Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/403

 376 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. were discovered lying under so deep a layer of silt and pot- sherds, could have been visible in the second century of our era. The open space which was levelled out over the graves is overhung by steepy heights, up which were staged domestic dwellings parted by narrow alleys ; rain turned these into so many streamlets, charged with dust and refuse which they would have poured upon the graves, had not the ring of slabs intervened and thrown them back to the northward, where they met a gutter built to receive them.^ If the slabs in question were deeply sunk into the ground, and adjusted with so great a nicety to one another, it may have been to guard the sacred spot against periodical inundations rather than rude intrusion. When the citadel was left desolate, the runlet between the ring of slabs and the foot of the hill was soon filled up with accumulations brought by wintry rains. Finding no outlet, the streamlets rushed against stelai and slabs, discharging their contents on all ; some turned over and lay where they fell, others kept their erect position, but in the end all disappeared under alluviums and huge stone blocks from the adjacent houses. This work of devastation and consequent accumulations must have set in the day after the inhabitants were driven from the place. Hence, though in some respects well chosen, the site of this burial-place had its drawbacks, and required constant watching and repairs. Even supposing that the Argives did not wantonly destroy the monuments which they found in the fortress when they entered it, it may well be that, left to themselves, a hundred years after the fall of Mycenae they were already as effectually hidden from human gaze as when Schliemann riddled the shroud of mud and pebbles which covered them.^ But if so, how are we to account for the fact that Pausanias mentions sepultures of which no external sign existed when he visited the place, and that he assigns to each the name under which it was known at Mycenae ? In our opinion the problem admits of but one solution, which we are about to expound, and which some have called subtle and forced ; ^ whereas to us it ^ Steffen's map. 2 Schliemann (Mycena) and Schuchardt {Schliemann^ s Ausgraifungen) are both agreed on the subject. •^ Schuchardt, Schliemann' s Ausgrabnngen.