Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/204

 Troy. i 8 1 not be considered as simple counterforts, it is sufficiently met by the slope adopted by the builder, which rendered a systematic buttressing superfluous. Spurs thrown out towards the plain, far from adding to the strength of the rampart, would have been a real element of danger ; whilst the difficulty of building all these angles with irregular materials, with stones but roughly hewn, would well-nigh have been insuperable ; added to which would have been the impossibility of fixing mortar on such narrow surfaces ; the clay cement would ere long have peeled off, leaving gaps behind which time and the weather would have increased. The plan which obtained is only to be accounted for on a defensive basis ; but the top of all these works having disappeared, no guess can be hazarded as to the inner economy of these towers. As their sole purpose was to enable the garrison to beat back the enemy from the curtain, no great dimension was given to them ; they look quite insignificant by the side of the bastions in which were contrived the main gateways of the enclosure. The shape of these towers was rectangular, and about three metres wide, with a salience of two metres in front. The stately mass of masonry, in depth eighteen metres, which stands out about twenty-three metres from the wall of the first period, in the centre and a little way in front of the south side, should be noticed. Its foot follows the incline of the hill down to its base, and is in touch with the outlying plain ; whence assuredly started a covered passage three metres broad, which led to the esplanade of the citadel (PI. I. fn), but of which no trace remains. The difference of level between the bottom and the summit of the mound of about four metres fifty centimetres was made good by the gentle slope of the covered way, and further increased by a sharp bend just before it debouched on the esplanade. At this point, however, those that did not like to make the d6tour could reach the citadel by a stairway, a few steps of which alone exist, later erections (c) having destroyed this portion of the ramp. The lower section, on the contrary, is in excellent preservation, and still retains its side-walls, seven metres fifty centimetres thick; we are thus enabled to reconstruct its plan and details, such as they existed when the ramp formed the best means of ingress to the fortress. Along the walls, spaced about two metres, were vertical beams, over which were placed horizontal rafters. A little