Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/205

 i82 Primitive Greece: Mycesian Art. further the interval between these uprights was but ninety centi- metres. They all have left their impress on the wall ; carbonized fragments were even found in places, and traces of hre are visible everywhere. The lining-slabs of limestone are partly calcined, and the heat has caused the clay mortar to become red. Partly- baked too were the crude bricks which filled the passage, and which had got broken in falling from the top of the rampart. The passage was covered, at any rate in its lowej- course near the plain ; its wooden posts supported a floor, whereon, as also on the ■Sooth-wesl ramp, side -iew. walls, doubtless rose a lofty tower, of which the upper storey at least was of wood. It is plain that both the bastion and the ramp crossing it are coeval with the very beginnings of the second city ; for the passage is perpendicular to the line of the first wall, whilst the two later fortifications intersect it slantwise. Even in those early days, besides this gate, the castle was con- nected with the plain by at least one more entrance on the south-west side (PI. I, fl). Like the former, it had a sloping passage, which from the doorway, opening at the base of the mound, led to the platform. Speaking generally, and as far as