Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/386

 Mycenae. 359 pack-saddle ; thus, says Leake, within a few years they have all but disappeared.^ Some of these stones have been re-used by the villagers of Charvati in building their houses and church, and many have doubtless crumbled into dust or been wantonly destroyed. The excavations carried on by Veli, governor of Morea, in Mdme. Schliemann's Tomb, between 1808-1810, are said to have yielded a large number of gold and silver objects to the pasha, very similar to those found in the graves on the acropolis and the vault at Vaphio. Statues, it was alleged, had also been discovered ; but I hold this as most unlikely. All that Veli cared about was the finding of treasures ; to him, art in any shape was a matter of no concern. His workmen sounded no doubt the depths of the vault, and there mayhap they came upon the grave with all its furniture intact ; the deep layer of earth covering it had been its safeguard up to that day.^ Be that as it may, there is no doubt as to our loss being irreparable ; whilst it is in the last degree unlikely that either on Mycenian soil or elsewhere a domed building will be found which, in ampli- tude of dimensions or ornamental scheme, can compare with the Treasury of Atreus, of which we shall present a restoration, despite the difficulties besetting our self-imposed task. The bee-hive graves were left in solemn solitude on this vast area of ruins until 1 887- 1 888, when M. Tsoundas, for the Archaeological Society, opened another series of tombs that are decidedly coeval with the domed-chambers, but slightly different from them in some minor points.* They resemble the shaft-graves on the acropolis in being rock-hewn, but in plan and details they approach the domed- chambers.* A passage cut in the rock, now horizontal, now slightly inclined, usually some yards long, leads through a door- way to a rectangular chamber (Figs. 122-124). The roof now assumes a double, now a quadruple slope (Figs. 125, 126), and is ^ Leake, Morea : " On my fonner visit to Mycense there were several large fragments of these semi-columns lying on the ground ; I can now find only one or two very small pieces." 2 On Veli*s excavations see Schliemann, Mycena^ and above all, Ch. Belger, Beitrage zur Kenntniss^ &*c., who has gathered together all the conflicting evidence relating to them. He thinks that there is hardly any doubt as to the explorations having taken place, but that the site of the finds is conjectural ; these may have come out of the side-chamber of the first tomb, or the single vault of the second, or from both places of burial.
 * Tsoundas. * Md.