Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/340

 MvcENi*:. 315 the bas-reliefs by which they are decorated, Schliemann, who was on the look-out for graves, recognizing in them stelae, shrewdly guessed that the tombs to which they belonged could not be far off.^ The discovery stimulated him to greater zeal. As stated above, some few metres from the entrance he came upon a circular enclosure formed by two concentric rings of vertical slabs, connected at the top, on a tenon and mortise principle, by horizontal and smaller stones (Fig. 100). The pressure of fallen earth washed down from above has caused the upright slabs to slope inwards on many a point of the circumference, and has laid low the covering horizontal blocks. There can be no doubt that the former once stood upright ; for the faces of both the vertical and horizontal stones are cut at right angles. In height they vary from one metre to one metre fifty centimetres. The intervening space parting them was filled with earth and rubble ; and the slabs, which are now the only remaining part of the erection, formed the lining to both sides of the wall, whilst the covering units prevented outward thrust. The stone circle encloses an esplanade twenty-six metres fifty centimetres in diameter. The top of the outward ring of slabs has a bench-like appearance ; but it is a deceptive appearance ; no one ever made use of that pretended settle, for his legs would have dangled in the air. Pierced in the precinct wall, which faces the Lions Gate, is an entrance with jambs overtopping the balustrade, which gave access to the stone circle. A second doorway may have stood on the opposite side ; but this portion has been so disturbed and injured by the excavations and the action of the weather, that the plan cannot be reconstructed with certainty. The best-preserved slabs are found on the north- west side of the circle, where they rest on a sustaining wall ; on the other faces they are in direct contact with the virgin rock. All are on the same plan (Fig. 10 1). Having cleared the outer rings of slabs and some stelae close to them, Schliemann found himself, at a depth of three or four metres, within a circular enclosure with other nine stelae distributed about.^ So far every blow of the spade seemed ^ Schliemann, Mycena, ^ The aspect of the enclosure after the excavations is well seen in Schliemann's Panoramic View^ PL VII., drawn from a photograph. It will be noticed that both stelae and upright slabs stand on the same plane. If the altar is not figured, it is because, standing at a lower level, it was as yet undiscovered.