Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/225

 202 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. in the wall, and much shrunk from their original size, so that they no longer filled the cavities in which they were thrust. The terrific storm raging outside, when all the woodwork about floor, roof, and wall was kindled, entered the interstices that intervened between the timber and the clay of these walls, and carried destruction into the very heart of the mass. Thus, no inter- mediary supports have been detected in the space of over ten metres which separates the side-walls at a. That the flat roof consisted then as now throughout the Troad of a bed of beaten earth over which a stone roller was passed after the rain, is pretty self-evident ; for no tiles have been exhumed, and the ancient floor of almost every chamber was covered with a layer of earth about thirty centimetres thick, mixed with wood and ashes, the relics, it is supposed, of the fallen loft. The clay covering of the roof was supported by beams at least eleven or twelve metres in length, and sixty centimetres in thickness, and over it were laid many joists, rushes, and branches. They all gave way in the general fire, and went on burning on the ground where they had fallen. The floor, both in the vestibule and hall, was made up of a bed of concrete : the clay has become vitrified, and the earth throughout the area, to a depth little short of fifty centimetres, has become black. The walls near the doorways and antae, more than anywhere else, bear traces of the intense heat to which they were exposed, for here the flame was fed by the wooden doors and the beams found at the heads of the walls ; and the crude brick was so thoroughly modified as to have been transformed here into vitreous paste, there into scoriae of incredible hardness and opacity. The general character of the conflagration, its having been carried on at so many points at once, forbids us seeking here the effect of a mere accident. A victorious enemy whom long and stout resistance had enraged, could alone have destroyed the place root and branch, and left no tower, or house, or even door intact. A few words dealing with the industrial products of the second city may be added here, so as to make our picture more complete ; a full description of its manufactures and its arts will be found in another place. In going over the objects that have been picked up in these ruins, we are struck, on the threshold, by the decided advance observable between the first and second period ; and by the place metal has assumed in the life and appliances of the tribe, which