Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/147

 126 PiuMiTivE Gricece; Mycenian Art. common. Two beautiful specimens appear in his Ilios (Fig. 9)-' Writing of Oriental art, we explained how the hardest stone niav be pierced with perfect success by means of moist sand worked with a reed or small wooden staff. Notwithstanding the proverbial patience of Orientals, many a tool from Hissarlik shows that the artisans got tired of the tedious boring process, and left off in the middle. As will be seen from Fig. 10, considerable progress — but never carried through — was actually made on either face of a diorite, half fourib of actual si hammer, half axe, i.e. obtuse at one end, sharp and pointed at the other. The vast majority of axes, however, are without central perforation, and occur almost everywhere. Some, such as those that came from the Finlay collection (Figs. 7, 11, 12), are exceed- ingly slender, and the first measures fifteen centimetres. As a rule, axes found in Greece and Asia are smaller than numbers of those seen in the collections of Northern Europe.' They are rarely if ever polished throughout ; more particularly is this the case with specimens that were real weapons ; no attempt having been made to extend the polish beyond the edges and sur- rounding parts. They are utterly devoid of artistic intention ; 1 SCHLIEMANN, lUoS. ' Voss, Verhatidlungen, &r'c