Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/301

 276 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. circuit-walls. Traces of habitations again re-appear in the Byzan- tine period. Over the ruins of the buildings situate in the great courtyard, in the southern portion of the citadel, the foundations of a Byzantine church have been uncovered. Connected with the Christian church was a cemetery, some of whose graves were built with slabs dressed fair, others with unsquared stones set in lime mortar, others again with tiles only.^ To return. The mutilated state of the gate is regrettable on more than one point. To judge from the rich and varied ornamentation which was lavished throughout the palace, we may be sure that the main portal had not been neglected ; but if there is much which baffles our curiosity, its mode of closing is perfectly clear. In the threshold are holes for receiving the hinges, and in the uprights the holes into which fitted the round wooden bolt. The said holes are still to be seen half-way up each jamb, i, e. one metre fifty-five centimetres from the ground ; on one side the cavity is only forty-one centimetres deep, on the opposite side it passes right through the upright into the external wall of the citadel, so that the bolt could be drawn across the gate or pushed back into the wall, according as the door was intended to be open or shut. The entry on the outside is two metres eighty-six centimetres wide, that is to say, precisely the breadth of the Lions Gate at Mycenae, and three metres eleven centimetres on the inside. The folding- doors were fixed into the recess thus formed ; they opened inwards, and when closed rested against the projecting part of the uprights. Though decorated after a • certain fashion, the first gateway was but a fortress entrance ; the real gate of the princely mansion stood fifty-five metres beyond, at the other side of the esplanade, at the turning of the north-east corner of the palace. This gate has folding-doors, and the arrangement of its two vestibules is the same as that of the templa in antts, that is to say, the front consists of two columns placed between pilasters. The plan of this entrance, though simple, is of great importance in the history of Greek architecture ; for with trifling differences it is that which will be adopted for all Greek gateways down to the rich Propylaea of the Athenian acropolis. The ground - plan is invariably made up of a gate between two vestibules forming porches.^ This portal is comparatively well preserved. 1 Tiryns. 2 /j/^.