Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/300

 Tiryns. 275 boulders on the assailant, penned up as it were in this sort of bow-net. If despite his disadvantageous position he persisted in his advance, he would find his way barred by obstacles, the nature of which he could not determine, but which would probably turn out to be a folding-gate, turned to the back court of the upper citadel, and a narrow passage leading to the middle citadel. Affirmation, however, is rendered impossible, because on this spot the ground is as yet encumbered with rubbish. The south side, on the other hand, where stood the principal entrance, has been laid bare. This monumental gate closely resembles the Lions Gate at Mycenae in material, construction, and dimensions. Like this, it is built of enormous quarry- stones of breccia ; but unlike the Treasury of Atreus, where the door-frame is constituted by the stones of the masonry, its piers and lintels are formed of independent blocks. Unfor- tunately, the gate at Tiryns is in a much poorer state of preservation. The large threshold, however, one metre forty- five centimetres broad by three metres in length, is still intact ; the door-post on the right, consisting of two unsquared blocks one metre forty centimetres wide and ninety-five centimetres deep, is also preserved, and rises to a height of three metres twenty centimetres ; but the jamb on the left has had its upper portion broken off, and along with it have disappeared not only the lintel and lightening beam, placed above it as at Mycenae, but the slab filling the cavity as well. These may perhaps have been re-used. Between the distant period when the citadel walls were erected, and the beginning of the fifth century b.c, many generations succeeded each other on this narrow plateau, during which the buildings underwent many alterations, so as to bring them in harmony with the taste and needs of the inhabitants. We have evidences that the palace was rebuilt, and other structures raised on its ruins. That the lower city, though decadent, was not entirely abandoned, is proved by Schliemann's excavations, who found remains of a small town stretching from the foot of the rock towards the plain, which struck money on its own account between the fifth century and the Macedonian era, of which a whole series was discovered thirty years ago, or thereabouts, below and east of the citadel. At that time, however, the summit of the hill was covered with rubbish, through which protruded the mighty