in Borchardt, J. (ed.), Myra: eine lykische Metropole in antiker und byzantinischer Zeit (Istanbuler Forschungen, 30; Berlin, 1973), 426Google Scholar; 428; Taf. 88 a (recarved by the Byzantines), 101 b, 103 b, 111 a and c (in niches, in the manner of arcosolia), 143 a–b. Ephesus: in 1988 I observed several Roman sarcophagi, plain and decorated, that had been used as tombs in the N annexes and aisles of the church of St John at Ayasoluk. These tombs were reused between 1097 and 1304. See Büyükkolanci, M., ‘Neuegefundene bauten der Johanneskirche von Ephesos’, Ist. Mitt. 32 (1982), 245 and n. 24.Google Scholar

26 d'Alessio, E. D., Le pietre sepolchrali di Arab Giamí (Genoa, 1942), no. 81.Google Scholar

27 d'Alessio (n. 25), nos. 1, 18, 81, 86, 90, 98.

28 Cramer, J. and Düll, S., ‘Baubeobachtungen an der Arab Camii in Istanbul’, Ist. Mitt. 35 (1985), 292321, at p. 300Google Scholar, no. 10 (Taf. 67. 1–2), an archivolt still in situ); fragments, no. 19 (Taf. 68. 1), 20 (Taf. 68. 2), 21, and 18 (Taf 69. 1–2).

29 See e.g. Underwood, P. A., The Kariye Camii, i (New York, 1966)Google Scholar, tombs C, D, and E (pp. 273–83; pl. 536–45); tomb H (pp. 297–9; pl. 550–1). On the wider question of Byzantine influences upon Prankish tomb monuments see Ivison, E. A., ‘Latin tomb monuments in the Levant (c.1204–1450)’, in Lock, P. and Sanders, G. D. R. (eds.), Essays on Medieval and Post-medieval Archaeology in Greece (Oxford, forthcoming).Google Scholar

30 Cramer and Düll (n. 27).

31 Williams, C. K. II and Zervos, O. H., ‘Corinth 1990: south-east corner of temenos E’, Hesp. 60 (1991), 158, at pp. 27–8 and pl. 8–9Google Scholar (narthex and sw naos). The arcosolium in the s nave measures 0.44 m deep. The tomb below the floor measured 1.95 × 0.48–0.53 m. The arcosolium at the N end of the W narthex wall measures 0.35 m deep, and must have been at least c.1.20 m in height from the floor.

32 Hasluck 265.

33 Hasluck 253.

34 Tsamalis 3. The daughters of Francesco II, Dorino I, and Palamede all left Lesbos upon marriage (Luttrell 108), and can be discounted.

35 Hasluck 258, fig. 9.

36 Tsamalis, A. P., Τὰ νομίσματα τῆς Φϱαγϰοϰϱατίας (Athens, 1981), 187, Φ239–41.Google Scholar

37 Francesco I: dated 1373, Hasluck, no. 2. Nicolo I: dated 1385, Hasluck 255, no. 3, fig. 6.

38 Tsamalis (n. 35) 185, Φ224–5, with Gattelusan shield.

39 Hasluck, Mytilene no. 2 (dated 1373).

40 Hasluck, Ainos no. 3, fig. 6.

41 Conze, A., Reisen auf den Inseln des thrakiken Meeres (Hanover, 1860), 55, Taf. 3, nos. 7–8.Google Scholar

42 Conze (n. 41), 37, Taf. 3, no. 4 (Thasos), dated A(nno) M(undi) 6942 = AD 1434: 55, Taf. 3, no. 7 (Samothrace), dated AM 6944 = AD 1436/7; Taf. 3, no. 8 (Samothrace), of Palamede; Hasluck 255, Ainos no. 2, n. 1, fig. 5, dated AM 6930 = AD 1421/2; Hasluck 256. Ainos no. 5, fig. 8, dated AM 6929 = AD 1420/1.

43 Hasluck, fig. 14.

44 Tsamalis (n. 35), 185, Φ224–5, 186, Φ235.

45 d'Alessio (n. 26), nos. 75 (15th cent.), 76 (dated 1458?), 86 (14th-cent. according to d'Alessio, but on the basis of 75–6 more likely to be 15th-century).

46 Hasluck 264–5.