Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/197

 176 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. prosecuted with passionate energy and utter disregard as to difference of level implying different epochs, not discriminating- good from bad or indifferent in his eagerness to reach the rock, brought down this wall along the greater part of the northern face ; but it was left standing and untouched on the three remaining sides, notably towards the south, where the enclosure was rebuilt and enlarged at three successive epochs. This is indicated in Dorpfeld's plan by different figuration (PI. I.).^ Thus, from the outset the student is made aware of the fact, which is further elucidated by inspection of the remains still visible on the platform of the burnt city, that it had three distinct periods : an older period when its walls and habitations were erected, and two later ones, when, as we have seen, they were enlarged and partly rebuilt. Nevertheless, the work which we find on and around the esplanade, does not exhibit notable modifications either in plan or detail, from which a change of population might be inferred. It is certainly the handiwork of one and the same people, whose life and history went on through crises and vicissitudes that will ever remain a sealed book to us. The terms of ** first, second, and third " period are borrowed from Dorpfeld, who was led to adopting them after a close examination of the material and mode of building which obtained in this settlement. Like him we would estimate its duration as ranging from two to three hundred years, during which the small nation scattered about the plain carried on an unchequered and prosperous existence, but in troublous times found shelter and a centre of re-union on the fortress-hill. If this conjecture be found correct, a great many years may in- tervene between the erection of the earliest wall and that of the second, which rendered the first useless, between the time when the enclosure was first enlarged and the day when it ^ The figures on the plan show the various heights of the surface, measured above and below a zero answering to the lowest level of rock struck by the spade at the bottom of the large trench, beneath the ruins of the first settlement Some few figures on the south-east and northeast sides are preceded by a — ; they indicate that here the foot of the circuit-walls of the second city is below the zero in question. Here and there, though rarely, two figures are found at one point ; the first indicates the height of the primitive ground, and the second, which is bracketed, is of some importance as showing the level whereon reposes the foot of the adjacent wall. Hatchings mark such portions as are as yet untouched by the spade. The plan is oriented to the magnetic north.