A little later, in Crete, bone-pits seem to have come into use, containing the remains of many burials.
Moreover, the hierarchy derives a vast revenue from the fees for burials in the sacred limits.
Petrie's excavation of the cemetery behind the temple enclosures revealed burials dating from the fourth dynasty onwards, the most important being mastables of the period from the sixth to the eleventh dynasties; many of these exhibited a peculiar degradation of the contemporary style of sculpture.
The golden treasure of the Mycenae graves, these critics urge, is not more splendid than would have been found at Cnossus had royal burials been spared by plunderers, or been happened upon intact by modern explorers.
Nor have we the slightest trace of any official interference with Christian burials, such as would render secrecy necessary or desirable.
