Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/208

 Troy. ^ 185 the poor state of the ruins permits us to form a judgment, the same plan and details would seem to have been adopted every- where ; except that this second passage is narrower than that on the south face, being only two metres sixty centimetres, and that there is also a marked difference in the salience and surface of the tower. The first rampart had to come away down to its first course, to make room for the second, which was carried over the gateway and thus closed it. This second wall is indicated on PL I. by hatchings and the letter c ; its best- preserved portion occurs between the two gateways just described (PI. .cd, c b and a little farther west of these portals a great piece of it was also uncovered {cc It is possible that in rebuilding the circuit-wall they tried to utilize the old gateways ; but the notion, if ever entertained, was abandoned, and new entrances were built a few yards to the east of the old ones (f m), the thresholds of which had to be carried much higher up, so as to make them flush with the esplanade. Then too the sloping passage inside the wall was replaced by an external ramp or stairway. A series of steps led to gate f o ; ^ but an inclined plane, carried by a massive substructure of white limestone, showing the same style of architecture as the wall close by (Fig. 42), extended in front of gate F M. This ramp (Fig. 44, t u), in breadth eight metres, has a very gradual slope that rises to the horizon at an angle of twenty degrees. It was covered with a bed of concrete, where- on were laid large flags of limestone ; but they bear no trace of ruts made by chariot-wheels, whence it would appear that the path was used by beasts of burden (Fig. 43).^ In plan, the primitive gate was more simple than the one we engrave (Fig. 44). At that time the ground-sill stood at the end of a recess R c, formed by the opening pierced in the wall v b, whose length was increased by two resaults, slightly jutting beyond the wall on either side of the passage yy. A space of five metres parted the piers of the double folding-gate. A time came, however, when, feeling insufficiently guarded, they set up the second rampart, and in consequence of it the whole of the entrance had to be rebuilt. In front they were content with strengthening the wall by resaults one metre deep ; but to the rear they extended by ten metres the side-walls of 2 SCHLIEMANN, UtOS,
 * DoRPFELD, Bericht^ 1891.