Tombs of the same kind excavated on the plains of Troy and the Chersonesus of Thrace. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 26 April 1856.page 451.<br><p><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/HN3100042860/ILN">Read the ILN</a>
GREEK AND CRIMEAN TOMBS. (From a Correspondent.) THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS of the 8th December and l9th January contain Engravings representing the ancient buildings excavated by Colonel Munro near Balaclava, and the objects found therein. The writer of the description accompanying them apparently was ignorant of one of the modes adopted by the ancient Greeks in burying their dead in jars practised in Greece, Roumelia, Anatolia, Mytelene, the Ionian Islands, and many other places, or they would not have failed to perceive that the same custom extended to The Crimea, and that the remains found by Colonel Munro were merely those of an ancient burial-place. The following is a description of tombs of the same kind excavated by myself on the plains of Troy and the Chersonesus of Thrace, and which may tend to remove the erroneous suppositions that the use of the large earthen jars discovered near Balaclava were for the purpose of making wine or keeping grain, or that of receiving the blood of victims sacrificed within the temple. The jars are of all sizes, ranging from about 2 feet 2 inches long by 1 foot 8 inches wide to 6 feet long by 4 feet 7 inches wide, and constructed of coarse red clay, intermixed with gravel. M3Ir:y of them appear to have been cracked in baking, and are mended with leaden rivets. hey are all placed in a horizontal position, sometimes within an excavation made in the rock. A flat micaceous stone covers the mouth, which invariably face, the south or south-east The burnt skeletons are found lying on their back with upraised knee, surrounded by terra-cotta penates and vases (Lecythi and paterae), many of which are of the best period of the art, also blue, green, and yellow glass vases, and other small objects. (Vide Sketch.)<br> 
Amphorae are sometimes found within the larger jar, and sometimes without containing the skeletons of children, accompanied by vases of smaller dimensions. Scarcely one in fifty of the large jars are found in a perfect state: in rno.t cases a small portion only of the lower part remains, the upper being destroyed hi the plough the displacement of the surface soil, or other causes; and those discovered by Colonel Munro appear to have suffered in like manner.<br> 
The largest and most perfect jar was found near the site of ancient Dardanus in an extraordinary manner. Some bee hunters in search of honey traced a bee to a hole in the ground: they were surprised on digging to find the jar, and the interior of it tilled with honeycombs. They removed their prize, but overlooked come vases which I was so fortunate as to di-cover buried in a little earth which had insinuated itself into the tomb. An idea of the size of the jar may he formed from the fact that, when emptied, six persons entered it together, and it contained them all in a sitting posture. The slabs mentioned by your Correspondent are evidently those used by the ancients for placing and preparing the bodies preparatory to interment.
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Lieutenant-Colonel Munro (1818-1880) of the  (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot.
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Lieutenant and Adjutant (later General) William Munro (1818–1880), 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot; general and botanist,
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26 April 1856<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1856-04-26T00:00:00Z/11</div>
The Illustrated London News