Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/353

 328 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. found under a head in the Mycenian graves, although diadems still bound the brow of many a personage.' It would be hard to imagine a more uncomfortable piilow, or so utterly at variance with the childish beliefs of the simple folks of that early age, who were particularly mindful to provide for the necessities of the dead, in chambers which they furnished as comfortably as they could for them. The real destination of these casings was to protect the beam-ends against damp, on which rested the covering slabs. The wood still fastened by many nails is what remains of the beams in question, and their square is obtained from the copper lining. Each is twenty-five centimetres long, eleven centimetres broad, and five centimetres high. The fact that the third tomb is the only one which had the bronze plating, and its being also the most elaborately decorated, leads one to infer that it contained the wealthiest and most powerful personage. Special care, too, had been taken with its closing-slab, which was at once more elegant and solid. Having now gone into the main characteristics which dis- tinguish these sepultures, we will put off dealing with the problem they raise until we shall have surveyed the graves of the lower city, whose plan and details are quite different. Then only shall we hazard an opinion whether the tombs which Schliemann dis- 1 Schliemann.