Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/224

 Trov. 20 1 the unsoundness of this hypothesis. With a great stretch of imagination, it might account for the transverse holes ; but what of the superficial furrows — what end did they serve ? Then, too, what would have been thought of a builder whose means were so out of proportion with the end obtained ; who had been at the trouble of contriving holes through the massive masonry that he might partially bake some few bricks in the immediate neighbour- hood of the channels, leaving all the others untouched ? Had the mason meant that his wall should undergo such an operation, he would assuredly not have put straw into his bricks. Clay that has to be dried in the sun is all the better for a little straw —^1" I' V w,^-*,K.>^ 1 XN X Fig. 5a.— Biick wall reslored. mixed with it, and the method was adopted in lands other than the Troad;' but the practice becomes positively injurious the moment the bricks have to go through the kiln : straw will not only burn at no very high temperature, but will entirely blister the ■ brick, making it more friable and detracting from its compactness and solidity. In reality both holes and grooves served as lodgment to timber-ties whose function was to maintain the horizontality of the beds and distribute throughout an even pressure (Fig. 52).- When the conflagration took place, the beams were of long standing • History of Art. the transverse pieces are represented by hollows.
 * The above drawing sliows the vertical U;anis in their original ijosition, whilst