Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/213

 I90 Primitive Greece: Mvcexian Art, the north-west, where explorations have not been thorough, it is held that one at least existed here, by means of which the inhabitants of the citadel were placed in communication with the plateau, whilst by the south and west gates they descended into the plain«^ It is clear that a ramp must lead to some kind of entrance, and the one in question may well have been carried through the enormous mass of masonry, probably a tower, marked M (PI I.). With the survey of the gates, their displacements and rebuildings, which modified their plan and details, we have reached the third period, during which the circuit-wall assumed its greatest extent, and the most important buildings were erected. In all likelihood the radius of the city was enlarged on more than one side ; but it lends itself to be measured on the southern face alone, where the last wall, composed of smaller units, in advance of the preceding one by six or seven metres, runs parallel to it. It is marked on plan by a dark tracing and the letter b (PI. I.). The thickness of the wall of crude brick bears no comparison to that of the enormous stone substructure on which it reposed. If the besiegers succeeded in scaling the talus, they would have had to pay dear for the effort ; reaching the summit half spent with fatigue and their numbers much diminished, the slightest barrier would effectually check their advance. Entrenched behind the mud wall, protected moreover in their rear by counterforts or piers jutting from the rampart from one metre twenty centimetres to one metre sixty centimetres, the besieged could oppose a stout resistance against the assailants. Traces of these works of defence are very apparent on the western side of the enclosure, where, observes M. Dorpfeld, are other similar walls of crude brick, mounting back to a remote period.^ Nevertheless, as with the gateways, here also there came a day when they deemed these fortifications inadequate ; accordingly they filled with bricks the intervening spaces of the resaults, thus giving a width of four metres to the wall curtain. The explorers think they have uncovered this same advanced wall on the south-east, east, and north sides, where the fortifi- cations of the first and second period still lie buried under a bed 1 Dorpfeld, Bericht^ 1891. 2 Ibid.