Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/296

 TiRYNS. 271 inner court, a kind of drilling-ground whence the defenders of the citadel could rapidly move to such points as were occupied by the reserve forces, and station themselves either on the top of the rampart or at the entrances threatened by the foe. The same elaborate care and arrangement were bestowed on the entrances pierced in these massive walls as upon the ramparts themselves, the staircases, passages, and their de- pendencies. The main road was on the east side. It rises to the citadel at an easy gradient by a ramp (AA), which begins some way back to the north, and debouches exactly at the point of junction of what we have called the middle and upper Fic. 78.— Perspecli citadel. The ramp is four metres seventy centimetres broad, and this breadth is preserved for the upper part of the entrance passage between the walls ; but the lower part of this corridor towards the floor is reduced to two metres fifty centimetres by blocks set up on either side. Curiously enough, no gate-portal seems to have existed here, for neither ground-sill nor posts have been found. From the fact, however, that the general arrange- ment is what was subsequently adopted in the traces of all Greek fortifications, it is hard to admit the non-existence of a doorway at this point. The assailants ascending the chief ramp had to creep along the eastern wall for about two-thirds of its length, during which they would have their right side, that is